Chapter 3:
Classical India
AP World History
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
India’s Location in the
World
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
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
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!
Climate
• Much of India is semitropical
– In the River Valley plains
summer brings
monsoons.
– Indian population has
been forced to adjust to
the monsoon cycle…for
good, and bad
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
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.
Literary Traditions
• Much of what we know about the “preclassical” 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
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…
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Alexander the Great
• In 327 BCE, Alexander the Great,
conquered most of Greece and the
Middle East…establishes a border
state, called Bactria.
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
Chandragupta Maurya
• Maintained large armies
with thousands of
chariots and elephant
borne troops
• Highly autocratic
Ashoka
• Chandragupta’s
grandson, ASHOKA
(269-232 BCE) was at
first, governor of two
Indian provinces
– Leads Mauryan
conquests in the whole
subcontinent of India,
minus the southern tip
– bloodthirsty
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
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
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
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
Politics in Classical India
• 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
• 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
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
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
The Caste System
• In a sense,
the caste
system led to
tolerance
• Avoided
outright
slavery
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
Caste
• Assigned people to an occupation
• Regulated marriages
• Peasant villages less contact with
higher social caste
Guptas- UniversityNalanda
•
•
•
•
100 lecture halls
3 large libraries
Astronomical observatory
religion, philosophy, medicine,
architecture, and agriculture
Science
•
•
•
•
•
Greek and Alex Great
Aryabhatta- circumference of earth
Understood daily rotations of earth
Predicted and explained eclipses
Theory of gravity
Medicine
• Dissection prohibited for reigious
reasons
• Advances in bone setting and plastic
surgury
• Cowpox serum to treat smallpox
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
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
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
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.
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
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)
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
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