gupta india
TRANSCRIPT
MAURYAN EMPIRE UNIFIES INDIA
• Founder: Chandragupta Maurya (250 BC)
• Complex government with spies & a huge army
• His army had thousands of war elephants and chariots
• Farmer paid heavy taxes to be protected by the army
• 301 BC, Chandragupta decided to become a Jainist monk; giving up his throne to his son who expanded the empire
ASOKA• 270 BC- Chandragupta’s grandson Asoka becomes king
• He is the strongest of all Mauryan rulers; conquering other kingdoms and expanding to include most of India
• He watched many bloody battles until he converted to Buddhism• After this he vowed to never launch any more wars for
conquest
• He then devoted his time and money to improving the lives of his people through public works: wells, rest houses, roads, planted shade trees, ect
• He encouraged the spread of Buddhism through India and Asia by sending missionaries
• He died in 233 BC- his sons fought each other leaving India divided into smaller states
GUPTA DYNASTY• For 500 years Buddhism prospered
and spread throughout India as it was divided into separate states
• The Gupta Dynasty took over India around 320 AD, uniting India once again
• They were Hindu rulers, building many Hindu temples throughout India
• Chandra Gupta I (picture)
• They promoted the revival of Hindu writing and worship rituals, supported religious ideas of the Buddhism and Jainism, built Buddhist temples, and built a university in Nalanda that focused on Buddhist studies
• The Guptas remained in control until the late 400s when the Huns conquered India
YOUR TURN•Create a graphic organizer of The Four Varnas
•Give an example of two occupations for each of the castes
•Explain why a person would be considered “untouchable” or without a caste?
ACHIEVEMENTSSculptures:
• Hinduism & Buddhism influences artist in creating statues of Buddha and the many gods associated with Hinduism
• They made statues of kings
• Impressive carvings were made in the walls of temples and important homes and buildings
ACHIEVEMENTSSanskrit Literature:
• Religious epics- long poems about struggles and triumphs of heroes and Gods
• Plays and poetry
• Panchatantra: a book of stories meant to teach lessons; each story ends with a moral
“The good and the bad of given schemes
Wise thought must first reveal:
The stupid heron saw his chicks
Provide a mongoose meal” –Panchatantra story
ACHIEVEMENTSMedicine:
• Cure people with medicines
• They also protected people against disease with inoculation: injecting a person with a small dose of a virus to help him or her build up defenses to a disease.
• They also wrote textbooks on medical procedures
ACHIEVEMENTSMetallurgy:
• The science of working with metal
• They made high quality tools with these metals
• They knew the process of mixing metals to create alloys• They are stronger and sometimes
easier to work with than pure metals
• During the Gupta dynasty, metal workers built the iron pillar near Delhi that still stands today with no rust-showing the ancient Indian’s advance techniques
ACHIEVEMENTSMath
• Indian mathematicians were some of the most talented in their day
• The very numbers we use today are called Hindu-Arabic numerals –created by these mathematicians
• Created the concept of zero-modern math is not possible without it