Gratis Mind

INDIA

I. India and the West (513-298 B.C.E.).
· In 513 B.C.E., Emperor Darius of the Persian empire conquered the Indus Valley.
- Persian control did not reach eastward beyond the banks of the Indus.
- Nonetheless, western India enjoyed immediate contact not only with the old cultures
of Egypt and Mesopotamia but also with the young and vital culture of the Greeks.
· Culturally, the Persian conquest introducing new ideas, techniques, and materials into India.
- As members of the vast Persian Empire, Indians learned the administrative techniques of ruling large
tracts of land and huge numbers of people.
- The adoption of coined money for economic transactions.
* Indians learned the technique of minting silver coins.
* Even states in the Ganges Valley, which were never part of the empire, adopted the use of coinage.
- Another innovation was the introduction of Aramaic language and script, the official
language of the Persian Empire.
- Indians participated in the larger economic world created by the Persians.
* Trade by sea.
* Caravan cities grew in number and wealth, as overland trade thrived in the peace brought about
by Persian rule.
- Overall, the arrival of the Persians drew India into the mainstream of sophisticated urban, commercial, and political life in the ancient world.
· Invasion of Alexander the Great.
- In 326 B.C.E., Greek troops entered the Indus valley and marched north to the mouth of the Indus River.
- His withdraw provided Indians with an opportunity to unite India into an independent empire.

II. The Mauryan Empire (322-232 B.C.E.).
· Chandragupta.
- Ruler of a small state in the Ganges valley who took advantage of the withdraw of Greek
troops to defeat his Indian enemies and establish an empire in 322 B.C.E.
- He consolidated his claim by defeating the forces of Seleucus, the Hellenistic general.
- Seleucus surrendered the eastmost provinces of his monarchy and concluded a treaty with Chandragupta.
- His empire stretched from the Punjab and Himalayas in the north almost to the tip of the
subcontinent, from modern Afghanistan in the west to Bengal in the east.
· Administering his empire.
- Adopted the Persian practice of dividing his empire into provinces.
* Each province was assigned a governor.
* Most came from Chandragupta’s family.
- The smallest unit in this system was the village, the mainstay of Indian life.
- From his capital at Pataliputa, in the valley of the Ganges, the king sent agents to the provinces
to oversee the workings of government and to keep him informed of conditions in his realm.
- The great minister Kautilya assisted the king.
* Established a complex bureaucracy to see to the operation of the state.
* Establish an elaborate taxation system to fund public works.
* Build a regular army organized into departments.
* Exercised tight control, even repressive control.
* He took elaborate precautions against intrigue and the threat of assassination.
- It worked, King died a peaceful death as a Jain ascetic in 298.
· For the first time in Indian history, one man governed most of the subcontinent, exercising control
through delegated power.

III. The Reign of Ashoka (269-232 B.C.E.).
· His reign was an epoch of political greatness.
· Ashoka extended the Mauryan empire to its farthest limits.
· Ashoka embraced Buddhism and helped establish it as an important religion, but it did not take root in India.
· Early Life.
- At the death of his father about 274 B.C.E., Ashoka rebelled against his older brother, the rightful king,
and after four years of fighting succeeded in his bloody bid for the throne.
- In religion, Ashoka was deeply influenced by Brahmanism and Jainism.
- In his early reign, Ashoka extended Mauryan conquests, initiated or renewed friendly relations with neighboring powers, and reorganized his empire.
- He was equally serious about his pleasures, especially those of the banquet hall and harem.
· A change occurred in 287 that would have a profound effect on Indian and world history.
- Ashoka conquered Kalinga, the modern state of Orissa on the east coast of India in a grim and savage
campaign.
* Ashoka subdued the kingdom by wholesale slaughter.
* The king estimated that at least 150,000 people had been killed.
* Yet instead of exulting like a conqueror, Ashoka was consumed with remorse and revulsion at the horror of war.
* On the battlefield, a new Ashoka was born.
- The king embraced Buddhism and used the machinery of his empire to spread Buddhist teachings throughout India.
· The practical results of his conversion led to a more humane governance of India.
- Ashoka emphasized compassion, nonviolence, and adherence to dharma.
* A kind of civil virtue.
* A universal ethical model capable of uniting the diverse peoples of his extensive empire.
- Ashoka’s new outlook can be seen as a form of paternalism.
* Well-meaning government that provides for the people’s welfare without granting them much responsibility or freedom.
- He appointed new officials.
* To oversee the moral welfare of the realm.
* Make sure that local officials administered humanely.
- Ashoka felt the need to protect his new religion and keep it pure.
* Warning Buddhist monks that he would tolerate schism: divisions based on differences of opinion about doctrine or ritual.
* Threw his support to religious orthodoxy.
- Nonetheless, Ashoka continued to honor India’s other religions:
* Hinduism and Jainism were revered and respected.
* The emperor even built shrines for their worshippers.
· Ashoka never neglected his duties as emperor
- He tightened the central government of the empire.
- Kept a close check on local officials.
· He built an extensive system of roads and rest stops to improve communication.
· Ashoka’s efforts were extremely successful.
- Never before his reign and not again until the modern period did so much of India enjoy peace, prosperity, and humane rule.

IV. India and Its Invaders (250 B.C.E.-200).
· Ashoka’s successors remained on the throne until 185 B.C.E.
· Thereafter India was subject to repeated foreign invasions.
- Confined principally to the northwest.
- Constantly changed the political map of the country.
· For many years, the history of India was a tale of relentless war between invaders and Indians and
among Indian kings as well.
· Energy consumed by these internal wars prevented the Indians from driving out the invaders and
bringing peace and prosperity back to India.
· Eventually, Indian civilization triumphed, but the invasions had changed both India and the invaders .

V. The Kushans: 250 B.C.E.- 200 C.E. held on to northwest India.
· Their empire encompassed much of central Asia as well as northwestern India.
· The Kushans put India in closer contact with its eastern neighbors.
· The Kushan invaders were assimilated into Indian society as Kshatriyas.
- Higher status than native Vaisya, Shudra, outcasts, and untouchables.
- Once again, a nomadic people fell under the spell of a more sophisticated civilization.
· The political map of India after Ashoka was fragmented:
- The Kushans and earlier invaders held northwestern India.
- Petty Indian kings ruled small realms in the rest of India.
· Kushans played a valuable role by giving northwest India a long period in which to absorb the
newcomers and adapt the cultural innovations introduced by the various invaders.
- The Kushans were receptive to many of the influences that acted on the Indians.
- Kushans and Indians alike absorbed Greek ideas.
- Greek culture made its greatest impression on Indian art.
* Greek artists and sculptors worked on Buddhist shrines, modeling the earliest representation of Buddha on Hellenistic statues of Apollo.
* Only the form was Greek, the content was purely Buddhist.
· Just as Ashoka’s Buddhist missionaries made no impression on the Greek world, so Hellenism gave
India some fresh ideas but had no lasting impression on the essence of Indian life.
- Only Buddhism, which addressed itself to all human beings rather than to any particular
culture, was at all significant as a meeting ground for the Greeks, Indians, and Kushans.
- Otherwise, the outlooks and values of Greek and Indian cultures were too different and too
tenacious for one to assimilate the essence of the other.
· The most significant and lasting gift of these years was the spread of Buddhism to China.
- The Kushan embraced Buddhism enthusiastically and protected the Buddhist order.
- In the course of Kushan business dealings with China, they carried Mahayana Buddhism across central Asia to China, transforming Buddhism from a purely Indian sect to an International religion.

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