Vexillology – Ancient Indian Flags

By Suvro Sanyal.

Over the decades, the Vexillologists have relentlessly enthralled, along with eradicated the trepidation pertaining with the evolution of the Indian Flag beholding the zenith without transgressing.

The compendium demonstrates that in India, flags have been used since 5000 – 7000 years ago, when they were primarily hoisted for military invasions along with symbolising numerous empires and dynasties. Every empire had its own independent flag, as well as separate flags for distinct regiments of its armed forces commanded by military leaders of varying ranks. The ancient Indian flags typically didn’t aim to reflect the inhabitants of the region but rather the emperor’s vision and emblem.

The Vedic age (1500-500 B.C) during which the Vedas were composed was the age of Indo-Aryans who settled in North India along the Gangetic plain. There is evidence of totemism in the Rigveda which gives knowledge about the Aryans.

The Dhwaja (Flag) – made of light material, evolved as a portable visible totem carrying a crowning motif during battle to enthuse the warriors. They were the object of worship in a temple as Dhwaja Stambha (Pillars), those which epitomised as symbol of faith.

Shiva temples have the Trishul or Trident; Buddhist Stambhas have Buddhist symbols like the wheel or lions etc; the Jaina Stambhas could have a Chaumukha or four-fold Tirthankaras; the Ashokan pillars too might have evolved out of the Dhwaja Stambhas.

The Puranic and Agamic texts reveal the importance of a Dhwaja. The Garuda Dhwaja used by the Gupta Rulers as they were the followers of Vishnu, and Garuda being the vehicle of Vishnu.

Tala Dhwaja and Makara Dhwaja has been a Brahminic tradition as recorded in the Besnagar pillar inscription of the second century B.C.

Thus, the Totem evolved into a standard and subsequently into a Dhwaja (Flag).

Flags of some empires in ancient India: –

• The Mauryan Empire – founded by Chandragupta Maurya in Magadha and had its headquarters in Pataliputra (now Bihar), ruled the Indian subcontinent from 322 to 185 BCE. The Maurya’s used a variety of military flags, those which had enhanced the splendour of the military chariots.

Thunderbolts, palm trees, wheels, bows, along with symbols of birds – swan, peacock, eagle; animals such as monkey, boar, bull, elephant were depicted on the flags.

(B)The Chola Dynasty – reigned from the second part of the ninth century, until the thirteenth century A.D. Cholas, the early Tamil emperors had their own flags with some unique symbols on them. Fish, bow, and tiger symbols were all an integral component of the flag design. Because their imperial flag has a leaping tiger on a reddish backdrop, the Chola flag was also regarded as the Tiger Flag, according to the Periya Puranam

 (C) The Vijayanagara Empire – Hindu prince Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya of the Sangama dynasty founded the Vijayanagara kingdom in 1336 A.D. The Vijayanagara Empire’s regal symbol showed a boar, which was really Varaha, Lord Vishnu’s ten avatars (incarnations). The imperial symbol is completed with the sun, moon, and dagger.

(D) The Mughal Empire – founded in 1526 by Babur, the Timurid Emir. This imperial structure lasted until 1720, shortly after the death of the last major emperor, Aurangzeb.
 

The Maratha Empire – The Marathas were originally soldiers deployed in the armies of the Deccan Sultanates, but later Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj founded an autonomous empire by the mid of 1660 A. D. The Marathas owned two flags, Bhagwa Jhanda (Saffron Flag) and Jaripataka. The saffron color symbolizes Hinduism and the very same saffron-colored banner can still be found in temples all around India.

The Sikh Confederacy – reigning between 1716–1799 Flag of the Nihang Khalsa Fauj showing weapons like Katar (dagger), Dhal Shield and Kirpan. The standard goes from ‘bottom to top’ signifying that the armies of the tenth guru are always victorious.

The Sikh Empire (Nishan Sahib) – reigning from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered by the British East India Company in the Second Anglo-Sikh War.

The Kingdom of Travancore – The Travancore Royal Echelon’s governed the Kingdom of Travancore, a rich princely empire in Kerala, from 1729 until 1949. The Kingdom of Travancore’s flag had a conch shell on a red background.

British Rule in India – the most tyrant, suppressive supremacy which had forcefully reigned the country from 1707 under the aegis of East India Company had conceptualised several forms of Flags.However, “A Red Ensign with the Union Jack at the canton, defaced with the Star of India emblem displayed in the fly” was used as Civil Ensign of India to represent British India internationally.

During the British Regime, the Indians fighting collectively with the aspiration of gaining independence, felt the urge to design a National Flag envisaging the Sovereignty & Tranquility of the Motherland. The important foot steps towards the creation of the National Flag commenced since the beginning of the 19^th. Century, has been summarised as:  

• 1904-1906 – the first Indian flag came into existence and it was made by an Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita. Later, the flag came to be known as Sister Nivedita’s flag. The flag is comprised of red and yellow colours. Red signified the freedom struggle and yellow, is a symbol of victory. In Bengali words “Bonde Matoram” was written. It also contained a figure of ‘Vajra’, the weapon of the god ‘Indra’, and a white lotus in the middle. The symbol ‘Vajra’ depicts strength and lotus purity.

• 1906 – another flag was also designed, which was a tricolour with three equal strips of blue at the top, yellow in the middle, and red at the lower. The blue strip consists of eight stars of slightly different shapes. The red strip had two symbols, one of the Sun and the other of a Star and a Crescent Moon. In the yellow strip, ‘Vande Mataram’ was written in the Devanagari script.

• 07 August 1906 – the first unofficial national flag in India have been hoisted in the Parsee Bagan Square (Green Park) in Calcutta now Kolkata. The flag consists of three horizontal stripes of red, yellow, and green colour. It came to be known as ‘Calcutta Flag or ‘Lotus Flag’. In the middle of it is written Vande Mataram. The red strip had two symbols, one of the Sun and the other a Crescent Moon. The green strip had eight half-open lotuses on it. It is believed that the flag was designed by Sachindra Prasad Bose and Sukumar Mitra. Unfurling of the flag was being observed as “Boycott Day” against the partition of Bengal and the flag was hoisted by Surendranath Banerjee to mark the Unity of India.

22 August 1907 – a similar type of the flag was unfurled by Madam Cama at Stuttgart, Germany. It is believed that the flag was collectively designed by Madam Cama, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, and Shyamji Krishna Varma. The flag attained the status of the first Indian flag that was hoisted in a foreign land. It was also referred to as the “Berlin Committee Flag”. The flag was similar to the first flag except that the top strip. It also consists of three colours namely green at the top, golden saffron in the middle, and red colour at the bottom.

• In 1916 – Pingali Venkaya had designed a flag after due approval from Mahatma Gandhi. Pingali Venkaya was a writer and a geophysicist. Mahatma Gandhi adviced him to incorporate a charkha in the flag as a symbol of the economic regeneration of India. He created a flag from handspun yarn ‘Khadi’ and had two colours namely red and green and the ‘Charkha’ was drawn across them. However, the same didn’t find approval from Mahatma Gandhi, since, the red represented the Hindu community and the green Muslims, but the other communities of India were not represented in the flag.
• In 1917 – the Home Rule League formed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak adopted a new flag, during the ongoing demand for the Dominion status. The flag consists of the Union Jack at the top, near the hoist. The rest of the flag had five red and four blue strips. In the shape of the ‘Saptarishi’ constellation, it had seven stars. It consists of a crescent moon and a star at the top fly end. Ironically, this flag did not attain popularity among the masses.

To be continued………

Mavericknews30 has launched a series of article starting with History of Flags and featuring ” Know Your National Flag”, in anticipation of Independence Day on August 15th, Stay tuned for the next article!

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