THE INDIAN EMPIRE AFTER THE INDUS VALLEY

INDIA

Indian history, is more than just a set of unique developments in a definable process; it is, in many ways, a microcosm of human history itself, a diversity of cultures all impinging on a great people and being reformed into new, syncretic forms.

UNIQUE INDIA

The most striking element of Indian geography is the natural barrier formed by the mountain ranges in the north of India. For India is a continental plate that is crashing into the Asian continental plate. As it does, both continental plates push up the earth where they meet into a forbidding range of mountains. The central mountain range, passing across in the shape of a sword near the northern edge of the Indian subcontinent, is the Great Himalayas. These northern mountains, which are less of a barrier in the west, have naturally isolated India from its neighbors.

   All along the southern edge of this great mountain wall are rich soils that are generously rained on; even though this region lies in the temperate zone, it is lush and subtropical. To the south are the extensive flood plains of the Indus River in the west and the Ganges in the east. With rich soil renewed every year by river flooding and with generous summer rains, these plains in the north are among the richest agricultural areas in the world. It was here that Indian civilization first arose, in the fertile flood plains adjoining the Indus River. This vast stretch of flood plain has been the home of the great Indian empires as well, the Mauryans and the Guptas.

   The southern portion of India is a large peninsula with a forbidding mountain range all along the western coast and a large flat plateau called the Deccan in the center of the sub-continent. The eastern coast is flat land and affords many opportunities for harbors; from this area Indian culture had the widest contacts with foreign peoples.

GEOGRAPHY

India is one of the most culturally, linguistically, and ethnically diverse regions one can imagine. Four major peoples, distinguished by the languages they speak, make up the population of the region.

Each of these peoples speak a bewildering variety of languages; each region of India is dominated by a single language. The major languages, most of which are Indo-European, are:

Hindi Urdu (which is very closely related to Hindi but uses Arabic script) Bengali Marathi Assamese Sindhi Oriya Punjabi Kashmiri Nepali Telugu (Dravidian) Tamil (Dravidian) Kannada (Dravidian) Malayalam (Dravidian) Wow. Despite this variety of languages, Indian culture is remarkably fluid and

the contacts between peoples frequent and productive. Very few cultures are so tied into the overall geography of their region; Hinduism requires frequent pilgrimages as part of one's spiritual perfection, so the intercourse between different peoples has been constant throughout Indian history.

CULTURE

He was an adventurer rather than a king. Like Alexander, he began with almost no army whatsoever; with this army he seized the region of Magadha just south of the lower Ganges and then steadily conquered the whole of the Ganges basin. Chandragupta Maurya had started his empire. When Alexander the Great departed from Gandhara, a power vacuum was left in western India which Maurya took advantage of. Marching westward, he quickly conquered the whole of the Indus Valley, and eventually gained Gandhara and Arachosia (the mountainous region west of the Indus) after defeating the Greek rulers of Persia and Bactria, the Seleucids.

   Hand in hand with this ambitious conqueror was a shrewd and calculating Brahman named Kautilya. While Chadragupta Maurya built his empire by the force of his arm, Kautilya designed the government. Together they created the first unified state in Indian history. The government Kautilya and Chandragupta created strictly regulated economic activities. The laws were harsh and the death penalty was applied to a myriad of offenses.

Chandragupta Maurya (321-297 BC)

Chandragupta's son Bindusara extended the conquests even further by setting his sights south to the Deccan. By the end of Bindusara's reign, the Mauryan Empire included at least a third of the peninsula and stretched all the way from Bangladesh to the Hindu Kush mountains.

Bindusara (297-272 BC)

He seems to have been forged from the same mold as his illustrious fathers. Once he rose to the throne, he began an aggressive campaign to conquer the remainder of the subcontinent. The last major regions yet to be conquered were the Dravidian regions in the far south and the Kalinga in North India.

   The conquest of Kalinga, which extended Mauryan rule to its farthest boundaries, seems to have been a tremendous shock to Asoka. War and conquest are always bloody and cruel, and the experience of massive homicide is often an experience that shakes people to their very souls. Asoka was so troubled by the conquest that he underwent a religious conversion. In the latter years of the Brahmanic period, several religious movements arose in reaction to the power and abuse of power by the Brahmans. The most significant of these religious reactions was Buddhism, which is discussed in more detail in the chapters on the religious history of ancient India. Buddhism was really much less of a religion and more of a philosophy--or, better yet, a philosophical therapy. Its founder, Siddhartha Guatama, the "Buddha," or "Awakened One," was the son of a noble who, when he first encountered death and sickness, resolved to find a way to end human suffering. After years of struggle and meditation, he "awakened" to the truth of things: that all human suffering is caused by human desire and that human desire can be quenched when one understands the impermanence of all things, including the self. Unlike Brahmanism, Buddhism eschews elaborate rituals and magic; unlike the Rig Veda, Buddhism advocates a non-striving, non-coercive and meditative life.

Asoka (272-232)

The Buddhist way of life was a way out of Asoka's crisis. He converted to Buddhism and strove to achieve the Buddhist "middle way" between extremes. He became a vegetarian, renounced all warfare, and attempted to build a state based on Buddhist principles. First and foremost, the state would strive for nonviolence, or ahimsa; in place of violence, the state would rule by "law" or "right" (dharma).

   Asoka, of course, could not put all of these reforms into practice. He found that some level of violence and retribution was necessary and declared as much. Although he made the laws less harsh, they still involved physical punishment and, in some cases, execution. Still, Asoka began a process of transformation in Indian society. He represented first and foremost the possibility of exemplifying religious idealism in a lived life rather than in a merely formal position. Although he took the vows of Buddhism and even joined the order, he chose to remain active in the real world and exemplify his religion in his actions as king. He also demanded religious toleration; under Asoka, all competing religious systems were allowed to co-exist peacefully. The stunning ability of Indian culture to tolerate competing religions throughout its history begins with Asoka. Finally, although he could never really fully translate Buddhist ideals into government, he began a process of cultural transformation that would completely remake India. By the start of the Gupta dynasty, the bulk of Indian society had become vegetarian and no laws carried the death penalty.

ASOKA – BUDDHIST CONVERSION

THE SPREAD OF BUDDHISM.

ASOKA’S GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT

INDIA MOVES TOWARD MONOTHEISM

THREE MAJOR RELIGION CHOICES:BUDDHISIMHINDUISMJANISM

RELIGION IN INDIA

THE CORE OF BUDDHISM CHANGES TO A MASS RELIGION THAT OFFERS SALVATION TO ALL AND ALLOWS POPULAR WORSHIP. THIS DIVIDED BUDDHISTS OVER THE NEW DOCTRINE.MAHAYANA- ACCEPTED THE NEW

DOCTRINE.THERAVADA- FOLLOWED THE

ORIGINAL TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM

BUDDHISM

THIS NEW THOUGHT AFFECTED AND INSPIRED INDIAN ART, CULTURE, AND LITERATURE.

NEW BUDDHIST

VISHNA- PRESERVER OF THE WORLD

SHIVA- DESTROYER OF THE WORLD

BRAHMA- CREATOR OF THE WORLD

THREE NEW GODS

BRAHMA

SHIVA

VISHNA

BUDDAH

HIGH PRODUCTION OF LITERATURE

2000 TAMIL POEMS STILL EXIST

WRITING ACADAMIES SPRANG UP

DRAMAS WERE POPULAR

INDIAN CULTURE

ASTRONOMYMATHEMATICSMEDICINETHESE AREAS OF THOUGHT ALL PROGRESSED IN THE INDIAN EMPIRES.

SCIENCES

TRADE BROUGHT ABOUT ADVANCEMENT IN THOUGHT.

INVENTED NEW CALENDAR.1000yrs. BEFORE COLUMBUS, SUGGESTED

THAT THE WORLD WAS ROUND.

MATHEMATICS- CAME UP WITH MODERN NUMERALS, CONCEPT OF ZERO, THE DECIMAL SYSTEM, AND CALCULATED THE SOLAR YEAR TO 365.3586805 (AS CLOSE AS MODERN DAY CALCULATORS DO).

RESULTS OF TRADE

INDIA GAVE THE WORLD: SPICES, SAPPHIRES, GOLD,WOOD (EBONY, TEAK, AND FRAGRANT SANDALWOOD),

INDIA WAS STRATEGICALY PLACED BETWEEN CHINA, GREECE AND ROME.

TRADE

INDIA BOUGHT GOODS FROM THE EAST AND THE WEST AND SOLD IT FOR A PROFIT.

TRADE INVENTED THE MIDDLEMAN

SEA TRADE INCREASEDLED TO AN INCREASE IN BANKING – LOANS WITH INTEREST

BROUGHT NEW RELIGIONSBROUGHT NEW THOUGHT AND IDEAS

IT SPREAD INDIAN RELIGION AND CULTURE TO THE REST OF THE WORLD

RESULTS OF TRADE

A VAST VARIETY OF ETHNIC AND LINGUISTIC GROUPS, POLITICAL FRAGMENTATION, ELABORATE HIERARCHY OF SOCIAL GROUPS, AND THE MANY DEITIES AND RELIGIONS THAT DOTTED THE LANDSCAPE.

ANALYSIS

INDIA’S TOPOGRAPHY

INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

HIGH LEVEL OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND TECHNOLOGY

VEDAS- RELIGIOUS TEXT OF THIS PERIOD

VEDIC AGE 1500 – 500 B.C.E.

BRAMIN- PRIESTS AND SCHOLARS

KSHATRIYA- WARRIORS AND OFFICIALS

VAISHA- MERCHANTS, ARTISANS, AND LANDOWNERS

SHUDRA- PEASANTS AND LABORERS

VARNA – CLASS

ELABORATE RULES THAT GOVERNED THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN GROUPS.

JATI- BIRTH GROUPS OR CASTES

THE INDIVIDUAL PURSUIT INTO THE NATURE OF ONE’S SELF AND THE UNIVERSISE THROUGH PHYSICAL AND MENTAL DISCIPLINE (YOGA). SPECIAL DIETARY PRACTICES AND MEDITATION. THIS RELEASED ONE FROM THE CYCLE OF REINCARNATIONS AND UNION WITH THE DIVINE FORCE THAT ANIMATES THE UNIVERSE SOMETIMES WAS LIKENED TO “A DEEP, DREAMLESS SLEEP”

MOKSHA

CULTURE

INDIAN EMPIRES CAME AND WENTPOLITICAL COHESION DID NOT EXISTTHE BELIEFS OF BUDDHISM, JANISM,

AND HINDUISM RIVALS WHAT EMPIRES DO; ACQUIRE TERRITORY THROUGH WAR. THESE RELIGIONS FOSTERED NONVIOLENCE, AND TO BE HAPPY WITH YOUR LOT IN LIFE.

EMPIRE