India during the Classical Period
India during the Classical Period
 Historians believe that before the fall of
the Indus Valley civilization, a lightskinned, nomadic people from the Black
Sea region known as the Aryans
migrated to the Indian sub-continent.
 After about 1000 BCE, they had settled
in the area between the Himalayan
foothills and the Ganges River, and by
500 BCE they had migrated as far south
as the Deccan plateau in the southcentral part of the sub-continent.
India during the Classical Period
India during the Classical Period
 As these nomadic peoples settled, they
cleared great forests for cultivation and
fuel.
 As a result, major climatic changes
began to occur in India (as they
occurred in other places doing the same
thing).
 At first, Aryan society was probably a
fairly simple one of farmers and herders
led by warrior chiefs and priests.
India during the Classical Period
 As they settled, their social complexity grew,
especially as they interacted with the native,
darker skinned Dravidians.
 This developing culture developed the language
and literary form called Sanskrit.
India during the Classical Period
 Sacred texts were developed, as oral
traditions and stories were written down.
 These early texts were known as the Vedas.
 The early part of Indian history is often called
the Vedic Age, and the term Veda is Sanskrit
for “knowledge.”
 The early Vedas (the most famous is the RigVeda) talk about Aryan gods/goddesses who
regulated nature and took human form.
India during the Classical Period
 The Aryan religion centered on
sacrificial concepts; through sacrifice
the process of creation which the gods
achieved at the beginning of time would
be endlessly repeated.
 Great importance was given to the
Brahmins, the priests who presided over
these ceremonies.
India during the Classical Period
 Many of the gods/goddesses in the Aryan
tradition had similarities to Greek and
Scandinavian deities.
India during the Classical Period
 The Rig-Veda reflected an Aryan culture
that was shaped after it settled in India.
 Even though its hymns are believed to
be from before 1000 BCE, it wasn’t put
into a written form until after 1300 CE.
 It was during this early “formative”
period that Hinduism and the caste
system began to develop.
India during the Classical Period
 Brahman: The Hindu vision of God or
the universal spirit. Brahman is the
absolute, unchanging, ultimate reality
that exists beyond the everyday world.
 Atman: The Hindu vision of the “soul” or
self.
 For many Hindus, the only real things are
the Brahman and the Atman…everything
else in this world is an illusion.
India during the Classical Period
 In Hinduism, living things don’t just have one
life, they are in an endless cycle (about
1,000) of birth, life, death, rebirth.
 This endless cycle is called samsara (“cosmic
flow, endless wandering”).
India during the Classical Period
 The power that keeps the wheel of
samsara spinning is Karma…the
universal system of complete
justice…where “as you sow, so shall you
reap.”
 Good karma leads to more good karma,
and bad karma leads to more bad karma.
 Transmigration of the soul (reincarnation)
is the process, lead by karma, where a
soul (Atman) is reborn.
India during the Classical Period
 Eventually, the goal is to reach moksha
(Nirvanna), when your soul has attained
total enlightenment.
 One must be a male Brahmin to reach
Nirvanna.
 It is said that “by knowing God, man is
freed of all bonds.”
India during the Classical Period
India during the Classical Period
 The Development of the Caste System:
 The term caste—a social class of hereditary
and unchangeable status—was first used in
India by Portuguese merchants and
mariners during the 16th century CE when
they observed sharp social distinctions
among the Indian people.
 The Aryans used the term varna, a Sanskrit
word meaning “color,” to refer to their social
classes.
India during the Classical Period
 By about 1000 BCE,
the Aryans
recognized four
major varnas and
explained them in
their creation myth
which revolved
around the father of
humankind,
Purusha.
India during the Classical Period
 The first Aryan epic, the Rig-Veda
attributed the rise of the caste system to
the gods:
 “When they divided the original Man into how many
parts did they divide him?
 What was his mouth, what were his arms, what were
his thighs and his feet called?
 The Brahmin was his mouth, of his arms was made
the warrior.
 His thighs became the vaishya, of his feet the shudra
was born.”
India during the Classical Period
 Brahmins: the highest social classes were
the priests and scholars, who sprang from
Purusha’s mouth, and represented intellect,
knowledge, and wisdom.
 Brahmins were the “lightest” in skin color.
India during the Classical Period
 Next came the Kshatriya—the warrior-
aristocracy, the rulers and government
officials who came from the arms of
Purusha.
India during the Classical Period
 The third layer of
people, the Vaishya,
came from
Purusha’s thighs.
They were the
landowners,
merchants, artisans
(or skilled laborers).
India during the Classical Period
 The fourth level, the Sudra (or Shudra),
came from Purusha’s feet. They were the
common peasants, (unskilled) laborers, and
servants.
India during the Classical Period
 During the classical era, the caste system
became much more complex with each caste
further subdivided into jati, or birth groups,
each with its own occupation, duties, and
rituals.
 Each jati had little contact with others, and its
members married and followed the same
occupations as their ancestors.
 Marriage between castes (often even between
jati) was forbidden, under penalty of death
India during the Classical Period
 A fifth group eventually developed,
considered so low, they didn’t even merit
a caste designation.
 Called the Dalits (or untouchables), they
were relegated to the jobs considered the
most “polluted” or defiling (handling
garbage, dead bodies, animal skins, etc).
Nearly 20% of all Indians were a part of
this group.
India during the Classical Period
 Today, these people
are known as the
Harijan (so named
the “Children of God”
by Gandhi).
India during the Classical Period
 A good example of how women were
regarded in classical India comes from the
Lawbook of Manu (1st century BCE):
 “It is the nature of women to seduce men in this world;
for that reason the wise are never unguarded in the
company of females…
 In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in
youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons;
a woman must never be independent.
 She must not seek to separate herself from her father,
husband, or sons; by leaving them she would make both
her own and her husband’s families contemptible…”
India during the Classical Period
 During the early classical period another of
the world’s major religions developed,
Buddhism.
 Founded by Siddhartha Gautama (563-483
BCE), a member of a Kshatriya family in
northeastern India.
 He led the life of a prince, comfortable and
isolated. But he wanted to know the true
meaning of existence, so he abandoned
the life of pleasure.
India during the Classical Period
 The Buddha believed that
“desire” was the root cause
of all human suffering and
that to end suffering, one
must end desire.
 Once he attained
“enlightenment,” the Buddha
spent the rest of his life
spreading his knowledge to
others.
India during the Classical Period
 The Buddha never claimed to be divine,
but after his death some of his disciples
elevated him to that status (Mahayana).
 Even though Buddhism spread, by the
third century BCE, it looked as though it
would remain a small regional religion.
India during the Classical Period
 Political developments
greatly impacted the
growth of Buddhism,
particularly after
Ashoka, the third and
greatest ruler of the
Mauryan Empire
converted to it.
India during the Classical Period
 India, among the great classical
civilizations, developed in sharp
contrast to China.
 By 600 BCE, classical India was
emerging as a fragmented collection of
towns and cities, some small republics
governed by public assemblies, and
some regional states ruled by kings.
India during the Classical Period
 A large range of ethnic, cultural, and
linguistic diversity characterized this
civilization, as an endless variety of
peoples migrated into India from Central
Asia across the mountain passes in the
northwest.
 Add to this the countless terrains of India:
mountains, river valleys, forests, steppes,
and deserts—all made transportation and
communication difficult.
India during the Classical Period
 India’s recognizable identity and
character didn’t develop from an imperial
tradition nor ethnolinguistic commonality;
it developed because of a distinctive
religious tradition (Hinduism) and the
unique social system of caste.
 These would be the “glue” that held India
together for several millennia.
India during the Classical Period
 Despite this, emperors and empires were
not entirely unknown in India’s long
history.
 Northwestern India had been briefly ruled
by the Persian Empire and then
conquered by Alexander the Great.
India during the Classical Period
 These Persian and Greek influences
helped stimulate the first and largest of
India’s experiments with a large-scale
political system, the Mauryan Empire
(322-184 BCE).
 Founded by a young soldier named
Chandragupta Maurya, the Mauryan
Empire was the first to unify most of the
Indian subcontinent.
India during the Classical Period
 The short-lived Mauryan Empire was an
impressive political structure, rivaling the
power of Persia, Rome, and China.
India during the Classical Period
 The Mauryan Empire might have had as
many as 50 million people, with a military
force reputed to have 600,000 soldiers of
infantry, 30,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots,
and 9,000 elephants.
India during the Classical Period
 The caste system was in place across
the sub-continent, and even though
religious beliefs were shared, the
hundreds of jati separated people into
groups of identification…so political
authority wasn’t as important as caste
status.
India during the Classical Period
 The Mauryan Empire began in eastern
India in the state of Magadha.
 The kingdom was wealthy and
strategically located along the trade
routes of the Ganges River Valley.
 The Mauryan Empire created a civilian
bureaucracy and several ministries to
help manage the large empire.
India during the Classical Period
 A large number
of state paid
spies provided
the rulers with
local
information.
India during the Classical Period
 A famous treatise called the Arthashastra
(The Science of Worldly Wealth) was written
by Chandragupta’s Chief Minister Kautilya. It
was Machiavellian 15 centuries before
Machiavelli wrote The Prince.
 It was realpolitik…how the political world truly
operated…and it instructed a king how to be
calculating and sometimes brutal (instead of
morally just) to preserve the state and
common good.
India during the Classical Period
 The Mauryan state operated many
industries—spinning, weaving, mining,
shipbuilding, weapons manufacturing,
even a postal system.
 This was financed by taxes on trade, on
herds of animals, and especially on
land, which the emperor claimed ¼ of
the crop.
India during the Classical Period
 The most famous of the Mauryan emperors
was Chandragupta’s grandson, Ashoka
(r 268-232 BCE).
India during the Classical Period
 Ashoka was not his father’s chosen
successor and there was a struggle for
succession to the throne (which explains
the 4 year gap between rulers).
 Legend says there were 99 brothers in
Ashoka’s way, and he ruthlessly had all but
one killed (that one was a Buddhist
monk—a career choice probably made for
self-preservation).
India during the Classical Period
 The legend also says Ashoka visited
Hell so he could construct something
similar on Earth, equipped with the
latest instruments of exquisite torture,
for all who incurred his displeasure.
 Legend has it that eight years into his
reign there was a particularly bloody
battle against the state of Kalinga
(today’s Orissa) which caused Ashoka
to have a revelation.
India during the Classical Period
 Ashoka was initially a ruthless and brutal
king who faithfully followed the dictates
of the Arthashastra by consolidating
power and expanding the frontiers of his
empire by force.
India during the Classical Period
 Repulsed by the wanton
slaughter and bloodshed
of battle (his army
reportedly killed in excess
of 150,000 people and
another 150,000 were
deported), he converted to
Buddhism and turned to
more peaceful ways of
governing his huge
empire.
India during the Classical Period
 He had edicts carved into rocks and pillars
throughout the empire promoting his
philosophy of nonviolence and toleration
for Hinduism and the many sects and
varied religious culture of India.
 He referred to all Indians as “my children,”
and he promised to work for “every kind of
happiness in this world and the next.”
 Only 19 pillars have survived.
India during the Classical Period
 Ashokan pillars.
India during the Classical Period
 This is the most
famous pillar capital
erected by Ashoka
(c. 250 BCE).
 Located at Sarnath,
the four lions stand
above the symbolic
wheel, which has
become the national
symbol of India.

India during the Classical Period
 Living up to this philosophy, he abandoned his
much loved royal hunts, ended animal
sacrifices in the capital, eliminated most meat
from the royal menu, and he generously
supported Buddhist monasteries.
 He ordered the digging of wells, the planting of
shade trees, clearly marked milestones, and
the building of rest stops along the empire’s
major roads trying to integrate and improve
the empire’s economy by aiding travelers and
India during the Classical Period
 The construction of
the Mahabodhi
Temple (a Buddhist
temple) began with
Ashoka. It is located
on the spot where
the Buddha attained
enlightenment.
 This is a UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
India during the Classical Period
 A Buddhist stupa built by Ashoka. A
stupa was a domed shaped building
that housed Buddhist religious relics.
India during the Classical Period
India during the Classical Period
 Ashoka’s reign certainly had a different
tone than that of Qin Shi Huangdi or of
Alexander the Great, (who, according to
legend, wept because there were no
more worlds to conquer).
 Ashoka’s policies made for good politics
as well as morality.
 It was an effort to develop an inclusive
and integrative moral code for an
extremely diverse peoples.
India during the Classical Period
 Ashoka’s dominant image in Indian
history is that of a young, brutal warrior
who turned responsible monarch, a
philosopher-king, who established a
reign of virtue and saw himself as the
father of his people.
 Ashoka is considered by many in India
to be one of the greatest emperors in
their history (and one of the few leaders
mentioned by name on AP exams).
India during the Classical Period
 The British historian and novelist H.G. Wells
(War of the Worlds) wrote: "Amidst the tens
of thousands of names of monarchs that
crowd the columns of history ... the name of
Ashoka shines, and shines almost alone, a
star."
India during the Classical Period
 But after his death (231 BCE), the
Mauryan Empire began to disintegrate,
especially when new invaders from
central Asia came in through the
northwestern part of India.
 The last Mauryan king (considered a
“half-wit”) was assassinated in 184 BCE
by his military chief, and for the next 500
years, India went back to the familiar
theme of political fragmentation.
India during the Classical Period
 The assassin was a Brahman, and was
apparently no friend of the Buddhists
(suggesting an orthodox Hindu backlash).
 The dynasty he founded was known as the
Shunga, and they presided over a
disintegrating kingdom for about 110 years.
 The last Shunga, reportedly “overfond of
women’s company,” was assassinated by
the daughter of one of his female
companions.
India during the Classical Period
 In the 1st century CE a people known as
the Kushans, came from the northwest.
 Their greatest king, Kanishka, also
converted to Buddhism causing Buddhism
to decline in India because it became
associated with outsiders.
India during the Classical Period
 When the Kushan kingdom collapsed
around 220 CE, India went through
another long period of fragmentation,
turbulence, and political instability.
 The five hundred years between the
Mauryas and the Guptas (c 200 BCE300 CE) is often known as India’s “Dark
Age.”
India during the Classical Period
 By 320 CE a new Indian empire was
established, the Gupta Empire.
 Founded by Chandra Gupta I r. c 320-335
CE (no relation), he modeled himself after
the Mauryan founder by borrowing his
name and beginning his empire in the same
place (Magadha).
India during the Classical Period
 Though not as large
as the Mauryan
Empire, the Gupta
period was
culturally superior,
considered by many
to be the “Golden
Age” of India.
India during the Classical Period
 In the 4th-5th centuries CE, while Rome was
being overrun by “barbarians” and its
empire was disintegrating, the Gupta were
experiencing the most prosperous era in
Indian history (to that point).
 The empire thrived in trade, crafts, the arts,
agriculture, and religious expression (both
Hindu and Buddhist).
India during the Classical Period
 Though smaller than its Mauryan
predecessor, the Gupta did not build
much of a bureaucracy…they preferred
to receive tribute from the regional
warrior aristocrats.
 These regional warrior elites had a
great deal of autonomy to rule their
lands as they pleased as long as they
sent tribute.
India during the Classical Period
 Rather than rule by force/coercion, the
Gupta were known for negotiating and
the intermarriage of royal/aristocratic
families to preserve and expand power.
 The Gupta was a short lived dynasty
(about 215 years), being overthrown by
the central-Asian Huns in 535 CE.
 India then went back to the familiar
pattern of fragmentation and regional
politics.
India during the Classical Period
 The wall-paintings of Ajanta Cave
(created during the Gupta period) in the
central Deccan are considered among
the greatest and most powerful works of
Indian art.
 There are forty-eight caves making up
Ajanta, most of which were carved out
of solid rock between 460-480 CE, and
they are filled with Buddhist sculptures.
India during the Classical Period
 The Ajanta Caves.
India during the Classical Period
India during the Classical Period
India during the Classical Period
 The Gupta Empire was sometimes known as
a “Theatre State” which was a technique (also
used by the Persians) to awe subjects into
remaining loyal to the ruling family.
 The ruler took the title “King of Kings” and he
required tribute to be brought to his capital,
where a splendid palace, magnificent
buildings, beautiful grounds, spectacular
entertainment, and elaborate costumes were
designed to impress visitors.
India during the Classical Period
 Even though religion (Hinduism &
Buddhism) played a major part in classical
Indian culture (both during the Mauryan
and Guptan periods) it was not the only
enduring part.
 India developed a tradition of mathematical
and scientific learning (especially in
astronomy and medicine) that rivaled any
of their contemporaries.
India during the Classical Period
 Much of this scholarship
occurred at one of the
world’s first universities
(in the town of Nalanda).
 The curriculum included
religion, history,
philosophy, medicine,
mathematics,
astronomy, architecture,
and agriculture.
India during the Classical Period
 Indian astronomers accurately calculated a
solar year (365 days) and calculated the
circumference of the earth (just under
25,000 miles). They knew the Earth was
round.
 Indian astronomers calculated the earth’s
daily rotation on its axis, predicted solar
eclipses, developed a theory of gravity
(1300 years before Newton), and developed
a telescope (1200 years before Galileo) that
could see seven planets.
India during the Classical Period
 Indian medicine developed early plastic
surgery and improved bone setting.
 Smallpox inoculations were developed
1300 years before the Europeans.
 India was among the first to create not
only the idea of a hospital, but
cleanliness within it.
 Indian doctors knew how to sterilize
wounds.
India during the Classical Period
 The Indian practice of medicine called
Ayurveda (means “the science of life and
longevity”) developed during this time.
 Unlike medical practices in the West,
Ayurveda focuses on treatment of the
person rather than the disease.
 Rather than diagnosing and treating a
virus or bacteria, Ayurveda looks at the
total patient (diet, body type, personality,
mental state, etc).
India during the Classical Period
 In mathematics, we owe classical India our
numbering system (it’s not really Arabic
even though we call it that), the concept of
zero, the concept of decimals, and
negative numbers.
 Indian mathematicians developed square
roots, a table of sines/cosines, and
calculated pi more accurately than the
Greeks.
 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693
993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348
253421170679…
India during the Classical Period
 Indian steel was the
world’s best and their
capacity to make iron
was equaled by Europe
only within the last 200
years.
 The “Iron Pillar” of Delhi
(23.5’ high – 6 tons)
erected during the
Gupta period…it doesn’t
rust.
India during the Classical Period
 In Sanskrit, the inscription on the pillar reads:



He, on whose arm fame was inscribed by the sword, when, in battle in the Vanga
countries (Bengal), he kneaded (and turned) back with (his) breast the enemies
who, uniting together, came against (him); he, by whom, having crossed in
warfare the seven mouths of the (river) Sindhu, the Valikas were conquered; he,
by the breezes of whose prowess the southern ocean is even still perfumed;
(Line 3.) He, the remnant of the great zeal of whose energy, which utterly
destroyed (his) enemies, like (the remnant of the great glowing heat) of a burnedout fire in a great forest, even now leaves not the earth; though he, the king, as if
wearied, has quit this earth, and has gone to the other world, moving in (bodily)
from to the land (of paradise) won by (the merit of his) actions, (but) remaining on
(this) earth by (the memory of his) fame;
(L. 5.) By him, the king,-who attained sole supreme sovereignty in the world,
acquired by his own arm and (enjoyed) for a very long time; (and) who, having
the name of Chandra, carried a beauty of countenance like (the beauty of) the
full-moon,-having in faith fixed his mind upon (the god) Vishnu, this lofty standard
of the divine Vishnu was set up on the hill (called) Vishnupada.
India during the Classical Period
 Indian literature during this period
included the five volume Panchatantra
(designed to teach children morals), and
an early version of Cinderella.
 Indian drama flourished with stories of
heroes, damsels in distress, and romantic
adventure.
India during the Classical Period
 In economics, classical India rivaled
China in sophistication and prosperity.
 Besides Chinese silk, Indian textiles
(cotton, calico, cashmere) were the finest
in the world.
India during the Classical Period
 Indian textiles (especially cotton) were
traded throughout the entire AfroEurasian world.
 Strong guilds of merchants and artisans
provided political leadership in major
cities and the wealth they generated
supported lavish temples, public
buildings, and religious festivals.
India during the Classical Period
 Merchants in India attained relatively
high caste status (Vaishya), as India
promoted merchant activity more than
China or the Mediterranean.
 Indian merchants were among the
world’s most traveled, spreading ideas
to and from the Roman Empire, the
Middle East, southeast Asia, and China.
India during the Classical Period
 Classical India’s influence in religion,
culture, mathematics, science, and
manufacturing has had profound impacts
on regions well beyond its borders ever
since the fall of the Gupta Empire.
 For core remnants to have survived into
the contemporary era is a testament to
India’s ingenuity, flexibility and
adaptability.