early india age of empires. pre-classical - harappan india mohenjo-daro – urban planning active...

Early IndiaAge of Empires

Pre-Classical - HarappanIndia Mohenjo-Daro – urban

planning Active trade with Sumer Strong Central Authority

(seals, weights/meas., irrigation, theocracy)

Social Structure –relatively egalitarian

Slow decline – natural?, erosion?, salt in wells

Indo-European Aryans move in 1500 BC (rajahs, Sanskrit, iron)

Aryan Age of Decline

Rigveda describes the new dwellings as small hut dwellings clustered inside wooden palisades – suffers in comparison with Mohenjo-Daro during peak

Rigveda suggests “Aryans” were light-skinned favored over “dark-skinned” natives – prejudice in skin color still exists in India

Hinduism and sanskrit introduced – see constant upheavals in early centuries, possibly because only kshatriyas (warrior caste) could fight

Becoming EmpireIndia Semi-nomadic Aryans – by

600 BC divide into 16 states, enslaved Dravidians; some civil wars between rajahs (princes)

500 BC becomes part of a Persian satrapy,

330-321 Alexander the Great conquers as part of his Hellenistic Empire

Key Concept is that it is politically fragment. Think why geography would cause that

Mauryan Empire321-185 BC

Chandragupta Maurya (321 BC) attacked Hellenistic rule, ended conflict by marrying the Hellenistic ruler’s daughter.

Chandragupta Government – highly despotic

(tyrant) but substantial bureaucracy - inspected with spies

Huge armies w/1000s of chariots and elephant-borne troops

Taxed used for public works but also luxury lifestyle, single currency

Feared assassination - only 4 ½ hours of sleep a day, changed bedroom daily, had food tasters, route of progress marked off with ropes – anyone who set foot inside would be killed

Chandragupta’s Religion Converted from

hinduism to jainism (extreme passiveness) – would not kill anything or possess property – ended up starving himself to death in jainist monastery in 297 BC

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•Buddhist after Battle of Kalinga, great stone builder (first since Harappa)

• capital with 4 lions in used as emblem of present government of Indi• sent missionaries as far as Egypt and Burma and Sri Lanka

•major change in Buddhism is that he rejects caste system

Ashoka(269-232 BC)

Unify empire - created system of laws to protect sick, unarmed and helpless. Provided rest stops for travelers. Built hospitals, circuit magistrates for resolving disputes throughout empire

“Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, conquered the Kalingas eight years after his coronation.[25] One hundred and fifty thousand were deported, one hundred thousand were killed and many more died (from other causes). After the Kalingas had been conquered, Beloved-of-the-Gods came to feel a strong inclination towards the Dhamma, a love for the Dhamma and for instruction in Dhamma. Now Beloved-of-the-Gods feels deep remorse for having conquered the Kalingas.” – Ashoka’s Edicts #13

“Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, says: Along roads I have had banyan trees planted so that they can give shade to animals and men, and I have had mango groves planted. At intervals of eight //krosas//, I have had wells dug, rest-houses built, and in various places, I have had watering-places made for the use of animals and men. But these are but minor achievements. Such things to make the people happy have been done by former kings. I have done these things for this purpose, that the people might practice the Dhamma.” – Asoka’s Edicts #7

Towards CollapseIndia

Religious Changes – Chandragupta embraced Jainism, Ashoka converted to Buddhism– Mauryan Empire went into decline after

the death of Asoka– Last Mauryan ruler overthrown, 183

B.C.E. – A number of new kingdoms sprung up– Weakness of the Mauryas was

glorifying warfare for the king and aristocracy

•Political – Gupta (320 CE – 550 CE) Ruled through central gov’t allowed

village gov’ts power (more decentralized)/ Control based on local lords – paid tribute to keep autonomy

Advantageous alliances and military conquests created political stability

450 CE northern invaders brought empire to slow end (same Hunas – White Huns as the Xiongnu Huns from Mongolia to Caucasus from NW)

political diversity and regionalism

Economic - Gupta Very vigorous trade – surpassing Mediterranean and

Chinese – major middle men between East and West. Cotton was largest industry. In southern India there were small colonies of Romans, Jews, Arabs, and Nestorian Christians from Syria and Persia (gold, slaves, glass, Egyptian cloth, Chinese silk, SE Asian spices)

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merchants relatively high caste status

Religious - Gupta

Hinduism restored as central religion Helped keep social order in a time of

decentralized political power

Social - Gupta No one language for all subjects! (promoted Sanskrit for

language of educated) Caste system encouraged tolerance allowing widely different

people to live next to one another peacefully but with separate social strictures.

Loyalty to caste superseded loyalty to any one ruler. Initial 5 castes divided into 300 jati (could lower in castes if marry lower or take on work deemed inappropriate for caste)

Outright slavery was avoided Rights of women became more limited as agricultural

technology developed (one code of law requested women to worship husbands as gods)

Key Idea: all classical societies (except perhaps Athenian) played down role of individual and emphasized role of state, group and family – few challenged this “natural order”

Social Strictures meant that political

regulation less necessary

Intellectual/Technological - Gupta Universities built (4000 students in Nalanda – one

of them Chinese Faxian) to teach religion, medicine and architecture

Medicine (religious prohibition on disection – but still bone setting, plastic surgery, inoculation against small pox, sterilization of wounds)

Mathematics - algebra, zero (may have come from China), decimal system and “Arabic” numbers, table of sines, square roots, negative numbers, computed value of pi

some technology developed for its own sake

Art/Literature - Gupta

Exquisite paintings (Ajanta caves)

plays of Kalidasa (comparable to Shakespeare)

Kama Sutra written now