1. CLASSICAL INDIA Mauryan Empire (321–185 B.C.E.)
Ashoka (273–232 B.C.E.)
Gupta Empire (320–550 C.E.)

2. III. Intermittent Empire: The Case of India
The Aryan Controversy: After the decline of the Indus civilization, a wave of Indo-Europeans came into India. There is still much debate on the nature of their history. Did they invade suddenly? Peacefully and slowly migrate? Were they always there?
Political fragmentation and cultural diversity, but a distinctive religious tradition: Despite the numerous small states and meager imperial tradition and despite the numerous languages and cultural traditions, there were several distinct and significant religious traditions that formed a common core that outsiders would come to call “Hinduism.”
Mauryan Empire (321–185 B.C.E.): This first Indian empire may have been inspired by contact with Persia and the Hellenistic kingdoms. While impressive in size and power (50 million subjects and 600,000 infantry soldiers, 30,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots, and 9,000 war elephants), this empire was not as long lived as Rome or Han.
Ashoka (r. 273–232 B.C.E.): The most famous Indian emperor of the age was at first a great conqueror but later converted to Buddhism, adopting a moralistic tone and erecting numerous pillars and rocks carved with his edicts.
Gupta Empire (320–550 C.E.): It was well over half a millennium before another state equaled the first empire. The Gupta Empire saw a flourishing of art, architecture, and literature, as well as commerce and the sciences.
Great civilizational achievements without a central state: Despite a significant imperial tradition due to political fragmentation and conflict, South Asia was home to the growth of a significant long-distance trade network, major spiritual movements, and recorded impressive work in astronomy.
III. Intermittent Empire: The Case of India
The Aryan Controversy: After the decline of the Indus civilization, a wave of Indo-Europeans came into India. There is still much debate on the nature of their history. Did they invade suddenly? Peacefully and slowly migrate? Were they always there?
Political fragmentation and cultural diversity, but a distinctive religious tradition: Despite the numerous small states and meager imperial tradition and despite the numerous languages and cultural traditions, there were several distinct and significant religious traditions that formed a common core that outsiders would come to call “Hinduism.”
Mauryan Empire (326–184 B.C.E.): This first Indian empire may have been inspired by contact with Persia and the Hellenistic kingdoms. While impressive in size and power (50 million subjects and 600,000 infantry soldiers, 30,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots, and 9,000 war elephants), this empire was not as long lived as Rome or Han.
Ashoka (r. 268–232 B.C.E.): The most famous Indian emperor of the age was at first a great conqueror but later converted to Buddhism, adopting a moralistic tone and erecting numerous pillars and rocks carved with his edicts.
Gupta Empire (320–550 C.E.): It was well over half a millennium before another state equaled the first empire. The Gupta Empire saw a flourishing of art, architecture, and literature, as well as commerce and the sciences.
Great civilizational achievements without a central state: Despite a significant imperial tradition due to political fragmentation and conflict, South Asia was home to the growth of a significant long-distance trade network, major spiritual movements, and recorded impressive work in astronomy.

3. RISE OF MAURYAN EMPIRE The “Golden Age”
Ganges Republics
Prior to Alexander, kshatriyan republics dominated, vied for power
Magadha was one of the most dominant
Western Intrusions
Intrusions of Persians (520 B.C.E.) and Alexander (327 B.C.E.)
Persians established Indus satrapy
Alexander’s withdrawal left a political vacuum
Magadha kingdom filled the vacuum

4. Chandragupta's government
Chandragupta Maurya
The founder of the Mauryan empire overthrew the Magadha kingdom in 321 B.C.E.
Conquered the Greek state in Bactria, Selecuid control of Indus
Chandragupta's empire embraced all of northern India
Chandragupta's government
Government procedures devised by Kautalya, the advisor of the empire
The political handbook, Arthashastra, outlined administrative methods

5. MAURYAN EMPIRE: ASHOKA
Ashoka Maurya (reigned B.C.E.)
Chandragupta's grandson,
The high point of the Mauryan empire
Conquered the kingdom of Kalinga, 260 B.C.E.
Ruled through tightly organized bureaucracy
Established capital at Pataliputra
Policies of encouraging agriculture and trade
Converted to Buddhism
Established a tolerant rule of righteousness
Sent out missionaries to Sri Lanka, SE Asia, Central Asia

6. Like other Ashokan pillars this is inscribed with accounts of Ashoka's political achievements and instructions to his subjects on proper behavior. These pillars are the earliest extant examples of Indian writing and a major historical source for the Mauryan period.
The most famous Mauryan emperor is Ashoka ( 273–232 b.c.e.).
Ashoka was shaken by the carnage in a brutal war of expansion in the south so he converted to Buddhism.
His Buddhist policies of government are preserved in edicts that were inscribed on rocks and pillars at various points throughout his empire.
(Pg – The Rock Edicts)

7. Decline of the Mauryan Empire
Ashoka died in 232 B.C.E.
Suffered from acute financial and economic difficulties
High cost for maintaining army and bureaucrats
Debasing the currency, not an effective resolution
The empire collapsed by 185 B.C.E.

8. THE GUPTAS 320 – 550 C.E. The Gupta Dynasty
After Mauryans, India was controlled by regional kingdoms
The Gupta state rose to power in Magadha
Chandra Gupta founded the new dynasty
Gupta dynasty was relatively decentralized
Officially supported revival of Hinduism as state faith
Era seen as the Golden Age of Hinduism
Like the Mauryan rulers, the Guptas controlled iron deposits, established state monopolies, and collected a 25 percent agricultural tax.
However, they were never as strong as the Mauryan Empire.

10. Gupta Government Power
The Guptas used their army to control the core of their empire, but provincial administration was left to governors who often made their posts into hereditary and subordinate kingdoms and kinship groups.
The Gupta Empire had a king that was the center of the administration. The different groups were divided into several provinces and each were sub-divided into several series of districs. The villiages were organized under rural bodies and consisted of the headman and villiage elders. In the cities, there was a council that had several offices like the president of city corperation and chief representative of guild merchants. - The Gupta Empire had a Monarchy government.

11. Gupta Decline
Because the Gupta did not have sufficient military force, they exercised power as a “theater-state,” redistributing profits and luxury goods from trade and dazzling its dependents with elaborate ceremonies in return for gifts and other favors.
Invasion of White Huns weakened the empire
After 5th century C.E., Gupta dynasty ruled in name only

12. Lack of Gupta Evidence
We have very little archaeological data and few contemporary accounts from which to learn about the politics, society, and culture of the Gupta period.
We know that the court supported mathematics and astronomy and that Gupta mathematicians invented our “Arabic” numerals and the concept of “zero.”
We also have the Chinese monk Faxian’s description of his journey through Gupta India.

13. Gupta Religion
The Gupta period, while dominated by Hinduism, was characterized by religious toleration and saw the development of the classic form of Hindu temples with exterior courtyard, inner shrine, and wall decorations.

14. Gupta Decline
During the Gupta period, women lost the right to inherit and own property and to participate in key rituals, and were treated like the lowest varna (Shudra).
They were married very young, and in some places a widow was required to burn herself on her husband’s funeral pyre.
Among the few ways to escape this low status was to join a religious community, to be a member of an extremely wealthy family, or to be a courtesan.

15. ECONOMICS
In 550 c.e the Gupta empire collapsed under the financial burden of defense against the Huns. Harsha (r. 606–647 c.e), whose kingdom is described by the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, briefly reunited northern India.
After Harsha, northern India again fell into political fragmentation.

16. ECONOMICS
Gupta India was linked to the outside world by extensive trade networks. Trade with southeast and east Asia was particularly flourishing.
Towns and manufacturing
Towns dotted the India countryside after 600 B.C.E.
Towns provided manufactured products and luxury goods
Long-distance trade
Invasions by Persian empires helped to build extensive trade networks
Trade with China through the silk roads of central Asia
Trade in the Indian Ocean basin, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Mediterranean basin
Spread Buddhism and Hinduism throughout Indian Ocean basin

17. SOCIETY Social and gender relations
Strong patriarchal families; subordination of women to men
Child marriage placed women under control of old men
Development of caste system
Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras (part of Hinduism)
New social groups of artisans, craftsmen, and merchants appeared
Individuals of same trade or craft formed a guild; guilds were subcastes, jatis
Functions of guilds: social security and welfare systems
Wealth and social order
Trade and industry brought prosperity to many vaishyas and shudras
Old beliefs and values of early Aryan society became increasingly irrelevant

18. Caste System of both Empires

19. IV. Reflections: Enduring Legacies of Second-Wave Empires
A. Mao Zedong and Qin Shihuangdi: Leader of Communist China in the twentieth century idealized the first emperor’s brutal path to state building as a revolutionary triumph for progress.
B. Ashoka in modern India: Seeking to promote an image of a peaceful and tolerant India, the leaders of the new nation adopted symbols of Ashoka’s reign in 1947.
C. British imperial and Italian fascist uses of Rome: Both the British colonial empire and Mussolini’s Italy used the Roman Empire as a crucial precedent for rationalizing their rule.
IV. Reflections: Enduring Legacies of Second-Wave Empires
A. Mao Zedong and Qin Shihuangdi: Leader of Communist China in the twentieth century idealized the first emperor’s brutal path to state building as a revolutionary triumph for progress.
B. Ashoka in modern India: Seeking to promote an image of a peaceful and tolerant India, the leaders of the new nation adopted symbols of Ashoka’s reign in 1947.
C. British imperial and Italian fascist uses of Rome: Both the British colonial empire and Mussolini’s Italy used the Roman Empire as a crucial precedent for rationalizing their rule.

20. JAINISM Vardhamana Mahavira Jainist doctrine and ethics
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
Too demanding, not a practical alternative to the cult of the brahmins
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

22. 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

23. EARLY BUDDHISM 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

25. 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 pilgrimages
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

26. 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-Hindus, in China
The notion of bodhisatva - "an enlightened being"
Monasteries began to accept gifts from wealthy individuals
Buddhism became more attractive
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 co-opted Buddha as a god
Co-opted Chinese traditions and Daoist 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

27. HINDUISM Comes from the blending of Aryan and Dravidian (IRV) beliefs
Vedas (hymns), Rig Veda, Upanishads (written down)
Brahman=universal soul
Samsara=reincarnation
Karma=sum of good and bad in this life
will determine next life Moksha=salvation of the soul
Caste system, varna, Hindu god Purusha

28. POPULAR HINDUISM The epics The Bhagavad Gita 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

29. HINDUISM CONTINUED Hindu ethics Popularity of Hinduism
Lower demands for achieving salvation
Individuals should meet their responsibilities in detached fashion
Balance of dharma, artha, kama to attain moksha, end samsara
Popularity of Hinduism
Became more popular than Buddhism; Buddhism too aesthetic
The Guptas helped Hinduism become the dominant religion