New Empires in India
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India’s first Empires Maurya ( 322- 232 BCE) Gupta (320-467 CE)
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Transcript of New Empires in India
India’s first EmpiresMaurya ( 322- 232 BCE)
Gupta (320-467 CE)
The strong village culture based on caste, and local rajas made political unity difficult and even irrelevant in India.
Macedonian conquests in the Indus Valley spread Hellenistic Culture to India.
Persian then Macedonian rule helped unify India.
The Magadha Kingdom formed alliances against the invaders.
In 322 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya (CHUN•druh•GUP•tuh MAH•oor•yuh) defeats Seleucus.
The Maurya Empire 322- 232 BCE)
By 321 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya defeats the rajas in eastern and northern India, unifying India for the first time.
The Maurya Empire
The Maurya Empire
He establishes the capital at Pataliputra in the northern Ganges Valley.
Pataliputra
The city had a moat, walls, and 570 watchtowers.
ancient Pataliputra india
Pataliputra
Gold and Silver columns decorated the palace hall.
Pataliputra
Trade flourished merchants exported elephants, silk, spices, cotton and perfume to China.
Pataliputra
The Greek ambassador Megasthenes said it was more splendid than any city of the Seleucid Empire
Chandragupta Maurya
He used the Persian bureaucracy, dividing India into provinces, each governed by one of his relatives.
Chandragupta Maurya
Farmers had to pay 50 percent tax, which supported his army and public works.
Chandragupta Maurya He created a standing army of 500,000.
Chandragupta Maurya
His chief minister Kautilaya wrote the Arthashastra.
Chandragupta Maurya
A book on political realism, advising rulers to get power by any means as long as the ruler pleases his people. (like Machiavelli’s the Prince or Sun Zi’s Art of War).
Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta had many spies reporting on officials.
Chandragupta Maurya
He feared assassination and always had his food tasted and never slept in the same room 2 nights in a row.
Chandragupta Maurya
He abdicated the throne and become a Janis monk. He led such an ascetic life that he starved himself to death
The Maurya Empire
His secular rule greatly reduced the power of the Brahmans.
From 268-232 BCE, Chandragupta’s grandson, Asoka expanded the Empire.
He is considered the greatest ruler of India.
The Maurya Empire
Asoka (304 – 232 BCE)Asoka (304 – 232 BCE) He converts to Buddhism
after the gruesome battle of Kalinoa in 262 BCE.
Dedicated his life to Buddhism.
Built extensive roads.
Conflict how to balance Kautilya’s methods of keeping power and Buddha’s demands to become a selfless person?
Asoka’s
Empire
Asoka’s
Empire
He built hospitals for people and animals, roads with trees and shelters to shade travelers.
Asoka
He issued laws against violence and practiced religious toleration.
Asoka
He carved the laws into pillars placed in the center of towns.
Asoka
Some of the Pillars of Asoka
Sanskrit Language
Asoka
Merchants quickly converted to Buddhism. Trade grew as India became the major crossroads in the commercial network going from the Pacific to the Mediterranean.
Asoka
Asoka spread Buddhism and built temples all over South and Central Asia.
A stupa is a mound-like structure with Buddhist relics, used as a place of meditation.
Title: Great Stupa, Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India
Artist: n/a
Date: Erected 3rd century BCE; enlarged c. 150-50 BCE
Source/ Museum: n/a
Medium:
Size: height 3 1/3" (8.5 cm)
Title: Yakshi bracket figure, detail from great Stupa, Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India
Artist: n/a
Date: n/a
Source/ Museum: n/a
Medium: n/a
Size: n/a
Vihara is a Buddhist monastery.
Vihara is a Buddhist monastery.
Vihara is a Buddhist monastery
Sangharama is a free standing temple and monastery including its gardens.
Asoka
After the death of Asoka died the empire degraded into many small warring states.
Bactrian Greeks
In the second century BCE, King Demetrius set up a Hellenistic kingdom.
Bactrian Greeks
Indian scholars studied Hellenistic medicine and astronomy.
The Kushan Kingdomand the Silk Road
In the first century CE, nomadic warriors established the new Kushan kingdom (Afganistan).
The Kushan Kingdomand the Silk Road
Mostlikely, not Indoeuropean, rather Yuezhi from the arid grasslands in modern-day Xinjiang. By the 1st Century, they took over Bactria (Afganistan).
The Kushan Kingdomand the Silk Road
The Kushans prospered from the trade that passed through their land on its way between the Roman and Chinese Empires .
The Kushan Kingdom and the Silk Road
The Silk Road reached from the city of Changan in China across central Asia to Mesopotamia, about 6,436 km.
The Kushan Kingdomand the Silk Road
People and camels transported luxury goods through mountains and deserts, winding up at Antioch in Syria.
The Kushan Kingdomand the Silk Road
Chinese merchants made large fortunes trading luxury goods, such as silk, spices, teas, and porcelain.
The Kushan Kingdomand the Silk Road
Indian merchants sent ivory, textiles, precious stones, and pepper.
The Kushan Kingdomand the Silk Road
The Romans desired silk and considered it worth its weight in gold.
The Kushan Kingdom
The Buddhist Kushans hired Hellenistic sculptors and artists. They developed the Gandaran school of sculpture.
Title: Standing Buddha, from Gandhara (Pakistan)
Artist: n/a
Date: Kushan period, c. 2nd-3rd century CE
Source/ Museum: Lahore Museum, Lahore
Medium: Schist
Size: height 7'6" (2.28 m)
Title: Buddha and Attendants, from Katra Keshavdev, Mathura, Madhya Pradesh, India
Artist: n/a
Date: Kushan period,c. late 1st-early 2nd century CE.
Source/ Museum: Government Museum, Mathura
Medium: Red Sandstone
Size: height 271/4" (69.2cm)
The Kushan Kingdom
They held a great council of Buddhist monks to regulate Buddhism, creating Mahayana Buddhism.
The Kushan Kingdom
By 250 CE, the Sassanid Persians (224 – 651) conquered the Kushan kingdom.
Gupta Empire: 320 – 467 CEGupta Empire: 320 – 467 CE
The Gupta Empire considered the Golden Age of Indian culture.
Gupta Empire: 320 – 467 CEGupta Empire: 320 – 467 CE
Gupta RulersGupta 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.
Fa-Hsien: Life in Gupta IndiaFa-Hsien: Life in Gupta India
In the 5c, Chinese Buddhist monk traveled along the Silk Road and visited India.
He followed the path of the Buddha.
He reported the people to be happy, relatively free, polite and generous.
Commented on the "untouchability," doomed to menial labor.
Chandra Gupta II
Chandra Gupta II
International Trade Routes during the Guptas
International Trade Routes during the Guptas
Extensive Trade:4c
Extensive Trade:4c
spices
spices
gold &
ivory
gold & ivory
rice & wheathorses
cotton goods
cotton goodssilks
Achievement in the Gupta Empire
Universities Literature Painting Sculpture Metalwork Mathematics Roads
Universities
Time of great learning No women were allowed to attend, except for the daughter’s of
teachers Upper Castes only
Nalanda University
Buddhist school. Eight colleges Three libraries Hospital Monastery Courses in Buddhist
and Hindu philosophy
Gupta Arts, Science and Technology
Caraka a great doctor developed a code of ethics for doctors
Health care free
Gupta Arts, Science and Technology
Advance in iron making.Medical advances and tools
like scalpels.Plastic surgery
Gupta Arts, Science and Technology
Indian numbers latter borrowed by Arabs are what we use today along with the zero.
0123456789
Gupta Arts, Science and Technology
In 628 AD, Brahmagupta solved quadratic equations.
Ax2 +Bx=C
Literature
Writers wrote poetry, fables, and folktales, and plays.
Many focuses on Hindu law and religion
The Puranas (“Ancient Lore”)
Described many Hindu legends, which had been passed down orally.
The Mahabharata (“Great Work”)
Themes relate to Hindu values of good versus evil.
The Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita is the most famous book.
The Bhagavad Gita
The warrior Arjuna struggles with the problem of battle against his family.
Bhagavad Gita
Krishna (Vishnu) tells him to obey the warrior code, emphasizing the duty to one’s caste.
Gupta Literature Spread
Beyond India to Greece and Persia.
Gupta folktales inspired the Arabian story of Aladdin and the lamp.
KalidasaKalidasa
The greatest of Indian poets, most famous play Shakuntala.
Kalidasa wrote stories in which humans wrestled with imperfection and fate, the opposite of Greek tragedies. Romantic works with happy endings.
Gupta
Art
Gupta
Art
Greatly influenced Southeast Asian art &
architecture.
Gupta Architecture
The stupa became elaborate often with scenes of Buddah’s life. Style spread to Buram and Thailand.
Gupta Architecture
The rock cut temples carved into solid cliffs.
Gupta Architecture
Principle chamber was the Chaitya.Ajanta 29 chambers
Title: Cave-Temple of Shiva. View along the east-west axis to the Shiva shrine. Elephanta, Maharashtra, India
Artist: n/a
Date: Mid- 6th century CE
Source/ Museum: n/a
Medium: n/a
Size: n/a
Ellora 34 chambers
Ellora 34 chambers
Ellora 34 chambers
Gupta Architecture
Portray world of universe of Hindus Buddhists and Jains.
Gupta Architecture
Free standing temples hug the ground, rather than go to sky Hindu belief that divinity related to earth.
Title: Buddhist Temple of Borobudur
Artist: n/a
Date: Sailendra dynasty, 835-60 CE
Source/ Museum: Java, Indonesia
Medium: Lava stone
Size: perimeter of lowest gallery 1,180', diameter of crowning stupa 52'
Gupta Architecture
Best examples outside India, like Ankor Wat Cambodia.
Dedicated to Vishnu, the Khmer Empire of Cambodia built this temple in the 12th C.
Sculpture
The Gupta period developed a wholly Indian sculpture.
Title: Eternal Shiva
Artist: n/a
Date: Mid-6th century CE
Source/ Museum: n/a
Medium: rock-cut relief in the Cave-Temple of Shiva at Elephanta
Size: Height approx. 11" (3.4 m)
Painting made great advances in the Gupta period.
. The most famous painting in the caves of Ajanta
Title: Bodhisattva, detail of a wall painting in Cave I, Ajanta, Maharashtra, India
Artist: n/a
Date: Gupta period, c. 475 CE
Source/ Museum: n/a
Medium: n/a
Size: n/a
Hindu reform and comeback
Buddhism weakened as merchants lost money as international trade crashes when both Rome and Han China collapse.
Hindu reform and comeback
Buddhist monks stayed in monasteries isolated from urban and village life.
Hindu reform and comeback
The Brahman class made a comeback.Hindu leaders built shrines for all castes and
women, stressing individual worship.
Hindu Society
Brahms became gurus again.
Men progress four stages student, provider, hermit and holy man.
Buddha becomes one of the many Hindu Gods
Hindu reform and comeback
Castes became more complex with additional sub castes.
Buddhism absorbed by Hinduism.
White Huns 480-500 CE
The kingdom of the Guptas ended with the invasion of the Huns.
White Huns 480-500 CE
India breaks down into 70 warring Hindu
states.
Peaceful contacts between Muslims and India by the 7th and 8th Centuries.
These turned into military invasions during the 11th Century led by the Turkish Muslim Mahmud of Ghazani (971-1030).
Nicknamed the “Sword of Islam”, Mahmud led 17 plundering and slaughtering invasions and soon controlled the Indus Valley (Pakistan today).
The Indus Valley Muslim promise of equality led to many Hindus converting to Islam.
By 1200 CE, the Muslim Sultanate of Delhi had conquered all of India.
The Muslim rulers in India viewed themselves as conquerors. They maintain a strict separation between the Muslim ruling class and the Hindu population.
Muslims destroyed many Hindu temples and massacred thousands of Hindus.
Many Hindus considered Muslims another higher caste, others as barbarian invaders.
While they became more tolerate, the conflict between Muslims and Hindu lasts until this day.
1526–1857 Mughal Empire Islamic decedents of Genghis Khan
British East India Company 1700’s1857 British Crown Annexes India1900 on many independence movements1920 Gandhi1947 India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim)
gains independence, when the USA forces England to give up colonies after WW II
Indian Classical Tradition
Classical characteristics of India can be found in the village rather than in the polis as in Greece, provincial rule in Persia or empire as in Rome.
The caste is the social fabric of India fundamental to Hinduism.
In the contest between trade that nourished Buddhism and agriculture of Hinduism, farming won. Buddhism found a home elsewhere.
Hw pg 86 1-6pg 104 1-6 20
The Kushan Kingdomand the Silk Road
In the first century CE, nomadic warriors seized power and established the new Kushan kingdom (Afganistan).
For the next two centuries, the Kushans spread over northern India as far as the central Ganges Valley.
Soon after Asoka died, however, his empire collapsed.
Around 320 AD, Chandra Gupta I came to power in the north. He was not related to the first emperor Chandragupta Maurya of the Maurya Empire , but he too took the title of king and began to conquer other areas in the name of the Gupta Empire.
The Gupta Golden Age
Added western coast to empire
religion scienceFlourishing of arts
Medicine Literature
MathematicsAstronomy
Printedmedicinal
guides
1000 diseasesclassified
PlasticSurgery
C-sectionsperforme
d
Inoculations
500 healingplants
identified
DecimalSystem
Conceptof Zero
PI = 3.1416
Kalidasa
SolarCalendar
The earth
is round
GuptaIndia
Gupta Achievemen
ts
Gupta Achievemen
ts
The Kingdom of the Guptas
In 320, a new state was created in the central Ganges Valley by a local prince named Chandra Gupta I .
He rebuilt the capital at Pataliputra
The Kingdom of the Guptas
Under a series of efficient monarchs—especially Chandra Gupta II, who reigned from 375 to 415—the Gupta Empire created a new age of Indian civilization.
The Kingdom of the Guptas
Chinese traveler, Faxian (FAY•SYEN), who spent several
years there in the fifth century. Faxian, a Buddhist
monk, admired the Gupta rulers, their tolerance of
Buddhism, and the prosperity of the country
Medicine Literature
MathematicsAstronomy
Printedmedicinal
guides
1000 diseasesclassified
PlasticSurgery
C-sectionsperforme
d
Inoculations
500 healingplants
identified
DecimalSystem
Conceptof Zero
PI = 3.1416
Kalidasa
SolarCalendar
The earth
is round
GuptaIndia
Gupta Achieveme
nts
Gupta Achieveme
nts
BhartrhariBhartrhari
5c India court poet and philosopher.Knowledge is man's crowning mark,A treasure secretly buried,The source of luxury, fame, and bliss,A guru most venerable,A friend on foreign journeys,The pinnacle of divinity.Knowledge is valued by kings beyond wealth---When he lacks it, a man is a brute.
