CLASSICAL INDIA

1
CLASSICAL INDIA

• FROM THE MAURYANS
• TO THE GUPTAS

2
RISE OF MAURYAN EMPIRE

• Ganges Republics
• Prior to Alexander, kshatriyan republics
  dominated, vied for power
• Western Intrusions
• Intrusions of Persians (520 B.C.E.) and Alexander
  (327 B.C.E.)
• Persians established Indus satrapy
• Alexanders withdrawal left a political vacuum
• Magadha kingdom filled the vacuum
• Chandragupta Maurya
• The founder of the Mauryan empire
• Overthrew the Magadha kingdom in 321 B.C.E.
• Chandragupta's empire embraced all of northern
  India
• Chandragupta's government
• The political handbook, Arthashastra, outlined
  administrative methods

3
ASHOKA

• Ashoka Maurya (reigned 268-232 B.C.E.)
• Chandragupta's grandson,
• The high point of the Mauryan empire
• Ruled through tightly organized bureaucracy
• Policies of encouraging agriculture and trade
• Converted to Buddhism
• Established a tolerant rule
• Sent out missionaries Decline of the Mauryan
  Empire
• Ashoka died in 232 B.C.E.
• Suffered from acute financial and economic
  difficulties
• The empire collapsed by 185 B.C.E.

4
THE GUPTAS

• The Gupta Dynasty
• After Mauryans, India was controlled by regional
  kingdoms
• The Gupta state rose to power
• Chandra Gupta founded the new dynasty
• Gupta dynasty was relatively decentralized
• Officially supported revival of Hinduism as state
  faith
• Era seen as the Golden Age of Hinduism
• Gupta decline
• Invasion of White Huns weakened the empire
• After 5th century C.E., Gupta dynasty ruled in
  name only
• Large regional kingdoms dominated political life
  in India

5
ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL

• Towns and manufacturing
• Towns dotted the India countryside after 600
  B.C.E.
• Towns provided manufactured products and luxury
  goods
• Long-distance trade
• Link with Persia and the west helped to build
  extensive trade networks
• Trade with China through the silk roads of
  central Asia
• Trade in the Indian Ocean basin, Indonesia,
  Southeast Asia, Mediterranean basin
• Spread Buddhism and Hinduism throughout Indian
  Ocean basin
• Social and gender relations
• Strong patriarchal families subordination of
  women to men
• Child marriage placed women under control of old
  men
• Development of caste system
• New social groups of artisans, craftsmen, and
  merchants appeared
• Individuals of same trade or craft formed a
  guild guilds were subcastes, jatis
• Functions of guilds social security and welfare
  systems
• Wealth and social order
• Trade and industry brought prosperity to many
  vaishyas and shudras
• Old beliefs and values of early Aryan society
  became increasingly irrelevant

6
EARLY BUDDHISM

• Siddhartha Gautama (563-483 B.C.E.)
• Born in 563 B.C.E. to the Kshatriya caste
  (warrior caste)
• Witnessed miseries of the human condition
• Gave up his comfortable life and began searching
  for enlightenment
• Intense meditation
• Received enlightenment under the bo tree and
  became Buddha
• The Buddha and his followers
• "Turning of the Wheel of the Law," 528 B.C.E.
• Organized followers into a community of monks
  (the sangha)
• Traveled throughout north India, bringing
  enlightenment to others
• Buddhist doctrine The dharma
• The Four Noble Truths
• All life involves suffering
• Desire is the cause of suffering
• Elimination of desire brings an end to suffering
• The Noble Eightfold Path brings the elimination
  of desire
• The Noble Eightfold Path (Setting the wheel in
  motion)
• Right belief, right resolve, right speech, right
  behavior
• Right occupation, right effort, right
  contemplation, and right meditation

7
APPEAL OF BUDDHISM

• Appealed strongly to members of lower castes
• Salvation without services of the brahmins
• Did not recognize social hierarchies of castes
  and jati
• Appealed to women as all souls considered equal
• Used vernacular tongues, not Sanskrit
• Holy sites and pilgrims
• The monastic organizations
• Spread the Buddhist message, won converts
• Could be endowed by others to support the
  religion
• Centers of learning, good works, contemplation
• Ashoka's support
• Emperor Ashoka became a devout Buddhist, 206
  B.C.E.
• Banned animal sacrifices in honor of ahimsa
• Granted lands to monasteries
• Sent missionaries to Bactria and Ceylon

8
VARIANTS OF BUDDHISM

• Early Buddhism made heavy demands on individuals
• Giving up personal property
• Forsaking the search for social standing
• Detaching oneself from worldly pleasures
• Development of Buddhism
• Buddha gradually seen as a god by ex-Hindus, in
  China
• The notion of bodhisatva - "an enlightened being"
  
• Buddhism became more attractive
• The Schism of Buddhism Was he a god or man?
• Mahayana - "the greater vehicle"
• Spread to Central, East Asia
• Blended in India with Hinduism, which coopted
  Buddha as a god
• Coopted Chinese traditions and Taoist gods in
  China
• Hinayana or Theravada
• Continued to view Buddha as human
• Practiced in Sri Lanka, parts of India, SE Asia
• Buddhism died out in India as it merged with
  Hinduism

9
POPULAR HINDUISM

• The epics
• Mahabharata
• Honored the god Vishnu, the preserver of the
  world
• Ramayana
• Secular story of Rama and Sita was changed into a
  Hindu story
• The Bhagavad Gita
• A short poetic work within the Mahabharata
• Illustrated expectations of Hinduism and promise
  of salvation
• Hindu ethics
• Lower demands for achieving salvation
• Individuals should meet their responsibilities in
  detached fashion
• Balance of dharma, artha, karma to attain moksha,
  end samsara
• Popularity of Hinduism
• Became more popular than Buddhism Buddhism too
  hard to maintain for most people.
• The Guptas helped Hinduism become the dominant
  religion