Chapter First EMPIRES AND CoMMON CULTURES in AFRO-EURASIA, 1250-325 BCE Rig-Veda (c. 1700-1100 BCE) ‘The Rig-Veda is a collection of sacred hymns; it is among the oldest examples of Sanskrit literature and of Hindu religious texts. The name comes from the Sanskrit words rg (praise) and veda (knowledge). The Rig-Veda is one of four canonical Hindu texts, each of which has a specific religious and social function. Sections of these Vedas are still recited as prayers, an indication of Jong cultural continuities that survived processes of political change. The text originated between 1700 and 1100 ace in the anéient kingdoms of northwestern India—and so Soincides with the period of Vedic migrations. For atleast a millennium, the Vedas survived only orally, with spec ; est formulas, performance, and mnemonic markers serving to intain remarkable continuity, The Rig-Veda is organized into 10 may . moe etek) of varying lengths and purposes: religious ritual, flowing 'ymns, sacrifices, and commentary on everyday life, The selection, from Hs i : through eerie” 7m Hymn 90 in Book 10, tells story of creationFIRST EMPIRES AND COMMON CULT URES 108 usha, thousand-eyed, thousand-footeq__ Thousand headed Pare all sides, still extends ten — he, having pervaded the eart beyond it. Purusha al going to be. Peas : it of food. i Re rina geanieds greater, indeed, than this is Purusha, ly creatures constitute but one-quarter of him, his three-quarters are the immortal in the heaven. With his three-quarters did Purusha rise up; one-quarter of him again remains here. With it did he variously spread out on all sides over what eats and what eats not. From him was Viraj born, from Viraj the evolved Purusha. He, being born, projected himself behind the earth as also before it. ‘When the gods performed the sacrifice with Purusha as the oblation, then the spring was its clarified butter, the summer the sacrificial fuel, and the autumn the oblation. The sacrificial victim, namely, Purusha, born at the very begin- ning, they sprinkled with sacred water With him as oblation, the Sadhyas [a class of seers]. From that wholl Jone is all this—whatever has been and whatever is is the lord of immortality and also of what upon the sacrificial grass. the gods performed the sacrifice, and also f semidiyine beings] and the rishis [ancient ly offered sacrificial oblation were born the verses [re] and the sacred chants; from it were born the meters hein the sacrificial formula was born from it. e ihe horses were born and also those animals who have dou- From mae? UPPet and lower} of teeth: cows were born from it, a were born goats and sheep. : oe : a tha ee seed Purusha, in how many different portions arms? What wa Ty became of his mouth, what of his two Hy asia Wachanarh thighs and his two feet called? . Tajanya; his two ‘hig ans his two arms were made into shtdra was born, 88 the vaishyas; from his two feet the radition, edited by Aincli, New Press, 1988), by Ainslie T. Embree (!UPANISHADS 109 ‘The moon was born from the mind, from the eye the sun was porn; from the mouth Indra and Agni, from the breath [pra] the ‘vind [ayul Was born. From the navel was the atmosphere created, from the head the heaven issued forth; from the two feet was born the earth and the quarters (the cardinal directions) from the ear. Thus did they fashion the worlds. Seven were the enclosing sticks in this sacrifice, thrice seven were the ire-sticks made when the gods, performing the sacrifice, bound down Purusha, the sacrificial victim. With this sacrificial oblation did the gods offer the sacrifice. These were the first norms [dharma] of sacrifice. These greatnesses reached to the sky wherein live the ancient Sadhyas and gods. Questions . Paragraph 11 is an explicit discussion of varna (later called castes, after the Portuguese term). How does this hymn describe or justify the hierar- chical relationships among Brahmin (priests and nobles), Rajanya (warriors and administrators), Vaigya (merchants, cattle herders, arti- sans), and Sidra (servants and unfree peasants)? How does this hymn characterize the relationships between humans and the natural world? On one level, this hymn is a creation story—the birth of the cosmos, People, and animals from various parts of Purusa. How is sacrifice related to creation here? Why might such a tale be appealing in a soci- ¢ty with strong memories of recent conflict? Upanishads (first millennium BcE) The Upanishads a collection of Indian sacred texts, have grown over Centuries; s¢ sha ome have even been added in modern times. The earliest * However, date to the middle of the first millennium ace, and inchide iti ie fundamental principles of Hinduism. They also influenced ues prent of Buddhism and other faiths. The excerpt here lays out basic ideas of karma and reincarnation, linking people’s‘Ss 110 | FIRST EMPIRES AND COMMON CULTURE: nd .d desires in their current life to the fate of their soul in the conduct an future. os i ducts himself, so doe: i ts, according as one con : ' ‘According as one act serach eat ean . The doer of good becomes good.’ : Bronte virtuous by virtuous action, bad by bad action, But people say: “A person is made [not of acts, but] of desires only? [In reply to this I say] As is his desire, such is his resolve; as is his resolve, such the action he performs; what action (karma) he performs, that he procures for himself. On this point there is this verse:-— Where one’s mind is attached—the inner self Goes thereto with action, being attached to it alone. Obtaining the end of his action, Whatever he does in this world, He comes again from that world To this world of action. —So the man who desires, ee * a Now a = whe does not desire—He who is without desire, 0 is ‘rom desire, whose desire i: i ire i tidninanen pis sire is satisfied, whose desire is to Brahma, depart. Being very Brahma, he goes Accordin, pect is, inde ai are of pleasant conduct here—the pros- womb of a Brahman, or pu emer @ pleasant womb, either the Vaigya, But thse wis or the womb of a Kshatriya, or the womb of are of stinking conduct here—the prospect is, indeed, that they wi sie se. ah mr 4 stinking womb, either the womb of a ec, or the womb of an outcast (candala). bert Ernst Hume, : , The Thi (Oxford: Oxford University Pross tis a Principal Upanisha Ipanishads PP 140-41, 233,Vv WHEN SENNACHERIB'S FORCES MET HEZEKIAH 111 Questions what happens to the person who is Free of earthly desires? 1, Wha those who are reborn in this world, what determines what kind of 7 > a they are reborn in? What are the possible outcomes for those who have not behaved well a their current life? What does this suggest about social hierarchy in i this world? When Sennacherib’s Forces Met Hezekiah (c. 700 BCE) Asrecorded on many reliefs in imperial palaces—most notably Sennach- eri’ reliefs of the siege of Lachish displayed at Nineveh and Tiglath Pileser III's earlier reliefs at Nimrud—one way the Neo-Assyrians naintained tight control over their centralized empire was through brutal conquest and deportation of any who would resist the “yoke of Ashur” One such resistance against Neo-Assyrian rule took place in Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel, led at the time by King Hezekiah. Records survive that offer both the Neo-Assyrian and the Jewish Petspective on this particular moment around the year 700 BcE, From the Neo-Assyrian perspective, the so-called ‘Taylor prism records on its Sitsides, in 500 lines of cuneiform script in Akkadian, the first eight ns of Sennacherib. Sennacherib (t. 705-681 nce) ruled the eae Empire at its height. His third campaign described on the Hite ances {he fight against Judah, among other opponents such as with ies and Egyptian contingents. From the Jewish perspective, 5 extays ‘Mt 2 Kings 18-19 records the exchanges between Sennach- "tance x the People of Judah, Hezekiah’s anxiety over his Sou wie ennacherib and his consultation with the prophet Isaiah in the face of Neo-Assyrian might. 2 Kings, from which was part of a series of historical texts preserved in nd was likely composed in the sixth century BCE. The et offer gn cherib’s campaigns on the Taylor prism and 2 Kings roms mine valuable opportunity to compare completely separate Tent genres, from diametrically opposed sides, reflecting 1 Hel ew Bibl Seideot en