42 Powerful Indian Empires

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4-2 Powerful Indian Empires
Maurya Empire 321 185 BC Chandragupta Maurya
harsh/ bureaucracy/ secret police/ women palace
warriors Asoka grandson/ most honored/ Kalinga
conversion to Buddhism/ stone pillars/
religious toleration/ peace prosperity How do
we know? Megasthenes - Pataliputra
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Kingdoms of the Deccan

• Own capital
• Were Dravidians with different languages
  traditions
• women had high economic social status
• Tamil sometimes ruled by queens
• improved harbors trade with Rome China

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Golden Age of the Guptas 320-550 AD
C Hindu temples Buddhist stupas/ carvings/
paintings/ Kalidasas Shakuntala greatest
Gupta poet playwright Ec trade farming
flourished/ prosperity contributed to arts
learning Ed religious _at_ Nalanda with
university/ developed concept of zero, decimal
system/ Hindu numbers (Arabic) P strong local
govt run by merchants artisans/ overrun by
the white Huns who destroyed the cities 1,000
yrs later invaded by Mongols
4
Complex Caste System
100s of majors/ 1,000s of sub castes Complex
rules linked to Hindu beliefs/ different castes
different species of beings/ higher caste
stricter rules to protect from spiritual
pollution/ to ensure spiritual purity web of
complex rules governed all aspects of life 1947
abolished untouchables set political
educational quotas to benefit the lower
castes Effects stable social order sense of
identity interdependence adapted to changing
conditions/ absorbed foreigners/ flexibility
allowed people with diverse customs to live side
by side in relative harmony
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Family Life

• Joint Family/ patriarchal
• Womens Lives high early /
• late Gupta upper class restricted Shakti
  creative force Sati virtuous women/ husbands
  pyre

Village Life

• heart of life
• self-sufficient/ land owned by landlords
  size economy varied
• Government head man council local
  infrastructure/ little interference

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Ajanta Caves The Buddhist caves at Ajanta contain
some of India's most magnificent paintings. The
29 caves were excavated beginning around 200 BC,
but they were abandoned in 650 AD in favor of
Ellora. Five of the caves were temples and 24
were monasteries, thought to have been occupied
by some 200 monks and artisans. The Ajanta Caves
were gradually forgotten until their
rediscovery' by a British tiger-hunting party in
1819.
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