When reports of an eccentric British archeologist called John Marshall suddenly stumbling upon some really ancient structures in Mohenjodaro and Harappa started filtering out, nothing short of a minor sensation occurred the world over. For this was clearly something that would prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that India came before Greece (see Introduction to Indian History).
The Indus Valley Civilization
Character and Significance
While the Indus (or Harappan) Valley Civilization may be considered the culmination of a long process indigenous to the Indus Valley, a number of parallels exist between developments on the Indus and the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia. It is striking to compare the Indus with this better-known and more fully documented region and to see how closely the two coincide with respect to the emergence of cities and of such major concomitants of civilization as writing, standardized weights and measures, and monumental architecture. Yet, nearly all the earlier writers have sensed the Indianness of the civilization, even when they were largely unable to articulate it. Thus, V. Gordon Childe wrote in his New Light on the Most Ancient East that:
India confronts Egypt and Babylonia by the third millennium with a thoroughly individual and independent civilization of her own, technically the peer of the rest. And plainly it is deeply rooted in Indian soil. The Indus civilization represents a very perfect adjustment of human life to a specific environment. And it has endured; it is already specifically Indian and forms the basis of modern Indian culture.
The force of Childe's words can be appreciated even without an examination of the Indus Valley script found on seals; the attention paid to domestic bathrooms, the drains, and the Great Bath at Mohenjodaro can all be compared with elements in the later Indian civilization. The bullock carts with a framed canopy, called ikkas, and boats are little changed to this day. The absence of pins and the love of bangles and of elaborate nose ornaments are all peculiarly Indian. The religion of the Indus also is replete with suggestions of traits known from later India. The significance of the bull, the tiger, and the elephant; the composite animals; the seated yogi god of the seals; the tree spirits and the objects resembling the Shiva linga (symbolic of the god Shiva) of later times -- all these are suggestive of enduring forms in later Indian civilization.
The evidence of widespread trade in many commodities, the apparent uniformity of weights and measures, the common script, and the uniformity -- almost common currency -- of the seals all indicate some measure of political and economic control and point to the great cities, Mohenjodaro and Harappa, as their centres. The presence of the great granaries on the citadel mounds in these cities and of the "citadels" themselves suggests the existence of priest-kings, or at least of a priestly oligarchy, that controlled the economy and civil government. The intellectual mechanism of this government and the striking degree of control implicit in it are still matters of speculation. Nor can scholars yet speak with any certainty regarding relations between the cities and surrounding villages. Much more research needs to be done, on many such topics, before the full character of the Indus civilization can be revealed.
Discovery of Ancient City of Mohenjodaro and Harappa
The year was 1922. Initial forays in delving into India's past
began when Dr. R.D. Banerjee found the ancient city of Mohenjodaro
(literally, 'city of the dead') in Larkana district of Sindh, now in
Pakistan.
A little later, archeological remains of another city, quite similar
in planning and age, were dug up by Sir Daya Ram Sawhney in Harappa,
in the Montgomery district of the Punjab. Sir John Marshall, who was
the then chairperson of the Archeology department, decided this was
a thing well worth looking into. Under his supervision, teams of
archeologists worked in other areas of the Sindh and Baluchistan
provinces of present Pakistan. What they came up with astounded the
world.
The Marvelous Town Planning of Mohenjodaro
The chief feature of Mohenjodaro, that amazes all curious
spectators, is its superb town planning. The streets, which divided
the city into neat rectangular or square blocks, varied in width but
always intersected each other at right angles.
The city had an elaborate drainage system consisting of horizontal
and vertical drains, street drains and so on. The architecture of
the buildings was clearly intended to be functional and minimalist,
and certainly not to please the aesthete.
Mohenjodaro was obviously a cosmopolitan city, the capital of the
civilization or something, with people of different races mingling
with the local populace.
Studies reveal that four distinct races inhabited the city:
Proto-Austroloid, Mediterranean, Alpine and Mongoloid. Not much is
known about their socio-economic-religious life as the script of the
civilization eludes decoding; many have come tantalizingly close,
but then just that.
They had their distinct religious sects, including a very active
Mother Goddess cult, as is evinced from various seals that they have
left behind not only here, but also in far-flung places like
Mesopotamia. Which means that sea trade was very much part of their
lives; this is confirmed from another source as their seals carry
insignias of boats and ships on them.
The End of the Indus Valley Civilization
There is no general agreement regarding the causes of the breakdown of Harappan urban society. Broadly speaking, the principal theories thus far proposed fall under four headings. The first is gradual environmental change, such as a shift in climatic patterns and consequent agricultural disaster, perhaps coinciding with rapid population growth. Second, some scholars have postulated more precipitous environmental changes, such as tectonic events leading to the flooding of Mohenjodaro, the drying up of the Sarasvati River, or other such calamities. Third, it is conceivable that human activities, such as influx of tribes people from the hills to the west of the Indus Valley, perhaps even Indo-Aryans, contributed to the breakdown of Indus external trade links or more directly disrupted the cities. The fourth theory posits the occurrence of an epidemic or similar agent of devastation. In recent years some historians have indicated that the Vedic civilization flourished in the region much earlier along the banks of the Saraswati River. When this river dried in a later period, the population gradually shifted westward towards the Indus, and eastward towards and along the Ganga, and to the south. Whatever may have been the cause, it appears likely that some complex of natural forces compromised the fabric of society and that subsequent human intervention hastened its complete breakdown.
It is without a doubt that the civilization one of the most
important finds in the world of archeology. In one stroke the age of
Indian history was pushed back by more than a millennium, deep into
3000BC. This effectively exploded the myth that everything in India
before the coming of the Aryans was enveloped in the supreme
darkness of one primeval swamp. Here was a civilization that was not
only well-developed, but actually far more sophisticated than that
of the Aryans.
The Indus Valley Civilization said its last hurray roughly in 2200
BC. The beginning and end of the Indus Valley Civilization are both
a matter of debate. Obviously there must have been a lead up to it.
Suddenly, out of the blue, a people could not have emerged complete
with their perfect town planning, neat houses, lovely jewellery and
loads of make-up. So where did they come from? And then having come,
just where did they disappear?
Popular theory which is accepted by the man on the street is that
the people of the civilization (commonly referred to as the
Harappans) were chased out by the Aryans and went down south. The
present South Indians are their descendants. Recent research also
threw up evidence that the Aryans' descendants actually still
survive as santals (tribals) in various jungle areas in India.
Post-Harappan Developments
It is still far from certain at what date the urban society broke down. The decline probably occurred in several stages, perhaps over a century or more; the period between about 2000 and 1750 BC is a reasonable estimation. The collapse of the urban system does not necessarily imply a complete breakdown in the lifestyle of the population in all parts of the Indus region, but it seems to have involved the end of whatever system of social and political control had preceded it. After this date the cities, as such, and many of their distinctively urban traits -- the use of writing and of seals and a number of the specialized urban crafts --disappear. The succeeding era, which lasted until about 750 BC, may be considered as post-Harappan or perhaps better as "post-urban".
In the Sarasvati valley there is a very interesting development: here, the early post-urban stage is associated with the pottery known from the so-called Cemetery H at Harappa. This coincides with a major reduction in both the number and size of settlements, suggesting a deterioration in the environment. In the eastern Punjab, too, there is a disappearance of the larger, urban sites but no comparable reduction in the number of smaller settlements. This is also true of the settlements farther east in the Ganga-Yamuna valleys. It is probably correct to conclude that, in each of these areas during the post-urban period, material culture exhibited some tendency to develop regional variations, sometimes showing continuations of features already present during the pre-urban and urban phases.
The Settlement of Aryans
It took the tall, beautiful, long limbed Aryans surprisingly little time to get used to their new home. Initially, they settled in the area of Sapt-Sindhu, which included Punjab, Kashmir, Sindh, Kabul and Gandhara (Kandhar). The chief sources of this period which have come down to us are The Vedas and the Epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, which through their stories and hymns tell us about the expansion of the Aryans. It took them about a thousand years to bring the entire northern region under their control. Then they turned their attention to the south. The epic Ramayana is a symbolic tale which tells of the Aryan expansion to the south – the good, almost godly, aryaputra (an Aryan's son) king Rama surging forth to finish off the evil Dasyu (that was what the Aryans called the natives) Ravana.
Scholars generally agree that the arrival and spread of people speaking Old Indo-Aryan dialects of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family took place during the late third and second millennia BC. Probably these people came from the steppes to the north and east of the Caspian Sea, moving first southwards into the southern parts of Central Asia and from there fanning out across the Iranian plateau. This movement may already have begun during the life-span of the Indus civilization. One hypothesis is that between about 2000 and 1500 BC a continuing spread of Indo-Aryan speakers occurred, carrying them much farther into India, to the east and south, and coinciding with a growing cultural interaction between the native population and the new arrivals. From these processes a new cultural synthesis emerged, giving rise by the end of the second millennium to the conscious expressions of Aryan ethnicity found in the Rigveda, particularly in the later hymns.
Aryans Political System
The political system of the Aryans in their initial days here was
amazingly complex, though quite ingenious. They hung around together
in small village settlements (which later grew to kingdoms) and the
basis of their political and social organization was, not
surprisingly, the clan or kula.
Being of somewhat militant nature, this was very much a patriarchal
society, with the man in the house expected to keep his flock in
control.
Groups of kulas together formed a Grama or village, which was headed
by a Gramina. Many villages formed another political unit called a
Visya, headed by a Visyapati. The Visyas in turn collected under a
Jana, which was ruled by a Rajana or king. However, the precise
relationship between the grama, the visya and the jana has not been
clearly defined anywhere.
The King was the Supreme Power
The king was yet to become that the all-powerful monarch that he
eventually became. Although he lived as befitted a king, he was
supposed to work in tandem with the people's wishes.
He had an elaborate court of many officials, including the chief
queen (Mahishi) who was expected to help in the decision making
process. Two assemblies, Sabha and Samiti further assisted the king.
The Samiti was roughly equivalent to our modern Lower House or the
Lok Sabha, with members that represented the people, and the Sabha
was a permanent body of selected men.
So everything was very proper and democratic. This was obviously
speedily amended. As one Jana swallowed another and kingdoms arose
out of their ashes, the king became increasingly the despot that we
are all more familiar with. Women seemed to have had it good at this
time, but then through almost all of the ancient period of Indian
history women continued to command respect and considerable pull in
society. Although by the time of the Mahabharata their position had
fallen enough for them to be treated as a man's property, as is
evinced by the episode where Yudhistra gambles away his wife (see
Mahabharata).
No Rigidity In Caste System
The caste system (see Varna system) as is known now does
not seem to have evolved yet. And even when it did, it was not the
rigid thing it became by the time of the Guptas but was a loose
social system where people could move up and down the social scale.
Aryan's worshipped nature gods – they prayed to the Usha (Dawn),
Prajapati (The Creator), Rudra (Thunder), Indra (Rain), Surya (Sun)
and so on. These gods and goddesses were appeased by prayers and
sacrifices.
As time went this idyllic life among the beautiful wooded country
with a benevolent monarch, a democratic senate and an open social
system failed to survive. Power won over all else.
The Development of Indian Civilization from c. 1500 BC to c. AD 1100
The European scholars who reconstructed early Indian history in the nineteenth century regarded it as essentially static and Indian society as concerned only with things spiritual. Indologists, such as the German Max Müller, relied heavily on the Sanskritic tradition and saw Indian society as an idyllic village culture emphasizing qualities of passivity, meditation, and otherworldliness. In sharp contrast was the approach of the British historian James Mill and the utilitarians, who condemned Indian culture as irrational and inimical to human progress. Mill first formulated a periodization of Indian history into Hindu, Muslim, and British periods, a scheme that, while still commonly used, is now controversial. During the nineteenth century, direct contact with Indian institutions through administration, together with the utilization of new evidence from recently deciphered inscriptions, numismatics, and local archives, provided fresh insights. Nationalist Indian historians of the early twentieth century tended to exaggerate the glory of the past but nevertheless introduced controversy into historical interpretation, which in turn resulted in more precise studies of Indian institutions. In recent decades, historians have reconstructed in greater detail the social, economic, and cultural history of the subcontinent.
The urban economy was crucial to the rise of civilization in the Indus Valley (c. 2600-2000 BC). Later, the first millennium BC saw an urban civilization in the Ganga Valley and still later in coastal South India. The emergence of towns was based on administrative needs, the requirements of trade, and pilgrimage centres.
The structure of Indian society was characterized by caste. The distinguishing features of a caste society were endogamous kinship groups (jatis) arranged in a hierarchy of ritual ranking, based on notions of pollution and purity, with an intermeshing of service relationships and an adherence to geographic location. There was some coincidence between caste and access to economic resources. Although ritual hierarchy was unchanging, there appears to have been mobility within the framework. Migrations of peoples both within the subcontinent and from outside encouraged social mobility and change. The nucleus of the social structure was the family, with the pattern of kinship relations varying from region to region. In the more complex urban structure, occupational guilds occasionally took on jati functions, and there was a continual emergence of new social and professional groups.
Religion in early Indian history did not constitute a monolithic force. Even when the royalty attempted to encourage certain religions, the idea of a State religion was absent. In the main, there were three levels of religious expression. The most widespread was the worship of local cult deities vaguely associated with major deities, as seen in fertility cults, in the worship of mother goddesses, in the Shakta-Shakti cult, and in Tantrism. Less widespread but popular, particularly in the urban areas, were the more puritanical sects of Buddhism and Jainism and the bhakti tradition of Hinduism. A third level included classical Hinduism and more abstract levels of Buddhism and Jainism, with an emphasis on the major deities in the case of the first and on the teachings of the founders in the case of the latter two. It was this level, endorsed by affluent patronage, that provided the base for the initial institutionalization of religion. But the three levels were not isolated; the shadow of the third fell over the first two, the more homely rituals and beliefs of which often crept into the third. This was the case particularly with Hinduism, the very flexibility of which was largely responsible for its survival. Forms of Buddhism, ranging from an emphasis on the constant refinement of doctrine, on the one hand, to an incorporation of magical fertility cults in its beliefs, on the other, faded out towards the end of this period.
By about 1500 BC an important change began to occur in the northern half of the Indian subcontinent. The Indus civilization had declined by about 2000 BC (or, perhaps as late as 1750 BC), and the stage was being set for a second and more lasting urbanization in the Ganga Valley.
Early Vedic Period
In addition to the archaeological legacy discussed above, there remains from this period the earliest literary record of Indian culture, the Vedas. The Vedic civilization is the Indo-Aryan culture associated with the Vedas, which are some of the oldest extant Indo-European texts, orally composed in archaic, or Vedic Sanskrit, generally dated between 1500 and 800 BC, and transmitted orally, the Vedas comprise four major texts -- the Rig-, Sama-, Yajur-, and Atharva vedas. Of these, the Rigveda is the earliest. The texts consist of hymns, charms, spells, and ritual observations current among the Indo-European-speaking people known as Aryans (from the Sanskrit arya, "noble"). But this is a misconception for the simple reason that vedas were the earliest text that originated in India. The exact connection of the genesis of this civilization with the Indus Valley civilization on one hand, and a possible Indo-Aryan migration on the other hand, is the subject of disputes. Early Vedic society was largely pastoral. After the Rigveda, the society became increasingly agricultural, and was organized around four Varnas, or classes. Several small kingdoms and tribes merged to form a few large ones, such as the Kuru and Panchala, some of which were often at war with each other.
The early Vedic was the period of transition from nomadic pastoralism to settled village communities intermixing pastoral and agrarian economies. Cattle were initially the dominant commodity, as indicated by the use of the word gotra ("cowpen") to signify the endogamous kinship group and gavisti ("searching for cows") to denote war. A patriarchal extended family structure gave rise to the practice of niyoga ("levirate"), which permitted a widow to marry her husband's brother. A community of families constituted a grama. The term vish is generally interpreted to mean "clan". Clan assemblies appear to have been frequent in the early stages. Various categories of assemblies are mentioned, such as vidatha, samiti, and sabha, although the precise distinctions among these categories are not clear. The clan also gathered for the yajna, the Vedic sacrifice conducted by the priest, whose ritual actions ensured prosperity and imbued the chief with valour. The chief was primarily a war leader with responsibility for protecting the clan, for which function he received a bali ("tribute"). Punishment was exacted according to a principle resembling the wergild ("man payment") of ancient Germanic law, whereby the social rank of a wronged or slain man determined the compensation due to him or his survivors.
Later Vedic Period (c. 800-c. 500 BC)
The principal literary sources from this period are the Samaveda, Yajurveda, and Atharvaveda (mainly ritual texts), the Brahmanas (manuals on ritual), and the Upanishads and Aranyakas (collections of philosophical and metaphysical discourses).
Associated with the corpus are the sutra texts, largely explanatory aids to the other works, comprising manuals on sacrifices and ceremonies, domestic observances, and social and legal relations. Because the texts were continually revised, they cannot be dated accurately to the early period. The Dharmasutra texts of this period became the nuclei of the sociolegal Dharmashastras of later centuries.
The Beginning of the Historical Period, c. 500-150 BC
For this phase of Indian history a variety of historical sources are available. The Buddhist canon, pertaining to the period of the Buddha (c. sixth-fifth century BC) and later, is invaluable as a cross-reference for the Brahmanic sources. This also is true, though to a more limited extent, of Jain sources. In the fourth century BC there are secular writings on political economy and accounts of foreign travellers. The most important sources, however, are inscriptions of the third century BC.
By 500 BC, sixteen monarchies and 'republics' known as the Mahajanapadas stretched across the Indo-Gangetic plains from modern-day Afghanistan to Bangladesh. The largest of these nations were Magadha, Kosala, Kuru and Gandhara. The right of a king to his throne, no matter how it was gained, was usually legitimized through religious right and genealogies concocted by priests who ascribed divine origins to the rulers.
Hindu rituals at that time were complicated and conducted by the priestly class. It is thought that the Upanishads, late Vedic texts dealing mainly with incipient philosophy, were first composed early in this period. The educated speech at that time was Sanskrit, while the dialects of the general population of northern India were referred to as Prakrits. In 537 BC, Gautama Buddha gained enlightenment and founded Buddhism, which was initially intended as a supplement to the existing Vedic dharma. Around the same time period, in mid-6th century BC, Mahavira founded Jainism.
Both religions had a simple doctrine, and were preached in Prakrit, which helped it gain acceptance amongst the masses. While the geographic impact of Jainism was limited, Buddhist nuns and monks eventually spread the teachings of Buddha to Central Asia, East Asia, Tibet, Sri Lanka and South East Asia.
Magadhan Ascendancy
Political activity in the sixth-fifth century BC centered on the control of the Ganga Valley. The States of Kashi, Kosala, Magadha, and the Vrijjis battled for this control for a century until Magadha emerged victorious. Amongst the 16 Mahajanapadas, the kingdom of Magadha rose to prominence under a number of dynasties that peaked in power under the reign of Asoka Maurya, one of India's most legendary and famous emperors. The kingdom of Magadha had emerged as a major power following the subjugation of two neighbouring kingdoms, and possessed an unparalleled military. Magadha's success was due, in part, to the political ambition of its king, Bimbisara. He conquered Anga, which gave him access to the Ganga Delta -- a valuable asset in terms of the nascent maritime trade. Bimbisara's son Ajatashatru implemented his father's intentions within about 30 years.
Bimbisara - The Magadhan Ruler of Shishunaga Dynasty
According to tradition, the Shishunaga dynasty founded the Magadha Empire in 684 BC, whose capital was Rajagriha, later Pataliputra, near the present day Patna. This dynasty lasted till 424 BC, when it was overthrown by the Nanda dynasty. This period saw the development of two of India's major religions. Gautama Buddha in the 6th or 5th century BC was the founder of Buddhism, which later spread to East Asia and South-East Asia, while Mahavira founded Jainism. The first important Magadhan king who emerges into the limelight was Bimbisara (544-491 BC) of the Shishunaga dynasty. He was an extremely polished diplomat and crafty statesman. While the earlier rulers had brought Magadha out of clear and present danger, it was Bimbisara who consolidated and increased that power and really gave it the identity of a kingdom. Through some clever marital and martial policies he pushed the frontiers of Magadha over, according to a source, eighty thousand villages. Bimbisara was a contemporary of the Buddha and met him twice, thanks to his wife Khema's reverence for the teacher. We learn that when he met him the second time, in Rajgriha (which is an important Buddhist pilgrimage today), Bimbisara converted to Buddhism.
Assasination of Bimbisara
Apparently Bimbisara was assassinated by his impatient son Ajatsatru, who was a good friend of the Buddha's cousin Devadutta. This Devadutta, not to be judged by his cousin's credentials, was very much a blot on his family name and talked Ajatsatru into killing his father in the first place. However, there is evidence that his crime weighed on Ajatsatru's mind, and in the end he confessed his crime to the Buddha before converting to Buddhism. Apart from this, Ajatsatru was very much his father's son and continued his imperialist policies. One particularly bitter, acrimonious and prolonged rivalry went on between him and the Lichchavi dynasty that ruled Vaishali (in Bihar), which he eventually managed to conquer. Ajatsatru was obviously a colorful character and a man of sentiment. There are tales of his passionate affair with the chief courtesan of Vaishali, called Amrapali. Then, when the Buddha attained parinirvana (nirvana from all births and bonds), Ajatsatru insisted upon a part of his relics be buried in a stupa (shrine) that he got erected in Rajgriha. He said, "The lord was a kshatriya (the warrior caste of the Varna system), so am I. Therefore I am worthy of a share of his relics upon which I will erect a stupa."
The Fading Glory of Shishunaga Dynasty and Rise of Nanda Dynasty
The Shishunaga dynasty faded fast after Ajatsatru; having produced two rulers with force enough for twenty, the dynasty bowed out. The last recorded ruler of the family was Kakavarna who was put to death by Mahapadma Nanda, of the Nanda dynasty which followed the Shishunagas. Nanda dynasty was established by Mahapadma Nanda, an illegitimate son of the king Mahanandin of the previous Shishunaga dynasty. Mahapadma Nanda died at the age of 88 and, therefore, he ruled the bulk of the period of this dynasty, which lasted 100 years. The Nandas who usurped the throne of the Shishunaga dynasty were of low origin. Some sources state that the founder, Mahapadma , was the son of a Shudra mother, others that he was born of a union of a barber with a courtesan. Nandas were the first of a number of dynasties of northern India who were of non-kshatriya origin. The Nandas are sometimes described as the first empire builders of India. They inherited the large kingdom of Magadha and wished to extend it to yet more distant frontiers. To this purpose they built up a vast army consisting of 20,000 cavalry, 200,000 infantry, 2,000 chariots and 3,000 elephants. Mahapadma Nanda has been described as the destroyer of all the Kshatriyas. He defeated Ikshvakus, Panchalas, Kasis, Harhayas, Kalingas, Asmakas, Kurus, Maithilas, Surasenas, Vitihotras, etc. He expanded his territory till south of Deccan.
The Nandas could never be popular rulers despite their airs of magnificence and immense wealth (which they amassed by huge taxation). The Nandas made the methodical collection of taxes by regularly appointed officials a part of their administrative system. The treasury was continually replenished, the wealth of the Nandas being well-known. They were of lowborn sudra stock and hence had the odds stacked against them right from the start. By now the kings had become the more familiar despots and were becoming increasingly unapproachable. The Nandas, though very powerful with a huge standing army and a grand court, were apparently a very vain lot. Indeed, traditional sources give us a very unflattering picture of the kings of this family. Much of this can be discounted – the Nandas were sudras to start with (which queered them with the Aryan Brahmins who were writing one half of these sources) and never bothered to associate with the Buddhists and Jains (who were writing the other half). The Nanda who unwittingly became the most famous of the entire dynasty was Dhana Nanda, the last of the Nandas. He started his own downfall by insulting a certain unsightly looking Brahmin, who unfortunately for Dhana Nanda, turned out to have surprising vision, intellect and Machiavellian cunning. Plutarch tells that Chandragupta Maurya had stated that Nanda was hated and despised by his subject on account of the wickedness of his disposition. The bloody fight between the Nandas and the Mauryas overthrew the dynasty of Nandas.
Campaigns of Alexander the Great
The much of the northwestern part of Indian Subcontinent (present day Eastern Afghanistan and most of Pakistan), was ruled by the Persian Achaemenid Empire from c. 520 BC during the reign of Darius the Great, witnessed the campaign of Alexander of Macedonia, who in 327 BC, in pursuing his campaign to the eastern extremities of the Achaemenian Empire, entered Gandhara. There, he defeated King Puru in the Battle of the Hydaspes (near modern-day Jhelum, Pakistan) and conquered much of the Punjab. He campaigned successfully across the Punjab as far as the Beas River, where his troops refused to continue fighting. The vast army of the Nandas is referred to in Greek sources, and some historians have suggested that Alexander's Greek soldiers may have mutinied out of fear of this army. The campaign of Alexander made no impression on the Indian mind, for there are no references to it in Indian sources.
Alexander created garrisons for his troops in his new territories, and founded several cities in the areas of the Oxus, Arachosia, and Bactria, and Macedonian/Greek settlements in Gandhara and the Punjab. The regions included the Khyber Pass - a geographical passageway south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush mountains - and the Bolan Pass, on a trade route connecting Drangiana, Arachosia and other Persian and Central Asian kingdoms to the lower Indus plain. It is through these regions that most of the interaction between South Asia and Central Asia took place, generating intense cultural exchange and trade.
Chanakya - The Man With Master Mind
This Brahmin was called Chanakya. This was time (around 326BC)
when Alexander came visiting India's northwest borders along Taxila
where the king, called Ambhi, laid out the red carpet for him. There
was an active concern among all except the king Dhana Nanda himself
that Alexander would come all the way to Magadha. The first thing
that Chanakya tried to achieve was to raise a confederacy against
the foreign invader. Though this attempt, to a large extent failed,
what it did manage was to bring Chanakya into political limelight of
the day. He made many friends in high places, which set him off on a
bigger goal – to overthrow the Nandas.
One of the main reasons the confederacy against Alexander never got
going was that Magadha, as the most powerful kingdom and the obvious
leader for the rest to follow, simply refused to fall in. Dhana
Nanda apparently not only flatly refused to spend good cash on a mad
project like this, but also managed to offend Chanakya so thoroughly
by his insolent behavior that the Brahmin went away convinced that
the king deserved to be overthrown. It was a good thing that
Chanakya's concerns were in vain; Alexander never did come all the
way to Magadha; in fact, he didn't even get close. Long before that
summer set in and his armies started grumbling, while he himself
fell ill (this illness would eventually be the end of the great king
in 323 BC, at a tragically early age of 32). So the Greek armies
turned around after leaving Seleucus Nikator as Alexander's general
in the region.
The Greeks established a colony along the border who eventually
mingled with the local populace, thus forming a new stock of people.
This meant not only political, but also cultural and social exchange
with the Greek which influenced Indian warfare, painting and
sculpture (a whole school of art called Gandhara School of art come
up of the amalgam), trade and economy. While we, in turn, influenced
their science, astronomy, art and philosophy.
In these exciting times, Chanakya was going about with a
single-minded focus to find a replacement for Dhananada. This he
found in young Chandragupta Maurya (324-298 BC).
Mauryan Dynasty
The Maurya Empire (322–185 BCE), ruled by the Mauryan
Dynasty, was a geographically extensive and powerful political and
military empire in ancient India. Originating from the kingdom of
Magadha in the Indo-Gangetic plains (modern Bihar and Bengal) in the
eastern side of the sub-continent, the empire had its capital city
at Pataliputra (near modern Patna). The dynasty that
Chandragupta and Chanakya established, in 322 BCE, in Magadha
together, the Mauryan dynasty, was the first real dynasty of
Indian history. The first among the Mauryas, however, is quite a
mystery figure in history and not much is known about him.
Descriptions of his good looks have led some to conclude that he had
Greek blood in him. And since he was supposed to have come from the
North, certainly he was of the hills. Much hair splitting has
happened over him, his credentials to the throne, his family, even
his name; with one of the theories claiming that he was actually the
son of Dhana Nanda mistress called Mura, and hence the name Maurya.
However, all this is up there in the realm of conjecture, since we
are never likely to know the truth about Chandragupta Maurya's
background. His mentor himself doesn't throw any light on his
origins; indeed, if he was in fact low born, Chanakya's attempts
would have been more in the direction of hushing them up. He was on
the look out for a shrewd, intelligent young man who had a certain
genius for battle as also ruling, suffice is that he got him.
Together they both made a formidable team and stayed together till
the end of Chandragupta's reign, when Chanakya lived to see the
early half of his successor Bindusara's (298-273 BC) reign
too. There's sufficient evidence to prove that elaborate planning
and much intrigue went to shake the Nandas out of the Magadha
throne.
A few early attempts, in fact, failed. There's a story about how
Chandragupta finally got the idea that managed to defeat the Nanda
might. Apparently he was walking round Taxila when he saw a woman
feeding her son a dish of rice and lentils. As the son started to go
straight for the middle of the dish, his mother reprimanded him and
told him to start eating from the sides, for the centre was bound to
be hotter. This gave Chandragupta the idea to abandon trying to
directly take on the Magadhan armies, and consolidate his position
around it first and choke the Nandas so to speak. He began rapidly
expanding his power westwards across central and western India
taking opportunistic advantage of the disruptions of local powers in
the wake of the withdrawal westward by Alexander the Great's
Macedonian and Persian armies. By 316 BCE the empire had fully
occupied Northwestern India, defeating and conquering the satraps
left by Alexander.
After Magadha was taken, Chanakya and Chandragupta had most of their
allies summarily disposed off and integrated their kingdoms into one
strong Mauryan empire. At its greatest extent, the Empire stretched
to the north along the natural boundaries of the Himalayas, and to
the east stretching into what is now Assam. To the west, it reached
beyond modern Pakistan and significant portions of what is now
Afghanistan, including the modern Herat and Kandahar provinces. His
successor Bindusara although known as Amitraghat (slayer of foes)
was neither a conqueror nor a military man. But he was a dynamic and
brilliant diplomat. He started sending and receiving missions to
Egypt, Greece, Persia, Mesopotamia and various other countries.
Trade increased, the economy prospered and there was general
prosperity in the kingdom. There were several rebellions in the
border regions in this period (regular features through out Indian
history), for which he sent out his son Ashoka Maurya, who was very
successful in dealing with them. The Empire was expanded into
India's central and southern regions by Emperor Bindusara, but it
excluded a small portion of unexplored tribal and forested regions
near Kalinga.
Gupta Dynasty
After the Kushanas, India saw political unity only under the second great dynasty of ancient Indian history after the Mauryas, the Guptas.
The imperial Guptas were great conquerors, efficient administrators and renowned patrons of the arts, science and culture. What's more, they lasted pretty long too; they had at least six strong rulers before the dynasty petered off, which meant greater stability than any kingdom had ever known in Indian sub-continent. Their reign is called the Golden Age of ancient Indian history.
There is evidence, the first traces ever, of fundamentalism as the staunchly Aryan Guptas set about reviving the older religion. It is in this era also that we see the beautifully simple and free-spirited Aryan philosophy settling down into a more rigid mould of a religion that we now call Hinduism. There could be reasons for this, though. It was also thought to have been an age of material prosperity, particularly among the urban elite, and of renascent Hinduism. Some of these assumptions have been questioned by more extensive studies of the post-Mauryan, pre-Gupta period. Archaeological evidence from the earlier Kushana levels suggests greater material prosperity, to such a degree that some historians argue for an urban decline in the Gupta period. Much of Gupta literature and art derived from that of earlier periods, and renascent Hinduism is probably more correctly dated to the post-Gupta time. The Gupta realm, although less extensive than that of the Mauryas, did encompass the northern half and central parts of the subcontinent. The Gupta period also has been called an imperial age, but the administrative centralization so characteristic of an imperial system is less apparent than during the Mauryan period.
For when the Guptas came on the scene India had just seen a long line of Indo-Greek, Indo-Bactrian, Indo-Parthian, in short Indo-anything except Indo-Indian rulers. And even then they had to continuously wage bitter battles to keep foreign invaders like the Sakas off their backs. So naturally they reached deep back to their roots so to speak, in reaction against all things foreign. To revive the glory of the 'old' culture, which had been obscured by the so-called foreign rulers, must have been a matter of pride for them. In this, however, came certain downs. For example the caste system came back with a vengeance but no longer as the flexible loose social structure of the early Aryan days, but a strict code that later became such a curse for India.
Great Rulers of Gupta Dynasty
If one turns a blind eye to this, the Guptas were obviously what the doctor ordered for the country then. For a dynasty which was so well documented we know surprisingly little about the rise of the Guptas. The Guptas, a comparatively unknown family, came from either Magadha or eastern Uttar Pradesh. The first Gupta king was apparently Chandra Gupta I (320-335 A.D.), though not much is known about him, took the title of Maharajadhiraja.
Next in line was Samudra Gupta (335-375 A.D.) who, by all
accounts, seemed to have been nothing short of a genius. He appears
to have come to the throne brimming with an amazing appetite for
conquest. Considering that he defeated kings all over northern and
southern India (in all about twenty-four of them) one wonders when
did he get the time to govern the kingdom. So, it is not really a
surprise to learn that he did not. He came up with a rather clever
plan to keep the newly acquired territories as annexed lands; which
meant that he retained the old kings as vassals to keep the
administration going. So, effectively his kingdom was like a loose
federation, where everyone knew who the boss was while the actual
ruling was handed over to other more competent authorities.
The conqueror was just one facet to the charismatic Samudra Gupta.
Court poets would, of course, have us believe that he was nothing
short of a Narcissus to look at. However, he must have been
unquestionably a magnetic personality which he used to great effect
as a statesman. He was a skilful diplomat who had excellent
relations with not only foreign rulers but also his vassal-kings,
surely a much more difficult task to achieve. Due to his ingenious
ideas of government, Samudra Gupta could establish a really powerful
empire which stood solid as a rock for many years to come. He was
also a great scholar and was especially fond of poetry and spiritual
studies.
He was followed by his elder son Rama Gupta (375-380 A.D.)
who was a bit of blot on that proud family's good name. Apparently
he was having immense trouble with the central Asian Saka invaders
who refused to budge from borders of the empire and threatened to
come in. Rama Gupta sued for peace, and the Saka king agreed on one
condition that his queen Dhruvadevi be surrendered to him. Which was
okay with Rama Gupta, but not his younger brother Chandra Gupta who,
disguised as the queen, entered the Saka camp and killed their king.
After this Chandra Gupta also killed his brother and married
Dhruvadevi and succeeded the throne.
He came to be called Chandra Gupta Vikramaditya (380-413
A.D.) and was an excellent ruler. The story does not change much
from Samudra Gupta's time. Conquests (though not many since Samudra
Gupta had pretty much already conquered all there was to conquer),
able administration, the arts flourishing, literature being produced
in huge quantities, relations with foreign kings being excellent…
and God was in his heaven and all was right with the world.
Vikramaditya's main achievement was that he managed to quash the
stronghold of the Saka might (called the Saka Satraps) in India.
Fa-Hien the famous Chinese Buddhist traveller-student came to India
during his rule.
Next in line were Kumara Gupta (413-455 A.D.) and Skanda
Gupta (455-468 A.D.). They were considerably troubled by foreign
invasions, especially the latter who had to contend with the Huns, a
branch of the Hephthalites. The Huns, though finally defeated by
Skanda Gupta, seemed to have had remarkable tenacity, for they
continued to invade Gupta territory with unfailing regularity.
Skanda Gupta managed to rally Gupta strength for a while, but after
his death the situation deteriorated. Dissensions within the royal
family added to the problem. Gupta genealogies of this period show
considerable variance in their succession lists. By the mid-sixth
century, when the dynasty apparently came to an end, the kingdom had
dwindled to a small size. Northern India and parts of central India
were in the hands of the Huns.
The period between 468-540 A.D. saw five Gupta rulers and the
slipping away of the reigns of a once-powerful kingdom away from
their hands. The Guptas were the last great dynasty to rule India
till the Delhi Sultanate came along much later, and certainly
they were the end of great Aryan rulers.
Harsha Vardhana - The Ruler of Vardhana Dynasty
The final important ruler of Ancient Indian history was Harsha
Vardhana (606-646 A.D.), who ruled not from Magadha but
Thanesar (in modern Haryana area) of the Vardhana dynasty. He
was a Buddhist and convened many Buddhist assemblies. The second
Chinese traveller to come to India, Huien Tsang, arrived during his
reign.
By all accounts Harsha was all the usual things that one associates
with a good king. However, lots of petty dynasties like the
Maukharis and the Vakatakas had started springing up all over the
place, and the confusion which is generally associated with the
absence of a strong central dynasty was rife.
The south presented a medley of dynasties around the time of Harsha
Vardhana. There were the Pandyas (in regions of Mudurai, Travancore
and Tinnevelly), the Chalukyas (in present Maharashtra region) and
Pallavas (in modern Tamil Nadu region), who had this terrific battle
of supremacy going constantly. Pulakesan II (610-642 A.D.) was the
ablest of the Chalukyan kings and for a time managed to keep the
Chalukyan flag flying above the others. But strictly for a time
being.
This was also the time (around 650 A.D.) when the Rajputs
suddenly appeared on the scene out of nowhere (See
Medieval Indian History for more on them). Another major dynasty
called Rashtrakutas, which had been around during the days of the
Guptas too, suddenly saw an upsurge in power in 750BC in the present
Karnataka region. Their dynasty spills over to very early Medieval
period and then fizzles out.
In 800 A.D. thus we leave India in a state of chaos, out of which
order was made only somewhere in 1192 A.D.
The Most Powerful - Cholas
For a period that has come to be so strongly associated with the
Islamic influence and rule in India, Medieval Indian history went
for almost three whole centuries under so-called indigenous rulers.
For the moment, most of action shifts to the southern peninsula.
The most important dynasty to rise out of the southern India was
that of the Cholas. Unlike most of the other dynasties (the
Chalukyas, the Pallavas, the Pandyas or the
Rashtrakutas), their origins are not traced from outside, but
very much from the south itself. The Deccan region was at this time
in much turmoil. To begin with, the Cholas had managed almost
immediately to reduce the Pallavas to the status of minor
feudatories.
The Rashtrakutas were in decline now, but their place was taken by a
resurgent branch of the Chalukya family (imaginatively called the
later Chalukyas by historians) who were gaining strength in the
region of western Deccan. The power equation in the Deccan now
involved the later Chalukyas, the Yadavas of Devagiri (northern
Deccan; region around Aurangabad), the Kakatiyas of Warangal (Andhra
Pradesh) and the Hoysalas of Dorasamudra (Mysore). Much sorting out
had to be done before the Cholas finally emerged as unchallenged
authorities in the south. This they managed with sheer tenacity over
a period of 300 years from 900-1100 A.D. – and even then for a short
while only.
Chola's Contribution to South Indian History
However, the Chola contribution to south Indian history is far more wide-ranging than just political. This period saw the final settling down and consolidation of Tamil culture. In whatever sphere – whether of social institutions, religion, fine arts, music, dance, jewellery – the standards that were set during this period came to be regarded as classical, and dominate, in a modified form, much of the living patterns of south Indians even today. This period also saw the spread of this culture overseas to Southeast Asia, regions with whom the Cholas had strong political and economic relations.
Cholas Came Into Power
The Cholas came to power rather suddenly when one of family
conquered Tanjore (in the middle of Tamil Nadu) and declared himself
a king in the middle of the 9th century A.D.
The first important ruler to emerge from the dynasty was Rajaraja
Chola I (985-1014 A.D.) and his son and successor Rajendra Chola
(1014-1035 A.D.). Both father and son put their heads down and
campaigned in almost every direction. Rajaraja started with annexing
large areas of the Deccan, defeating a powerful alliance between the
Cheras (of Kerala region), the Pandyas and the rulers of Ceylon (Sri
Lanka). This effectively broke the monopoly that these kingdoms had
over the trade routes to Southeast Asia.
The Cholas had an effective navy and Rajaraja, with a view to
control this trade route completely, led an attack to the Maldive
Islands too.
Rajendra I ruled together with father for two years before going
solo in 1014 A.D. He aggressively continued his father's imperialist
policies with the annexation of the region around modern Hyderabad
which was controlled by the Chalukyas at that time. He also turned
his attention northwards where he reached right upto the Ganges
valley, Orissa and west Bengal areas.
However, these were not areas that Rajendra held, or even seriously
expected to hold, for long. What were really ambitious were Rajendra
Chola's offshore expeditions, involving both the army and the navy
against Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Malay Islands and Sumatra.
However, these were not colonizing forays, for he never tried to
seriously consolidate or move in on his gains in these regions; they
were in main campaigns to protect his trade routes with the
Southeast Asian nations.
Rajendra Chola I was killed in 1052 A.D., in battle against his old
foes the Chalukyas. The successors of Rajendra I were far too
occupied with their problems within the peninsula to worry about
overseas expansion. Almost throughout they remained at loggerheads
with the Chalukyas, with both carrying attacks and revenge raids
against each other.
Declining of The Great Dynasty
However, by the middle of the 12th century Chola power was already deep into decline. The south was simply far too divided and no one kingdom stood out as a clear leader. The scene was again rapidly shifting to the north where much liveliness had occurred by this time.