India during the Classical Period

1. India during the Classical Period

2. India during the Classical Period Before the fall of the Indus Valley civilization, a nomadic peoples from the Black Sea region known as the Aryans had 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 south-central part of the sub-continent.

3. India during the Classical Period

4. 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.

5. India during the Classical Period As they settled, their social complexity grew, especially as they interacted with the native Dravidians. This developing culture developed the language and literary form called Sanskrit.

6. 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 Rig-Veda) talk about Aryan gods/goddesses who regulated nature and took human form.

7. 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.

8. India during the Classical Period • Agni, the god of fire, was very important because it was through his sacrificial flames that men could reach the gods.

9. India during the Classical Period Many of the gods/goddesses in the Aryan tradition had similarities to Greek and Scandinavian deities.

10. 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 1000BCE, it wasn’t put into a written form until after 1300 CE. • It was during this early “formative” period that the caste system began to develop.

11. India during the Classical Period

12. India during the Classical Period The Development of the Caste System: The term caste—a social class of hereditary and usually 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. India during the Classical Period Next came the Kshatriya—the warrior-aristocracy, the rulers and government officials who came from the arms of Purusha.

17. 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).

18. 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.

19. 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 intermarried and followed the same occupations as their ancestors. Marriage between castes was forbidden, under penalty of death

20. 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 are a part of this group.

21. India during the Classical Period • Today, these people are known as the Harijan (so named the “Children of God” by Gandhi).

22. 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…”

23. 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.

24. India during the Classical Period • Once he attained “enlightenment,” the Buddha spent the rest of his life spreading his knowledge to others.

25. India during the Classical Period • The Buddha never claimed to be a god, but after his death some of his disciples elevated him to that status. • Even though Buddhism spread, by the third century BCE, it looked as though it would remain a small regional religion.

26. Political Developments: 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

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. 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 will be the “glue” that has held India together for several millennia.

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. India during the Classical Period • The short-lived Mauryan Empire was an impressive political structure, rivaling Persia, Rome, and China.

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. India during the Classical Period A large number of state paid spies provided the rulers with local information.

37. India during the Classical Period • The 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.

38. India during the Classical Period • The most famous of the Mauryan emperors was Chandragupta’s grandson, Ashoka (r 268-232 BCE).

39. India during the Classical Period • Ashoka was initially a ruthless and brutal king who consolidated power and expanded the frontiers of his empire by force. • Legend has it that a particularly bloody battle against the state of Kalinga caused Ashoka to have a revelation.

40. Repulsed by the wanton slaughter and bloodshed of battle (his army reportedly killed in excess of 150,000 people), he converted to Buddhism and turned to more peaceful ways of governing his huge empire. India during the Classical Period

41. 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.”

42. India during the Classical Period • Ashokan pillars.

43. 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, 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 animals.

44. India during the Classical Period • The construction of the Mahabodhi Temple (a Buddhist temple) began with Ashoka. • This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

45. India during the Classical Period • A Buddhist stupa built by Ashoka. A stupa was a domed shaped building that housed religious relics.

46. India during the Classical Period • Ashoka’s dominant image in Indian history is that of a young, brutal warrior who turned responsible monarch, 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.

47. India during the Classical Period • Ashoka’s reign certainly had a different tone than that of 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.

48. 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."

49. India during the Classical Period • But after his death, the Mauryan Empire began to disintegrate, especially when new invaders came in through the northwestern part of the empire. • The last Mauryan king was assassinated in 184 BCE, and for the next 500 years, India went back to the familiar theme of political fragmentation.

50. 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.