1. Chapter 3: Classical India
AP World History

2. The Impact of Geographic Determinism in India
India was much closer to the “orbit of other civilizations” than China
Open to influences from the Middle East and the Mediterranean world.
Persian ideas spill into Classical India at times
Alexander the Great invades India and spreads Hellenistic culture to India

3. India’s Location in the World

4. Geography
India is partially separated from East Asia via the Himalayan Mountains.
Passes through these mountains formed cultural ties with the Middle East, yet isolated China.
Divisions within the Indian Subcontinent made unity difficult
Greater diversity than China’s Middle Kingdom

6. Geography
Agricultural regions exist between the Indus river and Ganges River
Mountainous northern region is where herding takes root.
Southern coastal rim is where active trading and seafaring economy grows

7. Geography
The differences in geography and activities along the Indian subcontinent help to explain the economic, racial, and language diversity that exists in India even to this day!

8. Climate Much of India is semi-tropical
In the River Valley plains summer brings monsoons.
Indian population has been forced to adjust to the monsoon cycle…for good, and bad

9. Indian Development
Indian’s civilization was shaped by what is known as the “formative” period between the fall of the Indus RVC and the establishment of a full Indian Civilization.
1600 to 1000 BCE: Aryan Invasions
1500 to 1000 BCE: Vedic Age
1000 to 600 BCE: Epic Age

10. Formative Period
Aryans were Indo-European migrant hunting and herding peoples from Central Asia.
Aryan invasions were separate, unrelated, but common occurrences. Aryans often attacked and subjugated peoples.
During the Vedic Age (1500 to 1000 BCE) Indian agriculture extended from the Indus to the more fertile Ganges River Valley.
Aryans used iron tools to clear away the dense vegetation.

11. Literary Traditions
Much of what we know about the “pre-classical” India comes from literary epics developed by the Aryans
Passed on orally, at first
Then, written in Sanskrit
Sacred books were known as the VEDAS

12. The Vedas
Vedic Age (first part of the Formative period) comes from Sanskrit “Veda” or “knowledge.”
Rig-Veda: the first epic, with 1028 hymns dedicated to Aryan gods.
During the EPIC age, more stories were created…

13. Literature during the Epic Age
The Mahabharata: India’s greatest epic poem
The Ramayana: deals with real and mystical battles
These show a more organized, civil life than the Rig-Veda
Upanishads: Epic poems with a religious flavor

14. Impact of Aryan Society
Tight level of village organization
Village chiefs organize defenses and property control
Family structure emphasizes patriarchal controls with strong extended family relationships

15. Aryan Social Structure
Aryan Social Classes (varnas)
Warrior/Governing class (Kshatriyas)
Priestly class (Brahmans)
Traders and farmers (Vaisyas)
Common Laborers (Sudras)
UNTOUCHABLES
During the EPIC age, the Brahmans displace the Kshatriyas at the top of the social order

16. The Indian Caste System
The Five Social groups become hereditary, with marriage between castes forbidden, punishable by death.
Smaller sub-captions of castes (jati) began
Aryans brought a religion of many gods and goddesses who regulate natural forces and have human qualities

17. The Classical Age
By 600 BCE, India had passed through its formative phase.
Regional political units grew in size
Cities and trade expanded
Development of the Sanskrit language
A full classical civilization could now build on themes developed during the Vedic and Epic ages

18. Classical Civilization
India did not take on the convenience of the rising and falling of dynasties, like in China.
Irregular power flow
Consisted of invasions, and religious conflict
By 600 BCE, 16 major states existed in the plains of Northern India
The most powerful: Magadha, established dominance over a considerable empire.

19. Alexander the Great
In 327 BCE, Alexander the Great, conquered most of Greece and the Middle East…establishes a border state, called Bactria.

20. Mauryan Empire
322 BCE, a young soldier named Chandragupta Maurya seized power along the Ganges River.
He becomes the first ruler of the Mauryan Dynasty who will rule most of the Indian Subcontinent

21. Chandragupta Maurya
Maintained large armies with thousands of chariots and elephant borne troops
Highly autocratic

22. Ashoka
Chandragupta’s grandson, ASHOKA ( BCE) was at first, governor of two Indian provinces
Leads Mauryan conquests in the whole subcontinent of India, minus the southern tip
bloodthirsty

23. Ashoka Converts to Buddhism Dharma-law of moral consequences
Vigorously propagates Buddhism throughout India
Urges officials to be humane, and insists that they see over the moral welfare of the people

24. After Ashoka The empire begins to fall apart.
No real long-term impact of governing style, etc.
Buddhism persists for some time, though
The Kushans invade India
Kanishka converts to Buddhism, but hurts the religion because he is foreign
Kushan state collapses by 220 CE, followed by a century of instability

25. The Gupta Empire Beginning in 320 CE, the GUPTA Empire takes hold
No individual rulers as influential as the Mauryan rulers
Greatest period of stability for classical India
Overturned in 535 CE by the Huns

26. Politics in Classical India
Unlike China and Greece/Roma, India does not develop complex political ethics systems
REGIONALISM
DIVERSITY IN POLITICAL FORMS
Depend heavily on the power of their large armies
Claimed that they were appointed by the gods to rule
Support for Hinduism

27. Politics in Classical India
No single language was imposed
Sanskrit was the language of educated people.
Spread uniform law codes
Patrons of art/literature/university life
Engaged in road building
The Gupta Empire is considered to be a GOLDEN AGE of Indian History
Gupta Empire creates a demanding taxation system
Did NOT create an extensive bureaucracy
Allowed local rulers to maintain regional control as long as they pledge support to the Gupta Empire

28. Politics in Classical India
Political culture was not very elaborate
Thinking encouraged efficient authority but not a spread of political values like Confucianism in China or the interest in political ethics in Rome and Greece
Ashoka saw an ethic for good behavior in Buddhism, but Buddhist leaders were not involved in the affairs of the state.
Indian Religion stressed the importance of priests as sources of authority

29. The Caste System Became more complex after the Epic Age
The 5 classes subdivided into over 300 jati
Determined who one could eat with/marry, etc.
Hereditary principals became stronger
Upward mobility could occur within ones caste, but rarely to a new caste
This was the most rigid overall framework for a social structure in any of the classical civilizations

30. The Caste System In a sense, the caste system led to tolerance
Avoided outright slavery

31. Effects on Economy and Society
Caste system dominated economic and social life.
Lower Caste individuals had very few rights
Family life echoes that theme of hierarchy and organization
As agriculture became better organized and improved technology reduced women’s economic contributions, the stress on male authority expanded

32. Caste Assigned people to an occupation Regulated marriages
Peasant villages less contact with higher social caste

33. Guptas- University- Nalanda
100 lecture halls
3 large libraries
Astronomical observatory
religion, philosophy, medicine, architecture, and agriculture

34. Science Greek and Alex Great Aryabhatta- circumference of earth
Understood daily rotations of earth
Predicted and explained eclipses
Theory of gravity

35. Medicine Dissection prohibited for reigious reasons
Advances in bone setting and plastic surgury
Cowpox serum to treat smallpox

36. Math
Numbering system used today (Arabic bc Europeans imported it secondhand from the Arabs)
Zero
Decimal system
Negative numbers
Square roots
Computed pi more efficiently than Greeks

37. Economy and Society
Arranged marriages come about during this time as a means of ensuring solid economic links
The family was a core unit
A man’s wife is his truest friend
Children were pampered
Patriarchal family was subtly different from that in China
Indian culture featured strong-willed female goddesses, which contributed to women’s status as wives and mothers.
Stories celebrate women’s beauty

38. Economy A Vibrant economy, rivaling China’s New uses for chemistry
Steel was the best in the world
Textiles: Cotton cloth, and cashmere
Artisans formed guilds and sold their goods from shops
Emphasis on trade and merchant activity was greater than in China

39. Economy Indian merchants enjoyed high caste status Traveled widely
Seafaring people along the southern border, usually out of the control of the large northern empires were active traders
Southern Indians, known as Tamils, traded cotton, silks, dyes, drugs, gold, and ivory.

41. Indian Influence
Indian dominance on the waters of Southern Asia carried goods and influence well beyond the Indian Subcontinent.
While India did not attempt political domination of Southeast Asia, it influenced its development greatly

42. Indian Influence
Buddhism spreads from India to many parts of southeast Asia.
India influence affects China by the end of the classical period
With the fall of the Gupta Empire, the classical age is over (later than China and Rome) BUT an identifiable image of India remained (unlike China and Rome)

43. Ch’India…contrasts
Restraint of Chinese art and poetry contrast with the more dynamic styles of India.
India rests upon a singular religion, while China has different philosophies and religions
Social rigidity in India
Political structure and values more structured in China than in India.
Science: Indians venture into math more than Chinese

44. Ch’India-Similarities
Agricultural societies
Large peasant class organized in close knit villages
Cities and merchant activity was vital yet secondary role
Political power lay with those who own the land
Patriarchy