Source: World History: Connections to Today. Ellis, Elisabeth and Esler, Anthony; Prentice Hall, New Jersey. 1999
The Indus Valley is located in the region known as South Asia or the subcontinent of
India. A subcontinent is a large landmass that juts out from a continent. The Indian subcontinent is a huge, wedge-shaped peninsula extending into the Indian Ocean.
Today, it includes 3 of the world’s 10 most populous countries—India, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh—as well as the island nation of
Sri Lanka (SREE LAHNG kah) and the mountain nations of Nepal and Bhutan.
Towering, snow-covered mountain ranges arc across the northern border of the subcontinent, including the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas. These mountains limited contacts between India and other lands and helped its people develop a distinct culture.
Yet the mountains were not a complete barrier. Steep passes through the Hindu Kush served as gateways to migrating and invading peoples for thousands of years.
The Indian subcontinent is divided into three major zones. They are the well-watered northern plain, the dry triangular Deccan plateau, and the coastal plains on either side of the Deccan. The northern plain lies just south of the mountains. This fertile region is watered by mighty rivers: the Indus, which gives
India its name, the Ganges (GAN jeez), and the Brahma-putra (brahm uh P00 truh). These rivers and their tributaries carry melting snow from the mountains to the plains, making agriculture possible. To the people of the Indian subcontinent, rivers are sacred, especially the Ganges.
The most recognizable feature on any map of India is the Deccan, the triangular plateau that juts into the Indian Ocean. The Deccan lacks the melting snows that feed the rivers of the north and provide water for irrigation. As a result, much of the region is arid, unproductive, and sparsely populated.
The coastal plains, India’s third region, are separated from the Deccan by low-lying mountain ranges, the Eastern and Western Ghats. Rivers and heavy seasonal rains provide water for farmers in the coastal plains. From very early times, coastal people used the seas for fishing and as highways for trade.
A defining feature of Indian life is the monsoon, a seasonal wind. In October, the winter monsoon blows from the northeast, bringing a flow of hot, dry air that withers crops. In late May or early June, the wet summer monsoon blows from the southwest. These winds pick up moisture over the Indian Ocean and then drench the land with daily downpours. The monsoon has shaped Indian life. Each year, people welcome the rains that are desperately needed to water the crops. If the rains are late, famine and starvation may occur. Yet if the rains are too heavy, rushing rivers unleash deadly floods.
India’s great size and diverse landscapes made it hard to unite. Many groups of people, with differing languages and traditions, settled in different parts of India. At times, ambitious rulers conquered much of the subcontinent, creating great empires. Yet the diversity of customs and traditions remained.

The first Indian civilization is cloaked in mystery. It emerged in the Indus River valley, in present-day Pakistan, about 2500 B.C.
This civilization flourished for about 1,000 years, then vanished without a trace. Only in this century have its once prosperous cities emerged beneath the archaeologists’ picks and shovels.
Archaeologists have not fully uncovered many Indus Valley sites. Nor have they deciphered the fragments of its writing found on stone seals. We have no names of kings or queens, no tax records, no literature, no accounts of famous victories. Still, we do know that the Indus Valley civilization covered the largest area of any civilization until the rise of Persia more than 1,000 years later.
We know, too, that its great cities were as impressive as those of
Sumer.
Well-planned cities . The two main cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
(moh HEHN joh DAlI roh), may have been twin capitals. Both were large, some three miles in circumference.
Each was dominated by a massive hilltop structure, probably a fortress or temple. Both cities had huge warehouses to store grain brought in from outlying villages. Clearly, farmers produced enough surplus food to support tens of thousands of city dwellers.
The most striking feature of
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro is that they were so carefully planned. Each city was laid out in a grid pattern, with rectangular blocks larger than modern city blocks. All houses were built of uniform oven-fired clay bricks. Over the centuries, houses were built and rebuilt to the same pattern. Houses had surprisingly modern plumbing systems, with baths, drains, and water chutes that led into sewers beneath the streets. Merchants in the marketplaces used a uniform system of weights and measures—additional evidence of careful planning.
From such evidence, archaeologists have concluded that the Indus Valley cities had a well-organized government. Powerful leaders, perhaps priest-kings, made sure the cities had a steady supply of grain from the villages. The rigid pattern of building and the uniform brick sizes suggest government planners at work. These experts must also have developed skills in mathematics and surveying to lay out the cities so precisely.
Farming and trade . As in other early civilizations, most Indus Valley people were farmers. They grew a wide variety of crops, including wheat, barley, melons, and dates. They were also the first people to cultivate cotton and weave its fibers into cloth. Some people were merchants and traders. Their ships carried cargoes of cotton cloth, grain, copper, pearls, and ivory combs to distant lands. By hugging the
Arabian Sea coast and sailing up the Persian Gulf, Indian vessels reached the cities of Sumer. Contact with Sumer may have stimulated Indus Valley people to develop their own system of writing.

Religious beliefs . From clues such as statues, archaeologists have speculated about religious beliefs of Indus Valley people. Like other ancient people, they were polytheistic. A mother goddess, the source of creation, seems to have been widely honored. Indus people also apparently worshiped sacred animals, including the bull. Some scholars think these early practices influenced later Indian beliefs, especially the veneration, or special regard, for cattle.
Decline and Disappearance By 1750 B.c., the quality of life in Indus
Vallev cities was declining. The once orderly cities no longer kept up the old standards. Crude pottery replaced the finer works of earlier days.
We do not know for sure what happened, but scholars have offered several explanations. Ecological disasters may have contributed to the decline. Possibly too many trees were cut down to fuel the ovens of brickmakers. Tons of river mud found in the streets of Mohenjo-Daro suggest that a volcanic eruption blocked the Indus, flooding the city. Other evidence points to a devastating earthquake.
Scholars think that the deathblow fell about 1500 B.C., when nomadic people arrived in ever larger numbers from the north. The newcomers were the Aryans, whose ancestors had slowly migrated with their herds of cattle, sheep, and goats from what is today southern Russia. The Arvans may have completed the destruction begun by nature. With their horse-drawn chariots and superior weapons, the
Aryans overran the cities and towns of the Indus region. The cities were soon abandoned. As the ruined cities disappeared beneath the silt of the Indus, all memory of them faded.
The Aryans were warlike people. Their hymns praised their warriors as brave heroes and successful looters. Over the centuries, the Aryans who destroyed and looted the cities of the Indus Valley became the builders of a new Indian civilization. It rose in the northeast along the Ganges River, rather than in the northwest along the Indus.
The Vedic Age The Aryans were among many groups of Indo-European people who migrated across
Europe and Asia seeking water and pasture for their horses and cattle. The early Aryans built no cities and left no statues or stone seals. Most of what we know about them comes from the Vedas, a collection of prayers, hymns, and other religious teachings. Aryan priests memorized and recited the Vedas for a thousand years before they were written down. As a result, the period from 1500 B.C. to 500 B.C. is often called the Vedic age.
In the Vedas, the Aryans appear as warriors who fought in chariots with bows and arrows. They loved eating, drinking, music, chariot races, and dice games. These nomadic herders valued cattle, which provided them with food and clothing. Later, when they became settled farmers, families continued to measure their wealth in cattle.

Aryan religious beliefs . The Vedas show that the Aryans were polytheistic. They worshiped gods and goddesses that embodied natural forces such as sky and sun, storm and fire. The Aryans also honored animals, such as monkey gods and snake gods.
Fierce Indra, the god of war, was the chief Aryan deity.
Indra’s weapon was the thunderbolt, which he used not only to destroy demons but to announce the arrival of rain, so vital to
Indian life. Other major gods included Varuna, the god of order and creation, and Agni, the god of fire. Agni also served as the messenger who communicated human wishes to the gods.
Brahmins offered sacrifices of food and drink to the gods.
Through the correct rituals and prayers, the Aryans believed, they could call on the gods for health, wealth, and victory in war. As the lives of the Aryans changed, so, too, did their beliefs. Some religious thinkers were moving toward the notion of a single spiritual power beyond the many gods of the Vedas, called Brahman, that resided in all things. There was also a move toward mysticism. Mystics are people who devote their lives to seeking spiritual truth. Through meditation and yoga, or spiritual and bodily discipline, Indian mystics sought direct communion with divine forces. The religions that emerged in India after the Vedic age reflected the impact of mysticism as well as the notion of Brahman.
Aryan society . From the Vedas, we learn that the Aryans divided people by occupation. The three basic groups were the Brahmins, or priests; the Kshatriyas (kuh SHAT ree yuhz), or warriors; and the Vaisyas
(vis yuhz), or herders, farmers, artisans, and merchants. At first, warriors enjoyed the highest prestige, but priests eventually gained the most respect. Their power grew because Brahmins claimed that they alone could conduct the ceremonies needed to win the favor of the gods.
The Vedas also show that the Aryans felt vastly superior to the Dravidians, the people they conquered. Many scholars think that the Dravidians may have been descended from the original inhabitants of the Indus Valley. Although the Dravidians had built an advanced civilization, the nomadic
Aryans had no use for city dwellers. The Aryans therefore separated non-Aryans into a fourth group, the
Sudras (soo druhz). This group included farmworkers, servants, and other laborers who occupied the lowest level of society.
During the Vedic age, class divisions came to reflect social and economic roles more than racial differences between Aryans and non Arvans. As these changes occurred, they gave rise to a more complex system of castes, or social groups into which people are born and from which they cannot change.
A Complex Caste System: T he Aryans had divided soçiety into four occupational classes. Non-Aryans were considered outcastes and held the lowest jobs.
As invaders were absorbed into Indian society, they formed new castes. Other castes grew out of new trades, occupations, and religions. By modern times, major castes numbered in the hundreds, with thousands of minor or local subcastes.
Caste was closely linked to Hindu beliefš, although other religious groups also accepted it. To
Hindus, people in different castes were different species of beings. A high-caste Brahmin, for example, was purer and therefore closer to moksha than someone from a lower caste. To ensure spiritual purity, a web of complex rules developed within the caste system.

Caste rules governed every aspect of life— where people lived, what they ate, how they dressed, and how they earned a living. Rules forbade marrying outside one’s caste or eating with members of another caste. High-caste people had the strictest rules to protect them from the spiritually polluted, or impure, lower castes.
For the lowest-ranked outcastes, or “Untouchables,” life was harsh and restricted. To them fell the jobs that were considered “impure,” such as digging graves, cleaning streets, or turning animal hides into leather. Other castes feared that even the shadow of an Untouchable could spread pollution. Untouchables not only had to live apart, but they also had to sound a wooden clapper to warn of their approach.
Despite its inequalities, caste ensured a stable social order. People believed that the law of karma determined their caste. While they could not change their status in this life, they could reach a higher state in a future life. The road to improvement lay in faithfully fulfilling the duties of their present caste.
The caste system gave people a sense of identity. Each caste had its own occupation and its own leaders. Caste members cooperated to help one another. Further, each caste had its own special role in
Indian society as a whole. Although strictly separated, different castes depended on one another for their basic needs. A lower-caste carpenter, for example, built the home of a higher-caste scholar.
The caste system also adapted to changing conditions, absorbing foreigners and new occupations into their own castes. This flexibility allowed people with diverse customs and practices to live side by side in relative harmony.
Expansion and Change : Over many centuries, waves of Aryans went through the mountain passes into northwestern India. Aryan tribes were led by chiefs called rajahs. A rajah was often the most skilled war leader, elected to his position by an assembly of warriors. He ruled with the advice of a council of elders made up of heads of families.
Despite their racial pride, Aryans mingled with the people they conquered. Gradually, they gave up their nomadic ways and settled into villages to grow crops and breed cattle. From the local people, they learned farming and other skills and developed new crafts of their own.
In time, Aryans spread eastward to colonize the heavily forested Ganges basin. By about 800B.C., they had learned to make tools out of iron. Equipped with iron axes and weapons, restless pioneers carved farms and villages out of the rain forests of the northeast.
Tribal leaders fought to control trade and territory across the northern plain. Some rajahs became powerful hereditary rulers, extending their influence over many villages. Walled cities filled with multistory houses rose above the jungle.
By 500 BC., a new Indian civilization had emerged. Although it consisted of many rival kingdoms, the people shared a common culture rooted in both Aryan and Dravidian traditions. By this time, too, the
Indian people had developed a written language, Sanskrit. Priests began writing down their sacred texts.
Sacred Stories
On the eve of battle, the young warrior Arjima gazes out across a silent battlefield, his heart filled with doubt. These enemies are not invaders from a far-off land. They are friends and relatives, people he has known and loved all his life. Now he must face them in battle and perhaps kill them.
For thousands of years, people in India have shared Arjuna’s agony. Families today, watching the story on television, are as anxious to know what Arjuna will do as the ancient Aryans were when priests told the story.
Arjuna is one of the heroes of the Mahabharata (muh HAH bah rah tuh), the greatest Indian epic.
Almost 100,000 verses long, the Mahabharata was told and retold for centuries before it was written down. Through it, we hear echoes of the battles that rival Aryan tribes fought to gain control of the
Ganges region. Like other epics, such as The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Mahabharata mixes history, mythology, and religion. Characters include mortals, gods, goddesses, animals, and demons. The plot swirls around five royal brothers, the Pandavas, who have lost their kingdom to their cousins but struggle to regain it.

The Ramayana : A much shorter, but equally memorable, epic is the
Ramayana (rah MAIl yuh nuh). It recounts the fantastic deeds of the daring hero Rama and his beautiful bride Sita. Not long after their wedding, Sita is kidnapped by the demon-king Rayana. The rest of the story. tells of Rama’s efforts to rescue Sita with the aid of the monkey general Hanuman.
Like Aryan religion, these epics evolved over thousands of years. Priest-poets added new morals to the tales to teach different lessons about morality. For example, they turned Rama into a model of virtue. In some versions, he appears as an ideal king. Likewise,
Sita came to be honored as an ideal woman who remained loyal and obedient to her husband through many hardships. “May you be like
Sita” is a common blessing still given to young women in India. The
Ramayana is a performed today in many extremely popular television and movie productions. It also has greatly influenced modern western stories like Star Wars.
The Aryans were the first of many people to filter into India through passes in the Hindu Kush. Even though scholars recognize that our knowledge of the Aryan migrations is very limited, most accept that
Aryan traditions and beliefs formed a framework for later Indian civilization.
“The king’s good is not that which pleases him, but that which pleases his subjects,” insisted the author of an ancient
Indian hand book for rulers. According to Hindu teachings, a ruler had duties like everyone else. His job was to establish peace and order by enforcing laws, resisting invaders, and encouraging economic growth.
Chandragupta : Achieving those goals was difficult. More often than not, northern India was a battle ground, where rival rajahs fought for control of the rich Ganges Valley.
Then, in 321 B.C., a young adventurer, Chandragupta
Maurya (chun druh GUP tuh MOW uhr yuh), forged the first great Indian empire.
Chandragupta first gained power in the Ganges Valley. Building a large army, he then conquered northern India. His son and grandson later pushed south, adding much of the Deccan to their empire.
From 321 B.C. to 185 B.C., the Maurya dynasty ruled over a vast, united empire.
We know about Chandragupta largely from reports written by Megasthenes (meh GAS thuh neez), a
Greek ambassador to the Maurya court. He described the great Maurya capital at Pataliputra (pah tah lih
P00 trah), probably the largest and most prosperous city in the world at that time. It boasted schools and a library as well as splendid palaces, temples, and parks. An awed Megasthenes reported that a huge wall surrounding the city “was crowned with 570 towers and had 64 gates.”
Chandragupta maintained order through a we1l-organized bureaucracy. Royal officials supervised the building of roads and harbors to benefit trade. Other officials collected taxes and managed state-owned factories and shipyards. People sought justice in royal courts and from the emperor himself. A brutal but efficient secret police reported on corruption, crime, and dissent within the empire.
Chandragupta’s rule was effective but harsh. Fearful of his many enemies, he had specially trained women warriors guard his palace, while servants tasted his food to protect him from poisoning. Secret passages in the palace let him slip about unseen.

Asoka: The most honored Maurya emperor was Chandragupta’s grandson, Asoka (uh SOH kuh). A few years after becoming emperor in 268 B.C., Asoka fought a long, bloody war to conquer the Deccan region of Kalinga. Then, horrified at the slaughter—over 100,000 dead—Asoka turned his back on further conquests. He converted to Buddhism, rejected violence, and resolved to rule by moral example.
Asoka had stone pillars set up across India announcing laws and promising righteous government. On one, he proclaimed:
“ All people are my children, and just as I desire for my children that they should obtain welfare and happiness, both in this world and the next, so do I desire the same for all people.”
Asoka took steps to help his “children” by building roads, rest houses for travelers, and hospitals. “I have had banyan trees planted on the roads to give shade to people and animals,” he noted. “I have planted mango groves, and I have had [wells] dug and shelters erected along the roads.”
True to the Buddhist principle of respect for all life, Asoka became a vegetarian and limited Hindu animal sacrifices. He sent missionaries, women as well as men, across India and to Sri Lanka. He thus paved the way for the later spread of Buddhism throughout Asia. Although
Asoka promoted Buddhism, he preached tolerance for other religions.
Asoka’s rule brought peace and prosperity, and helped unite the diverse people within his empire. After his death, however, Maurya power declined. By 185 B.C., rival princes again battled for power across the northern plain.
Division and Unity: During its long history, India has seldom been united. In ancient times, as today, the subcontinent was home to many peoples and cultures. Although the Aryan north shared a common civilization, fierce local rivalries kept it divided. In the Deccan south, other cultures thrived. Distance and geographic differences further separated the north and south.
Adding to the turmoil, foreign invaders frequently pushed through mountain passes into northern
India. Some came to plunder rich Indian cities but stayed to rule. The divided northern kingdoms could not often resist such conquerors.
Despite invasions and war, India developed into a center of world trade. By l00 B.C., Indian textiles, gems, incense, and spices were widely in demand. Merchants sent Indian goods overland into Central
Asia and China. Others took cargoes by sea to the Middle East, Egypt, East Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Shortly before Chandragupta gained power. Alexander the Great had expanded his empire from
Europe across Persia, then into northwestern India. Alexander controlled the Indus Valley for only a few years, but his conquests opened up a trade corridor between India and the Mediterranean world. After
Alexander’s death, descendants of his soldiers set up kingdoms in northwestern India, where Greek styles influenced Buddhist art.
Later, during Maurya times and after, Rome conquered much of the Middle East. There, Romans acquired a taste for Indian goods, stimulating trade between the two regions. Indian merchants sent fine textiles and other luxuries westward to eager Roman buyers.

Although many kingdoms flourished in the Deccan, the most powerful Indian states rose in the north. About
500 years after the Mauryas, the Gupta dynasty again united much of India. Under the Guptas, who ruled from
A.D. 320 to about 550, India enjoyed a golden age. Gupta emperors presided over a dazzling court in the old Maurya capital at Pataliputra. More important, they organized a strong central government that ensured peace and prosperity. Gupta rule was probably looser than that of the Mauryas. Much was left in the hands of individual villages and of city governments elected by merchants and artisans.
Faxian (FAH shee EHN), a Chinese Buddhist monk who visited India in the 400s, left behind a detailed record of life under the Guptas. He reported on the mild nature of Gupta rule : “The people are very well off, without poll tax or official restrictions. Only those who till the royal lands return a portion of the profit of the land as tax. If they desire to go, they go. If they like to stop, they stop. The kings govern without corporal punishment. Criminals are fined, according to circumstances, lightly or heavily.” The Chinese visitor noted that the wealthy set up hospitals for the poor and that, in accordance with Buddhist teachings, most of the people were vegetarians.
Trade and farming flourished across the Gupta empire. Farmers harvested crops of wheat, rice, and sugar cane. In cities, artisans produced cotton cloth, pottery, and metalware for local markets and for export to East Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. The prosperity of Gupta India contributed to a flowering in the arts and learning.
Advances in learning . In India, as elsewhere during this period, students were educated in religious schools. In Hindu and Buddhist centers, learning was not limited to religion and philosophy. The large
Buddhist monastery-university at Nalanda, which attracted students from other parts of Asia, taught mathematics, medicine, physics, languages, literature, and other subjects.
Indian advances in mathematics had a wide impact on the world. Gupta mathematicians devised the simple system of writing numbers that is used today. These numerals are now called “Arabic” numerals because it was Arabs who carried them from India to the Middle East and Europe. Indian mathematicians originated the concept of zero. They also developed the decimal system based on the number 10, which we still use today.
By Gupta times, Indian physicians had pioneered the use of herbs and other remedies to treat illness.
Surgeons were skilled in setting bones and in simple plastic surgery to repair facial injuries. Doctors also began vaccinating people against smallpox about 1,000 years before this practice was used in Europe.
Art and Architecture . Rajahs sponsored the building of magnificent stone temples. Sometimes, cities grew up around the temples to house the thousands of artisans and laborers working there. Hindu temples were designed to reflect cosmic patterns. The ideal shape was a square inscribed in a circle to symbolize eternity. Buddhists built splendid stupas, large dome-shaped shrines that housed the sacred remains of the Buddha or other holy people. The stupas were ringed with enclosed walkways where Buddhist monks slowly walked, chanting their prayers.
While stupas were quite plain, their gateways featured

elaborate carvings that told stories of the life of the Buddha. He was portrayed with a gentle smile symbolizing the inner peace of someone who has reached nirvana. Hindu temples, too, were covered with carvings of gods and goddesses, elephants, monkeys, and ordinary people. A familiar figure is the four-armed god Shiva, who dances the world out of existence and then recreates it again.
On the walls of the cave temples at Ajanta in western India, Buddhist artists painted rich murals recalling Buddhist stories and legends. The wall paintings also reveal scenes of life in Gupta India, from beggars with bowls to sailors at sea to princes courting princesses in lovely flowered gardens.
Literature . During Gupta times, many fine writers added to the rich heritage of Indian literature. They collected and recorded fables and folk tales in the
Sanskrit language. In time, Indian fables were carried west to Persia, Egypt, and Greece.
The greatest Gupta poet and playwright was Kalidasa. His most famous play, Shakuntala, tells the moving story of a king who marries the lovely orphan Shakuntala. Under an evil spell, the king forgets his beloved bride. After many plot twists, he finally recovers his memory and is reunited with her.
Village Life : Most Indians knew nothing of the dazzling courts of the Mauryas or Guptas. The vast majority were peasants who lived in the countless villages that dotted the Indian landscape. In Gupta times, as today, the village ensured stability and order. Throughout India’s history, the village was at the heart of life.
A typical village included a cluster of homes made of earth or stone. Beyond these dwellings stretched the fields, where farmers grew wheat, rice, cotton, sugar cane, or other crops according to region. In most of India, farming depended on the rains brought by the summer monsoons. Too much or too little rain meant famine. Villagers cooperated to build or maintain vital irrigation systems, as well as roads and temples.
Each village ran its own affairs based on caste rules and tradition. It faced little outside interference as long as it paid its share of taxes. A village headman and council made decisions and dealt with outside authorities when necessary. Members of the council included the most respected people of the village. In early times, women served on the village council, but as Hindu law began to place greater restrictions on women, they were later excluded.
Family Life: Within the village, the basic unit was the joint family, in which parents, children, grand children, uncles, and their offspring shared a common dwelling. The joint family was usually achieved only by the wealthy. In poor families, people often died young, so several generations seldom survived long enough to live together. Still, even when relatives did not share the same house, close ties linked brothers, uncles, cousins, and nephews.
The Indian family was patriarchal; that is, the father or oldest male headed the household. Because he was thought to have wisdom and experience, the head of the family enjoyed great authority. Still, his power was limited by sacred laws and tradition. Usually, he made decisions after consulting his wife and other family members. Property belonged to the whole family.
The joint family fostered a sense of security and unity. From an early age, children learned their family duties, which included obeying caste rules. Family interests came before individual wishes.
Children worked with older relatives in the fields or at a family trade. While still young a daughter learned that as a wife she would be expected to serve and obey her husband and his family. A son learned the rituals to honor the family’s ancestors. Such rites linked the living and the dead, deepening family bonds across the generations.
For parents, an important duty was arranging good marriages for their children, based on caste and family interests. Marriage customs varied. In northern India, a brides family commonly provided a dowry,

or payment to the bridegroom, and financed the costly wedding festivities. After marriage, the daughter left her home and became part of her husband’s family.
Women . Attitudes and customs affecting women changed over time and varied across India. In early Aryan society, women seem to have held a higher status than in later times. By early Gupta times, upper-caste
Hindu women could still move freely in society and some were well educated. Women were thought to have shakti, a creative energy, that men lacked. Still, shakti might also be a destructive force.
It was a husband’s duty was to channel his wife’s energy in the proper direction. For a woman, rebirth into a higher existence was gained through devotion to her husband.
By late Gupta times upper-class women were increasingly restricted to the home. When they went outside the home, they were supposed to cover themselves from head to foot. Lower-class women, however, labored in the fields or worked at spinning and weaving. As customs changed, a high- caste widow was forbidden to remarry. In parts of India, she was sometimes expected to become a sati, or
“virtuous woman,” by joining her dead husband on his funeral fire.
Some widows accepted this painful death as a noble duty that wiped out their own and their husbands’ sins. Eyewitness accounts, however, show that other women bitterly resisted the custom.
The Gupta empire reached its height just as the Roman empire in the west collapsed. Before long,
Gupta India also declined under the pressure of civil war, weak rulers and foreign invaders. From central
Asia came the White Huns, a nomadic people who overran the weakened Gupta empire, destroying cities and trade. Once again, India split into many kingdoms. It would see no great empire like those of the
Mauryas or Guptas for almost 1,000 years.