1. FROM THE MAURYANS TO THE GUPTAS
CLASSICAL INDIA
FROM THE MAURYANS
TO THE GUPTAS

2. India SS Caste system Tied to religion/reincarnation
The Indian Caste System
Caste system
Tied to religion/reincarnation
Different jobs for each caste
Cool, I’ve been born! What caste am I in?

3. Indian Caste System cont’d
Need to know for AP: name of top caste (brahmin), roles of different levels even if you forget names, existence of untouchables (outside class system)

4. Untouchables
Often given the worst tasks in a city or village (e.g. removing excrement)
Never offered access to education, status
Still expected to play a role (incentive: reincarnation)

5. INDIAN RELIGION
The next few slides are about the religions active in India during the classical era. Some of this is review, some you will need to write a bit more about. Don’t feel you need to write everything!
Brief primers about Hinduism and Buddhism: already in your STING readings for this week

6. India Geography (MAP) How did physical geography influence India?
Rivers
Monsoons
Mountains
Oceans
Latitude
Monsoons in India
The monsoon, or seasonal rainfall, brings enormous amounts of needed water to Indian agriculture. This seasonal drought/flood pattern has become a critical component of west Indian life.

7. India Economy (note) For each product, guess: local, export, both?
Rice
Milk
Sugar
Textiles: Cotton
Textiles: Silk
Art and Jewelry (stone/metal/ivory)
Spices

8. India Trade Government encouraged: Kushans, Guptas
Hugely increased wealth
Trading partners: mostly Rome, Persia, China
Nomads as Middlemen

9. Indian Culture Literature Ramayana Mahabharata
Sanskrit
Ramayana
Duty of the good son: reflects Hindu values
Mahabharata
100,000 stanza poem!
Baghavad Gita (famous portion)
Diversity – many subcultures

10. Indian Technology Math – algebra, zero, decimal point
Astronomy– star charts, round Earth, heliocentrism

11. India Story 1 Before Mauryans, Aryans
First Mauryan ruler: Chandragupta Maurya, 321 BCE

12. India Story 2
Really famous Mauryan leader: Asoka (or Ashoka): Chandragupta’s grandson
Converted to Buddhism, brought much of India along with him
Tolerant, compassionate
Also promoted trade
Often revered, even today

13. Dibs on the eastern half of the kingdom
India Story 3
Asoka dies, Mauryans fall apart: 232 BCE, less than 100 years after Chandragupta comes to power
Get the crown!
Dibs on the eastern half of the kingdom

14. WE ARE KUSHAN RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
India Story 4
WE ARE KUSHAN RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
What happens when your central government collapses, but you still have lots of great roads into your country?
Invasions!

15. India Story 5
I’m bored – let’s invade Afghanistan!
Kushans: 1st century CE, northern India, lots of trade (Silk Road)
Hey, isn’t this map of all Eurasia?
Sure, that’s because India is right in the middle of the action

16. India Story 6 Next dynasty: Guptas
Again, fended off invaders to come to power: 320 CE
Military leaders at first; built up territory further than Mauryans
Power through trade
OH NO WHERE ARE MY ARMS

17. India Story Review

18. India Govt Fragmented, regional power centers
More centralization during Mauryan, Gupta empires but didn’t last
Rich, aristocratic rulers

19. Empire maps You will need your map
Draw: arrows OUTWARD from the START of the dynasty’s territory to NEW AREAS, as it EXPANDS over time

20. India War & expansion
Lots of conflict within India, to acquire territory

21. India War & expansion
Lots of conflict within India, to acquire territory

22. India War & expansion
Lots of conflict within India, to acquire territory

23. India War & expansion
now in C.E., not B.C.E.

24. India War & expansion
now in C.E., not B.C.E.

25. India War & expansion
now in C.E., not B.C.E.

26. POPULAR HINDUISM The epics The Bhagavad Gita Hindu ethics
Mahabharata
A secular poem revised by brahmin scholars
Honored the god Vishnu, the preserver of the world
Ramayana
Secular story of Rama and Sita was changed into a Hindu story
The Bhagavad Gita
A short poetic work within the Mahabharata
A dialogue between the god Vishnu and Prince Arjuna
Illustrated expectations of Hinduism and promise of salvation
Hindu ethics
Lower demands for achieving salvation
Individuals should meet their responsibilities in detached fashion
Balance of dharma, artha, karma to attain moksha, end samsara
Popularity of Hinduism
Became more popular than Buddhism; Buddhism too ascetic
The Guptas helped Hinduism become the dominant religion

27. JAINISM (minor religion)
Vardhamana Mahavira
Born in north India, 540 B.C.E.
Left family, searching for salvation from cycle of incarnation
Gained enlightenment, taught an ascetic doctrine
His disciples began to lead a monastic life
Mahavira became Jina, the "conqueror," and followers, Jains
Jainist doctrine and ethics
Inspired by the Upanishads
Everything in the universe possessed a soul
Striving to purify one's selfish behavior to attain a state of bliss
The principle of ahimsa, nonviolence toward all living things
Believed that almost all occupations entailed violence of some kind
Appeal of Jainism
Social implication: Individual souls equally participated in ultimate reality
The Jains did not recognize social hierarchies of caste and jati
Became attractive to members of lower castes
The ascetic tradition continues to today

28. EARLY BUDDHISM Siddhartha Gautama (563-483 B.C.E.)
Born in 563 B.C.E. to the Kshatriya caste
Witnessed miseries of the human condition
Gave up his comfortable life and began searching for enlightenment
Intense meditation and extreme asceticism
Received enlightenment under the bo tree and became Buddha
The Buddha and his followers
"Turning of the Wheel of the Law," 528 B.C.E.
Organized followers into a community of monks (“the sangha”)
Traveled throughout north India, bringing enlightenment to others
Buddhist doctrine: The dharma
The Four Noble Truths
All life involves suffering
Desire is the cause of suffering
Elimination of desire brings an end to suffering
The Noble Eightfold Path brings the elimination of desire
The Noble Eightfold Path (“Setting the wheel in motion”)
Right belief, right resolve, right speech, right behavior
Right occupation, right effort, right contemplation, and right meditation
Religious goal: Nirvana, a state of perfect spiritual independence

29. APPEAL OF BUDDHISM Appealed strongly to members of lower castes
Salvation without services of the brahmins
Did not recognize social hierarchies of castes and jati
Appealed to women as all souls considered equal
Less demanding than Jainism, more popular
Used vernacular tongues, not Sanskrit
Holy sites and pilgrims
The monastic organizations
Spread the Buddhist message, won converts
Could be endowed by others to support the religion
Centers of learning, good works, contemplation
Ashoka's support
Emperor Ashoka became a devout Buddhist, 206 B.C.E.
Banned animal sacrifices in honor of ahimsa
Granted lands to monasteries
Sent missionaries to Bactria and Ceylon

30. VARIANTS OF BUDDHISM Early Buddhism made heavy demands on individuals
Giving up personal property
Forsaking the search for social standing
Detaching oneself from worldly pleasures
Development of Buddhism
Buddha gradually seen as a god by ex-Hindu’s, in China
The notion of bodhisatva - "an enlightened being"
Monasteries began to accept gifts from wealthy individuals
Buddhism became more attractive

31. SCHISM IN BUDDHISM The Schism of Buddhism: Was he a god or man?
Mahayana - "the greater vehicle"
Spread to Central, East Asia
Blended in India with Hinduism, which coopted Buddha as a god
Coopted Chinese traditions and Taoist gods in China
Hinayana or Theravada
Continued to view Buddha as human
Practiced in Sri Lanka, parts of India, SE Asia
Buddhism died out in India as it merged with Hinduism

32. Indian Patriarchy
Women had less and less role in society outside the home as agriculture spread
Suttee (book spells it sati): practice of wives throwing themselves on husbands’ funeral pyres

33. Indian Patriarchy Laws of Manu Excerpts
…A wife, a son, and a slave, these three are declared to have no property; the wealth which they earn is acquired for him to whom they belong….
…No sacrifice, no vow, no fast must be performed by women apart from their husbands; if a wife obeys her husband, she will for that reason alone be exalted in heaven….
By violating her duty towards her husband, a wife is disgraced in this world, after death she enters the womb of a jackal, and is tormented by diseases as punishment for her sin….

34. Indian Patriarchy Exceptions
Untouchables? (Men & women treated same, both very poorly)
Buddhism? (universal religion = access for everyone to nirvana)
Kama Sutra? (…)