Classical India

• By 600 BCE, India had passed through its formative phase.

• A classical civilization could now build on the social and cultural themes introduced during the Vedic and Epic ages.

• Indian development in the classical era didn’t take on the Chinese structure of rising and falling dynasties. Indian history was irregular.

Geography• India’s distinctive culture was a product of its

geography. It was far less isolated from other civs than was China.

• The Indian subcontinent is separated from the rest of Asia by the Himalayas, but there are several passes in the mountains, linking India to Mid East.

• Open to both Mid Eastern & Mediterranean influences.

• For ex: while Alex the Great didn’t establish a durable empire, he connected India with Hellenistic culture.

• Geography made political unity difficult, so India was more diverse than China.

Geography

• Monsoons: a season wind that brings rains. Sometimes too little, and famine causing. Sometimes torrential and flood causing.

THE MAURYAN DYNASTY

Mauryan Dynasty: Chandragupta

• In 327 BCE, Alexander the Great, after conquering Greece and much of the Mid East, pushed into northwestern India, establishing the border state of Bactria.

• Political reactions to this invasion produced the next stage in Indian history when a young soldier named Chandragupta Maurya seized power along the Ganges River.

• He began the Mauryan dynasty of rule. These were the 1st rulers to unify the subcontinent.

• Chandragupta’s style of govt was autocratic, relying on his military power.

Chandragupta: 321 BCE-298 BCE

Unified northern India. Defeated the Persian

general Seleucus. Divided his empire into

provinces, then districts for tax assessments and law enforcement.

He feared assassination food tasters, slept in different rooms, etc.

301 BCE gave up his throne & became a Jain.

Mauryan Dynasty: Ashoka

• Chandragupta’s grandson, Ashoka, was an even greater Mauryan ruler.

• Ashoka extended Mauryan conquests, gaining control of territory through fierce fighting.

• He gave up his thirst for blood after the gruesome battle of Kalinga, when he converted to Buddhism, and adopted belief in the dharma, or the law of moral consequences.

• Ashoka promoted Buddhism throughout India, but still honored Hinduism.

The Maurya Empire

321 BCE – 185 BCE

Asoka’s

Empire

Asoka’s law code Edicts scattered in

more than 30 places in India, Nepal, Pakistan, & Afghanistan.

Written mostly in Sanskrit, but one was in Greek and Aramaic.

10 rock edicts. Each pillar [stupa] is 40’-50’ high.

Buddhist principles dominate his laws.

One of

Asoka’sStupas

Kushan Empire

• After Ashoka, the Mauryan empire collapsed. • The Kushans pushed across the Hindu Kush

range through the Khyber pass into India and established a short-lived kingdom.

• The greatest Kushan king, Kanishka, converted to Buddhism but actually damaged its popularity in India, because it became associated with foreign rule.

• The collapse of the Kushan state in 220 CE ushered in 100 years of political instability before the rise of the Gupta dynasty

THE GUPTA DYNASTY

Gupta Dynasty• In 320 CE, a new line of kings, the Guptas,

established a new empire. • The Guptas did not produce any individual

rulers as influential as the 2 great Mauryan rulers, but they had perhaps greater impact on the shape of Indian civilization.

• 2 centuries of Gupta rule gave classical India its greatest period of political stability.

• It was ended in 535 CE by a new invasion of nomadic warriors, the Huns.

• After the decline of the Gupta empire, north India broke into a number of separate Hindu kingdoms and was not really unified again until the coming of the Muslims in the 7c.

Gupta Empire: 320 CE – 647 CE

Gupta Rulers Chandra Gupta I

r. 320 – 335 CE “Great King of Kings”

Chandra Gupta II r. 375 - 415 CE Profitable trade with the Mediterranean world!

Hindu revival.

Gupta

Art

Greatly influenced Southeast Asian art &

architecture.

Medicine Literature

MathematicsAstronomy

Printedmedicinal guides

1000 diseasesclassified

PlasticSurgery

C-sectionsperformed

Inoculations

500 healingplants

identified

DecimalSystem

Conceptof Zero

PI = 3.1416

Kalidasa

SolarCalendar

The earth

is round

GuptaIndia

Gupta Achieveme

nts

Political Institutions• The Guptas created a taxation system, spread

uniform law codes, and built roads, but didn’t create an extensive bureaucracy.

• Instead, they allowed local rulers to maintain regional control so long as they respected Gupta authority.

• .

Political Institutions• The caste syst and religion did for India life what

more conventional govt structures did in other cultures for promoting public order.

• It was virtually impossible to rise above the caste of birth, or to marry someone from a higher caste. Karma was the only way- one could be reborn into a higher caste with good karma.

Political Institutions• Loose political framework but rigid social

structure.• Slavery was avoided. Untouchables were

scorned, but their members were not owned by others.

Religion & Culture: Hinduism• Religion was the clearest cultural cement, cutting

across political and language barriers, and across caste.

• Hinduism didn’t displace minority religions, and has shown incredible capacity to survive as the major system of belief in India even to the present.

• Even w/o enduring polit institutions, India has retained continuity and cultural cohesiveness b/c of religion.

• Tradition of scientific inquiry emerged along with religion.

Religion & Culture: Hinduism• Unlike most religions, Hinduism had no single

founder, & no central holy figure. • Hindus are guided by dharma, or the moral path. • Mystics, called gurus and brahman priests

formalized the religion by the 1st centuries CE. • The divine aspects of brahma (holy essence)

are manifested in the forms of several gods, including Vishnu, the preserver, and Shiva, the destroyer.

• A proper life is one devoted to seeking union with the soul, but the quest may take many lieftimes.

• Hindus stress the principle of reincarnation, in which souls don’t die, but pass into other beings, human or animal.

Religion & Culture: Hinduism• After many good lives, the soul reaches full

union with the soul of brahma, and worldly suffering ceases.

• Some try to reach this through the meditation and self-discipline of yoga, which means union. It allows the mind to be free to concentrate on the divine spirit.

• Goal is to be reincarnated into a higher caste, and eventually salvation.

• Relig reinforced the caste system, giving people of lower castes hope for better rebirth.

• Epic poems are the key texts.

Religion & Culture: Buddhism• Siddhartha Guatama, aka Buddha, accepted

many Hindu beliefs, such as reincarnation, but denied the validity of others, such as caste.

• Buddhism spread through monasticism, and the emperor Ashoka attracted many followers.

• Like Confucius, the Buddha was seen as divine. • Brahaman opposition to Buddhism was strong,

so it did not gain a permanent following in India.

Religion & Culture: Science• Indian science was influenced by the Greeks after the

conquest of Alex the Great. • Inoculation against smallpox. • Sterilization of wounds in hospitals. • Many medical findings reached the Western world only in

modern times. • We use the Indian numbering system today, although we

call it Arabic b/c Europeans imported it secondhand from the Arabs.

• Developed concept of zero and decimal syst, negative numbers, square roots and sine. Computed pi more accurately than the Greeks.

Econ & Society• Justice syst influenced by caste. A brahman who

killed a servant faced penalties than if he had killed an animal.

• Dominance of husbands and fathers was strong, and women’s right were limited.

• Women could only advance spiritually if reborn as a man.

• System of arranged marriage and dowries. • Merchants had high caste status and traveled

widely, over the subcontinent and into the Mid East and east Asia.

Econ & Society• Caravan trade w/ China developed. India

dominated trade over the Silk Road, beyond the Himalayas.

• The Indian Ocean, dominated by Indian merchants, was the most active linkage point among cultures (Mediterranean was a close second).

• No previous civ in southeast Asia could compete with India.

International Trade Routes during the Guptas

Extensive Trade:4c

spices

spices

gold &

ivorygold & ivory

rice & wheathorses

cotton goo

ds

cotton goo

dssilks

India vs China: Differences

• Restraint of Chinese art and poetry vs dynamic sensual styles of India.

• Strong bureaucracy in China vs. decentralized govt in India

• Dominant religion in India vs. religious diversity in China.

• Social mobility in China vs. fixed caste syst in India.

• High status of merchants in India vs. low statues in China.

• Extensive trade and openness in India vs. isolation in China.

India vs China: Similarities

• Both agricultural societies with large peasant class.

• Both patriarchal. • Classical traditions in both societies

endure to the present.

Works cited

• Adas, M., Gilbert, M.J., Schwartz, S.B., & Stearns, P.N. (2007). World civilizations: The global experience. (5th ed.). New York: Pearson Education.

• Images from Susan M. PojerHorace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY, http://www.pptpalooza.net/.