ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY

Oldest oral traditions of India date back to around 3000 B.C. Nothing is known about India beyond this era.

INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION (2500?-1700 BC)

In the Indus valley area now known as Pakistan, an advanced Bronze Age culture rose up about 2500 B.C. and lasted for nearly 1000 years. Scholars do not know how it began or whether its people were related to those who now occupy Southwest Asia.
It is the earliest known civilization of South Asia, corresponding to the Bronze Age cultures of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Crete (Kríti).
The remains of settlements belonging to this culture have been found throughout the Indus River valley in Pakistan, westward along the coast to the Iranian border, in India's northwestern states as far east as New Delhi, and on the Oxus River in northern Afghanistan.
The Indus Valley civilization encompasses one of the largest geographical areas covered by a single Bronze Age culture.
The Indus Valley civilization was first defined by the British archaeologist Sir John Marshall's diggings at Mohenjo-Daro and M. S. Vat's excavations at Harappā (both in what is now Pakistan) in the 1920s, and it is sometimes called Harappān civilization after the latter site.
In 1946 the British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler, excavating at Harappā, located stylistically different pottery in the earliest occupied areas. Subsequent discoveries at nearby Kot Diji established that this early pottery at Harappā belonged to the early Bronze Age Kot Diji culture.
Since 1960 Indian, Pakistani, and Western scholars have defined several additional early Bronze Age cultures at Goth Āmri, Sothi, Gumla, and other sites in Pakistan, each of which has some traits in common and contributed to the formation of the Indus Valley civilization.
Some 60 sites belonging to Indus civilization have been identified. These sites are located from Ruper at the foot of Simla hills to Sutkagen-dor near the coast of the Arabian Sea, a distant of no less than a thousand miles, and southwards to Gujarat.
These sites appear to fall into two main groups, one on the middle of the Indus system, the other on the lower Indus.
Each group is focused on a city of outstanding size, with a periphery of some 3 miles.
Harappa belongs to the first group i.e. the one on the middle of the Indus System.
Mohenjo-daro belongs to the second group i.e. the one on the lower Indus System.
The artifacts found here include small stone sculptures of squatting bearded figures probably representing gods. There is other evidence for a complex religion or religions having affinities with later Hinduism, particularly in the form of a horned Siva-like figure.
The equipment of the Indus folk included both simple chert blades and implements of copper and bronze – flat axes, knives, saws, spears, and occasionally short swords or dirks.
An extensive terracotta industry produced innumerable figurines of animals, particularly bulls, and distinctive female ‘dolls’.
The pottery, characteristically red with black patterns of scales, intersecting circles, papal-leaves, and peacocks, is not found anywhere else.
Amongst small objects the most remarkable are the steatite seal-stones bearing vivid representations of animals and rarely, of human figures. The animals include cattle of various kinds, tiger, rhinoceros, elephants, and crocodile, in some instances associated with objects which probably indicate animal worship.
These seals, or derivatives from them, are occasionally found, with other Indus objects, on Mesopotamian sites, particularly in the Sargonid period about 2350 B.C.
Most of the seals bear inscriptions in the pictographic script, called Indus Script, which still constitutes one of the major mysteries of the Indus civilization. Attempts to interpret it have so far been failed. The number of signs shows that it cannot be alphabetic; it is probably syllabic, and was read in alternate lines from right to left and from let to right, i.e. boustrophedon.
It is unrelated to any known script and this fact does not rule out the likelihood that the initial idea of writing came from the west.
A long period of structural decadence at Mohenjo-daro ended in violence which has left dramatic groups of contorted skeletons in the streets and houses of the highest level.

ARYANS IN INDO-PAK SUBCONTINENT

This episode has been tentatively interpreted in the light of the Rigveda, which refer frequently to the storming of the fortified native cities of the Land of the Five (or Seven) Rivers by the Aryan invaders.
Aryans were the nomadic people from Central Asia.
The Indo-Aryan invasion or immigration evidently was a prolonged movement of a considerable number of tribes, five or more, apparently related to one another, who called themselves collectively Aryas.
The term Arya , which seems originally to have meant merely “kinsman’, was understood in later times to imply nobility or respectability of birth.
The term Anarya meant ‘ignoble’.
In about 1500 B.C. the Aryans, settled in the upper reaches of the Indus, Yamuna, and Gangetic plains. They spoke a language from the Indo-European family and worshiped gods similar to those of later-era Greeks and northern Europeans. The Aryans are particularly important to Indian history because they originated the earliest forms of the sacred Vedas.
The habits of the tribes, while dwelling to the west of the Indus, were those of an agricultural and pastoral people, who reckoned their wealth in terms of cows.
The tribes as they settled down in interior India became more agricultural and less pastoral, like Gujjar and Ahirs of later stages.
Some of the tribal name like Puru and Chedi survived into the Epic period while many died out.
Each tribe was a group of families and in each family the father was master.
The whole tribe was governed by a Raja whose power was checked to an undefined extent by a tribal council.
The tribes dwelt in fortified villages, but there were no towns.
The bow and arrow wee the principal weapons but spears and battle-axes wee also there.
Chariots, each carrying a driver and a fighting man, were employed in battle, a fact wich implies considerable advance in the mechanical arts.
Armor was worn.
The Rigvedic Indo-Aryans were also acquainted with the processes of weaving, tanning, and metallurgy.
They had no knowledge of Iron.
Bronze and Copper implements of the Gangetic basin may reasonable be referred to Vedic times.
Gold was familiar and was made into jewellery.
Aryans shared Iranian veneration for the cow but that did not stop them sacrificing both cows and bulls on weddings or other occasions.
The tribes fought with each other when so disposed, but all united in hostility to the dark-skinned Indians, whom they despised and whose lands they annexed.
By 800 B.C. the Aryans ruled in most of northern India, occasionally fighting among themselves or with the peoples of the land they were settling.
There is no evidence of what happened to the native people, called dasyus, displaced by the Aryans. In fact they may not have been displaced at all but instead may have been incorporated in Aryan culture or left alone in the hills of northern India.
There is evidence that some elements of the belief system of the natives passed on the invading Aryans.
The period comprising the next thousand years i.e. from 1500 B.C. to 500 B.C. is called the ‘Dark Millennium’.
During this period our knowledge of events and cultures in India is dependent mainly on a dubious literary (or, rather, oral) tradition supplemented by an inadequate but increasing body of material evidence.
From the Vedic hymns it has been possible to piece together a reasonably coherent picture of the Aryan invaders on their first impact with the black, nose less (flat-nosed) dasyus who comprised their native opponents and subjects.
The archetype of the invaders was their war-god, Indra.
Meat was eaten as an exception. Milk was an important article of food, and was supplemented by cakes of barley or wheat ( yava ), vegetables and fruit.
Soma and sura were the favorite intoxicating drinks of the Aryans.
Amusements included dancing, music, chariot-racing and dicing.
Aryans were the first and foremost cattle-breeders and beef-eaters.
The plough was used by them.
Their religion and habits differed materially from those of Hindus in modern or even in early historical times.
The roots o Hinduism go down to the Rigvedic age and even deeper, to the Harappa culture.
The pantheon or the gods viewed collectively, although widely different from that of Hinduism, contains the germs of many later Hindu developments.
Their society was still essentially a mobile one. It was that of a warrior aristocracy, interested in feeding and fighting but little concerned with its farmers.
The invasions of Aryans initiated a period of chaos which left with positive and negative impacts.
At many places the cities were burnt (like Rana Ghundai in Zhob region and Nal farther South) or deserted by the local population (like Chanhu-daro, 80 miles south of the Mohenjo-daro)
In Chanhu-daro the Indus population was succeeded by a poorer folk known to represent the “Jhukar’ culture. They reused some of the deserted and ruined houses and supplemented them with rectangular hovels of matting paved with broken brick.
As the Aryans slowly settled into agriculture and moved southeast through the Gangetic Plain, they relinquished their semi nomadic style of living and changed their social and political structures.
Instead of a warrior leading a tribe, with a tribal assembly as a check on his power, an Aryan chieftain ruled over territory, with its society divided into hereditary groups.
This structure became the beginning of the caste system, which has survived in India until the present day. The four groups of castes or Varnas that emerged from this era were the Brahmans (priests), the Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), the Vaisyas (merchants, farmers, and traders), and the Sudras (artisans, laborers, and servants).
The Aryans called south dakshina or ‘right-hand’ a word which is now spoken as Deccan
The Aryans after entering the Punjab traveled generally in the south-easterly direction. The larger part of the tribes crossed the Punjab and then moved along the courses of the Ganges and Jumna.
While resident in the Punjab the Aryans had not yet become Hindus. The distinctive Brahmanical system appears to have been evolved, after the Sutlej had been passed, in the country to the north of Delhi.
The Dravidian civilization existed in the South at the time of penetration by the Aryans.
The Dravidian religion was social customs differed widely from those of northern India. Caste was unknown as it is now in Burma.
The ancient Dravidian alphabet called Vatteluttu, of semitic origin, is very different from any of the northern alphabets.
By about the 7th century B.C. territories combined and grew, giving rise to larger kingdoms that stretched from what is now Afghanistan to what is now the state of Bihār.
Cities became important during this time, and, shortly thereafter, systems of writing developed.
North-western India may be said to have entered the historic period, however uncertainly, when it was incorporated in the Achaemenid empire by Darius, the great King of Persia shortly before 500 B.C.
Reform schools of Hinduism emerged, challenging the orthodox practices of the Vedic tradition and presenting alternative religious world views. Two of those schools developed into separate religions: Buddhism and Jainism.

PRE-MAURYA STATES

Dated history began in 7^th century B.C.
No attempt at Indian history dated in the roughest fashion can be made before the 7^th century.
The first exact date known is 326 B.C. the year of invasion of Alexander.
By reckoning back from that fixed point, or from certain closely approximate Maurya dates slightly later, and by making use of the historical traditions recorded in literature, a little information can be gleaned concerning a few Kingdoms of northern India in the 7^th century B.C.
No definite affirmation of any kind can be made about specific events in either the peninsula or Bengal before 300 B.C.
The scanty record of events in the northern kingdoms has to be mostly picked out of books written primarily to serve religious purposes. Those books, Jain, Buddhist, and Brahmanical, naturally deal chiefly with the countries in which religious movements were most active.
It is believed that in the 7^th century extensive civilized settlements of long standing existed in the plains of the Indus and Ganges basins.
Ujjain in Vindhya Pradesh, still a considerable town retaining its ancient name unchanged, ranks as one of the seven sacred cities of India and rivals Benares in its claims on Hindu veneration.
Ujjain was the capital of the kingdom of Avanti , later known as Malwa in the 7^th century.
Malwa was one of the leading Indian powers for a considerable until the supremacy passed into the hands of Magadha.
Kosala or Northern Oudh , of which the capital was Sravasti on the Rapti, probably represented by Sahet-Mahet, was another important state which competed with the headship of Aryavarta.
Puranas are the Sanskrit writings about primordial times; part of the sacred literature of Hinduism. Tradition attributes the Puranas to Vyasa, a semilegendary Rishi, or sage, purportedly the compiler also of the Veda and the epic poem Mahabharata. Scholars, however, regard the Puranas as having been compiled by many hands between the 4th and the 16th centuries A.D.
In all, there are 18 great Puranas (many more subordinate works, and some modern ones, dealing with primordial times also are known as Puranas). All are written in verse, are represented as being divinely or supernaturally transmitted, and take the form of a dialogue between an interpreter and an inquirer.

MAGADHA- THE FIRST INDIAN EMPIRE

By the 6th century B.C., Indian civilization was firmly centered at the eastern end of the Gangetic Plain (in the area of present-day Bihār), and certain kings became increasingly powerful.
In the 6th century B.C. the Kingdom of Magadha (or South Bihar) conquered and absorbed neighboring kingdoms, giving rise to India’s first empire.
The empire building at Magadha is closely associated with the development of historical Jainism and Buddhism. The literary traditions of northern India consequently are mostly devoted to the affairs of Magadha and hardly anything is known about the annals of less prominent kingdoms.
At the head of the Magadha state was a hereditary monarch in charge of a centralized administration. The state regularly collected revenues and was protected by a standing army. This empire continued to expand, extending in the 4th century B.C. into central India and as far as the eastern coast.
The regular story of Magadha begins with the Shaishunaga dynasty, established before 600 B.C., perhaps in 642 B.C. by a chieftain of Benares named Shishunaga, who fixed his capital at Girivraja or old Rajagriha, among the hills of the Gaya District.
It rose to a position of dominance under its first great king, Bimbisara or Shrenika (reigned about 543-491 B.C.).
Bimbisara extended his paternal dominions by conquests.
Both Buddhists and Jains claimed that he was a patron and follower of their respective founders.
During his reign the Persian ruler Darius sent an expedition under Skylax to prove the feasibility of a sea passage from the mouths of the Indus to Persia.
Skylax prepared a fleet on the upper waters of the Punjab rivers in the Gandhara country, made his way to the coast and reached the sea in 13 months in approximately 516 B.C. .
Darius annexed the Indus valley to Achaemenian Empire and sent his fleet to the Indian Ocean.
The province on the Indus annexed by Darius (son of Hystaspes) was formed into the 20^th satrapy, which was considered to be the richest province of the Persian Empire.
It is not known at what date Persia ceased to exercise control over the 20t satrapy.
At the time of Alexander’s invasion in 326 B.C. the Indus was still recognized as the official boundary between the Persian Empire and India.
The Kharoshthi alphabet, derived from the Aramaic script, written from right to left, which continued to be used on the northwestern frontier until 4^th century A.D. appears to hae been introduced by the Persian officials.
The duration of his reign is subject to controversy ranging from 28 years to 52 years.
His death occurred 7 years before that of Buddha.
According to the historians Buddha died in 487 B.C. This means Bimbisara died in approximately 494 B.C.
Dubious traditions indicate that he was killed by his son, Ajatasatru.
He was succeeded by his son Ajatasatru or Kunika (reigned about 494-459 B.C.).
Ajatasatru built the fortress of Patali on the Son which afterwards developed into imperial city of Pataliputra.
The Lichchhavis nation, tribe or clan, which played a prominent part in Indian legend and history for more than a thousand years dwelt in theof the Vrijjis. Their capital was Vaishali. They were governed by an assembly of notables, presided over by an elected chief (nayaka).
Shaishunagas, Lichchhavis, and several other uling families or clans in or near Maghdha were not Indo-Aryan by blood. They were hill-men of the Mongolian type, resembling the Tibetans, Gurkhas, Bhutias, and other Himalayan tribes of the present day.
Moksha meant salvation or deliverance.
The main interest of the reigns of Bimbisara and his son lies in the close association of both kings with the lives of Gautama Buddha and Vardhamana Mahavira Tirthankara (the founder of Jainism).
Bimbisara is said to be related to Mahavira and was contemporary for some years with him and Buddha.
Vardhamana Mahavira Tirthankara was the son of Lichchhavi noble of Vaishali. He gave up his honorable rank and joined the ascetic order of Parshvanatha. Becoming dissatisfied with the rules of that order, he started on his own account as a religious leader when about 40 years of age. During the remainder of his life, which lasted more than 30 years, he traveled as a preacher. On his death, probably in 527 B.C., at Pava in the Patna his adherents were more than 14000.
Buddha (563?-487?B.C.) , Indian philosopher and the founder of Buddhism, born in Lumbini, Nepal, a dependency of Kosala. He was the son of the head of the Sakya warrior caste, with the private name of Siddhartha; in later life he was known also as Sakyamuni (Sage of the Sakyas). The name Gautama Buddha is a combination of the family name Gautama and the appellation Buddha, meaning “Enlightened One.”
Buddha apparently showed an early inclination to meditation and reflection, displeasing his father, who wanted him to be a warrior and ruler rather than a religious philosopher. Yielding to his father's wishes, he married at an early age and participated in the worldly life of the court. Buddha found his carefree, self-indulgent existence dull, and after a while he left home and began wandering in search of enlightenment. One day in 533, according to tradition, he encountered an aged man, a sick man, and a corpse, and he suddenly and deeply realized that suffering is the common lot of humankind. He then came upon a mendicant monk, calm and serene, whereupon he determined to adopt his way of life and forsake family, wealth, and power in the quest for truth. This decision, known in Buddhism as the Great Renunciation, is celebrated by Buddhists as a turning point in history. Gautama was then 29 years old, according to tradition.
Wandering as a mendicant over northern India, Buddha first investigated Hinduism. He took instruction from some famous Brahman teachers, but he found the Hindu caste system repellent and Hindu asceticism futile. He continued his search, attracting but later losing five followers. About 528, while sitting under a bo tree near Gaya, in what is now Buddh Gaya in the state of Bihār, he experienced the Great Enlightenment, which revealed the way of salvation from suffering. Shortly afterward he preached his first sermon in the Deer Park near Benares (now Vārānasi). This sermon, the text of which is preserved, contains the gist of Buddhism. The five disciples rejoined Buddha at Benares. Accompanied by them, he traveled through the valley of the Ganges River, teaching his doctrines, gathering followers, and establishing monastic communities that admitted anyone regardless of caste. He returned briefly to his native town and converted his father, his wife, and other members of his family to his beliefs. After 45 years of missionary activity Buddha died in Kusinagara, Nepal, as a result of eating contaminated pork. He was about 80 years old.
The practice of bhakti seems to have arisen in the Brahmarshi region in the neighbouhood of Mathura and Delhi. Vasudeva and Krishna both became identified with Vishnu, whose cult has a long history. Simultaneously the cults of Shiva and other forms of the Deity were developed, especially in the south.
Ajatasatru was succeeded by his son, Darshaka, in approximately 467 B.C.
Darshaka was mentioned in a play by the early dramatist Bhasa, which came to light in 1910.
Darshaka was followed by his son Udaya, in about 443 B.C.
The dynastic lists of the older Puranas state that the Shaishunaga dynasty comprised 10 kings, of whom the last two were named Nandivardhana and Mahanandin. Their reigns are said to have covered 83 years. The Ceylone tradition makes no mention of these kings. But all sources agree on the historicity of their successors, the ‘Nine’ or ‘New’ Nandas, namely King Mahapadma and his eight sons.
It is certain that king deposed and slain by Chandragupta Mauraya with the aid of his Brahman minister Chanakya, alias Kautilya or Vishnugupta, was a Nanda, that he was of low caste, that he was a heretic hostile to the Brahmans and Kshatriyas.

INVASION OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

The invasion of India by Alexander occurred during the reign of Nanda Kings at Magadha.
Alexander crossed the Hindu Kush in May 327 B.C. He garrisoned at Kabul or nearby and spent remainder of the year in subduing the fierce tribes inhabited in the valleys of Suwat (Swat) and Bajuar.
In Feb. 326 B.C. he crossed the Indus, then regarded as the frontier of the Persian Empire, by a bridge of boats built at Und or Ohind above Attock. Thence he advanced to Takshasila or Taxila.
Taxila was then the capital of Ambhi, ruler of the region between the Indus and the Hydaspes or Jehlum river. Ambhi was at war with the chiefs of neighboring chieftains therefore he welcomed the invader.
At that time the Punjab was divided among a large number of small states, Taxila being capital of the area between the Indus and the Hydaspes or Jehlum river.
After allowing his army a rest in Taxila Alexander advanced to attack Poros or Puru, the King of the territory between the Hydaspes (Jehlum ) and Akesines (Chenab).
Alexander found it difficult to cross Jehlum and it delayed the attack by many weeks. Eventually he did so and met the army of Poros at the Karri plain marked by the villages Sirwal and Pakral.
Alexander defeated Poros and after that historical dialog ( “Treat me as the Kings treat other Kings”) Alexander made alliance with him.
Later on Alexander advanced eastward and defeated Glausai or Glaukanikoi and crossed both Chenab and Ravi (called Hydraotes). He stormed Sangala, the stronghold of the Kathaioi, and threatened the Kshudrakas (Oxydraikai), who dwelt on the farther bank of Ravi. He then advanced as far as the Beas (or Hyphasis).
At the Beas he was stopped by his soldiers who refused to further advance to the unknown lands with formidable enemies.
The limits of the Greek advance were marked by the erection of twelve altars of cut stone on the northern bank of the Beas at a point where it flows from east to west between Indaura in the Kangra and Mirthal in the Gurdaspur District.
Alexander retreated back and appointed Poros as his viceroy over seven nations which shared the territory between Jehlum and Beas.
He made preparations for taking his army down the course of the Punjab Rivers to the sea.
He passed through a place Sibi, in Jhang. It was inhabited by ill-equipped people who easily submitted and escaped slaughter.
The most formidable opposition to the Greek invader was offered by a confederacy of the Malavas (Malloi), Kshudrakas and other tribes dwelling along the Ravi and Beas. They were defeated by Alexander.
Malavas seemed to be very rich people.
On reaching Patala he made arrangements for a strong naval station here.
Alexander sent Krateros with elephants and heavy troops into Persia through the Mulla Pass and across Baluchistan, while he himself advanced to the mouths of the Indus. In those days the Rann of Cutch was a gulf of the sea and one arm of Indus emptied into it.
In October 325 B.C. Alexander completed his 10 month long voyage and reached near modern Karachi. With his remaining troops he crossed the Arabis or Habb river forming boundary between India and Gedrosia (Baluchistan). He started his march for Persia through absolutely unknown country.
His troops suffered terribly from heat and thirst, which destroyed a large number of them.
In Feb. 324 B.C. he reached Karmania with the remaining troops and came in touch with the fleet of Admiral Nearchos. He reached Susa, in Persia in May 324 B.C.
Alexander died in Babylon, near the modern Baghdad, in June 323 B.C. in 33^rd year of his age.
His Indian expedition lasted 3 years.

The term Sakas was used by the Indians in a vague way to denote all foreigners from the other side of the passes, without nice distinction of race or tribe.
What left after his death in Babylon in 323 B.C. were the Hellenistic states of what is now Afghanistan; these states later had a profound influence on the art of India.

MAURYAN EMPIRE (321?-185? B.C.)

CHANDRAGUPTA

The exact antecedents about the early life of Chandragupta are not available. It is believed that he belonged to Nanda Kings or their close people. One tradition refers to his being the son of the last Nanda king by a low born woman.
He had either met Alexander or served in his army sometime in 326 or 325 B.C.
Buddhist tradition states that he was a member of the clan of the Moriyas (the Pali form of Maurya) of Pipphalivana, who are first met as recipients of a share of the Buddha’s ashes.
He was being guided by a clever Brahman Vishnugupta (better known by his patronymic Chanakya, or his surname Kautilya).
Chandragupta had been exiled from Magadha.
After Alexander’s death he raised an army and attacked the Macedonian officers in command of the garrisons in the Indus basin and destroyed them with the aid of the northern nations.
At the same time with the help of wily Kautilya he managed a revolution in Pataliputra (Patna), the capital of the Magadha Kingdom.
Pataliputra was situated and extended on the bank of the River Son for about nine miles with a depth of less than 2 miles.
He assassinated the ruling Nanda family and became king himself in about 321 B.C.
He is the first historical person who can be properly described as Emperor of India.

By further conquest he extended Magadha until it comprised all northern India between the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. Chandragupta's power was challenged by King Seleucus I of Syria, Alexander's Hellenistic successor, who invaded the northern subcontinent in 305 B.C., but suffered a crushing defeat. Chandragupta thereupon added to his lands all the territory north to the Hindu Kush, including Baluchistan and Afghanistan. There is no evidence that Deccan was part of his empire.
The Seleucids concluded an alliance with Chandragupta. Their presence inspired a noticeably Greek influence in Maurya culture.
In about 302 B.C. Seleukos sent an officer Megasthenes as an envoy to the court of Chandragupta. He wrote an excellent book on the history of this period. This book itself is not available but its excerpts are found as reference in other books which throw light on that era.
Chandragupta was known to be a stern and severe ruler.
He might have embraced Jainism towards the end of his reign.
During the reign of Mauryan kings ‘megalithic culture’ emerged.
Megalithic Monuments are the structures of large, roughly dressed stones erected as sepulchral monuments or as memorials of notable events. Many Megalithic Tombs still exist in Brahmagiri and the area South of Hyderabad, Deccan.
Chandragupta was assisted by Kautilya, his chief minister.
The empire stretched from the Ganges Delta in the east, south into the Deccan, and west to include Gujarāt.
According to traditional accounts around 298 B.C. Chandragupta abdicated to become a monk.
Maurays kept a ‘fourfold’ army employing elephants, cavalry, chariots and foot soldiers. Army was organized in Squads of ten, Companies of a hundred and Battalions of a thousand each.
Atharva the Veda of magic and spells.
Arthashastra was written by Kautilya.
He was succeeded by his son Bindusara.
Chandragupta died about 286 B.C. According to one tradition he committed suicide by slow starvation.
The title of Bindusara was Amitraghatha, “Slayer of enemies”. This reflects his martial career.
It seemed likely that the conquest of Deccan was effected by Bindusara.
No significant account of his reign is available.
The Maurya Empire had a regular civil administration and maintained a huge standing army paid directly by the Crown. An excellent secret service was also available.

ASOKA

Full name of Asoka was Asokavardhana. He acceded to the throne of Magdha Empire in 273 B.C.
He might have enjoyed the rank of sub-king or uparaja during the reign of his father. According to a tradition he had served as a Viceroy, first at Taxila and subsequently at Ujjain.
The fact that his formal coronation was delayed for some four years until 269 B.C. confirms the tradition that his succession was contested and it may be true that his rival was an elder brother named Suisma.
Asoka was a man of peace and there are very few recorded political events about him. He is better know as a man who initiated a movement which transformed Buddhism from a local sect into one of the world-religions.

The Empire was further extended by Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta, to include all of India (including what is now Pakistan and much of what is now Afghanistan) except the far southern tip and the lands to the east of the Brahmaputra River.
Ashoka, the third king of the Maurya dynasty, rules almost the whole Indian subcontinent from about 269 to 232 bc. Unique among imperial rulers in world history, Ashoka consolidates his vast realm through nonviolence and peaceful persuasion
The Mauryan Empire featured a complex administrative structure, with the emperor as the head of a developed bureaucracy of central and local government.
Initially he might have been a Brahmanical Hindu and a worshipper of Shiva.
After a bloody campaign against Kalinga in what is now Orissa state in 261 B.C., Ashoka became disillusioned with warfare and eventually embraced Buddhism and nonviolence.
Although Buddhism was not made the state religion, and although Ashoka tolerated all religions within his realm, he sent missionaries far and wide to spread the Buddhist message of righteousness and humanitarianism.
Ashoka gave up hunting and the practice of eating meat.
His son Mahinda and daughter Sanghamitta converted the people of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and other missionaries were sent to Southeast Asia and probably into Central Asia as well.
He also sent cultural missions to the west, including Syria, Egypt, and Greece. Ashoka built shrines and monasteries and had rocks and beautifully carved pillars inscribed with Buddhist teachings. (The lion capital of one of these pillars is now the state emblem of India.)
His principal set of Edicts; the Fourteen Rock Edicts, and the Seven Pillar Edicts. Minor Pillar Edicts were his latest known records.
A tradition tells that the instructor of Ashoka in Buddhism was Upagupta of Mathura, son of Gupta the perfumer of Benares. It is possible that he was a real historical person, the fourth patriarch of the Buddhist religion. The incidents of this story have been transferred by the Ceylon chroniclers to the Thera Tissa, the son of Moggali. It is proved that the two names refer to the same person.
Ashoka began to issue his edicts after the 12th year of his reign. In them, he expressed his policies, concerns, and administrative changes, as well as his aspirations of instituting a new social ethic.
Ashoka’s edicts fall into various categories. A small number relate to the activities of the Buddhist sangha, or order, and of these some are addressed to local officers and some to monks. Those known as the Minor Edicts describe Ashoka’s general involvement with Buddhism, among other matters. The Greek and Aramaic versions of these edicts are useful in shedding fresh light on the meaning of certain words in Prakrit. For example, it has been debated whether Ashoka’s use of the word dhamma (dharma in Sanskrit, a term incorporating a number of interrelated precepts such as piety and virtue) refers specifically to the Buddha’s teaching or to a wider understanding of social ethics, as is suggested by the term eusebeia in the Greek version.
The Major Rock Edicts and the Pillar Edicts are more extensive and more detailed. They reveal Ashoka’s definition of social ethics, which emphasized tolerance for diverse ideologies; respect for all religious teachers; and harmonious relationships between parents and children, teachers and pupils, and employers and employees. The Pillar Edicts, which Ashoka issued in the 27th and 28th years of his reign, were a review of his activities and a testament to his policies. They show that he promoted the welfare of his subjects by building an extensive network of roads lined with shade trees and provided with wells and rest houses at regular intervals. This road system facilitated both trade and administration in the Mauryan Empire. Ashoka also established hospitals and planted medicinal herbs. With the aim of improving conditions for his subjects, he appointed special officers, the mahamairas, to attend to their various problems, and he gave additional powers to rural and judicial administrators.
In one of his edicts, Ashoka named as his contemporaries five Hellenistic kings, some of whom he had diplomatic contacts with, and this has provided a chronological cross-reference for his reign.
Ashoka’s legendary fame in Buddhist societies arises from his later association with the concept of the chakraqvartin, or the righteous ruler in whose reign the wheel of law, the symbol representing the fundamental teachings of Buddhism, rolls across the kingdom ensuring the welfare of all.
Ashoka probably died in Taxila.
After Ashoka’s death in 232 BC the empire gradually disintegrated, though the exact causes are not clear. In its aftermath, invaders fought for outlying territories in the north, while regional monarchies gained power in the south.
The names of several of his sons are on record. One, named Tivara, is mentioned in an inscription. Another called Kunala, and by other names, is the centre of a cycle of wild legends of folklore type. A third, named Jalauka, is the subject of a long passage in the Kashmir chronicle. The name of Jalauka’s wife was Ishanadevi. He may have been his father’s viceroy and became independent after Ashoka’s death.
The term mlechchhas mean non-Hindu foreigners.
Ashoka seems to have succeeded directly by two grandsons. Dasharatha in the eastern and Samprati, son of Kunala, in the western provinces.
The name of Dasharatha is found on brief dedicatory inscriptions in caves granted to Ajivika ascetics. These were recorded immediately after his accession and are conclusive evidence of his rule in Magadha.
The rule of Samprati in Western Provinces is confirmed from the Jain traditions with Ujjain his capital. Samprati promoted Jainism.
Nothing more is known about the history of Dasharatha and Samprati.
The Puranas record the names of several other successors of Ashoka, with various readings. Nothing material is known about those princes.
It is impossible to determine the extent of the dominions ruled by those later Mauryas.
The last ruler of the Maurya dynasty, Brhadratha, was slain by his commander-in-chief Pushyamitra Shunga (or Pushpamitra Shunga) around 185 B.C.

SHUNGA DYNASTY

Pushyamitra Shunga established Shunga dynasty in 185 B.C. which is said to have lasted for 112 years till 73 B.C.

The Mauryas’ original territorial core on the Gangetic Plain was defended by the Sunga dynasty.
The names of the founder of the dynasty and some of his descendants ending in mitra suggested the hypothesis that Pushyamitra Shunga might have been an Iranian, a worshipper of Sun (Mithra), but he twice celebrated Ashvamedha, a rite certainly associated with Brahmanic orthodoxy.
Ashvamedha was horse sacrifice.
Ashvamedha marked the successful assertion by the prince performing it of a claim to have vanquished all his neighbors.
Pushyamitra repelled invasion of a Greek king , either Demetrios son of Euthydemos, or perhaps Menander, the Milinda of Buddhist tradition, King of the Punjab. In about 175 B.C. he advance with a strong force into the interior of India; annexed the Indus delta, with the peninsula of Saurashtra (Kathiawar), and some other territories on the western coast; occupied Mathura on the Jumna; besieged Madhyamika (Now Nagri, near Chitor in Rajasthan); invaded Shaketa in southern Oudh, and threatened or perhaps took Pataliputra, the Shunga capital.
The tradition represents the first Shunga king as a fierce enemy of Buddhism and relates that he burnt a multitude of monasteries, carrying his ravages as far north as Jalandhar.
The reign of Pushyamitra appears to mark a violent Brahmanical reaction against Buddhism.
The celeberated grammarian Patanjali was perhaps a contemporary of Pushyamitra, whose story is partly told in ‘Malavika and Agnimitra’, a play by Kalidasa, composed probably in 5^th century A.D.
The Shungas reigned over extensive lands and were the most powerful of the north-central kingdoms.
The last Shunga ruler Devabhuti, or Devabhumi, was a man of licentious habits. He lost his life while engaged in a scandalous intrigue. His deathe was contrived by his Brahman minister, Vasudeva.

THE KANVA DYNASTY

Vasudeva seated himself on the empty throne and so founded a short-lived Kanva dynasty.
This dynasty lasted for 45 years.
There were 4 kings of this dynasty. The brevity of the rule of each king indicates a period of disturbance, and it may be that descendants of the Shungas still ruled in part of their old possessions.
Nothing is known about the doings of the Brahman (Kanva) kings. The last of them was killed , about 28 B.C., by an Andhra king whose identity is doubtful but might have been Simuka.
By the 1st century B.C., the Shakas of Central Asia had brought numerous tribes in western India under their control.

THE ANDHRA DYNASTY

Andhra dynasty was established in about 28 B.C. by , perhaps, Simuka.
The Andhra kings were also called Shatavahanas.
They ruled in South and Central India.
The Puranas mention the names of 30 Andhra kings. Some of these names are also found on inscriptions and coins, but many are not attested epigraphically.
(Epigraphy is a science devoted to the study of inscriptions engraved on stone or metal.)
Several names of Andhra kings found on coins are not listed in Puranas.
Simuka was succeeded by Krishna and Shatakarni.
The most powerful of the later Andhras was Gautamiputra Yajna Sri, who reigned for about 30 years.
The story of the decline and fall of Andhra dynasty is not fully known.
It is said that the rule of this dynasty ended in about 225 A.D.

KING KHARAVELA OF KALINGA

Another important king of the post-Maurya period was Kharavela of Kalinga, which included the modern Orissa ands part of northern Andhra.
The information about him depends entirely on a single inscription in a Jain cave in Udayagiri Hills in Puri district. It is said that he was an earnest Jain. He might have ruled in the later half of the first century B.C.

THE KUSHAN DYNASTY

The horde of nomads called the Great Yueh-Chi, who were driven out of western China between 174 and 160 B.C. migrated westwards along the road to the north of the Taklamakan (Gobi) desert.
In the course of their long wanderings they encountered another nomad nation, the Sakai or Sakas, who dwelt to the north of the Jaxartes river.
The Sakai being defeated by the Yueh-chi, were constrained to yield their pasture-grounds to the victors. They themselves sought new avenues in the borderlands of India.
The Yueh-chi were later on defeated by a third horde Wu-sun were forced to settle in the valley of the Oxus.
In due course of time the Yueh-chi occupied the Bactrian lands and were divided into five principalities.
After more than a century the Kushan section of the horde attained a predominant position under the leadership of a chieftain named Kujula-Kara-Kadphises or Kadphises I.
Kadphises I became king of the Kushans (or Yueh-chi) in about 40 A.D.
Kadphises I soon conqured Kabul, Gandhara and Taxila.
Kadphises I died in about 77 or 78 A.D. at the age of 80.
He was succeeded by his son Wima Kadphises better known as Kadphises II.
Kadphises II set himself to accomplish the conquest of northern India.
Kadphises II had one expedition against China which failed miserably.
Kadphises II reigned, probably, till 110 A.D. before dying at the age of 80.
Kadphises II was succeeded by Kanishka.
Kanishka was not the son of Kadphises II. Rather his father was Vajheshka who was a member of the Little Yueh-chi section of the horde, who seem to have settled in the Khotan region.
There seems to be a considerable span of time between the death of Kadphises II and the accession of Kanishka (in 120 A.D. ). Nothing is on record to show how the power transferred from Kadphises II to Kanishka.
Kanishka is described as having been King of Gandhara. The capital of his Indian dominion, and apparently the seat of his central government was Purushapura or Peshawar, where he erected remarkable Buddhist buildings.
Kanishka in his early years annexed the valley of Kashmir, consolidated his government in the basins of the Indus and Ganges.
It is believed that he sent successful expeditions to Khotan, Yarkand, and Kashgar.
Although it is unclear whether he converted himself, Kanishka is considered one of the great patrons of Buddhism.
He is credited with convening the fourth council on Buddhism that marked the development of Mahayana Buddhism.
Tradition affirms that Kanishka, while on last northern campaign, was suffocated to death by officers who had grown weary of exile beyond passes.
Kanishka had two sons. Vasishka and Huvishka.
Vasishka was his elder son but he died before his father.
His younger son Huvishka ascended to throne in about 162 A.D.
Little is know about the events of his reign.
The religion of Kushanas was a modified Zoroastrianism.
Huvishka died sometime between 180 to 185 A.D.
Huvishka’s successor was Vasudeva I.
The Kashan Empire began to disintegrate in the reign of Vasudeva I.
The manner in which the Kashan power in India came to an end is not clear but it is certain that Huvishka was the last monarch to maintain an extensive empire until his death.
The coinage of the successors of Vasudeva became gradually persianized.
It is believed with some doubts that the dissolution of Kushan empire in India was connected in some way with the rise of the Sassanian power in 226 A.D. and subsequent conquest of Ardashir Papakan, the first Sassanian king and his successors, which are alleged to have extended to the Indus.
Strong Kashan dynasties continued to exist in Kabul and neighboring principalities until the Hun invasions of the 5^th century A.D. Some principalities survived even until the Muslim conquest of Persia in the 7^th century.

TAMIL STATES

The Tamil states of the South became wealthy by virtue of their foreign trade and attained a high degree of material civilization at an early stage.
Megasthenes wrote about the Pandya Kingdom and the names of the states are available in the inscriptions of Ashoka.
the boundaries of the states varied from age to age but three principal powers Pandya, Chera or Kera, and Chola were always recognized.
Ashoka named a fourth minor kingdom the Satiya-putra, absorbed subsequently in the Pandaya realm.

POST-KUSHAN INDIA

THE GUPTA DYNASTY

The exact course of events which brought about the collapse of the Indo-Scythian or Kushan empire in India is not known. It is likely that many independent states must have been formed when the control of central authority was withdrawn. The Lichchhavis of Vaishali, last heard in the days of Buddha, now emerge after silence of 800 years. It seems that this clan (Lichchhavis) obtained possession of Pataliputra and perhaps rules as tributaries of the Kushans.
Early in 4^th Century A.D. a Lichchhavi princess married a Raja in Magadha. He was the namesake of the great Maurya Emperor Chadragupta.
The alliance with the Lichchhavis strengthened this Chadragupta of 4^th century A.D. who extended his dominion over Oudh as well as Magadha along the Ganges as far as Prayaga or Allahabad.
Chadragupta recognized his dependence on his wife’s people by striking his gold coins in the joint names of himself, his queen (Kumara Devi), and the Lichchhavi nation.
He established Gupta dynasty. He was enthroned on Feb. 26, 320 and coroneted on March 13, 321.
For about the next century his son Samudragupta and grandson Chandragupta II brought much of India under unified control for the first time since the Mauryan Empire, controlling the lands from the eastern hills of Afghanistan to Assam, north of the Narmada River.
In addition, they conquered other areas, reinstating the kings who were then obliged to pay tribute and attend the imperial court. Both Chandragupta I and Chandragupta II made strategic marriages that extended the empire, the latter with the successors to the Andhra dynasty in central India. A policy of religious tolerance and patronage of all religions also helped consolidate their rule.
His reign ended in 330 A.D.
He was succeeded by his son Samudragupta
Samudragupta took upon himself the task of subjugating the whole of India. It was extended to North to the base of mountains, excepting Kashmir. The eastern limit was Brahmaputra. The Jumna and Chambal rivers marked the western limits.
Samudragupta conducted a successful military expedition as far south as the city of Kānchipuram, but probably did not directly rule in those regions. The Guptas directly ruled a core area that included the east central Gangetic Plain, located in present-day Uttar Pradesh and Bihār.
Samudragupta reigned for about 50 years. He was one of the greatest Indian Emperors.
Samudragupta was a Brahmanical Hindu with a special devotion to Vishnu.
The exact date of Samudragupta’s death is not known.
At about 380 A.D. or perhaps some five years earlier, he was succeeded by a son specially selected by him as the most worthy of the crown, who assumed his grandfather’s name and is know to history as Chadragupta II.
Chadragupta II, later on, assumed the additional title of Vikramaditya (“Sun of Prowess”).
This title is associated by tradition with the Raja of Ujjain who is beieved to have defeated the Shakas and established the Vikram era in 58-57 B.C.
He might have shifted his capital from Pataliputra to Ayodhya.
Chadragupta II’s principal military achievement was the conquest of Malwa, Gujrat, and Saurashtra or Kathiawar, countries which have been ruled for several centuries by Shaka chiefs.
These chiefs were tributary to the Kushans, called themselves Satraps or Great Satraps.
In his expedition Rudrasimha, the last of the Satraps, was killed.
The conquest was effected between the years 388 A.D. and 401.
Chadragupta II reigned for about forty years until at least 413 A.D.
Fa-hien or Fa-hsien was a Chinese pilgrim who came to India some time during his travels from 399 to 414 A.D.
Fa-hien came here in order to procure the authentic texts of Vinaya-pitaka or Buddhist books on monastic discipline.
Chadragupta II was succeeded by his son, Kumaragupta I in 415 A.D.
Kumaragupta I ruled for about forty years. The history of the events of his reign is not available.
Kumaragupta I died in 455 AD or a bit earlier. He was succeeded by his son Skandagupta.
Skandagupta was the last of the great Guptas.

The time of the Gupta Empire has been called the golden age of Indian civilization because of the period’s great flowering of literature, art, and science.
In literature, the dramas and poems of Kalidasa, who wrote the romantic drama Sakuntala, are especially well known. The Puranas, a collection of myths and philosophical dialogues, was begun around 400 AD. These remain today the basic source for the tales of the gods who are now central to Hinduism: Vishnu, Shiva, and the goddess Shakti.
During this era India’s level of science and technology was probably higher than that of Europe. The use of the zero and the decimal system of numerals, later transmitted to Europe by the Arabs, was a major contribution to modern mathematics.
The science of mathematics and astronomy, including astrology were flourished during the Gupta period. The most famous writers on those subjects are Aryabhata ( born in 476 AD) who taught the system studied at Pataliputra and included Greek elements.
Varahamihira ( 507-587 AD) was a learned person in Greek science.
Brahmagupta ( born 598 AD) was also of the same caliber.
The Gupta Empire faced many challengers. Until about ad 500 it was able to defeat internal and external enemies.

THE HUNS

In the mid-5th century the White Huns (or Ephthalites), a nomadic people from Central Asia, moved onto the Indian plains in 455 AD and were defeated by the Guptas.
Many of the Rajput castes or clans, as well as Jats, Gujara, and certain other existing communities, are descended either from the Huns or from allied hordes which arrived about the same time.
The White Huns gradually occupied both Persia and Kabul, killing the Sassanian King Firoz in 484 AD.
Their leader Toramana established his rule in Malwa in 500 AD.
Toramana was succeeded by his son, Mihiragula (“Sun-Flower”), whose Indian capital appears to have been Sakala or Sialkot.
The Huns invaded again in 510 AD, when Gupta strength was in decline. This time the invasion was successful, forcing the Guptas into the northeastern part of their former empire.
The Huns established their rule over much of northwest India, extending to present-day western Uttar Pradesh.
The power of Mihiragula was broken about 528 AD by Yashodharman, King of Malwa, and by Baladitya, usually identified with Narasimha, the Gupta King of Magadha.
Mihiragula fled and occupied Kashmir before dying there.
Soon after the middle of the sixth century the Hun Kingdom in Oxus was overthrown by the Turks who became masters of the greater part of the short-lived Hun empire.

TURNING POINT IN HISTORY

The barbarian invasions of the 5^th and 6^th centuries constitute turning point in the history of northern and western India both political and social.
The political system of the Gupta period was completely broken up and new kingdoms were formed.
After the decline of the imperial Guptas another line pf kings with names ending in ~gupta rose in Magadha. Their genealogies give no clear evidence of relationship to the earlier Gupta line.
Simultaneously a line of Maukhari kings grew in importance to the north of Ganges. Traces of a martial Maukhari clan are to be found from Maurya times onwards.
In the later half of the 5^th century Maukhari chieftains held the Gaya District under Gupta suzerainty. In the 6^th century they appear to have established their independence. They made Kanauj their capital.
The later half of the 6^th century saw almost continuous warfare between the kings of the two houses which shared the control of much of the Gangetic basin.
Towards the end of the century the Mukharis seem to have driven the Guptas from their ancestral domains and to have occupied part or whole of the Magadha.
The Maukhari empire ended very early in the 7^th century with the defeat and death of the last of the line, Grahavarman at the hands of the king of Malwa who appears to be same a Devagupta.
On the death of Grahavarman without heirs Kanauj passed to his brother-in-law, Harsha in 606, who was 16 or 17 years old.
Harsha or Harsha-Vardhana was the younger son of Prabhakara- Vardhana, Raja of Thanesar.
Prabhakara- Vardhana and his elder son, died in 604. Harsha was compelled by the nobles to be the Raja of Thanesar before he obtained the throne of Kanauj passed to him on the death of Grahavarman.
Harsha conducted a number of military campaigns and thus by 612 he has subjugated most of the upper India excluding Punjab, but including Bihar and at least the greater part of Bengal.
His last recorded campaign was in 643 AD against Ganjman on the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
The Chalukya kingdom in the Deccan, founded in the middle of the 6^th Century, was raised to paramount postion by its king, Pulakesin, the contemporary of Harsha.
Harsha attacked the Chalukya kingdom in 620 AD but was defeated. That was his only failure.
The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang or Yuan Chwang visited India in the 7^th century. He visited almost province and recorded a huge information about the India of the 7^th century. He also met Harsha. He was called the “Indian Pausanias”.
Kanauj was Harsha’s capital which had become very rich. It had a number of Buddhist monasteries and a large number of temples. It was a fortified city, 4 miles broad and a mile long and had a large number of lofty buildings, tanks, and gardens. The number of adherents of Buddhism and Hinduism was almost equal.
Harsha was an accomplished scholar. He is credited with the composition of a grammatical work, sundry poems, and three Sanskrit plays.
Harsha was primarily a worshipper of Shiva. He also had a lot of reverence for Buddha and in later part of his reign he became more and more Buddhist in sentiment. To some extent he tried to emulate Ashoka.
Harsha ruled for 41 years. He died either in late 646 or early 647 AD.
He left no heir. The withdrawal of his strong arm threw the whole country into disorder, which was aggravated by famine.
the partial unity of history vanishes with Harsha and was restored after a long time.
On the fall of Harsha’s empire at his death the Guptas again rose to prominence under Adityasena (c. 675). They disappeared in the 8^th century, perhaps at the hands of Yashovarman of Kanauj, who may have been of Maukhari descent.

VALABHI AND OTHER KINGDOMS

When the Gupta power became restricted at the cloase of the 5^th century western India gradually passed under the control of rulers belonging to a foreign tribe called Maitraka, possibly Iranian origin.
The Maitrakas established a dynasty with its capital at Valabhi, in the Saurashtra peninsula, which lasted until about 770 AD when it seems to have been thrown by the Muslims.
The Gurjaras founded kingdoms at Bharoch (Broach) and at Bhinmal in southern Rajasthan.
.
Bana, a learned Brahman, also left accounts of the 7^th century.

However, they in turn were defeated by enemies to the west a short time later.
The Buddhist monasteries and the cities of this region never recovered from the onslaught of the Huns. By 550 A.D. both the Hun kingdom and the Gupta Empire had fallen.
The absence of these centralizing powers left India to be ruled by regional kingdoms. These kingdoms often warred with each other and had fairly short spans of power. They developed a political system that emphasized the tribute of smaller chieftains.
Stupa, also tope or dagoba, hemispherical or bell-shaped masonry monument designed as a Buddhist (or occasionally Jain) shrine or reliquary. Stupas range in size from small, rudimentary structures to massive, ornately decorated monuments such as the stupa at Sanchī, India (3rd century bc to 1st century bc).
The Great Stupa is an ancient Buddhist temple located in Sanchī, a historic site in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Constructed between the 3rd century B.C. and the early 1st century ad, the temple is solid and enclosed by a stone outer fence with toranas, or gateways, on all four sides. Worshipers at the site pay their respects to Buddha by circling the dome, which represents the world mountain. Atop the dome, a square fence called the harika represents the heaven. The harika surrounds the yasti, a spire with three chatras, or disk shapes. The yasti represents the axis of the universe.
The religious tradition of bhakti (passionate devotion to a Hindu god), which emerged in Tamil Nādu in the 6th century and spread north over the next nine centuries, was expressed in poetry of great beauty.
With the decline of Buddhism in much of peninsular India (it continued in what is now Bangladesh), Hinduism developed new and profound traditions associated with the philosophers Shankara in the early 800s and Ramanuja in about 1100.
The regional kingdoms were not small, but only Harsha, who ruled from 606 to 647, attempted to create an expansive empire.
From his kingdom north of Delhi, he shifted his base east to present-day central Uttar Pradesh. After extending his influence as far west as the Punjab region, he tried to move south and was defeated by the Chalukya king Pulakeshin II of Vātāpi (modern Bādāmi) in about 641.
. By then the Pallava dynasty had established a powerful kingdom on the east coast of the southern Indian peninsula at Kānchipuram.
During the course of the next half century the Pallavas and the neighboring Chalukyas of the Deccan Plateau struggled for control of key peninsular rivers, each alternately sacking the other’s capital.
The eventual waning of the Pallavas by the late 8th century allowed the Cholas and the Pandya dynasty to rule virtually undisturbed for the next four centuries.
Elsewhere in India, the 8th century saw continued power struggles among states.
Harsha died in 647 and his kingdom contracted to the west, creating a power vacuum in the east that was quickly filled by the Pala dynasty. (The Palas ruled the Bengal region and present-day southern Bihār state from the 8th through the 12th centuries.)
Harsha’s capital of Kanauj was conquered by the Gurjara-Pratiharas, who were based in central India, and who managed to extend their rule west to the borders of Sind (in what is now Pakistan).
The Gurjara-Pratiharas fought with the Rashtrakutas for control of the trade routes of the Ganges.
The Rashtrakutas controlled the Deccan Plateau from their capital in Ellora, near present-day Aurangābād.
Their frequent military campaigns into north and central India kept the small kingdoms ruled by Muslims in Sind and southern Punjab confined. The Western Chalukyas also fought with, and were finally overthrown by, the Rashtrakutas in the 8th century.
The kingdoms persisted despite this protracted warfare because they were more or less equally matched in resources, administrative and military capacities, and leadership.
Although particular dynasties did not last long, these kingdoms, which shifted the center of rule in India to areas south of the Vindhya Range, had a remarkable stability, lasting in one form or other in particular regions for centuries.
The kingdoms of the south, especially the Pallavas and Cholas, had links with Southeast Asia. Temples in the style of the early-8th-century Pallavas were built in Java soon after those in the Pallava kingdom.
In pursuit of trade, the Cholas made successful naval expeditions at the end of the 10th century to Ceylon, the region of Bengal, Sumatra, and Malaya. They also established direct trade with China.
By the 12th century the cities of the southwestern coast of India, in what is now Kerala and southern Karnātaka, housed Jewish and Arab traders who drew on a network centered in the Persian Gulf and reaching through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea and Italy.
The most important family of Indian languages, the Indo-Aryan, comprises all the principal languages of northern and western India, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, and many others, descended from ancient vernaculars or Prakrits, closely related to the Vedic and to the later literary forms of Sanskrit.
The family or group of languages second in importance is the Dravidian comprising Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kanarese, and Tulu and some others.
The grammar and structure of the Dravidian speech difer wholly from the Aryan type.
The linguistic family is called Dravidian because Dravida was the ancient name of the Tamil country in the far south. In fact, Tamil is really the same word as the adjective Dravida.

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Quiz Topics

ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY