White skinned and dark skinned people in

India- A historical analysis

N K Srinivasan

It is remarkable to find many white skinned

persons [male and female] in India as well
as many dark skinned ones in India. In some

parts,particularly in the western part and

along the west coast, white skinned people
may be in majority in many towns. This

raises many historical questions about the

racial intermingling that had occurred over
several centuries in India.[Many Indians are
in between--sometimes referred to

as "wheatish complexion".]

Any casual student of Indian history would

know that waves of foreigners invaded India

at various times to conquer this rich land

at that time. Some foreign hordes came to

plunder,if not to settle in India and rule

the country.Many foreigners came to do
trading in India and later settled down to
occupy land and buy off from native
princes.Some came as soldiers,mercenaries or
religious preachers .

Early Conquerors

The early recorded history has that great

hero Alexander of Macedonia,the great
,invading India in the present state of
Punjab. Though he returned to Greece aftre a
couple of years,because his soldiers were

weary of long campaign, Alexander left a

commander ,Selukus Niketor to rule over
Hindu kings for sometime. This
commander married Hindu princesses and
started a line of Greco-Hindu families at

that time. Selukus was conquered by Chandra

Gupta Maurya; Selekus gave his daughter in
marriage to Chandra Gupta. In return, the

Maurya King gifted 500 elephants to Selekus.

The great emperor Ashoka was the grandson of
Chandra Gupta.Some historians contend that
Greek blood flowed in the veins of Ashoka.!

There should have been racial intermingling

of races even before the campaign of

Alexander, but on a minor scale and are not

recorded properly. There are many accounts

of foreign hordes coming over to Kashmir

valley and Punjab from Caucasus , Persia

[Iran] , present Afghanistan and other
midlle-east countries. [ To recall one
instance from the epic of 'Ramayana',
Dasaradha's second wife "Kaikeyi" , a
corrupt form of 'caucasian',was a Caucasian

princess.]

There must have been a steady stream of

Mesapotamians,Assyrians,Jewish tribes and

others coming to settle in Kashmir

and Punjab or Indus region and slowly
spreading towards central parts of

India,that is the Gangetic plains.

An Indo-Greek kingdom flourished for nearly

200 years,beginning with 200 BCE.Menander 1

or Milinda was the greatest King of this

dynasty. He ruled from Bactria which seceded

from Greece, to Punjab/Kashmir region. He
settled many Greeks in these provinces. His
teacher was a Buddhist monk,Nagasena and he
embraced Buddhism. His capital was Sagala,

the present Sialkot in Pakistan.The Greeks

were called 'yavanas'--a term used loosely

for all foreigners.

Menander and his successors promoted

Buddhism,as well as Hindu and Greek forms

of worship with several deities. Menander
and his dynasty helped to develope

Indo-greek art,especially sculptures which

was absorbed into Buddhist

iconography.During their rule, nearly 120
ships travelled from Bactria to India every

year;they used ports in Kathiawar region

.Surat, of South Gujarat and ports in
southern peninsular India.

There were other small kingdoms,such as

Indo-Parthians which had capitals near
Afghanistan. The parthians came from Persia
or Iran , had capital in Taxila and spread
their culture. Later Parthians migrated to
south India and established Pallava dynasty

['pahlavi's] with Kanchipuram as Capital and

ruled from 3rd to 9th century CE.. These
rulers embraced partly Buddhism and partly
Hinduism as seen in Kanchi which had
separate townships for differnt religions

,living with perfect harmony.They had

regular trade with Rome and Arab countries.

The Kushans were mostly central Asian tribes

who also came to rule with Purushapura [

Peshawar] as capital; the Great King

Kanishka ruled over the western parts.They

came to settle and were absorbed into Hindu

society.They too promoted Buddhism and

Buddhist art in Afghanistan, western

Pakistan and elsewhere.At the time of

Kushans, the silk route from China became

active and brought many chinese pilgrims and

traders to India.

The rapid mingling of the Greeks ,the

Parthians from Iran and Kushans from central

Asia made Indian society a'melting pot ' or

confluence of different cultures and ethnic
groups.!

Trade Links with Roman Empire

At the time of Roman Empire, there was

another possibility of racial mix-up. This

happened due to trade. Romans traded with
India,particularly in the
southern peninsular India,along west coast

and east coast ports. There are plenty of

historical evidences --well
researched---about the Roman traders setting
up warehouses along the coastal regions and
small ports.

Muziris in the west coast,Tuticorin,

Poom-puhar near Tanjore and Mahabalipuram,
Pondicherry [Arikamedu,near Pondicherry],
Nagapattinam -- all these were thriving port

towns.Muziris was widely mentioned as a

major port for Romans ,especially for

trading in spice, perfumes and gemstones and

was mentioned by Pliny. This portal town is

identified as the Kodungallur village or

Pattinam in Kerala.[Some would identify

this port as Musiri in Cauvery delta,a Chola

country.]

We learn that local native kings treated the

traders with respect and created townships

near the ports for their stay.It is natural
that these virile men 'interacted' with

local women to produce offsprings of white

complexion.Note that prostitution was legal
in many native countries in India; the kings
even allocated several streets for street
walkers for their trade. This practice

continued upto the Vijayanagar empire in

16th Century.May be they taxed these women
too.

The Cauvery delta near Trichy/Tanjore was

thriving portal colonies for Romans. The

port of Arikamedu,near Pondicherry, had

been widely excavated and studied by several

scholars in recent times.Roman coins are

found in plenty by archaelogists for

the past hundred years of exploration. They

offer much information about the trade liks

with the west.

There are many accounts of brisk trade

between Egypt and India. Cleopatra's
favorite dish was presumably peacock

meat,and peacocks were exported from India,

along with gold ,gem stones and spices. Her
throne-like seat in the Nile-river-boat was

made of gold and adorned with jewels from

India. [Even Shakespeare makes a reference
to her golden seat].This was the time of

Julius Caesar and Mark Antony in the first

century C E.

The Arab Connection

The trade between India and the Arab rulers

in Baghdad and Istanbul are well recorded.

One of the chief items of trade was war

horses. It is well-recorded that horse

breeding was not encouraged in India for
many centuries and war horses for the

growing cavalry were almost always imported

from Arabia. Horse traders were held in high

esteem those days and this continued during

the British rule too.

After the spread of Islam from 7th century

onwards, there was brisk trade between the

Arab countries, especially with Baghdad,

along the west coast of India. The coastal

ports of Calicut [kozhikode],Cochin [Kochi]

and Muziri ---gained importance. This trade
link spread along the west coast to Baikal

and Mangalore ,all the way north upto

Goa.The traders sought spices [ to preserve

meat with pepper,cardamom and cinnamon] and

to buy tropical medicinal herbs. They also

traded in precious stones, including

diamonds mined in Golkonda near Hyderabad

and pearls. There was pearl harvesting near

Tuticorin, in a port called Kayalpattinam
and anotehr near-by port Korkai. Pearls were
regularly exported to Arab nations in those
times.

There was much migration of muslims from the

Middle East to west coast along these
ports,especially at Calicut and at

Kayalpattinam. A number of Sufi masters came

along and preached Islam;their cemeteries

became dargahs or mausoluems which are

venerated even today by both Hindus and
Muslims.

Migration of victims of religious

persecutions

There was also the flow of Zorastrians from

Persia or Iran who were persecuted there,
sometime in 6th Century. They came to modern

Mumbai and we have a population

of "parsees"--fire worshippers who settled

into business life. They are fair-skinned

and do not generally intermarry. [The
industrial house of Tatas belong to Parsee

families. ]

There was a small population of Jews as

well,who settled near Kochi. Till a few
decades ago, there were thousands of them

with their synagogues.Many went back to

Israel. They also by convention do not marry
outside their religion,but there are several
instances of intermarriages.

Foreign soldiers and mercenaries

There are many instances of Indian kings
employing foreign soldiers and mercenaries

in their kingdoms. They were mostly from

either Arab countries or north African
nations. These strong men were utilised as
palace guards, personal guards or prison
wardens or military trainers. It was better

to employ them than local ones who may plot

against the king.Several eunuchs were also
employed--to guard and secure their harems

or zananas.. We have very little information

on the lives of these or how they were
absorbed into the society in India. Since
they might not have brought their women from

Arabia or Africa, they must have taken local

women as wives or concubines.

There are reports that many princely

families employed Abyssinian [Ethiopian]

soldiers as palace guards. They were also

used to train and control wild animals. Some

of these men found their favors with the
kings to enter their harems for pleasure and
established themselves as local
chieftains.There are reports of some princes
sired by Abyssinian men.

Mercenaries were employed to fight local

rebels and hill tribes.An interesting aspect
of foreign commanders and soldiers in Indian

soil is that they were also used for

training local native soldiers and for
guarding military installations.Some of them

were also used in controlling custom

houses at sea-ports.

There is an interesting and important case

with Tipu Sultan , the ruler of Mysore, who

fought against the British domination.The

British fought four "Mysore wars" and could
defeat him in Seringapatam [Srirangapatnam]
through treachery in the fourth war..Tipu
Sultan invited French military men from

Pondicherry (Puducherry)[ a French colony in

India, near Chennai] to train his men.He

even sent an invitation to Napoleon

Bonaparte to come over and fight the British

which did not take place. The local folklore

states that the French soldiers and their

commanders found women in Mysore very

attractive and cohabited with them

freely,especially the fair skinned upper

caste and upper class women.This ,of course,
happened much later in the 18th and in the
19th century.

It is obvious that employing the strong men

from Arabia or Africa would engender

promiscuity in towns.

South Asia Expeditions

The Tamil kings, particularly the Cholas

from the capital of Tanjore,or later
Uraiyur, developed a navy and made several
naval campaigns to rule over Sri Lanka

(Ceylon),Malaysia [Kadaram],Burma [Myanmar],

Indonesia and Cambodia [Kambhoja] and
to establish Hindu rulers in those
countries.. These rulers, besides some
degree of plundering for gold and precious

stones, were interested in planting Hindu

culture and religion there. Most of these
areas were very primitive in those

centuries,say between 8th and 11th centuries

CE. They built several Hindu temples in all
these places and propagated Hindu religion
and in some cases Buddhism. The temple

complex of Angwar Wat in Cambodia was

originally a Hindu temple ,later modified
for Buddhist worship.

These kings built ships and navigated from

the east coast,called "coromandel" coast

---which had conch shells and also pearl

fishing.Much of their campaigns and trade
was from the port at Nagapattinam .Later the
Dutch built their colonies near this
port--at Tranquebar
[Tharangampadi.] Nagapattinam was the rich

center of trade with south Asia and it also

had a large Buddha temple with golden
towers and a golden image. Several Buddhist

monasteries were established which were

visited by monks and others from south-asian
countries.Besides Nagapattinam, there were
several along the east coast, for instance,

Pulicat and Mahabalipuram.

During these naval expeditions and trade

links, the Chola kings and others to a

lesser extent, also sent monks and

philosophers ['acharyas'] to propagate

Hinduism and Buddhism.Many of these savants
encouraged marriages with the local
population in these countries. It is obvious
that many Tamils settled in these countries

which were rich in natural resources--

particularly timber.Therefore the Indian

people had considerable opportunity to

populate these places with their ethnic

roots.

[There are ,however, less instances of

Indian population moving to Africa to mingle

with the locals there. This happened much

later when Africa had many indentured

laborers from India in the early 19th
century.]

Concluding Remarks

It is easily seen that the Indian/Hindu

society was not so insular as many believe
or like to think. There had been many
instances of racial mixing with foreigners

down the centuries right from Alexander's

time.Apart from religious influences and the
impact of colonial rulers [the Portuguese,
the Dutch, the French and the British]from

17th century onwards, the racial mixing had

been taking place for several centuries from
3rd century BC. Therefore the Indian
population is a mixture of people of several
ethnic origins and the skin color could

range from lily white to jet black. It is

pointless to talk of pure "aryan" descent or
"dravidian" stock for the Indian population.

This variation in skin color is often

puzzling to many visitors to India and also

to those with casual knowledge of Indian

history. The perspective given here in this

article should help to remove bias or

prejudices arising out of color of the skin

among Indian people. This may also help to

remove unnecessary discussion of 'pure'

races in India.

Please contact: nksrinivasan@hotmail.com

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