Ca. 1500 BCE to 550 CE

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Ancient India

• Ca. 1500 BCE to 550 CE

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Post-Harappan culture

• I. The Vedic Period (ca. 1200 500 BCE)
• A. Aryan Invasion
• 1. movement through the Hindu Kush Mountains
  and into the Indus Valley
  beginning by 1400 BCE
• 2. reach Ganges Plain (north- central India)
  starting around 1000 BCE
• B. Aryan Culture
• 1. Formerly nomadic, Indo- European cultural
  group
• 2. Origins a nomadic group of tribes from
  Central Asia or Europe
• 3. Language Sanskrit
• . one of the classical Indo-European languages
  (with Greek and Latin)

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• 4. Indo-Aryan Society
• a. our knowledge of it comes from the four
  great books written by the Aryans called the
  Vedas (books of knowledge)
• 1. revealed texts (sruti that which is
  heard)
• 2. include the Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda,
  and Atharvaveda
• b. Settlement Patterns small, independent
  villages or city-states
• 1. Each village/city-state was led by a Raja
  (i.e. prince) and council of elders
• 2. Aryan villages/city-states often fought
  with and/or traded with one another

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• b. Agricultural Diet
• 1. Cattle, sheep, goats
• a. Cattle was main staple of the diet and
  the basis of wealth
• b. Later, the consumption of cattle was
  banned
• 2. barley, cucumbers, bananas
• c. Patriarchal Society
• 1. men are rulers of society and household
• 2. women were expected to be subservient to men

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• d. Caste System strict social hierarchy with
  endogamy
• 1. The Five Varnas - Social Classes (and their
  duties)
• a. Brahmans Priests
• 1. study and teach the Vedas
• 2. perform religious ceremonies
• b. Kshatriyas Warriors and rulers
• 1. study the Vedas (but werent allowed to
  teach them)
• 2. lead the government
• 3. lead the army
• c. Vaisyas Commoners merchants, artisans,
  farm owners
• 1. tend herds/care for land
• 2. make and sell useful products
• 3. not allowed to hear or recite the Vedas
• d. Sudras Unskilled laborers, servants
• 1. serve other classes/varnas
• 2. work farm fields
• 3. not allowed to hear or recite the Vedas
• 4. possibly originally made-up of the
  descendants of the Harappans

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e. Pariahs 1. perform tasks considered
unclean or unsuitable for other varnas 2.
also known as untouchables or outcasts
(as this is not a varna) 3. not allowed to
hear or recite the Vedas 4. lived outside of
villages and shunned by other varnas 2. Jati
Subdivisions of the five varnas based on
occupation a. This subdivision came into
existence sometime by 500 BCE b. each had rules
of social interaction, living space, and even
diet!
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• C. Other Developments of the Aryans
• 1. Iron Metallurgy for weapons and
  agricultural tools
• 2. Long Distance Trade networks
• 3. Literature The Mahabharata and The
  Ramayana
• 4. Development of Hinduism
• well come back to this in a while. ?

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Pre-Mauryan Period

• II. Between about 500 324 BCE
• A. Small, regional kingdoms (called
  maha- janapadas) in the Ganges Plain area
• . Many traded with other civilizations
• B. Foreign Control of parts of the Indus
  Valley by
• 1. the Persians (under Darius I) in the 500s
  BCE
• 2. Alexander the Great in the 300s BCE

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First great Indian empire

• III. The Mauryan Empire (ca. 324 185 BCE)
• A. Creation of the Mauryan Empire by
  Chandragupta Maurya (ruled 324 301 BCE)
• 1. he becomes leader of Magadha (one of the
  independent kingdoms in the Ganges Plain
  region) via military coup.
• 2. he then led forces that removed the
  Hellenistic and native Indian rulers from the
  independent kingdoms of Northern India,
  unifying these lands under his control by 321
  BCE.

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• 3. he rules in a very paranoid way
• a. plants spies everywhere in his kingdom
• b. official food tasters
• c. never sleeps in the same bed two nights in a
  row
• d. has anybody suspected of treason tortured and
  killed
• 4. establishes ruling principles of the Mauryan
  Empire (written in the Artha-sastra) based on
• a. Hindu philosophy brutally practical (include
  a manual for assassination!)
• b. policy of the scepter (Big stick theory)
• 5. establishes the Mauryan government system in
  his kingdom
• a. Capital Patliputra (now known as Patna)
• b. Kingdom divided into provinces each ruled
  by a royal governor appointed by the ruler.
• c. Provinces divided into districts each ruled
  by an official appointed by the royal governor
• d. Districts contain villages each has a
  village leader

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• B. The Reign of Ashoka (269 232 BCE)
• 1. At first, he continued the brutal,
  militaristic takeover of northern and central
  India carried on by his grandfather, Chandragupta
  Maurya, and his father, Bindusara.
• 2. 260 BCE Ashoka converted to Buddhism
• a. because he was disturbed by his own
  brutality (especially during the conquest of
  Kalinga)
• b. sends out Buddhist missionaries throughout
  his kingdom and to other areas this causes
  the eventual spread of Buddhism throughout Asia

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Ashokas Repentence

• What have I done? If this is a victory, what's a
  defeat then? Is this a victory or a defeat? Is
  this justice or injustice? Is it gallantry or a
  rout? Is it valor to kill innocent children and
  women? Did I do it to widen the empire and for
  prosperity or to destroy the other's kingdom and
  splendor?
• One has lost her husband, someone else a father,
  someone a child, someone an unborn infant....
  What's this debris of the corpses? Are these the
  marks of victory?

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• c. uses the principles of Buddhism in the rest
  of his reign
• 1. Issues Rock Edicts
• a. has several stone pillars and tablets
  placed throughout his kingdom
• b. on each is an official statement (edict)
  from Ashoka outlining his new policies and
  ideas based on Buddhist principles
• 2. appoints officials of righteousness who
  make sure that everybody in all castes and
  areas are treated fairly
• 3. orders the building of hospitals for people
  and animals (with free medicine)
• 4. creates rest stops along roads within the
  Empire
• 5. revises the legal code of the Empire
• 6. encouraged trade and industry
• 7. allowed freedom of religion within the
  Empire
• 3. Ashoka dies in 232 BCE Maurayan Empire
  starts to decline
• C. 185 BCE the last Mauryan Emperor is
  assassinated, the Mauryan empire splits up

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Inter-imperial fragmentation

• IV. Intermediate Periods
• (ca. 185 BCE 320 CE)
• A. India fragments into independent kingdoms
  (again)
• B. Influx of nomadic groups, who settle in and
  rule over some areas of India
• C. The Silk Road runs through Northern India
  and incorporates several of these independent
  kingdoms in the system

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The Golden Age

• V. The Gupta Empire (ca. 320 550 CE) Indias
  Golden Age
• A. Much smaller territory controlled than that
  of the Mauryans (only north-central India)
• B. Famous Emperors
• 1. Chandra Gupta I (r. 320 335 CE) first
  Gupta Emperor, who united several kingdoms
  (creating the Gupta Empire)
• a. used marriage alliances to expand empire
• 2. Samudra Gupta (r. 335 - 375 CE)
• a. military leader, conquered over 20 kingdoms
  (Indian Napoleon)
• b. patron of the arts, considerate of faiths
  other than Hinduism
• 3. Chandra Gupta II (r. 375-415 CE) Emperor
  during the height of the Gupta Empire

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• C. Government/Economic Organization
• 1. Emperor ruled from the capital (Patliputra)
• 2. Emperor generates income from
• a. taxes from provinces based on
  agriculture and trade (along the Silk Road)
• b. monopolistic control over salt and
  minerals
• 3. Empire divided into provinces each ruled
  by a royal governor
• . governed loosely, as long as they paid their
  taxes to the Empire

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• D. Culture
• 1. Hinduism made the official religion of Gupta
  Empire
• . But Guptas allowed religious freedom
• 2. Arts (especially Hindu-related) - flourished
  due to the patronage of Gupta rulers
• a. Literature (plays and philosophical books)
  written in Sanskrit
• . Kalidasa the William Shakespeare of
  India wrote poems and plays during this
  period
• b. Architecture and Sculpture especially in
  the form of Hindu temples
• 3. Universities (e.g. Nalanda University)
  attended by students from all over Asia
• 4. New Technologies/Developments
• a. Medicine Inoculation, basic surgery
• b. Mathematics base 10 number system (Arabic
  numerals), concepts of zero and infinity
• 5. Decline in the status of women
• a. arranged marriages become common
• b. high respect, but little power for women
• E. End of the Gupta Empire caused by invasions
  by the Huns

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