Sometime in the first century CE,
while coming back from the great assembly of Buddhists organised by Kanishka, a
Tokharian monk, Ghosaka established the Western Vaibhasika school of Buddhist
philosophy in Balkh. It was a philosophical sub-division of the Sarvastivadin
School, which thrived in Kashmir. The new monastery he established, Nava
Vihara, soon became the leading centre of Buddhist learning on the Silk Route.
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| Ruins of Nava Vihar, Balkh |
Around 230 CE, Sassanids threw the
Kushans out of Balkh. After the Sassanids, Balkh was ruled by the White Huns
and Turki Shahis but Buddhism, in general, and Nava Vihara, in particular,
continued to flourish. In 630 CE, on his way to India, Xuanzang, the famous
Chinese traveller, reported that there were thousands of monks at Nava Vihara
and the monastery was well known for beautiful statues of Buddha, draped in
silks and adorned with rare jewels. In 663 CE, the Umayyad armies attacked
Balkh. Either by force or by choice some local people converted to Islam. But
most of the population still remained Buddhist and Nava Vihara was reported to
be functioning normally in 680 CE by another Chinese pilgrim Yijing.
For centuries now Nava Vihara was
headed by one priestly family, who appears to be of Kashmiri origin. These
hereditary chiefs were known as Pramukhs or in local pronunciation, Barmak.
Among the recent converts was one of the Abbotts of Nava Vihara. In 708 CE,
Turki Shahis were back in power again and they beheaded the Abbott, who had
converted to Islam. The only remaining child of the family was earlier taken to
Kashmir by his mother. There in Kashmir the next Barmak grew up learning
astrology, medicine, and philosophy. By 715 CE, the Umayyad armies overran
Balkh decisively and inflicted massive damage on Nava Vihara. Barmak, now
converted to Islam–perhaps to save his life along with his family–ended up at
the Umayyad Court, where his knowledge of medicine helped him to gain
prominence. His skills in astrology rewarded his family even more as he seemed
to have predicted the eventual victory of the Abbasids (745 CE).
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| House of Wisdom, Baghdad |
Barmak’s son Khalid ibn Barmak
occupied important administrative positions under the first two Abbasid Caliphs
and even their families grew very close. Khalid’s son Yahya was tutor to young
Harun al Rashid and eventually became Vizier or Prime Minister of Harun al
Rashid. His two sons, Abu-Fadl and Ja’far, also rose to occupy important
positions. The vizier, who walks into many of the Arabian Nights stories, is
none other than Ja’far. Before the family fell from grace–perhaps because of
Ja’far’s relationship with Harun’s sister, Abbasa–in 803 CE, the Barmakids were
the second most important family of Baghdad after the Caliph.
But history remembers this half a
century of Barmakid influence for very different reasons. Khalid constructed
the city of Mansura (Brahmanabad) in Sindh, the first planned city of the
period and shortly thereafter he was chiefly instrumental in designing the new
capital of Baghdad, which supposedly had many Indian design elements. The Barmakids
were legendary for their lavish lifestyle (the word for most lavish dinner in
Persian is still barmaki) and patronage of art and culture. It was at their
residence at Baghdad the first paper mill of the Islamic world came up. They
also set up the first hospital in Baghdad, following their Buddhist heritage.
Yahya ibn Barmak was responsible for sponsoring translation of Sanskrit works
on astronomy, philosophy, and medicine–clearly the family tradition continued.
He also sent his people to procure all the information about India and invited
a large number of Ayurvedic doctors from Sindh and Kashmir, the most famous of
them was Manka or Kanka. He also patronised the great Bukhtishu family of
Nestorian Christian doctors from Gundeshapur.
Though the translation bureau and famous
libraries of Baghdad continued till the Mongols sacked the city in 1258 when
Tigris reportedly turned black from the ink of thousands of books thrown into
the river (now we know that most of the books were taken away and carefully
examined by the Mongols rather than destroying them), none showed the zeal of
Yahya Barmak to translate books from Sanskrit (till at least Al Beruni, two
centuries later). Although the Ayurvedic system was soon ignored in favour of
Galen’s Greek (Unani) medicine but the Arab scholars learnt the Hindu numerals
and place-value system, including the use of zero. This new system was soon to
revolutionise mathematics around the world, reaching Europe by early thirteenth
century through Fibonacci.
For more such stories related to Indian
business history, see Laxminama: Monks, Merchants, Money and Mantra by Anshuman
Tiwari and Anindya Sengupta Bloomsbury 2018
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