Ancient India Outline
- * todo
Maurya Empire
- 321 BC - 185 BC
- Origins:
- Ganges Valley
- conquered the northern fertile cresent
- conquered much of the Deccan Plateau
- beginnings in rival rajah kings fighting for control
- Chandragupta Maurya arises 321 BC
- capital: Pataliputra (city)
- described by the Greek ambassador Megasthenes havintg schools, libraries, rich palaces and temples
- legitimacy of rule
- doing good: “The king’s good is not that which pleases him, but that which pleases his subjects” (Hindu teachings on the ruler’s duties)
- maintain peace
- enforce laws
- resist invadors
- economic growth
- Governance
- well-organized bureacracy
- built roads, canals, harbors (trade)
- collected taxes
- state-owned shipyards and factories
- courts
- harsh rule
- secret police, suppressed dissent (vocab)
- woman warriors to guard his palace
- doing good: “The king’s good is not that which pleases him, but that which pleases his subjects” (Hindu teachings on the ruler’s duties)
- Other rulers
- grandson: Asoka (268bc)
- conquered the Deccan Plateau (Kalinga region)
- slaughtered 100,000
- then converted to Bhuddism and rejected violence, became vegitarian
- stopped Hindu animal sacrifices
- preached tolerance for all religions
- Set up Pillars across India to annouce laws and promise righteous government -- and Buddhism (propaganda) ... spoke of his people as his children
- public works: built hospitals and roads, planted trees along the roads to help travelers rest
- grandson: Asoka (268bc)
- Mauyra decline
- after Asoka’s death
- disunity
- rival princes battled in northern plain
- migrant warriors pushed from over the mountains into northern plain
- after Asoka’s death
Kingdoms of the Deccan
>> todo and to sort out the below:
Empire Deccan Plateau Tamil kingdom (south) >>see map on p. 83
Origins: Dravidians Beginnings conquered by Mauryas Location/Capital: Ajanta Characteristics women had high status: perhaps derived from Indus Valley peoples? had women rulers, equality, tolerated religions & foreigners - Distinct language from Aryans/Guptas >>adopted sanskrit >>literature
Tamil Kingdoms - Trade >> port cities - spices, textiles, luxuries... sold to Romans also traded with China - Tolerated other religions: Hindu, Buddhist...
Golden Age of the Gupta
320-550 AD 500 yrs after the Mauryas... united most of India... under regional kingdoms
“golden age” - loose-central rule
... as described by the Chinese observer, Faxian:
only royal farm lands taxed govern w/o corporal punishment... just fines, sometimes heavy - trade flourished wheat, rice, sugar cane - built a university at Nalanda... attracted students from Asia... math, medicine, physics, literature, languages, etc. accomplishments:
- decimal system (“arabic numbers” - medicine... setting bones, surgery, vaccinating vs. smallpox - temples... cosmic patterns... circle = eternity - buddhist shrines “stupas” ... - paintings / carvings
>>religious based paintings at Ajanta ... cave temples in western India... Buddhist murals and stories in paintings
- literature ...
Kalidasa, poet... wrote “Shakuntala... king forgets bride under spell, reocvers memoryr..etc.
Decline: attacks from the Huns from the North
Caste System
>> todo
- under Guptas: castes and subcastes - new occupations and religions - into modern times: 100s major castes/ 1,000s of subcastes - castes: - governed where you lived, what you ate, how to dress, work and earnings - no marrying outside of your caste - high-caste: strict rules to keep lower castes from “polluting” ... “impure” lower castes
>> “untouchables” ... harshest jobs ... lived apart... sounded clappers to warn of their approach
Castes = stability / harmony law of karma set one’s caste.... could reach a higher caste next time around... >>caste = identity, interdependence... cooperation, according to one’s role ... cultural diffusion: migrants>> assimilated into the caste system
Family life: “joint family” = extended family in one home... several generations, uncles, cousins .. patriarchal... but property belonged to the whole family, not just the father/ patriarch
duty: dharma - children - women - family duty first - honored family ancestors - arranged marriages
Gender: Aryans: women enjoyed higher status Guptas: upper class womin had status late Guptas: upper class women more constrained ... covered themselves in public ... “shakti” -- “creative energy” that men lacked... brought the “shatki” to the husband to make him complete... also a destructive force >> see Shiva’s wife, creator / destroyer... good/bad >husband’s duty = channel wife’s shakti to good purpose
>> for womins: devotion to husband led to higher rebirth
widows: forbidden to remarry - burned the widow w/ the husband = “sati” = virtuous woman ... noble death to wipe out sins of her and her husband “However, other women bitterly resisted the custom.”
Village Life - “heart of life” in India ... earth/stone clusters... divided by type fo crops... wheat, rices, cottong, sugar cane... .. different castes for different tasks.. . herders, farmers, carptenters, metalworkers... to lowest: leather workers, sweepers
farming depended on monsoons... too much or too little h20 villages independent... lown governemnt... paid taxes to to upper goverm but otherwise little interference... run by “headman” and “counsil” ... early times had womins, later no... .>> irrrigation, roads, temples
civ model todo
Civilization: KINGDOMS OF THE GANGES Ganges: central India
- Population
Aryans: Indo-European came down from Asia... into Indus then Ganges warlike, herders, (cattle)... later farmers Dravidians: conquered by the Aryans (possibly Indus peoples)
- Goegraphy/ Climate
>>isolated by mountains & ocean Ganges: river, mts/ snows, ocean India: 3 zones: a) Northern (fertile, watered) w/ rivers; b) Deccan Plateau: dry, unproductive; c) Coastal Plains: isolated by mts and Deccan Plat and oceans... seasonal rains, fishing, trade routes Rivers: Indus, Ganges & Brahmaputra Winter monsoons: hot air Summer monsoons: wet, heavy rains– floods >>JUNGLES
- Natural Resources
Water, soil minerals in the mountains jungles (>> cultural influences: tigers, monkeys, elephants, etc.)
- Features of Civilization
not-centralized walled cities, independent multi-storied houses (later) not centralized no written laws >> oral tradition Rajahs: warrior chiefs Rama: the ideal king ( from the Mahabharata) tribes led by local Rajahs by 500 bc: rival kingdoms
>>basis for Hindu religion (Aryan) - polytheistic - chief god: Indra, god of war... also, sky, sun storm, fire gods - animism: honored monkey and snake gods >> Mahabharata (epic poem) immortality -immortality of the soul and the importance of duty - Brahmin: single spiritual power residing in all things -Aryan religions turn into Bhuddism & Hinduism yes Brahmins: priests – sole possession of “ceremonies to win the favor of the gods” (p. 55) Kshatriyas: warriors (lost prestige to Brahmins) Vaisyas (vis yuhz): herders, farmers, merchants Sudras: lowest caste >>see p.57 for “social organization” early Aryan: no buildings, nomads, herders - later: walled cities Yes no writing system for 1000 years (1900-900??) -- long oral tradition Sanskrit: combination of Aryan and Dravidian traditions.. approx. 500 bc -epic poem: Mahabharata, Ramayana.. mix of religion, history, myth and adventure -Mahabharata: epic poem (like Gilgemesh)... 100,000 verses...5bros, 18 day battle... immortality discussed in “Bhagavad-Gita” - Ramayana: shorter poem... hero = Rama...and bride, Sita, captured by demon king, Ravana... Rama rescues her with help from a monkey general...1,000 yrs old... evolved bows/ arrows, chariots, horses animal skins for clothes water navigation, mtn navigation by 800 bc: iron (after settling in Ganges) walled cities, independent (multi-storied houses) value/ wealth: in bulls and cows
>>Aryans migrated from Eurasia... conquered the Indus peoples >>languages: see p. 58 warrior people Aryan word for war means “a desire for more cows”
- Religion
>> todo
Hinduism Aryans added the Indus Valley/ Dravidian gods “overlapping beliefs of the various settlers of India” No founder, no
no single one
origins in the Vedas, in the Mahabharata, Ramayana
Upanishads ... collection of religious teachings on the nature of the universe... complex, human soul, connectedness of life... story of the fig tree seed... break it up... see the tree in the seed? ..”the essence is the soul of all that is”
Bhagavad-Gita: teaches ethical ideas... god Krishna tells Prince Arjuna.. duty over personal desires and ambitions >> see painting p. 77
many gods/ one god “God is one, but wise people know it by many names”
>> seek the brahman thru various gods
Brahma: the Creator
Vishnu: the Preserver
Shiva: the Destroyer
... come in many forms, animals, humans..
Skakti = Shiva’s wife, kind and cruel, creator and destroyer
the wheel (circle of fire: p. 76): endless cycle of life, death and rebirth...
- to answer the question of the meaning of life
- connectedness of life
- unchanging, all-powerful spiritual force” the brahman
atman... “the essential self” (similar to brahman) moksha: ... ultimate goal of existence... to achieve union with brahman (free of earthly, selfish desires) reincarnation: rebirth of the soul... to seek moksha over lifetimes
Karma: law... one’s actions affect one’s fate in the next life Ranking of life forms: humans, then animals, plants, rocks, water, so on
good karma: advance towards the brahman, bad karma: reborn into suffering
Dharma: religious and moral duties... fixed accordnig to class, job, sex, or age... obey it and get “merits” for next life... “to escape the wheel of fate”
>>caste system reinforced by Karma and Dharma
ahimsa: nonviolence... all people and things are part of the brahmin...
Mahavira 500bc... founded Jainism... rejected that only Brahmin priests could perform sacred rites... opposed brahmins
emphasized meditation, self-denial (as an extreme form of ahimsa)... avoided killing even insects...sweep the ground before them
Guatama Buddha