Summary and Comments on "Civilization and Society in Ancient India " by Motokazu Yamazaki - Recommended for learning about the historical background of the emergence of Indian thought and religion!
Introduced here is "Civilization and Society in Ancient India (Sekai no Rekishi 3)" by Motokazu Yamazaki, published by Chuokoron-sha in 1997.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
Publisher Content Information
The Indian subcontinent, with Hinduism and the caste system as key elements. The origins of the Indian cultural sphere, which encompasses both diversity and coherence, are described in detail.description of contents
The Indian cultural sphere, which nurtures coherence in diversity and in which Hinduism and the caste system are important elements, traces its origins to the Indus civilization and vividly describes its history without historical books. Tracing its origins to the Indus civilization, this book vividly depicts a history without historical books. The book also provides a detailed account of Sri Lanka and other neighboring regions.Table of Contents
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Indian subcontinent
Mysteries of the Indus Civilization
Aryans and Indigenous Peoples
Establishment of an agrarian society
Formation of Ancient Kingdoms
The Rise of Unorthodox Thought
The Unified Empire of Ancient India
Alien and indigenous peoples
Subcontinent in a period of flux
Classical culture flourishes
Divisions and conflicts among leading states
Society and Religion in Transition
Spread of Indian Culture - Sri Lanka, Central Asia, Tibet
This book is a recommended guide to learn more about the history and culture of ancient India.
The book is very easy to read and understand. It is extremely easy to read and understand.
And I picked up this book because I wanted to know the historical background of the birth of Buddhism. To know why Buddhism was accepted by people, one must know not only the ideology but also the soil in which it was accepted. I wanted to know what kind of society people lived in and what kind of lifestyle they had at that time.
This book was a wonderful answer to my question.
At the beginning of the book, the author describes the book as follows
Approaches to Ancient India
Almost 30 years ago, a friend of mine, a researcher of Western history, was on a one-year study tour in Europe and recommended that he visit India on his return. My friend followed the recommendation and visited Delhi, Agra, and Banaras (Benares), and came back with a strong culture shock.
According to his account, life in Europe during his stay in Japan felt almost the same as in Japan, but in India, everything he saw and heard belonged to a foreign country. After a few days of being followed by beggars on street corners who were looking for foreigners, being exposed to dust that smelled of cow dung, and being swarmed by crowds of people in narrow streets that smelled of spices and incense, his nerves were completely worn out.
He grumbled, "It took me quite a few days to recover from the shock of my trip to India. His wife, however, seemed to have enjoyed the "exotic" trip very much.
I had a similar experience during my first trip to India 30 years ago. Although I had aspired to study India because of my fascination with the civilization of ancient India, what I saw of Indian life during my trip was far from what I had imagined while reading Buddhist scriptures.
Traveling alone for two months was a nerve-wracking experience, and I completely lost my confidence as an Indian researcher. The India I knew existed only in the silence of Buddhist sites such as Saanchi, Buddhagaya, and Sarnath.
Since then, my interest has also turned to Indian society. One of my research themes has been the caste system, which is at the root of the gap between the rich and the poor and between the upper and lower castes that surprised me during my trip to India, and how it was born and developed. I was also interested in the connection between Hinduism, which has religiously supported the caste system, and the pious Hindu figures I saw in temples and bathing places.
With this interest in India, I re-read the Buddhist and Hindu classics and found that many of them are surprisingly relevant to today's Indian society. In addition, as I repeatedly visited India, the gap between what ancient texts tell us about India and modern India gradually became smaller and smaller. This is because I have gradually come to see ancient India as the source of modern India.
This book deals with the civilization of ancient India, as represented by Buddhism and Hinduism, and the political, economic, and social background that produced it. Although the subject matter is extensive, we have chosen to make the history of the caste system, which is also linked to today's Indian society, one pillar that runs throughout the book.
Chuo Koronsha, Yamazaki Motokazu, Civilization and Society in Ancient India , p. 9-11.
I had a similar experience during my first trip to India 30 years ago. I had aspired to study India because I was fascinated by the civilization of ancient India, but what I saw during my trip was far different from what I had imagined while reading Buddhist scriptures."
These words of the author seem to me to be of great importance.
We can get a lot of information about Buddhism and Indian religions from books and other sources. However, there are things in India that cannot be grasped only by the philosophies and ideas discussed in such books. Philosophy and thought cannot exist apart from people's lives. This is true not only in India but also in other places.
In this book, you can learn about the historical background and people's lives in such India.
It was extremely interesting to learn about the social conditions that made Buddhism popular among many people. It goes without saying that Buddha's teachings and way of life were wonderful, but it cannot be overlooked that the social changes of the time were a major factor. This work makes me keenly aware of the importance of learning not only about ideas but also about the background of the times.
I would highly recommend this work.
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