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