INTRODUCTION

DISCOVERY — Harappan ruins

In 1872 and 1873 CE British official and amateur archaeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham, recently tapped to lead the Archaeological Survey of India, was out on a survey of possible sites for excavation when he happened across what appeared to be the remains of an abandoned town near a small stop on the Indian Railway in the Punjab called “Harappa.” It was evident that the primary use of the town in 1872 was as a source of bricks for building new homes for local residents. A quick survey of the site showed him that the bricks he found were very old, and he also discovered a seal, lying in the ruins, that bore symbols and writing that were unknown to him. He marked the site for protection and later excavation.

Nearly fifty years later, in 1920, Daya Ram Sahni, soon to be the first Indian to lead the Archaeological Survey of India, began excavation of the site. He named it “Harappa” after the name of the modern railway station. During his excavation, he and his team discovered that this ‘town’ was more of a city, and that it was a part of a large civilization with advanced technological capabilities. Harappa yielded evidence of urban planning, with its streets intersecting at right angles. There was evidence of discrete systems for pumping clean water directly to individual homes, and for removing waste from the city which was surrounded by productive fields, There was also evidence that Harrapa’s inhabitants used standardized weights and measures. Within a short time it became clear that the Indus River Valley was the home of one of the world’s earliest advanced civilizations. Today, although we still cannot read the writing, we call this society the Indus Valley civilization, and we know that they traded with and had representatives living in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Indeed, it appears that the Indus Valley Civilization was the source of the lapis lazuli that adorned the bodies of rulers and decorated the walls of their palaces and tombs in the Middle East for centuries. The discoveries made by Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni have revolutionized our understanding of ancient history, pushing the start of Indian history back almost 1000 years.

OVERVIEW

The Indus Valley civilization (2,600–1,700 BCE) represents the start of India’s long history. Much like the states of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, the foundations for that history were established by Paleolithic foragers who migrated to and populated the region, then expanded by Neolithic agriculturalists who settled into villages. During the 3rd millennium BCE, building on these foundations, urban centers emerged along the Indus River, exhibiting elements that reflected the emergence of a new civilization.

This Indus civilization, however, faded away by 1700 BCE, and was followed by a new stage in India’s history. As the Indus declined, India experienced waves of migrations from the mountainous northwest by a people who referred to themselves as Aryans. The Aryans brought a distinctive language and way of life to the northern half of India and, after first migrating into the Punjab and Indus Valley, pushed east along the Ganges River and settled down into a life of farming and pastoralism. As they interacted with indigenous peoples, a new period in India’s history took shape. That period is known as the Vedic Age (1,700–600 BCE).

During the long course of the Vedic Age, states formed in northern India. The surpluses from farming and pastoralism allowed people to engage in a multitude of other occupations and made for a lively trade. Villages grew in number and some became towns. Consequently, there was a need for greater leadership, provided by chieftains of the many Aryan clans. Over time, higher levels of political organization developed and these chieftains became kings or the leaders of clan assemblies. By the end of the Vedic Age, northern India was divided into 16 major kingdoms and oligarchies.

The ensuing three centuries (c. 600–321 BCE) were a time of transition as states fought with each other over territory. The most successful state was the one that could most effectively administer its land, mobilize its resources and, by so doing, field the largest armies. That state was the kingdom of Magadha which, by the 4th century BCE, had gained control of much of northern India along the Ganges River. In 321 BCE, the last king of Magadha was overthrown by one of his subjects, Chandragupta Maurya, and a new period in India’s history began. Through war and diplomacy, he and his two successors established control over most of India, forging the first major empire in the history of South Asia: the Mauryan Empire (321–184 BCE). Chandragupta’s grandson, King Ashoka, ended the military conquests and sought to rule his land through Buddhist principles of non-violence and tolerance. But after his time, the empire rapidly declined, and India entered a new stage in its history.

After the Mauryan Empire fell, no one major power held control over a substantial part of India for five hundred years. Rather, from c. 200 BCE to 300 CE, India saw a fairly rapid turnover of numerous, regional kingdoms. After 300 CE and up to the 15th century, India was not unified for any length of time by one large empire. For that reason, historians highlight those regional kingdoms that became substantial powers and contributed in other important ways to India’s development. The period 300–600 CE, for instance, is often referred to as the Gupta Period and the Classical Age. The Guptas (c. 320–550) were rulers who forged an impressive empire in northern India. As their empire flourished, Indian intellectuals set standards for excellence in the fields of art, architecture, literature, and science, in part because of Gupta patronage. Important kingdoms also developed in South India.

The last period covered in this chapter is early medieval India (c. 600–1300 CE). After the Gupta Empire, and during the following seven centuries, political fragmentation intensified as numerous regional kingdoms large and small frequently turned over. Confronting such an unstable and fluid political scene, medieval kings granted land to loyal subordinate rulers and high officers of their courts. The resulting political and economic pattern is referred to as Indian feudalism. Kings put their greatness on display by waging war and building magnificent Hindu temples in their capital cities. During the medieval period, a new political and religious force entered the Indian scene as Muslim Arab and Turkic traders and conquerors arrived on the subcontinent.

This overview briefly summarizes major periods in India’s political history. But the history of a civilization consists of more than just rulers and states, which is why historians also pay close attention to social, cultural, and economic life. This attention is especially important for India. Although the Asian subcontinent experienced a long succession of kingdoms and empires, and was usually divided up into several at any particular point in its history, peoples over time came to share some things in common. Socially, the peoples of India were largely organized by the caste system. Culturally, the peoples of India were deeply influenced by the development of Hinduism and Buddhism, two major religious traditions that shaped people’s understanding of the world and their place in it. And throughout the ancient and medieval periods, India flourished as a civilization because of its dynamic economy. The peoples of India shared in that too, as they were linked in networks of trade and exchange not only with other parts of South Asia but also with neighboring regions of the Afro-Eurasian world through the Indian Ocean and Silk Road links

ANCIENT INDIA

The Geography of South Asia

India’s dynamic history alternated between periods when the subcontinent was partially unified by empires, and periods when it was composed of a shifting mosaic of regional states. This history was also impacted by influxes of migrants and invaders. In thinking about the reasons for these patterns, historians highlight the size of India and its diverse geography and peoples.

It is important to remember that “India” can mean different things. Today, India usually designates the nation-state of India. But modern India only formed in 1947 and includes much less territory than India did in ancient times. The term India was first invented by the ancient Greeks to refer to the Indus River and the lands and people beyond it. When used in this sense, India includes today’s nation of Pakistan. In fact, for the purpose of studying earlier history, India can be thought of as a territory that includes at least seven countries today: India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. This territory is also referred to as South Asia or the Indian subcontinent.

The Indian subcontinent is where Indian civilization took shape. But that civilization was not created by one people, race, or ethnic group, and it doesn’t make sense to see India’s history as the history of one Indian people. Rather, the history of this region was shaped by a multitude of ethnic groups who spoke many different languages and lived and moved about on a diverse terrain suited to diverse livelihoods.

Large natural boundaries define the subcontinent. Mountain ranges ring the north, and bodies of water surround the rest. To the east lies the Bay of Bengal, to the south the Indian Ocean, and to the west the Arabian Sea. The largest mountain range is the Himalaya, which defines India’s northern and northeastern boundary. A subrange of the Himalaya – the Hindu Kush – sits at its western end, while a ridge running from north to south defines the eastern end, dividing India from China and mainland Southeast Asia. To the northwest, the Suleiman Range and Kirthar Range complete what might seem like impassable barriers. Yet, these ranges are punctuated by a few narrow passes that connect India to Central Asia and West Asia. Most notable is the Khyber Pass, an important passageway through the Himalayas making possible trade links as well as periodic migrations. The Khyber pass also periodically enabled disruptive invading forces to enter India from the northwest. So while relative isolation provided Indian civilization the opportunity to cultivate distinctive cultural traditions over long centuries of isolation, during key points in its history India was significantly impacted by outside influences coming through the Khyber Pass.

To the south of the mountain ranges lie the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the two great rivers of northern India that comprise it: the Indus River and the Ganges River. These rivers originate in the Himalaya and are regularly fed by snow melt and monsoon rains. The Indus River, which is located in the northwest and drains into the Arabian Sea, can be divided into an upper and lower region. The region comprising the upper Indus and its many tributary rivers is called the Punjab, while the region surrounding the lower Indus is referred to as the Sindh. The Ganges River begins in the western Himalaya and flows southeast across northern India before draining into the Bay of Bengal. Because they could support large populations, the plains surrounding these river systems served as the heartland for India’s first major states and empires.

Peninsular India is also an important part of the story because over time great regional kingdoms emerged in the south. The peninsula is divided from northern India by the Vindhya Mountains, to the south of which lies the Deccan Plateau. This arid plateau is bordered by two coastal ranges – the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats, beyond which are narrow coastal plains, the Malabar Coast and the Coromandel Coast. The nearly 4600 miles of coastline is important to India’s history because it linked fishing and trading communities to the Indian Ocean and, therefore, the rest of Afro-Eurasia. Sri Lanka is an island located about thirty kilometers southeast of the southernmost tip of India; this region served as an important conduit for trade and cultural contacts beyond India.

THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

A century of archaeological work in India began in 1920 that not only revealed a lost civilization but a massive one, surpassing in size other major early river civilizations of ancient Egypt and the Mesopotamian states. In an area spanning roughly a half million square miles, archaeologists excavated thousands of settlements reflecting a hierarchy of settlements based on size and sophistication. The top tier consists of five major cities, each spread out over roughly 250 acres. One of these, Harappa was first excavated and thus initially the entire civilization was named the Harappan Civilization. A second great city discovered was Mohenjo-Daro. At the bottom of the hierarchy were fifteen thousand smaller agricultural and craft villages, about 2.5 acres each. Between the top and bottom lay two tiers with several dozen towns ranging in size from 15 to 150 acres. Because the majority of these settlements were situated near the Indus River in the northwestern region of the subcontinent, this civilization is also called the Indus Valley Civilization.

As with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, archaeologists have been able to trace how this civilization evolved out of simpler agricultural villages of the Neolithic period. On the subcontinent, farming and domestication of animals began c. 7000 BCE, about 2000 years after these changes occurred in the Fertile Crescent. To the west of the Indus River, along the foothills of Baluchistan, the remains of numerous small villages have been found that date back to this time.

Excavations throughout this region show a pattern of development whereby settlements start looking more like towns than villages: ground plans become larger, include the foundations of houses and streets, and are conveniently located by the most fertile land or places for trade. Similar artifacts spread over larger areas show that the local communities building these towns were becoming linked together in trade networks. Archaeologists date this transitional period when India was on the verge of its first civilization from 5,000 to 2,600 BCE. The mature phase, with its full-blown cities, begins from 2,600 BCE, roughly four centuries after the Sumerian city-states blossomed and Egypt was unified under one kingdom.

The ruins of Mohenjo-Daro and other Indus cities dating to this mature phase suggest a vibrant society thriving in competently planned and managed urban areas. Some of the principal purposes of these urban settlements included coordinating the distribution of local surplus resources, obtaining desired goods from more distant places, and turning raw materials into commodities for trade. Mohenjo-Daro, for instance, was located along the lower reaches of the Indus. That meant it was conveniently built amidst an abundance of resources: fertile flood plains for agriculture, pasture for grazing domesticated animals, and waters for fishing and fowling. The city itself consisted of several mounds—elevated areas upon which structures and roads were built. A larger mound served as a core, fortified area where public functions likely took place. It contained a wall and large buildings, including what archaeologists call a Great Bath and Great Hall. Other mounds were the location of the residential and commercial sectors of the city. Major avenues laid out on a grid created city blocks. Within a block, multistory dwellings opening up to interior courtyards were constructed out of bricks baked in kilns. Regardless of population size, Indus towns and cities were built according to the same template, with streets running in a carefully planned grid pattern on a north-south axis. The size of homes in each city was standardized, and those standards varied with the class of the inhabitants. The cities were planned so that various professions lived within the same district and neighborhood, and shared communal conveniences. In each town and city was a central artificially constructed hill on which brick walls enclosed a defensive citadel with standard armaments. Millenia before the Qin Dynasty in China, weights and measures were standardized throughout the entire Indus Valley civilization so that, uniquely among civilizations of this age, trade could be carried on smoothly from city to city without meticulous conversion of values. Streets and roads were of standard width throughout, and nearly every major town or city that has been excavated also showed remarkable commitment to hygiene and advanced technology with particular attention paid to public sanitation. Residences not only had private wells and baths, but also toilets drained by earthenware pipes that ushered the sewage into covered drains located under the streets.

Artifacts tell of a vibrant city life. Farmers and pastoralists brought their grain and stock to the city for trade or to place it in warehouses managed by the authorities. Laborers dug the wells and collected trash from rectangular bins sitting beneath rubbish chutes. Craftsmen worked copper and tin into bronze tools, fired ceramics, and manufactured jewelry and beads out of gold, copper, semi-precious stones, and ivory. Merchants traveling near and far carried raw materials and finished goods by bullock carts or boats to dozens of towns and cities throughout the region. One of the most commonly found items in the Indus Valley excavations are children’s toys. These toys tell a story about the society as well. Most of the toys are figures and dolls, models of ox carts with working wheels and oxen attached, and boats. These toys all reflect a societal emphasis on trade, no warrior figures have been found.

Reading the Past – Terracotta Figurines

View the slideshow: “Embodying Indus Life” slideshow, Harappa.com

Link: https://www.harappa.com/slideshows/embodying-indus-life

Some goods also went to foreign lands. Harappan cities located along the coast of the Arabian Sea engaged in coastal shipping that brought goods as far as the Persian Gulf and the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. In Mesopotamian city-states, Harappan seals and beads have been found, and Mesopotamian sources speak of a certain place called “Meluhha,” a land with ivory, gold, and lapis lazuli. That was the Indus Valley Civilization, indicating cities like Mohenjo-Daro were linked to networks of exchange.

Unlike ancient Egypt and Sumer, however, this civilization has not yet provided sources we can read which poses major problems of interpretation. True, over 4000 inscribed objects with at least 400 different signs recurring in various frequencies have been found on clay, copper tablets, and small, square seals excavated primarily at the major cities. But the heroic efforts of philologists to decipher the language have failed to yield results. Thus, some historians call this civilization proto-historic, distinguishing it from both prehistoric cultures that have no writing and historic ones with written sources that we can read. The proto-historical state of the evidence leaves many questions concerning Harappan people’s political organization and beliefs unanswered. On the one hand, much uniformity in the archaeological record across the region suggests coordination in planning – cities and towns were similarly designed, fired bricks had the same dimensions, and weights were standardized. On the other hand, the ruins lack structures that can be clearly identified as palaces, temples, or large tombs. In other words, there is little evidence for either a central political authority ruling over an empire or for independent city-states. One intriguing artifact found in Mohenjo-Daro is a small sculpture of a bearded man made of soapstone. The dignified appearance suggests he may have been a priest or king, or even both. Perhaps he and other priests purified themselves in the Great Bath for ritual purposes. Yet, this is purely speculation, as the sculpture is unique. He may also have been a powerful landowner or wealthy merchant who met with others of a similar status in assemblies convened in the Great Hall of the citadel. Perhaps local assemblies of just such elites governed each city.

Religious beliefs are also difficult to determine. Again, some of the principal evidence consists of small artifacts such as figurines and the square seals. The seals were carved out of a soft stone called steatite and then fired so they would harden. They contain images of animals and humans, typically with writing above. Mostly, they were used to imprint the identity of a merchant or authorities on goods. However, some of the images may have had religious significance. For example, hundreds of “unicorn seals” display images of a mythical animal that resembles a species of cattle. These cattle are usually placed over an object, variously interpreted as a trough or altar. Perhaps these were symbols of deities or animals used for sacrificial rituals. Equally as interesting are the numerous female clay figurines. These may have been used for fertility rituals or to pay homage to a goddess.

The decline of Harappan civilization set in from 1,900 BCE and was complete 200 years later. The towns and cities and their lively trade networks faded away, and the region reverted to rural conditions. Likely causes include geologic, climatic, and environmental factors. There is no archaeological evidence to suggest that warfare or invasion by other groups played a role. Excavations show few human remains within the towns, suggesting that all who died there were buried, and that the towns were slowly abandoned. Those few remains found do not show the characteristic skeletal damage associated with weapons of the time, such as skull indentations from blunt objects, scratches on bones, or arrowheads or knife blades embedded in bones. Disease is also not likely to have been a major contributor to the depopulation of the cities. While the remains do show evidence of malnutrition or distorted bone growth due to starvation in some cases, there is no evidence of a plague or epidemic of any kind. It seems clear that Indus Valley people gradually moved away or their population simply declined until it disappeared.

Environmental change most likely led to this outcome. Movement by tectonic plates may have led to earthquakes, flooding, and shifts in the course of the Indus. These shifts would likely be devastating to irrigation systems of the Indus Valley Civilization. Recent landsat and archaeological surveys show that at the time Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were built, most rivers in the region had little or no water flow for several months of the year, and flooded during the other months due to monsoon conditions. This precarious situation meant that changes in the course of tributary rivers from the mountains had amplified effects. As the monsoon changed, lack of water ended the use of major transportation arteries, likely disrupting food distribution. Geological events may also have lifted the coastline of the Sind, leaving cities that had been ports high and dry. Over-farming of the land appears to be a factor here as well. Extensive irrigation with waters from the Indus brought salts and lye from the mountains into the fields, likely increasing salinity of the soil. Extensive deforestation resulted in increased soil erosion as well as decreased rainfall leading to desiccation of the Sind. Less rainfall and deforestation may have degraded the environment’s suitability for farming. All of these factors would have impacted the food supply. Consequently, urban areas and the civilization they supported would have been slowly starved out of existence.

Environment in History – Indus Valley Civilization

“Life in Mohenjo-Daro was semi-amphibious,” according to Michael Janssen, an excavator at India’s Mohenjo-Daro archaeological dig. “For four to five months of the year the plain of Sind was a vast sheet of water. The cities were linked by river. . . ” (Wood 2007, 31). Janssen’s observation reveals to us just the tip of the iceberg. Mohenjo-Daro was an island in a vast flood plain. However, once we look again at the archaeological remains we recognize that it was designed to be such. The city was built on an artificially constructed mound 60 feet high, and that mound contained separate sewer and freshwater pipes large enough for a human to stand within. These people developed skills that enabled them to engineer their environments.

In both Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro the most surprising and important find was that throughout the Indus Valley, a civilization of perhaps five million people covering more than 1.2 million square miles, the bricks, street widths, weights, and measures were all standardized. The Indus Valley people built their cities with straight streets in grid patterns with corners at right angles. In many neighborhoods, there were communal restrooms that drained into discrete sewer systems and shared freshwater wells in squares at the end of each residential street. Wealthier homes had two stories and their own kitchens and bathrooms. This was nearly unheard of in the ancient world. The story of China’s journey toward unity, for example, in the period from 550-221 BCE reflects a degree of standardization of this kind – but this took place nearly 2000 years after the Indus Valley Civilization practiced it. Rome never achieved such standardization.

Documentary and archaeological evidence shows that Indus Valley traders hawked their wares as far to the West as Sumeria and Egypt. They had agents who lived in those cities as trade representatives. Indus Valley ports, especially the one at Lothal, were carefully engineered and built to withstand earthquakes and floods. This civilization was well-administered, organized, and technologically advanced.

Historians have often recounted these achievements as indication of the genius displayed by humans and the effectiveness of human organization; who could blame them for celebrating such achievements? The Indus Valley was truly a marvel. But this same evidence also forces us to recognize that humans were manipulating nature from our earliest days on the planet and that such manipulation carries a cost. By manipulating the environment, we change its basic parts, and it can break down and become less fertile, and less productive than it was in its natural state. Historians now recognize that all human achievements have occurred within and in relation to the natural environment.

 

By around 1500 BCE, the Indus Valley Civilization was only a shadow of its former glory. The cities Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa showed a steady population decline. The fields show evidence of having lost their fertility. People were moving out of the Indus Valley but historians are not completely sure why. The first guess of historians and archaeologists at the time the Indus Valley Civilization was rediscovered in 1922 (Harappa) and 1923 (Mohenjo-Daro) was that an invasion of warlike people from the North and East had come through the Hindu Kush, and attacked and destroyed the cities and their inhabitants. Naturally, archaeologists looked for evidence to confirm this hypothesis. But the cities were relatively intact, there was no evidence of looting, burning, or other destruction typical of human fighting. Gravesites showed very little evidence of bodily damage due to weapons. More common was evidence consistent with sicknesses that result from malnutrition: bones softened by lack of calcium, or twisted due to lack of vitamin C or other nutrients, for example.

Archaeologists are convinced that the Indus Valley Civilization did not disappear due to war. More likely, it disappeared because of natural and human-made changes that meant the kind of intensive farming necessary to support a society of five million was no longer possible. The Indus Valley Civilization, unable to adjust to a more irrigation-intensive system, gradually disappeared as their soil became unusable and the water dried up. Intensive use combined with natural changes and a lack of resiliency appears to have been the cause of the fall of one of the most advanced early human civilizations.

First, and in a similar fashion to the events that occurred later in Mesopotamia, the soil in Indus fields gradually became salinized. This was in part due to nature: the seasonal floods of the Indus River and its tributaries were produced by monsoon rains in the Himalayan Mountains to the North and East. Research shows that the river was dry for about half of the year and flooded for half the year. As the flooded river slowed down and spread out across the valley, it dropped its silt onto the fields, including salts that made them increasingly less likely to support agriculture.

Part of this story also has to do with intensive agricultural use. Much of the land had originally been covered with trees. To employ the land for agriculture, large swaths of it were cleared and planted seasonally. As in Mesopotamia, during the flood season, the fields were left fallow to collect the rich silt from the river. As humans built their cities and cleared forests, the floods covered larger areas.

Flooding and human attempts to control river courses are important issues in most of the early civilizations we study in this course. These are modern issues as well. The United States has made changes to the course of the Mississippi River during its history. This has not worked out much better than the engineering engaged in by the Indus Valley civilization or the Mesopotamians. The more humans engineer the water flow of the river, the worse the Mississippi floods become. As the United States began using the Mississippi for transportation and irrigation in the 19th century, it was dredged to make it deeper, and straightened to allow for more agricultural use and settlement along the banks of the river. As a result, the river now carries a higher volume of water over a shorter and straighter course. This has made floods in the late 20th and early 21st centuries worse than ever before. Along with this, the increased settlement and use of the land on the banks of the river has meant greater economic damage when the river does flood.

In a different way, but no less devastating for the society, Oahu’s Waiāhole Ditch has been used for a century to divert 27 million gallons of water per day from the natural watershed in the Ko’olau Mountains to the west side of O’ahu. This was originally intended to support the growth of sugar plantations. This diversion has changed the ecological balance of Oahu in important ways. In some ways, we are repeating the disasters that the Indus People experienced five thousand years ago.

THE LONG VEDIC AGE (1700 – 600 BCE)

By 1,700 BCE, the Harappan civilization had collapsed. In northwest India, scattered village communities engaging in agriculture and pastoralism replaced the dense and more highly populated network of cities, towns, and villages of the 3rd millennium. The archaeological record demonstrates that the rest of northern India, as well as the entire subcontinent, were similarly dotted with Neolithic communities of farmers and herders.

The next stage in India’s history is termed the Vedic Age (1,700–600 BCE). This period is named after a set of religious texts composed between 1,500 and 900 BCE called the Vedas. The people who composed them are known as the Vedic peoples and Indo-Aryans. They were not originally from India, rather they came as migrants, traveling to the subcontinent via mountain passes located in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Aryans were a diverse group of people labelled based on shared linguistic traits, not ethnicity. Aryan groups migrated throughout much of the Eurasian continent, evident by regions where present day names are derived from the word “Aryan” including Iran and Ireland. The Aryans who came to the Indian subcontinent are known by the term “Indo-Aryans.” These Indo-Aryans first settled in the Punjab, but then pushed east along the Ganges, eventually impressing their way of life, language, and religious beliefs upon much of northern India. The course of India’s history was completely changed during this period. By the end of the Vedic Age, numerous states had emerged, and Hinduism and the varna social system were beginning to take shape.

The Early Aryan Settlement of Northern India (1700–1000 BCE)

The early history of the Vedic Age offers the historian little primary source material. The climate of the Gangetic Plain is warm and humid, and is not well suited for the preservation of biologically-derived implements such as tools, documents, wood, and homes. For the first half of the Vedic Age (1700–1000 BCE), we are largely limited to archaeological sites and one major text called the Rig Veda. This is the first of four Vedas. It consists of 1028 hymns addressed to the Vedic peoples’ pantheon of gods. But it wasn’t actually written down until after 500 BCE. From as early as the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE, these hymns were orally composed and transmitted by Aryan poet-seers, eventually becoming the preserve of a few priestly clans who utilized them for the specific religious function of pleasing higher powers. Despite these limits, historians have been able to sketch out the Aryan’s way of life in these early centuries, as well as make solid arguments about how they came to India.

The Indo-Aryans were pastoralists who migrated to India in waves beginning c. 1,700 BCE. They referred to themselves as Aryans, a term meaning “noble” or “respectable.” They spoke Sanskrit, and used it to transmit their sacred hymns. At first, in search of land, they settled along the hills and plains of the upper reaches of the Indus River and its tributaries, bringing with them their pastoral and farming way of life. In the Vedas, the Aryans beseech the gods to bless them with cattle, bounteous harvests, rain, friends, wealth, fame, and sons. From these prayers, it is clear that herding was the principal occupation and cows were especially prized. The Aryans also farmed, as is apparent in hymns that speak of plow teams and the cutting and threshing of grain.

During these early centuries, led by their pastoral chiefs, some Aryans retained a semi-nomadic way of life, living in temporary dwellings and then moving about with their herds or migrating further. Others settled down in villages. In both cases, kinship was especially valued. At the simplest level, society consisted of extended families. Fathers were expected to lead the family as patriarchal heads, while sons were expected to care for the herds, bring honor through success in battle, and sacrifice for the well-being of their fathers’ souls after death. They also inherited the property and family name. This suggests that, as is so often the case for ancient societies, men were dominant and women were subordinate. Yet, women’s roles weren’t as rigidly defined as they would be in later times, and they had some choice in marriage and could remarry.

Several extended families, in turn, made up clans, and the members of a clan shared land and herds. Groups of larger clans constituted tribes. The Vedas speak of rajas who, at this point, are best understood as clan or tribal chieftains. These men protected their people and led in times of battle as clans and tribes fought with each other and with indigenous villagers living in the northwest. In times of war, these chiefs would rely on priests who ensured the support of the gods by reciting hymns and sacrificing to them.

More than anything else, the Rig Veda reveals the Aryans’ religious ideas. For them, the universe was composed of the sky, earth, and netherworld. These realms were populated by a host of divinities and demons responsible for the good and evil, and order and disorder, blessing and afflicting the human world. Although one Vedic hymn gives a total of thirty-three gods, many more are mentioned. That means early Vedic religion was polytheistic. A fundamental aspect of Vedic traditions still evident today is the importance of worship and devotion to many deities and sacred beings. Vedic beliefs identify thousands of gods influencing the natural and human world; devotion to deities is displayed through prayer, sacrifice, pilgrimage and the observance of feast days and festivals. Worship and offerings are made to deities, sacred symbols, animals and even natural objects such as trees – all having sacred importance. In recent years, festivals with Vedic origins bringing Hindu worshippers to holy cities in observance of religious festivals have resulted in the largest gatherings of humans on earth! A deep reverential relationship with nature, in particular honoring sacred rivers and the perception all natural and human elements are linked to the gods, are still powerful forces in Indian religious life today.

By chanting hymns to them and sacrificing in the correct way, the Aryan priests might secure blessings for the people or prevent the demons and spirits on earth from causing sickness and death. They might also ensure that the souls of the dead would successfully reach the netherworld, where the spirits of righteous Fathers feasted with King Yama, the first man to die.

Indra was among the most beloved of the Vedic gods. As a god of war and the storm, and as king of the gods, Indra exemplified traits men sought to embody in their lives. He is portrayed as a great warrior who smote demons and enemies but who also provided generously for the weak. Agni, another favorite, was god of fire and the household hearth. Agni summoned the gods to the sacrifice and, as intermediary between gods and humans, brought the sacrificial offerings to them.

The Origins of the Aryan People and the Indo-European Hypothesis

Because the Aryans came to India as migrating pastoralists from mountainous regions northwest of the Indian subcontinent, historians have sought to understand their origins. The Sanskrit language has provided important clues because it contains features similar to languages spoken at some point in Europe, Iran, and Central Asia. Although they are vastly different languages, Latin, Persian, and Sanskrit, for example, share similar sounds, vocabulary, and grammar.

On the basis of these shared traits, linguists have constructed a kind of family tree that shows the historical relationship between these languages. Sanskrit belongs to a group of languages used in northern India called Indo-Aryan. These languages are closely related to languages used throughout history in neighboring Iran. Together, these are called the Indo-Iranian language group. This language group is in turn one of nine branches of related language groups comprising the Indo-European language family.

Linguists assume these distantly-related languages share a common ancestor. They label that ancestral language proto-Indo-European and the people who spoke it Indo-Europeans. They posit a scenario whereby, in stages and over time, groups of these peoples migrated from their homeland in Asia to neighboring areas and settled down. Since this process happened over the course of many centuries and involved much interaction with other peoples along the way, the ancestral language evolved into many different forms while still retaining some of the original features.

One question, then, is the location of this homeland and the history of the peoples who spoke these languages as they changed. Many places have been proposed, but at present the most widely accepted scenario puts this originating homeland in the steppe lands of southern Russia, north of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. Evidence from archaeological sites suggests that during the 3rd millennium, an Indo-European people lived in this region as semi-nomadic pastoralists. They were likely the first to domesticate the horse and also improved the chariot by adding lighter, spoked wheels. They lived in tribes made up of extended families and worshiped numerous sky gods by offering sacrifices in fire altars. At some point during this millennium and over the course of several centuries, groups of these peoples left their homeland and migrated south to the Iranian Plateau. By 2,000 BCE, Indo-Iranian speaking pastoralists were living on the Iranian Plateau and in Afghanistan. Some among these evolved into the Indo-Aryan speakers living to the northwest of the Indus. It is these peoples that began to arrive in the Punjab from c. 1,700 BCE, with their Vedic religion, kinship-based social order, and pastoral and farming way of life.

The Later Vedic Age (1000 – 600 BCE)

During the early centuries of the Vedic Age, the world of the Aryan tribes was the rural setting of the Punjab. Some settlers, however, migrated east to the upper reaches of the Ganges River, setting the stage for the next period in India’s history, the later Vedic Age. During the centuries of the later Vedic Age lands along the Ganges River were colonized by the Aryans and their political, economic, social, and religious life became more complex.

Over the course of these four centuries, Aryan tribes with horses harnessed to chariots and wagons drawn by oxen drove their herds east, migrating along and colonizing the plains surrounding the Ganges. Historians debate whether this happened through conquest and warfare or intermittent migration led by traders and people seeking land and opportunity. Regardless, by 600 BCE the Aryans had reached the lower reaches of the Ganges and as far south as the Vindhya Range and the Deccan Plateau. Most of northern India would therefore be shaped by the Aryan way of life. But as they moved into these areas, the Aryans encountered indigenous peoples and interacted with them, eventually imposing their way of life on them but also adopting many elements of their languages and customs.

During this time, agriculture became more important and occupations more diverse. As the lands were cleared, village communities formed. Two new resources made farming more productive: iron tools and rice. Implements such as iron axes and plows made clearing wilderness and sowing fields easier, and rice paddy agriculture produced more calories per unit of land. Consequently, the population began to grow and people could more easily engage in other occupations. By 600 BCE, the earliest towns had started to form.

Initially chiefs (rajas) and their assemblies, with the assistance of priests, saw to the well-being of their clans. By the 6th century in northern India, political developments accompanied economic changes as the clan-based method of governing persisted and evolved into oligarchies. In other territories clan chiefs became kings. These kings elevated themselves over kinsmen and the assemblies and served as the pivot of an embryonic administrative system. Chief priests conducted grand rituals that demonstrated the king’s special relationship with the gods, putting the people in awe of him and giving them the sense they would be protected. Treasurers managed the obligatory gifts kings expected in return. Most importantly, kingship became hereditary, and dynasties started to rule.

Society changed too. In earlier times, Aryan society was organized as a fluid three-class social structure consisting of priests, warriors, and commoners. But during the later Vedic Age, this social structure became more hierarchical and rigid. The distinctive and influential ‘caste system’ of India emerged, a system for classifying people based on broad occupational categories developed by the religious and political leaders in society. The first level of caste status consisted of the categories known as varnas, and there were four of them: Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra. The Brahmins were the priests, whose duty was to memorize and orally transmit the Vedas and perform sacrifices to maintain good relations with the gods. The Kshatriya were the chiefs and warriors, whose duty was to govern well and fight. The Vaishya were commoners who traded and farmed. They were responsible for society’s material prosperity. The Shudras were servants who labored for others, usually as artisans or by performing menial tasks.

Varnas became hereditary social classes. That means a person was born into one of these and usually remained there for life, pursuing an occupation included in, and marrying someone belonging to, that varna. Varna has also been translated as ritual status. Your varna determined how pure or polluted you were perceived to be, and thus what level of participation in rituals you would be allowed and whom you could associate with. Varna thus defined the social hierarchy. The Brahmins were believed to be the purest and accorded the most honored place in society. Warriors were respected for their leadership and supported the Brahmins, who affirmed their authority by carrying out royal ceremonies. Together, they dominated society. The Shudras (servants) were viewed as the most polluted and could not participate in any sacrifice or speak freely to members of other varnas. Over time, this way of organizing society came to be viewed as normal and natural.

During the later Vedic Age, the religion of the Aryans also developed in new directions, leading to the evolution of Hinduism. As one of the world’s major religious traditions, Hinduism is multi-faceted and contains many layers of historical development. The earliest layer is called Brahmanism. Brahmanism began with the Rig Veda, which presented the view of a universe controlled by a host of divinities. During the early Vedic Age, the Aryans explained the world through myths about these higher powers, and their priests sought to influence them through sacrificial ceremonies. These priests become the Brahmin varna. This early layer persisted and became even more elaborate. Three new Vedas were added to the Rig Veda, as well as two sets of texts called Brahmanas and Upanishads. Combined, this literature, composed in Sanskrit, constituted the full Vedic corpus, and interpreting the Vedas became the preserve of the Brahmins.

The Brahmins weren’t content with the 1028 hymns of the Rig Veda. Later Vedas set the hymns to music, added prose formulas that were to be uttered in the course of sacrificing to the divinities, and offered spells and incantations for achieving such goals as warding off disease and winning a battle. The Brahmanas were primarily handbooks of ritual for the Brahmins. They explained the meaning of the sacrifices and how to carry them out. Clearly, the Brahmins were becoming ever more conscious of their role in keeping the universe in good working order by pleasing and assisting the gods and consecrating kings. Their sacrificial observances became all the more elaborate, and an essential component of good kingship.

The Upanishads, a series of religious texts reflecting debates about the purpose and meaning of ritual, was probably composed between 700 and 300 BCE, and added an entirely new set of ideas. The title means “sitting near” and points to a setting where sages conveyed spiritual insights to students through dialogue, stories, and analogies. The Upanishads are records of what was taught and discussed, the earliest dating to the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. These sages were likely hermits and wanderers who felt spiritually dissatisfied with the mythological and ritualistic approach of Brahmanism. Rather, they sought deeper insight into the nature of reality, the origins of the universe, and the human condition. The concepts that appear throughout these records of the outcome of their search are brahman (not to be confused with Brahmins), atman, transmigration, and karma.

According to these sages, human beings face a predicament. The universe they live in is created and destroyed repeatedly over the course of immense cycles of time, and humans wander through it in an endless succession of deaths and rebirths. This wandering is known as transmigration, a process that isn’t random, but rather determined by the law of karma. This wheel of life is also termed samsara. According to this law, good acts bring a better rebirth, and bad acts a worse one, based on the karma one earned. It may not happen in this lifetime, but one day virtue would be rewarded and evil punished. One’s karma was based on fulfillment of dharma, moral law. And fulfilling one’s dharma included abiding by caste laws and duties.

Hindus believe that the gods and people are all a part of the same creation. The gods do not stand apart in a separate place outside of the creation, and they do not then judge the creation, as do creator gods in other theologies. Rather, Hindu gods are immortal, powerful, and wise, but exist in the same plane as humans, animals, mountains, etc. This monistic view of the world, in which eventually, all life returns to brahman, shaped the functions of Hindu society. There was no concept of a god who would punish people for wrongdoing.  Instead, if a person were to transgress the rules governing nature – primarily the concept of dharma – one would cause the whole of nature to change, thus disrupting the normal flow of life. This meant that one would accumulate bad karma, or negative spiritual energy, and upon death would not become an eternal part of brahman, but would be sent back to the world as a lower-level being (either human or non-human) in the samsara wheel of life, until such time as proper attention to dharma brought one back into balance with nature. Even the smallest act that was not proper for one’s station in life meant serious damage to society as a whole, and thus to one’s chance of escaping the suffering of existence. So rather than commit incorrect acts, Indians strove for moral behavior and to fulfill their caste duties.

Ultimately, the goal is to be liberated from the cycle of death and rebirth. According to Hindu traditions, the Upanishads reflect spiritual knowledge that was revealed to sages who undertook an inward journey through withdrawal from the world and meditation. What they discovered is that one divine reality underlies the universe. They called this ultimate reality brahman. They also discovered that deep within the heart of each person lies the eternal soul. They called this soul atman.

This goal of connecting the individual atman and universal brahman was not done intellectually but at a deep spiritual level. To escape the continual cycle of life and death, one had to fully appreciate and accept the underlying inter-connectedness of all life, reach beyond daily distractions and (in the end) meaningless differences between beings. This realization was/is achievement of atman-Brahman; another term for this achievement of union and escape is moksha. To make this spiritual connection of atman-Brahman required one to retreat from society to a life of intense meditation and self-denial. An ascetic life was required, one in which a seeker did not indulge senses of the body. It was a life of severe deprivation and denial of bodily indulgences to enable realization of the impermanence and meaninglessness of that particular individual body – to grasp the ‘truth’ all beings and that souls are interconnected and visible physical divisions and differences are fleeting.  Another means of achieving moksha was (and is) yoga; Hindu yoga is the practice of extreme discipline over the body. Yoga was practiced to diminish attachment to one’s body, to quiet the mind, to realize the limited nature of a particular life and detach from a particular stage of existence, to perceive a deeper more fundamental reality of universal connectedness through Brahman. One rose above attachment to the body and focused on spiritual connections of atman-Brahman. Through quieting the mind and inquiry, the individual can discover atman and its relationship with brahman: the soul is the divine reality. That is how a person is liberated from the illusion of endless wandering.

By the end of the Vedic Age, northern India had undergone immense changes. An Aryan civilization emerged and spread across the Indo-Gangetic Plains. This civilization was characterized by the Brahmin’s religion (Brahmanism), the use of Sanskrit, and the varna social system. The simpler rural life of the clans of earlier times was giving way to the formation of states, and new religious ideas were being added to the evolving tradition known today as Hinduism.

TRANSITION TO EMPIRE: STATES, CITIES, AND NEW RELIGIONS (600 TO 321 BCE)

The 6th century began a transitional period in India’s history marked by important developments. Some of these brought to fruition processes that gained momentum during the late Vedic Age. Out of the hazy formative stage of state development, sixteen powerful kingdoms and oligarchies emerged. By the end of this period, one dominated. India entered a second stage of urbanization, as towns and cities became a prominent feature of northern India. The caste system took shape as an institution, giving Indian society one of its most distinctive traits. Lastly, new religious ideas were put forward that challenged the dominance of Brahmanism.

States and Cities

In general, larger kingdoms dominated the Ganges basin while smaller clan-based states thrived on the periphery. They all fought with each other over land and resources, making this a time of war and shifting alliances. To the northwest, external powers gained control. As we have seen, the mountain ranges defining that boundary contain passes permitting the movement of peoples. This made the northwest a crossroads, and, at times, the peoples crossing through were the armies of rulers who sought to control the riches of India. Outside powers located in Afghanistan, Iran, or beyond might extend political control into the subcontinent, making part of it a component in a larger empire.

One example was the Persian Empire. During the 6th century, two kings, Cyrus the Great and Darius I, made this empire the largest of its time. From their capitals on the Iranian Plateau, they extended control as far as the Indus River, incorporating parts of northwest India as provinces of the Persian Empire. Another example was the empire created by Alexander the Great. Alexander was the king of Macedon, a Greek state. After compelling other Greeks to follow him, he attacked the Persian Empire, defeating it in 331 BCE. That campaign took his forces all the way to mountain ranges bordering India. Seeking to find the end of the known world and informed of the riches of India, Alexander took his army through the Khyber Pass and overran a number of small states and cities located in the Punjab. But to Alexander’s dismay, his soldiers refused to go any further, forcing him to turn back. They were exhausted from years of campaigning far from home and discouraged by news of powerful Indian states to the east. One of those was the kingdom of Magadha.

Magadha’s first capital—Rajagriha—is one of many cities and towns with ruins dating back to this transitional period. Urban centers were sparse during the Vedic Age but now blossomed, much like they did during the mature phase of the Harappan Civilization. Similar processes were at work. As more forests were cleared and marshes drained, the agricultural economy of the Ganges basin produced ever more surplus food. Population grew, enabling more people to move into towns and engage in other occupations as craftsmen, artisans, and traders. Kings encouraged this economic growth as its revenue enriched their treasuries. Caravans of ox-drawn carts or boats laden with goods travelling from state to state could expect to encounter the king’s customs officials and pay tolls. So important were rivers to accessing these trade networks that the Magadhan kings moved their capital to Pataliputra, a port town located on the Ganges where it developed as a hub of both political power and economic exchange. Most towns and cities began as one or the other, or as places of pilgrimage.

The Caste System

As the population of northern India rose and the landscape was dotted with more villages, towns, and cities, society became more complex. The social life of a Brahmin priest who served the king differed from that of a blacksmith who belonged to a town guild, a rich businessman residing in style in a city, a wealthy property owner, or a poor agricultural laborer living in a village. In ancient India, one measure of identity and social status was the varna system of four social classes. Another was caste.

Like the varnas, castes were hereditary social classifications; unlike them, they were far more distinct social groups. The four-fold varna system was more theoretical and important for establishing clearly who the powerful spiritual and political elites in society were: the Brahmins and Kshatriya. But others were more conscious of their caste. There were thousands of these, and each was defined by occupation, residence, marriage, customs, and language. In other words, the cultural traditions and attitudes that defined adherence to the caste system was because “I” was born into such-and-such a caste, my role in society is to perform this kind of work. “I” will be largely confined to interacting with and marrying members of this same group. Our caste members reside in this area, speak this language, hold these beliefs, and are governed by this assembly of elders. “I” will also be well aware of who belongs to other castes, and whether or not “I” am of a higher or lower status in relation to them, or more or less pure. On that basis, “I” may or may not be able, for instance, to dine with them. That is how caste defined an individual’s life.

Then there were even more specific sub-castes within each caste – these were jati (family-based occupations). Hundreds of sub-castes or jati were grouped under castes associated with one of the four main varna groupings. As recently as 1985, it was estimated there were approximately 2,800 distinct sub-caste communities (jati) in India.

As the caste system evolved, becoming more elaborate and petrified, a significant part of the population was relegated to the very bottom of the social order. These members of society performed tasks considered so dirty and tainted, they were not even part of this social system, they were outside the caste system, outside formal society – referred to as outcastes or untouchables. Modern terminology used for this lowest social group is Dalit (meaing oppressed or broken). Members of this group were, and to a large extent still are, considered so low they were outside the formal caste system.

These were peoples who engaged in occupations considered highly impure, usually because they were associated with taking life; such occupations included corpse removers, cremators, and sweepers. Those who practiced such occupations were despised and pushed to the margins of society. Because members of higher castes believed touching or seeing them was polluting, untouchables were forcibly segregated from other caste members, required to live outside villages and towns, in separate settlements.

There was one more significant division in this highly segregated society – strictly enforced differences and inequalities based on gender. Women had a decidedly subservient role in traditional Indian culture. In terms of rights, treatment and opportunities, women were treated as significantly less valued valuable and important than men, with few protections or rights.

An excellent example of this gender-based division is the experience of Sita, wife of Rama, the hero of India’s most popular epic, The Ramayana. In this long story, Rama overcomes many tests of morality and strength. During one of these, the evil character Hanuman kidnaps Rama’s wife Sita and holds her captive. After defeating Hanuman and freeing Sita, despite her swearing that she was never unfaithful, and never abused sexually, Rama rejects her and she must commit suicide by self-immolation to prove her faith to her husband. Such a sacrifice was and often still is seen as a mark of moral purity. This pattern in Indian society of patriarchal traditions that subordinate women is still evident in 21st century India.

The Challenges to Brahmanism

During this time of transition, some individuals became dissatisfied with life and chose to leave the everyday world behind. Much like the sages of the Upanishads, these renunciants, as they were known, were people who chose to renounce social life and material things in order that they might gain deeper insight into the meaning of life. Some of them rejected Brahmanism altogether and established their own belief systems.

Jainism

One of these thinkers was Vardhamana Mahavira whose teachings were the basis of Jainism. Jainism emphasizes the goal of atman-Brahman, escape from the cycle of suffering. Jains seek to achieve oneness with the Brahman through dedicated practice of asceticism, and a life lived in solitude or with a religious Jain community. In addition, in all actions and thoughts, Jains attempt to live a life in which no harm is done to any other living being. The state of atman-Brahman is accomplished by treating all other life as sacred, as equal in value to one’s own life. This meant adhering to a core Jain concept of ahimsa or non-violence. One took conscious care to avoid any harm to other living things even by accident, living a life reflecting belief in connectedness through Brahman. Practicing as a Jain means adhering to strict veganism and concerted efforts not to kill any humans or animals, including avoiding crushing insects on purpose or by accident. For some Jains this means walking with a broom, sweeping as one walks to avoid accidentally killing an insect. Other Jains wear a cloth over their mouth to avoid inadvertently breathing in insects and other life forms. Jain-based farming practices continue to take  conscious care not kill worms. For some Jains, religious purity meant even rejecting farming or harvesting, instead only eating fruit and plant products as they fell from the stalk or tree.

Jainism was and is an important minority religious presence in India. It did not spread widely in or outside of India, not surprising given the demanding lifestyle required. But the compelling concept of non-violence, ahimsa, a commitment to a life of not doing harm, profoundly influenced later ideas and practices in Hinduism and Buddhism, and even political movements in the 20th century.

Buddhism

The most renowned example of a thinker who broke with traditional Brahmanism was Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563 – 480 BCE), otherwise known as the Buddha. Buddha means “Enlightened One” or “Awakened One,” implying that the Buddha was at one time spiritually asleep but woke up and attained insight into the truth regarding the human condition. His life story is very important to Buddhists, those who follow the teachings of the Buddha.

Siddhartha was born a prince, son to the chieftain of Shakya, a clan-based state located at the foothills of the Himalaya in northern India. His father wished for him to be a ruler like himself,  but Siddhartha went in a different direction. At 29, after marrying and having a son, he left home. Legends attribute this departure to his having encountered an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a wandering renunciant while out on an excursion. Aging, sickness, and death posed the underlying question of the nature of suffering for Siddhartha, leading him to pursue spiritual insight. For years, he sought instruction from other wanderers, experimenting with their techniques to liberate the self from suffering through meditation and asceticism. But he failed to obtain the answers he sought.

Then, while seated under a tree in meditation, Siddhartha experienced enlightenment, answering the question of why humans suffer and how to escape this. These insights were at the heart of his teachings for the remaining forty-five years of his life. During that time, he traveled around northern India teaching his dharma – his religious ideas and practices – and gained a following of students.

The principal teachings of the Buddha, the basis of the religion of Buddhism presented at his first sermon, are the Four Noble Truths. The first is the noble truth of suffering. Based on his own experiences, the Buddha concluded that life is characterized by suffering not only in an obvious physical and mental sense, but because everything that promises pleasure and happiness is ultimately unsatisfactory and impermanent. The second noble truth states that the origin of suffering is an unquenchable thirst, or desire. People are always thirsting for something more, making for a life of restlessness with no end in sight. The third noble truth is that there is a cure for this thirst and the suffering it brings: nirvana. Nirvana means “blowing out,” implying extinction of the thirst and the end of suffering. It means the end of existence, and escape from the wheel of life. No longer striving to quell the restlessness with temporary enjoyments, people can awaken to “the city of nirvana, the place of highest happiness, peaceful, lovely, without suffering, without fear, without sickness, free from old age and death” (Gethin 1998, 79).  The fourth noble truth is the Eight-Fold Path, a set of practices that leads the individual to this liberating knowledge. The Buddha taught that through a program of study of Buddhist teachings (right understanding, right attitude), moral conduct (right speech, right action, right livelihood), and meditation (right effort, right concentration, right mindfulness), anyone could become a Buddha. Everyone has the potential to awaken, but each must rely on his or her own determination and path.

After the Buddha died c. 480 BCE, his students established monastic communities known as the Buddhist sangha. Regardless of their varna or caste, both men and women could choose to leave home and enter a monastery as amonk or nun. They would shave their heads, wear ochre-colored robes, and vow to take refuge in the wisdom of the Buddha, dharma, and the sangha. Doing so meant following the example of the Buddha and his teachings on morality and meditation, as well as living a simple life with like-minded others in pursuit of nirvana and an end to suffering.

Both Brahmanism (later called Hinduism) and Buddhism grew out of Vedic roots but only Hinduism remained closely tied to Indian social and political structures. Buddhism rejected links to the caste system and was a religion detached from specific social structures of India. As a result, Buddhism could be and was readily adopted by other cultures, spreading to and deeply influencing cultures in Nepal and Tibet, Southeast Asia, China, Korea and Japan. Buddhism emerged as a universal or global religion.

THE MAURYAN EMPIRE (321 – 184 BCE)

The longstanding pattern of divided and warring kingdoms was broken when Chandragupta Maurya (r. 321–297 BCE) ushered in a new era. He set in motion the unification of a large portion of the sub-continent, a campaign carried on by his son Bindusara (r. 287–273 BCE) and reaching it its peak under Ashoka (r. 268–232 BCE).

The Mauryan Empire included most of the subcontinent and lasted for 140 years. Conflicting accounts make it difficult to say anything definitive about the first two kings. Chandragupta may have come from a Kshatriya (warrior) clan, or a Vaishya (commoner) clan of peacock-tamers. In his youth, he spent time in the northwest, where he encountered Alexander the Great. With the assistance of Kautilya, a Brahmin who opposed the Nanda Dynasty that ruled Maghada, the kingdom in which he lived in the North and Northeast of India, Chandragupta formed alliances with Nanda enemies, overthrowing them in 321 BCE. Thereafter, through diplomacy and war, he secured control over central and northern India. Kautilya, whose advice may have been critical to Chandragupta’s success, is viewed as the author of the Arthashastra, a treatise on statecraft. This handbook for kings covered in detail the arts of governing, diplomacy, and warfare. To help ensure centralization of power in the ruler’s hands, it provided a blueprint of rules and regulations necessary to maintain an efficient bureaucracy, a detailed penal code, and advice on how to deploy spies and informants.

Chandragupta’s campaigns ended when he concluded a treaty with Seleucus Nicator in 301 BCE. Military expansion continued under Bindusara and Ashoka until all but the tip of the subcontinent came under the empire’s control. With King Ashoka, however, warfare came to an end. We know far more about him because he left behind a fascinating record telling much about his ideas on governing. He had edicts inscribed on rocks throughout the realm and on sandstone pillars erected in the Ganges heartland. He placed them in populous areas where people usually gathered, so that his officials could read them to his largely illiterate subjects.

One rock edict speaks to why King Ashoka decided to renounce violence. While waging war against a small state located along the east coast, he was deeply disturbed by the amount of suffering and dislocation the war heaped upon innocent people’s lives. This realization caused him to redouble his faith in the Buddha. Ashoka, it turns out, was a lay follower of Buddhism.

In his edicts, he proclaimed to his subjects that the sound of the drum would be replaced by the sound of the dharma. For the Brahmin priests, dharma meant a society and religious order founded on Vedic principles and the caste system. For Buddhists, dharma consisted of the truths taught by the Buddha. For kings, according to Ashoka, dharma was enlightened governing and just rule. Thus, Ashoka was proclaiming that he would now rule by virtue, not force.

Ashoka’s kingly dharma was shaped by his personal practice of Buddhism. This dharma consisted of laws of ethical behavior and right conduct fashioned from Indian traditions of kingship and his understanding of Buddhist principles. To gain his subject’s willing obedience, he sought to inspire a sense of gratitude by presenting himself in the role of a father looking out for his children. He told his subjects that he was appointing officers to tour his realm and attend to the welfare and happiness of all. Justice was to be impartially administered and medical treatment provided for animals and humans. A principle of non-injury to all beings was to be observed. Following this principle meant not only renouncing state violence, but also forbidding slaughtering certain animals for sacrifices or for cooking in the royal kitchen. Ashoka also proclaimed that he would replace his pleasure and hunting tours with dharma tours. During these, he promised to give gifts to Brahmins and the aged and to visit people in the countryside.

As part of his commitment to a caring, paternalistic state, the state took on a great deal of power but committed to ensuring a certain quality of life. Increased state power, expanded bureaucratic control and increased tax revenues were used to create public works projects such as digging wells, irrigation projects and importing herbs for medicinal purposes. The Ashokan state planted trees and created rest stops for those traveling along the roads of the empire. There was also funding for educational purposes; in some cases this included educational access for women – truly, a revolutionary idea at this time in history.

Another emphasis of this regime was promoting Buddhism. Ashoka spent state funds to build sites of Buddhist learning and worship and actively promoted spread of Buddhism by sending missionaries to neighboring countries. Buddhism had already begun to spread slowly through trade and interaction but missionary efforts funded by Ashoka accelerated diffusion of this religion, increasing its importance as an Asian, not just Indian, religion.

Yet even though Buddhism was the state religion, Ashoka did not repress Hinduism or Jainism. In fact state funds were also used for improvement of sites for these other Indian religions. Under Ashoka, there was a governmental section explicitly charged with promoting practice of all religions, not just Buddhism. In his rock edicts, Ashoka made an explicit commitment to religious tolerance.

In return, Ashoka asked his subjects to observe certain principles. He knew his empire was pluralistic, consisting of many peoples with different cultures and beliefs. He believed that if he instilled certain values in these peoples, then his realm might be knit together in peace and harmony. Thus, in addition to non-injury, Ashoka taught forbearance. He exhorted his subjects to respect parents, show courtesy to servants, and, more generally, be liberal, compassionate, and truthful in their treatment of others. These values were also to be embraced by religious communities, since Ashoka did not want people fighting over matters of faith.

Ashoka is frequently held up in world history as a paragon of creative kingship and pacifism, as well as a ruler who placed his faith at the center of his policies. This may be true, but another legend about Ashoka also gives us some insight into the complexities of his time and his behavior. True or not, the legend says that after converting to Buddhism and pledging to rule without war, Ashoka set loose his favorite horse to wander throughout northern India. Wherever the horse stopped to graze for a period, a stone stele proclaiming Ashoka as ruler and outlining his laws and commitment to Buddhism was erected. We can read into this story two key ideas. First, of course, is the celebrated peaceful Ashoka who chose to define his rule through the wanderings of a semi-divine horse, rather than war. However, the second is implicit within the first – Ashoka clearly expected people wherever the horse went to accept him as king, and likely under at least aperceived threat of war in the event they rebelled. Ashoka, then, ruled with a great deal of morality, but also maintained an army capable of violence, and used his faith and benevolence as propaganda to support his claim to power.

The king’s writ shaped the government because the king was at the heart of it, advised by a council of ministers and served by high officials who oversaw the major functions of the state. The Mauryans were particularly concerned with efficient revenue collection and uniform administration of justice. To that end, they divided the empire into a hierarchy of provinces and districts and appointed officials to manage matters at each level.

After King Ashoka’s reign, the Mauryan Empire declined. The precise reasons for this decline are unknown. Mauryan kings enjoyed only brief reigns during the final fifty years of the empire’s existence, so they may have been weak. Since loyalty to the ruler was one element of the glue that held the centralized bureaucracy together, weak kings may explain why the political leaders of provinces pulled away and the empire fragmented into smaller states. Furthermore, the Mauryan court’s demand for revenue sufficient to sustain the government and a large standing army may have contributed to discontent. In 184 BCE, the last king was assassinated by his own Brahmin military commander, and India’s first major imperial power came to an end.

REGIONAL STATES, TRADE,  AND DEVOTIONAL RELIGION: INDIA 200 BCE – 300 CE

After the Mauryan Empire fell, no single power held control over a substantial part of India until the rise of the Gupta Empire in the 4th century CE. For 500 years, from c. 200 BCE to 300 CE, India saw a fairly rapid turnover of numerous, competing regional monarchies. Most of these were small, while the larger ones were only loosely integrated. Some developed along the Ganges. Others were of Central Asian origins, products of invasions from the northwest. Also, for the first time, states formed in southern India. Yet, in spite of the political instability, India was economically dynamic, as trade within and outside the subcontinent flourished, and India was increasingly linked to other parts of the world in networks of exchange. And new trends appeared in India’s major religious traditions. A popular, devotional form of worship was added to Buddhism and also became a defining element of Hinduism.

Economic Growth and Flourishing Trade Networks

The expansion of trade both within and outside India is a major theme of these five centuries. Put simply, South Asia was a crossroads with much to offer. In market towns and cities across the subcontinent, artisans and merchants organized to produce and distribute a wide variety of goods. Guilds were their principal method of organization. A guild was a professional association made up of members with a particular trade. Artisan guilds – such as weavers and goldsmiths – set the prices and ensured the quality of goods. Operating like, and sometimes overlapping with, castes, these guilds also set rules for members and policed their behavior. They acted collectively as proud participants of urban communities, displaying their banners in festive processions and donating money to religious institutions. Merchant guilds then saw to it that their artisan products were transported along routes traversing the subcontinent or leading beyond to foreign lands.

The lands and peoples surrounding India, and the many empires they lived under, are the topic of later chapters but we can take a snapshot of the scene here. In the 1st century CE, India sat amidst trade networks connecting the Roman Empire, Persian Empire (Parthian), Chinese Empire, and a host of smaller kingdoms and states in Africa, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. The major trade networks were the Silk Roads and the Indian Ocean maritime trade routes. Thus, for example, Greco-Roman traders plied the waters of the Arabian Sea, bringing ships filled with amphorae and gold coins to ports located along the west coast of India, and returning with spices, textiles, and gems. Indian traders sailed the waters of the Bay of Bengal, bringing cloth and beads from the Coromandel Coast to Southeast Asia and returning with cinnamon cloves and sandalwood. In the northwest, a similar trade in a variety of goods took place along the Silk Roads. Indian traders, for instance, took advantage of the excellent position of the Kushan Empire to bring silk from Central Asia to the ports of northwest India, from where it could then be sent on to Rome. In sum, this vibrant international trade constituted an early stage of globalization. Combined with regional trade across the subcontinent, India saw an increase in travel in all directions, even as it remained divided among many regional kingdoms.

Modern Issues –  Indian Ocean Connections

One of the most interesting facts about the modern world is that when we visit Shanghai, Tokyo, Mumbai, or Kuala Lumpur we see versions of the same thing. We see skyscrapers, hotels, wide streets with stoplights and similar traffic direction markings, crosswalks, and downtown areas dedicated to shopping. Why is this? Cities have not always been designed like this. The center of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico, one of the world’s largest cities between 500 and 1200 C.E. was dedicated to religious temples. In Tokyo and Beijing, the city center was political – dedicated to the palaces of the ruling elite and their retainers, not to shopping.

Thus one difficult historical question is why so much of the world today looks like the West. Why do Africans, Timorese, Javanese, Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans all wear business suits, neckties, skirts, high heels, sneakers, and jeans? Why are movies filmed according to the same principles in Bollywood as they are in Hollywood? Why does pop music around the world all sound like Western pop music? Only 100 years ago, many Japanese still wore kimonos daily. Why don’t they anymore? One answer to this question has to do with Westernization

Westernization, the adoption of the customs and fashion of Western Europe by cultures in other parts of the world, is a new process in World History. Many of us who live in Western societies see it as natural, comfortable, and even “good.” But it only began in the late 19th to the early 20th century.

You may think that is because European explorers finally went out and “discovered” the world – connecting the civilizational dots. However, from the 3rd to the 18th century C.E., it was the societies in South and Southeast Asia bordering the Indian Ocean that created what we can think of as the first “globalization.” The roots of the modern world thus reach back to India in the Mauryan Empire during the 1st century C.E.. In her article “Southernization,” Lynda Shaffer makes the case that before Westernization there was Southernization. Southernization happened between 300 C.E. and 1750 C.E. in the Indian Ocean area. Like Westernization, Southernization was a process by which the rest of the world gradually adopted the trade and ideas of one area. Westernization originated in Western Europe and was influenced by the Industrial Revolution after 1750. Southernization originated in the Indian Ocean and reflected the South Asian cultural and manufacturing revolution between 300 and 1750 C.E.

Southernization occurred due to several specific developments. First was the development of Indian cotton manufacturing and export. The second was the use of technology to crystallize sugar in the Indian subcontinent. The third was the fact desirable goods from India and other parts of the Indian Ocean could easily be transported across the sea. The varied products from the societies bordering the Indian Ocean in Africa, Arabia, South Asia and Southeast Asia made trade profitable. Ship-board transport provided the ability to transport goods in bulk. Trading benefited from the predictable wind patterns of the monsoon seasons. Trade was thus dependable. The profits both benefited from and encouraged the development of shipbuilding and navigation technologies. These included the lateen sail which is now used from Polynesia to Africa; this sail allowed ships to move against the wind. The astrolabe, used for navigating by the stars, also played a part. India’s development of sophisticated number systems contributed to navigation. Such developments included the idea of 0, and the origins of “Arabic” numerals. Technology and trade also encouraged intellectual pursuits and philosophy. The trade in goods, technology, and ideas was profitable for every major port city in the “Indian Ocean Trade Zone.” Profitability discouraged those cities from using violence. Trade encouraged peaceful political and trade relations across the Indian Ocean.

Historical examples of this distribution of trade and ideas abound. Before 1800 C.E., Indian cotton was known around the world for its quality. Indian cloth, dyed in beautiful colorful patterns such as calico, led a fashion revolution evident from Egypt to Indonesia. Pepper, a rare spice, was only produced in the Moluccas, tiny islands near Indonesia. Merchants brought pepper to Indian markets and sold it to traders who came from around the Indian Ocean. Pepper was the single most expensive commodity in the world, fetching the same price per ounce as gold on the world market.

Gold came to the Indian Ocean from Indonesia, later, from Mongolia and Manchuria. Gold trade linked the Indian Ocean Trade with the Silk Road in northern Eurasia. A desire for spices, sugar and fine cotton cloth, brought the Chinese into the trade. Many Chinese found it more profitable to move to the port cities within the Indian Ocean. They brought with them connections to family and business partners in China. The Chinese diaspora in Southeast and South Asia proved significant as Chinese immigrants became a critical part of the Indian Ocean trade. To this day large diasporic Chinese communities remain across Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

Trade across the Indian Ocean included the East Coast of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Middle East. After 700 C.E., Muslim traders joined the trade. Arab traders played an important role in improving and regularizing trade routes across the ocean. They built port cities such as Melaka (now Malacca in Malaysia), one of the main hubs of the Indian Ocean trade. It was one of the first places Europeans looking to join the Indian Ocean trade went to get in on the action.

Indian Ocean trade did not at first include Europeans. In fact, they entered very late and did so because of the reports of wealth and potential. Vasco Da Gama of Portugal was the first known European to enter the Indian Ocean and engage in this trade. This late entry created problems for Europeans as they were not a part of the regular trade networks. Their wealth and ability to pay was unverifiable, their languages unspoken.

During the era of first contact, around 1498-1530, Europeans suffered from some important limitations. Europe was in the midst of the violene of the Wars of Religion that followed the Protestant Reformation. Their culture had long developed a system of relations that often relied on military conflict rather than commerce. They had little wealth, and what they did have was not enough to buy much in the Indian Ocean. Their lack of long-term relationships with traders also meant that they had few opportunities to buy Indian Ocean goods. Thus Da Gama and other Europeans, who were used to conflict and even carried guns on their ships, resorted to violence. They forced Indian Ocean ports to sell them goods. The first trade between Europeans and Indians, conducted by Da Gama, was a telling example. The Indians he met told him that all the spices for the season were already sold and shipped. They did not know whether he had the money to buy spices or was trustworthy, so they told him to stay offshore. The Indian sellers said that if he returned with letters of credit from his king at the beginning of the next season, they might be able to reserve some spice for him. Da Gama, unwilling to wait, fired his cannon at the city. To stop the destruction, India allowed him to dock. He threatened further violence if they did not find some spice to sell to him. In response, the merchants gathered garbage spice and sold it to him just to get rid of him.

Despite the poor quality of the spice he brought home, and the loss of half his ships and cargo, his profit was immense. Europeans in general seem to have learned from this that using weapons in the Indian Ocean Trade was a profitable option. Since they also had little to trade, it seemed like the best way to get involved. The Portuguese, then the Dutch and the English began conquering ports to trade and source goods. They used their weapons to threaten trade routes and extract “protection” payments from older traders in the Indian Ocean.

Southernization encouraged economic growth in what was an early form of globalization. The influence of the goods and wealth generated in that trade encouraged the adoption of fashion, technology, ideas, and political influence from the “Global South” – India, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Islamic World. Today we see the adoption of ideas from Europe and America, the “West,” and call it Westernization. Westernization depended upon technology and trade systems developed in the Indian Ocean trade. As we move into the middle of the 21st century, Asia’s importance in world trade is once again rising. Manufacturing in East and Southeast Asia is the center of our modern globalized economy. The success of pop bands like BTS and Baby Metal, both of which have gained global popularity, and the rise of H.Y.B.E., the world’s largest music recording and distribution company, make it clear that, far from being a backseat player to the West, Asia remains a critical player in the world economy and has a large say in what is modern, cool, fashionable, and profitable.

 

Religious Transformations: Buddhism and Hinduism into the Common Era

Aside from expanding trade, another theme during these centuries of political division was transformation in two of India’s major religions traditions: Buddhism and Hinduism. In both cases, new religious ideas and practices were added that emphasized the importance of devotion and appealed to broader groups of people.

Buddhism

Buddhism thrived after the Buddha died in c. 480 BCE, even more so during the early centuries of the Common Era, at the same time Christianity was spreading through the Roman Empire. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Buddhism was the dominant public religion in the world at this time. The communities of monks and nuns (sangha) that formed after Buddha’s time lived in monasteries built along trade routes, near towns, or in caves. To build these and survive, the sangha needed much support, which often came in the form of royal patronage. Kings such as Ashoka and Kanishka, for example, offered lavish support for Buddhist institutions. But over time, the contributions of merchants, women, and people from lower varnas became just as important. Unlike Vedic Brahmanism, which privileged the Brahmin varna, Buddhism was more inclusive and less concerned with birth and social class. After all, in theory, anyone could become a Buddha.

Buddhism also emphasized the importance of attaining good karma for better rebirths and a future enlightenment; one didn’t need to be a monk to work at this. Rather, any ordinary layperson, regardless of their religious beliefs, could also take Buddhist vows and practice Buddhist ways. That meant not only leading a moral life but also supporting the sangha. By doing so, the good karma of the monks and nuns would be transferred to the community and oneself. This practice served to not only make the world a better place and to ensure a better future, but also to allow opportunities for publicly displaying one’s piety. That is why kings, rich merchants, and ordinary people donated to the sangha and gave monks food.

With so much support and participation, Buddhism changed. Every major world religion has different branches. Christianity, for example, has three major ones: the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant churches. These branches share a common root but diverge in some matters of belief and practice. Buddhism has two major branches: Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism.

Theravada Buddhism is early Buddhism, the Buddhism of the early sangha, and is based on the earliest records of the Buddha’s teaching of the Four Noble Truths. A practitioner of this form of Buddhism sought to end suffering and attain nirvana by engaging the Eight-Fold Path, a program of study, moral conduct, and meditation. Practitioners of Theravada Buddhism see the difficulty of finding nirvana as something that eventually one has to experience alone to recognize one’s fundamental non-existence as an individual. The primary way Theravada Buddhists expected to travel the Noble Eightfold Path was through meditation and membership in a monastery where one could remove herself or himself from society, pursuing enlightenment through meditation and the stripping away of desire. Both major schools of Buddhism saw women as just as capable of salvation as men. Ideally, the practitioner pursued this program as a monk or nun in a monastic setting, and eventually became an “arhat,” that is, a perfected person who is nearly or fully enlightened.

Mahayana Buddhism came later, during the early centuries of the Common Era. Mahayana means “Great Vehicle,” pointing to the fact that this form of Buddhism offers multiple paths to enlightenment for people from all walks of life. This branch has no single founder and consists of a set of ideas elaborated upon in Buddhist scriptures dating to the period after 480 BCE when the Buddha died. For Mahayana practitioners, in keeping with the Buddha’s views on taking responsibility for one’s actions, it was right for one who had reached nirvana to refuse to enter, and instead return to be reborn and lead others to enlightenment. This view led to the assumption that many people who had reached enlightenment had made such a choice, and they could be called upon as guides, or boddhisatvas. The belief that becoming a Buddhist and reaching enlightenment might require help and that anyone could eventually find the path was a key concept in this type of Buddhism which moved out of India and into China and some parts of Southeast Asia as well. In some instances, the Buddha came to be seen as a god who can be worshipped. A monk or lay follower can make an offering before an image of the Buddha placed in a shrine. By doing so, they demonstrate their desire to end suffering and seek salvation through faith in the Buddha.

Furthermore, with the “Great Vehicle,” the universe could become populated with numerous Buddhas. Practitioners developed the idea that if anyone can become a Buddha over the course of many lifetimes of practice, then other Buddhas must exist. Also, the belief arose that some individuals had tread the path to Buddhahood but chose to forego a final enlightenment where they would leave the world behind. They stayed so that they could, out of great compassion for all suffering people, work for their deliverance. These holy beings are known as Bodhisattvas, that is, enlightened persons who seek nirvana solely out of their desire to benefit all humanity. Seeking to become a Bodhisattva through a path of devotion was one of the new paths outlined by Mahayana scriptures.

Buddhism traveled out of India and had an impact on other parts of the world, making it a major world religion. This expansion resulted from the efforts of Buddhist missionaries and merchants, as well as kings who supported its propagation. Theravada Buddhism was carried to Sri Lanka and parts of Southeast Asia, where it remains a dominant religious tradition. Mahayana Buddhism spread to Central and East Asia, a process facilitated by the Silk Road and the support of kings like Kanishka of the Kushan Empire. However, Buddhism eventually declined in India, especially after the 1st millennium BCE. From that time on, Hinduism and Islam increasingly won over the religious imagination of the peoples of India, with royal patronage and lay support following.

Hinduism

Hinduism also saw new developments during this period and throughout the 1st millennium CE. In fact, many scholars see these centuries as the time Hinduism first took shape, and prefer using the term Vedic Brahmanism for the prior history of this religious tradition. Vedic Brahmanism was the sacrifice-centered religion of the Vedas where, in exchange for gifts, Brahmins performed rituals for kings and householders in order to ensure the favor of the gods. It also included the speculative world of the Upanishads, where renunciants went out in search of spiritual liberation. But something important happened during these later centuries. An additional religious literature was compiled and shrines and temples with images of deities were constructed, pointing to the emergence of new, popular forms of devotion and an effort to define a good life and society according to the idea of dharma. With this transition, we can speak more formally of Hinduism.

One important set of texts is the Dharma Scriptures, ethical and legal works whose authority derived from their attribution to ancient sages. Dharma means “duty” or proper human conduct and so, true to their title, these scriptures define the rules each person must follow in order to lead a righteous and devout life and contribute to a good society. Most importantly, these rules were determined by the role assigned to an individual based on the varna system of social classes, the caste system, and gender. For example, for a male, dharma meant following the rules for their caste and varna while passing through four stages in life: student, householder, hermit, and renunciant. In his youth, a man must study to prepare for his occupation and, as a householder, he must support his family and contribute to society. Late in life, after achieving these goals, he should renounce material desires and withdraw from society, first living as a hermit on the margins of society and then as a wandering renunciant whose sole devotion is to god.

A woman’s role, on the other hand, was defined as obedience to her father in youth and faithful service to her husband as an adult. For this reason, historians see a trend in ancient Indian history whereby women became increasingly subservient and subordinate. Although women were to be honored and supported, the ideal society and family were defined in patriarchal terms. That meant men dominated public life, were the authority figures at home, and usually inherited the property. Also, women were increasingly expected to marry at a very young age – even prior to puberty – and to remain celibate as widows. In later centuries, some widows even observed the practice of burning themselves upon the funeral pyre of the deceased husband. Famous Indian epics illustrated the theme of duty. The Ramayana (“Rama’s Journey”), as we learned earlier, tells this story in detail. 

A similar theme dominates the Bhagavad-Gita (“Song of the Lord”). This classic of Hindu scripture is included as a chapter in another Indian epic, the Mahabharata (The Great Bharata). It tells of wars between cousins who are fighting over the title to their kingdom’s throne. As a battle was poised to commence, one of these cousins – Prince Arjuna – threw down his weapons and refused to fight because he did not wish to harm his kinsmen. But Krishna, his mentor and charioteer, delivered a speech on the nature of duty for a warrior like himself, one that illustrated the religious basis for observing dharma. Arjuna was thus moved to action.

Religious texts and temples also signalled the rise of a powerful devotional Hinduism centered upon a few supreme deities. Stone temples  were erected for the purpose of housing representations of a god or goddess. Peoples of all classes could go to the temple to view the deity, pray, and offer fruits and flowers. By so doing, they showed their love for this lord and their desire to be saved by his or her grace. The most popular deities were Shiva and Vishnu.

Growing up, devotees of these supreme deities would hear countless myths and legends about their origins, exploits, and powers from Brahmins at the temples or story-tellers in their hometown. For example, tales of how Vishnu preserves the universe and watches over it; in times of unbridled evil, he assumes the form of an avatar to remove it and return the world to righteousness. King Rama of the Ramayana and Krishna of the Bhagavad-Gita are two such incarnations of Vishnu. Shiva is both benevolent and protective but also destroys all things. Whereas Vishnu preserves the universe, Shiva destroys it at the end of a cycle. A third deity, Brahma, then recreates it. Combined, this Hindu trinity – Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer – represent different facets of the one divine reality behind the great cosmic cycles and also life and death. They each have female counterparts. Shiva’s wife Parvati, for instance, is a goddess of love and devotion.

During this period, several elements came together to make up the religion outsiders later labeled Hinduism. These elements include the sacrificial religion of the Brahmins, the renunciants’ spiritual pursuit of unifying the self and divine reality (atman and brahman), commitment to a social order shaped by the varna and caste system, notions of law and duty embodied in each individual’s dharma, and devotion to supreme deities and their avatars. Hinduism thoroughly shaped the social and spiritual life of the peoples of India and of Indian society. The rulers of ancient India supported the Brahmins, built temples, upheld the varna system, and assumed titles declaring their devotion to the supreme deities. Hinduism became part of the king’s dharma, and fulfilling that dharma brought the approval of his subjects.

THE GUPTA EMPIRE AND INDIA’S CLASSICAL AGE (300 – 600 CE)

The Gupta Empire

The pattern of regional states characteristic of post-Mauryan times and the early centuries of the Common Era persisted in India until the 16th century. At any one time, India had many kings. But on occasion, one king might forge a substantial regional power and assume grand titles that elevated him over others. The political scene, therefore, consisted of not only a mosaic of royal powers but also a political hierarchy. Some rulers held power over others, making for a pattern of paramountcy and subordination among kings and princes of many different dynasties across the land. These paramount powers could then take advantage of the stability they established and the wealth they accrued to patronize the arts and promote a cultural renaissance. The Gupta Empire is the pre-eminent example of such a power during the period 300–600 CE; indeed, some historians see the time during which they dominated northern India as a classical age.

As is the case for so much of India’s ancient political history, details concerning Gupta rulers have been reconstructed largely from coins, inscriptions, and seals. The dynasty begins in obscurity with two kings of a minor state located along the Ganges River, but then explodes on the scene with the next two kings: Chandragupta I (c. 320–335 CE) and his son Samudragupta (c. 335–375 CE). Through conquest and marital alliances, Chandragupta I forged a larger empire in the old Ganges heartland. A gold coin provides some evidence detailing the Gupta Empire. This coin displays Chandragupta standing next to a certain Queen Kumaradevi. He has taken the title “Great King of Kings,” which signifies imperial power, while she is identified as the princess of a powerful neighboring kingdom.

During his forty-year reign, Samudragupta made the empire great, a feat most forcefully evidenced by a royal eulogy inscribed on one of the old edict pillars of King Ashoka. This eulogy, which describes Samudragupta as “conqueror of the four corners of the earth,” tells of how he subdued dozens of kings across the subcontinent. Closer to home, along the Ganges, many rulers were slain and their territory was annexed, while farther out across northern India and to the southeast, others were “captured and liberated.” These captured and liberated kings were recognized as “servants,” which meant they could continue to rule their own lands as subordinates, on the condition that they paid tribute and homage. Gupta rulers thus directly administered a core territory along the Ganges River while adopting a model of tributary overlordship for the rest. The Gupta imperial court in effect presided over a society of tributary rulers.

After Samudragupta’s time, two more Gupta rulers enjoyed long reigns of forty years, with the empire reaching a peak of power and prosperity. Labelling an historical period as classical generally means it was a time of artistic and intellectual excellence, with standard-setting achievements in a number of fields. Classical also suggests a certain level of maturation for a civilization. It should be noted, that some scholars question the use of this term because all ages produce great works, and sometimes choosing one period as classical simply represents the biased judgment of a later time.

Yet, during the Gupta era, India did produce important scientific discoveries and works of art and literature. The exquisite sculptures of the Buddha portraying his serene enlightenment and teaching were the epitome of classical achievement in art. India also saw an outpouring of literary masterpieces. Kalidasa is one of India’s greatest Sanskrit poets and playwrights. His play The Recognition of Shakuntala, a world masterpiece, tells the story of a girl who lived in a hermitage in the countryside after being abandoned by her parents. One day, a king was out hunting and chanced upon her. They fell in love and married. But then he hurried back to his palace and when she later came to him he no longer knew her because he had been cursed. The only solution for her dilemma was for her to present a ring he had left her. Unfortunately, it had slipped off her finger. The play tells of how this love story concluded, along with the involvement of many higher powers.

In the field of medicine, Ayurveda matured as more complete editions of ancient medical texts were compiled. Ayurveda (meaning “knowledge for longevity”) is India’s ancient medical science. It provides a systematic effort to explain the origins of diseases in dislocations of bodily humors (substances) and to prescribe cures for them. India also saw advancements in the fields of astronomy and mathematics. Aryabhata (476–550 CE), for instance, was the first astronomer to propose that the earth rotated on an axis and a scientific explanation for eclipses. He calculated the value of pi to 3.1416 and the solar year to 364.3586805 days. His work demonstrates the contemporary use of a sophisticated system of decimal notation, which was also an ancient Indian discovery.

One of the most notable achievements of the Gupta era was India’s role as an influential center of trade via land routes and emerging Indian Ocean trade connections. Indian products such as spices, cotton and sugar were in high demand along growing international trade links, leading to pronounced wealth for Indian suppliers and increased cultural interchange. Trade connections strengthened between India and China and Gupta leaders pursued links with the Near East and even the distant Roman empire. Gupta rule was a time of dramatic economic growth and visibly increased prosperity for Indians in the north. These many constructive influences created a ‘golden age’ for India. Profitable trade relations established key Indian port cities as strategic centers of trade early on, laying the foundation for later growth of Indian Ocean trade networks.

The history of ancient India concludes with the decline of the Gupta Empire. The next major period, which lasted for roughly seven centuries (c. 600–1300), was the early medieval age. During these centuries, kingdoms in both the north and south proliferated and regularly replaced each other. Therefore, at any one time, India was fragmented by numerous regional kingdoms. As the rulers of these warred and formed alliances, they employed the system of paramountcy and subordination begun during the Gupta era, with some rulers being overlords and others vassals. Also, successful rulers demonstrated their power by granting land to officers, Brahmins, and temples. The outcome was a political pattern labeled Indian feudalism.

These rulers also demonstrated their power – and enhanced it – by patronizing Hindu institutions and developing local traditions in the regions where their courts resided. They adopted titles showing their devotion to the great Hindu deities, declared their intent to uphold dharma, built fabulous Hindu temples in urban centers, and charged Brahmins with attending to them and serving at their courts. One outstanding example of a feudal kingdom was the Chola Kingdom of southern India.

At the end of this age, a new force appeared on the Indian scene. Muslim Arab and Turkic rulers of West and Central Asia made incursions into the subcontinent. Along with Arab traders arriving on India’s west coast for trade, they brought a new religion and type of rule to the landscape of early medieval India and forged new connections between the subcontinent and the rest of Afro-Eurasia.

Indian Feudalism

Feudalism is a term historians first used to describe the political, social, and economic system of the European Middle Ages. In general, feudalism designates a political and economic scene characterized by fragmented authority, a set of obligations between lords and vassals, and grants of land (including authority over those who work it) by rulers in exchange for some kind of service.

Authority on the early medieval Indian subcontinent was indeed fragmented, not only by the many regional kingdoms that existed at any one time but also, more importantly, within kingdoms; because kingdoms incessantly warred with one another, their boundaries were fluid. Rulers usually closely administered a core area near the capital with a civil administration, while granting feudatories on the periphery. Having defeated the ruling lineage of a powerful neighboring state such as a king, prince, or chief, victorious kings might allow them to retain noble titles and their lands, on the condition they demonstrate allegiance to him and even supply tribute and military service. The overlord could then wield the title “Great King of Kings,” while the lesser rulers bore titles signifying their status as subordinate rulers who do obeisance.

Additionally, aside from granting these feudatories, medieval rulers also issued land grants to important persons and institutions in their realms such as Brahmins, high officials, or temples. As opposed to receiving a cash salary, these recipients were permitted to retain revenue from villages on this land, as well as exercise some level of judicial authority. Brahmins were so important to kings because they aided in upholding the king’s dharma. The king’s duty was to protect the people, uphold the varna social order, sacrifice to the traditional Vedic deities, and show devotion to Shiva or Vishnu. As the religious leaders and intellectuals in the community, and the most prestigious varna, Brahmins could craft genealogies proving a king’s illustrious origins in the heroic lineages of the epic stories of ancient times, perform the sacrifices, and maintain temples. So rulers often generously gifted land to them or to the magnificent temple complexes rulers built.

Medieval India consisted of a multitude of kingdoms, each of which governed a part of their realms through feudal arrangements by granting feudatories and issuing land grants to nobility or prestigious religious and political leaders, in exchange for allegiance and assisting the ruler in demonstrating he was worthy of his sacred role. In most instances, given that society was patriarchal, rulers were male, but in many cases queens inherited the throne. Rudramadevi, for instance, was chosen by her father to accede to the throne of a kingdom in central India, likely because he had no sons or living brothers. Inscriptions refer to her as a king; indeed, she is said to have donned male attire while leading soldiers into battle. She is also portrayed seated on a lion, with a dagger and shield in hand. Thus, she conformed to the expected role of a warrior, male king. Clearly, preserving the dynastic line was more important than biological sex.

CONCLUSION