India's Influence on The World History and Economy.

The world often views India as a country with huge poverty and most people outside India probably blame India or Indians for the same. When L.N. Mittal took over Arcelor in France, there was a major controversy in Europe as the Indian went on a buying spree to become the biggest steel maker in the world. For many people in France, Germany and Europe, this came as a shock.

So, what is India then? And who are the Indian People? And what does it mean to have an Indian identity? Is it the software engineers working as code coolies? Is it Gandhi preaching non-violence? Is it just the rapid economic growth and the new Indian markets?

The present world mostly does not know what India is. To a great extent, just like many modern Indians, I too do not know what India is. Just recently, I asked the question: what was the GDP of India in 1500 A.D. and searched the Internet for the information? I would like you to ponder this question as you slowly go through the rest of the article on Indian National identity.

Buddha preached in India almost at the same time when Socrates had inquiry sessions with his disciples during 430 B.C. As Socrates changed the western world though his thoughts, Buddha’s “science of mind” influenced the east for ages to come.

In 332 BC, Alexander captures Gaza and Egypt. Next year, he captured prosperous Babylon. In 326 BC, he defeated a local Indian king Porus in Battle of Hydaspes, even as a much bigger Indian Army waited for him somewhere near Delhi. (Hydaspes, Alexander)

Greek Sources noted:

"As for the Macedonians, however, their struggle with Porus blunted their courage and stayed their further advance into India. For having had all they could do to repulse an enemy who mustered only twenty thousand infantry and two thousand horse, they violently opposed Alexander when he insisted on crossing the river Ganges also, the width of which, as they learned, was thirty-two furlongs, its depth a hundred fathoms, while its banks on the further side were covered with multitudes of men-at arms and horsemen and elephants. For they were told that the kings of the Ganderites and Praesii were awaiting them with eighty thousand horsemen, two hundred thousand footmen, eight thousand chariots, and six thousand fighting elephants. And there was no boasting in these reports. For Sandrocottus, who reigned there not long afterwards, made a present to Seleucus of five hundred elephants, and with an army of six hundred thousand men overran and subdued all India."

Just 10 years after Alexander’s conquests in the world, a massive Indian empire () rose into prominence. Chanakya was a young professor at University of Taxila(Taxila) during Alexander’s Invasion. Studying the Greeks and Persians, he realised the political dynamics of the world at that time and he went on to alert the biggest Indian Kingdom of Magadh. Later he crafted a Machiavellian strategy and created an army led by a young man to capture Magadh just 2 years after Alexander’s death at Babylon.

This young Indian man was later known in world history as the king “Sandrocottus”(Chandra-Gupta Maurya). Most Indians know that Chanakya employed massive networks of spies, information warfare and treacherous strategies during capture of Magadh.

After Alexander’s death in 323 BC, Seleucus I Nicator got the largest area including Babylon, Indian territories near Indus River, much of Middle East, Syria and parts of modern turkey. Ptolemy I Soter declared himself as Pharaoh of Egypt. Cassander ruled Macedonia (modern day Greece). Antigonus I Monophthalmus had Turkey. (Diadochi, Seleucid_Empire )

Seleucus invaded India in 305 BC, confronting Chandragupta Maurya (Sandrocottos), founder of the Maurya empire near Indus River. It is said that Chandragupta fielded an army of 600,000 men and 9,000 war elephants. Seleucus lost and ceded large territories east of Indus to Sandrocottus.

It is generally thought that Sandrocottus married Seleucus's daughter, or a Greek Macedonian princess, to formalize an alliance. In a return gesture, Sandrocottus sent 500 war-elephants, a military asset which would play a decisive role at the Battle of Ipsus (in central Turkey) in 302 BC. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, Megasthenes, to Sandrocottus, and later Deimakos to his son emperor Bindusara, at the Mauryan court at Pataliputra.

However, it’s Ashoka (Greek name: Piodasses), the Grandson of Sandracottus, who influenced the rest of the world and world history. Ashoka was a ruthless military strategist and he consolidated and expanded the Mauryan empire to whole India. He had his last war in 261 against the democratic state of Kalinga, whose traders blocked his Kingdom’s access to many eastern sea ports. This was a bitter war with deaths of more than 100,000 people. (Kalinga War)

The Kalinga War was fought near this river (in Picture):

This war and the bloodshed deeply impacted him and he converted to Buddhism. He worked to propagate the principles and values to people in India and foreign countries. In the history of Buddhism, Ashoka is considered just after Gautama Buddha. Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt sent an ambassador named Dionysius to the court of Ashoka.

The efforts of Emperor Ashoka to spread the Buddhist faith are described in the Edicts of Ashoka( 272- 231 BCE). The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of 33 inscriptions on rock pillars or cave walls made by the Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan dynasty during his reign from 272 to 231 BCE in different parts of the empire. (link,link)

Two edicts in Afghanistan have been found with Greek inscriptions, one of these being a bilingual edict in Greek language and Aramaic. This edict, Edict 13, found in Kandahar, advocates the adoption of "Piety" (using the Greek term Eusebeia for Dharma) to the Greek community.

In this rock edict, it is mentioned that Ashoka sent emissaries beyond his borders, as far as the Greek kings of the Mediterranean and it clearly mentions the names of the rulers of those times.

(amtiyoko nama yona-raja param ca tena atiyokena cature 4 rajani turamaye nama amtikini nama maka nama alikasudaro nama)

“King Priyadarshi considers moral conquest the most important conquest. He has achieved this moral conquest, repeatedly both here and among people living beyond the borders of his kingdom, even as far away as six hundred yojanas (3000 miles), where the Yona king Antiyoka rules (Antiochus II Theos), and even beyond Antiyoka in the realms of the four kings named Turamaya (Ptolemaios), Antikini (Antigonos ), Magas and Alikasudara (Alexander II of Epirus) and to the south among Cholas and the Pandyas....wherever conquest is achieved by Dharma, it produced satisfaction, Satisfaction is firmly established by conquest by Dharma.” (Antiochus II Theos,Ptolemy II Philadelphus,Antigonus II Gonatas,Magas of Cyrene,Alexander II Epirus)

The words used to describe Greeks (Ionia) are Yavanah, Yona in Sanskrit, Pali and some other ancient languages.

During 30 BC, the last Ptolemy Cleopatra of Egypt arranged the escape for her eldest son Caesarion to India from red sea port Berenice. The plan failed.

Ashoka’s son and daughter went to Sri Lanka to spread the Buddhist Principles. It is through the Central Asian sources that the Chinese got introduced to Buddhism and centuries later the Chinese monks travelled to India to get the principles of Buddhism and that finally take us to Shaolin Temple, the Martial arts, Vipassana, Zen Koans or Zazen Meditation. Buddhism also spread into South East Asia in later centuries (Suvarnabhumi). Ashoka ruled a highly prosperous country with a huge GDP compared to most other countries at that time. The volume of intellectual thought processes in any civilisation is a direct function of its prosperity.

The Indian traders were trading with Egypt, Persia and also with South East Asian countries and the Chinese. Indians and Chinese remained influential in the world economy for a very long time.

So, what was the GDP of India 2000 years ago?

From 1st Century AD till 1250 AD, India had the world’s largest GDP and it was somewhere between 25 to 30 percent of world’s GDP closely followed by China.
During 15th century (during Emperor Akbar, the Great), India’s GDP was 26% of world’s GDP and it was second largest in the world after China’s GDP. The Europe had a GDP of 21% of the world.

An estimate of India's pre-colonial economy puts the annual revenue of Emperor Akbar's treasury in 1600 A.D. at £17.5 million, in contrast to the entire treasury of Great Britain in 1800, which totalled £16 million. The gross domestic product of Mughal India in 1600 was estimated at about 22.6% the world economy, in comparison to Ming China's 29.2% share.

Annual revenue reported by the Emperor Aurangzeb's exchequer exceeded £100 million in 1700 (twice that of Europe then). Thus, India emerged as the world's largest economy, followed by Manchu China and Western Europe.

The GDPs of major countries of the world over the last 500 years (data by Angus Maddison):