Gupta+Civilization

 **Gupta Civilization** (Classical India) =//Chapter 9// = =** __The Fortunes of Empire in Classical India__ **=

After he Aryans migrated to India in 1500 B.C.E, they established a series of small kingdoms throughout India. During the classical era, the Mauran and the Gumpta dynasties founded centralized, imperial states that embraced much of India.

**// The Mauryan Dynasty and the Temporary Unification of India //**
====Around 520 B.C.E., the Persian emperor Darius went across the Hindu Kush mountains, conquered parts of northwestern India, and made the kingdom of Gandhara in northern Puhjab a province of the Achaemenid empire. After overrunning the Persian empire in 327 B.C.E., Alexander of Macedon crossed the Indus River and destroyed the states he found there. He remained in India for a short time before withdrawing in 325 B.C.E. The kingdom of Magadha was located in the central portion of the Ganges plain. Many kingdoms in the valley of the Ganges were wealthy because of trade. By 500 B.C.E. Magadha became the most important state in northeastern India. Magadha began to expand and controlled neighboring states. It controlled overseas trade as well. The withdrawal of Alexander from the Punjab gave Magadha the opportunity to expand. An adventurer named Chandragupta Maurya wanted to created the Mauryan empire. He started by seizing control of small remote regions of Magadha, and then worked his way toward the center. He overthrew the ruling dynasty and by the fourth century B.C.E. his empire included all of northern India from the Indus to the Ganges. An advisor named Kautayla came up with procedures for the governance of Chandragupta's realm. Some of the advice in an ancient political handbook called the //Arthashastra//. Chandragupta and Kautayla built a bureaucratic administrative system that allowed them to implement policies throughout the state. Tradition holds that Chandragupta gave up his throne to become a monk and led such a disciplined life that he starved himself to death. His son took over in 97 B.C.E. and added much of southern India to the empire. Chandragupta's grandson, Ashoka began ruling in 268 B.C.E. He wanted to control the only independent region left in Mauryan, which was Kalinga. He did this in a bloody campaign in 260 B.C.E. in which 100,000 Kalingans died. Ashoka established his capital in a city called Pataliputra. He went to great measures to make sure that people followed his policies. He inscribed edicts in natural stone formations or on pillars. Ashoka encouraged agriculture by building irrigation systems. He built roads and highways for trade. He also provided things for travelers such as inns and trees for shade. Ashoka died in 232 B.C.E. and his empire suffered from financial difficulties. They maintained control of the Ganges valley for about fifty years after Ashoka's death, but eventually the Mauryan empire disappeared.====

**// The Emergence of Regional Kingdoms and the Revival of Empire //**
====Even with the Mauryan empire disappearing, India did not fall into anarchy. Local rulers formed a series of kingdoms that would bring law to large regions. Regional kingdoms formed throughout the subcontinent. According to historical records and archaeological excavations the clearest kingdoms found were in Northern India. Northwestern India fell under the rule of Greek-speaking conquerors from Bactria, after the Mauryan empire fell, for nearly two centuries. Thanks to the linking lands to the west and the Mediterranean basin to the west, Bactria was a booming commercial center. The Indo-Greek kingdom of Bactria was put to an end by several groups of nomadic conquerors from central Asia starting in the late second century. The Kushans were the most successful of these groups, who ruled an empire that spanned from northern India to central Asia from approximately 1 to 300 C.E. The Guptas stated their state in Magadha just like the Mauryas did. This was a crucial region because of its wealth and dominance of the Ganges valley. The Gupta empire was started by Chandra Gupta, who made alliances with powerful families in the Ganges region. Samudra Gupta reigned from 335-375 C.E. and Chandra Gupta II reigned from 375-415 C.E. They made the Magadhan capital of Pataliputra the center of a large empire yet again. They both conquered many regional kingdoms and formed tributary alliances with the ones who chose not to fight. Faxian, a Chinese Buddhist monk, traveled across India in search of texts of the Buddhist scriptures. At this time Chandra Gupta II was in control. Faxian stated that India was a prosperous land with little crime, and that you could travel the country without fear of molestation and without official travel documents. The Huns planned to travel across the Hindu Kush mountains into India. Guptas repelled the Huns, for the first half of the fifth century, but suffered greatly in resources, which eventually weekend the government. By the end of the fifth century, the Huns had moved across the Hindu Kush mountains and established several kingdoms in northern and western India. The Gupta empire would only continue in name.The==== = = =__ Economic Development and Social Distinctions __=

//Towns and Trade//
====After 600 B.C.E., towns settled in the Indian countryside. They provided manufactured products for local consumption such as pots, textiles, iron tools, and luxury goods. Trade was most active along the Ganges River. Roads built by Ashoka eased overland trade within the subcontinent. Direct political and military links with foreign peoples brought Indians into long-distance commercial relations. Roads between India and Persia facilitated commerce between the two lands. Indian exports included cotton, aromatics, black pepper, pearl, and gems, which they exchanged for imported horses and bullion from western lands, and silk from China. India merchants traveled to the islands of Indonesia and the southeastern Asian mainland as early as the fifth century B.C.E.====

//Family Life and the Caste System//
====Indian moralists wanted to promote stability. To do so, they encouraged respect for strong patriarchal families and to promote the maintenance of a social order. Most people lived with their family, consisting of a father, mother, and the children in this male dominant society. The epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, portrayed women as weak-willed and emotional creatures who were supposed to devote themselves to their husbands. Patriarchal dominance became more pronounced in India during the early centuries and by the Gupta era, child marriage was common. The parents would give their 8 or 9 year old daughters away to men in their 20s. After the Aryans arrived in India, they put people in 4 different casts (classes).==== ====Eventually, individuals who worked in the same area or had the same craft joined together to form a guild. A **//guild//** is a corporate body that supervised prices and wages in a given industry and provided for the welfare of members and their families. Guild members would live on the same side of town and interact with each other regularly. They functioned as jati. //**Jati**// were sub-casts based on occupation. They assumed much of the responsibility for maintaining social order in India like organizing courts. People who did not follow the rules of the community were then known as outcasts. Outcasts had all of the "dirty" jobs like butchers, leather tanners, undertakers, and other jobs that were considered low or unclean. Further development brought about tremendous wealth which posed a serious challenge to the social order that arose in India following the Aryan migrations.==== = = = __Religions of Salvation in Classical India__ =
 * ====//**Brahmins:**// Priests====
 * ====//**Kshatriyas:**// Warriors and aristocrats====
 * ====//**Vaishyas:**// Peasants and merchants====
 * ====//**Shudras:**// Serfs====

//Jainism and the Challenge to the Established Cultural Order//
====The Jainist doctrines first appeared during the 7th century B.C.E. but they became popular only when Vardhamana Mahavira turned to Jainism in the late 6th century B.C.E. His followers referred to him as **//Jina//**, meaning "the conqueror" and called themselves **//Jains//**. Jains believed that everything in the universe possessed a soul and that every soul experienced both physical and psychological suffering. They observed the principle of **//ahimsa//**, or non-violence to other living things or their souls. Jainist ethics were so demanding that few people other that devout monks could hope to observe them closely. Jainism was not a practical alternative to the religion of the brahmins in most peoples' minds.==== ====For certain groups, Jainism was popular because its values and ethics had great social implications. It appealed mostly to the lower castes because if all creature possessed souls and participated in the ultimate reality of the world, it made little sense to draw sharp distinctions between different classes of human beings. Throughout centuries, Jainism has always been the faith of a small minority. It is simply been too difficult---or even impossible---for most people to observe.====

// Early Buddhism //
====The founder of Buddhism came from a kshatriya family. His name was Siddhartha Gautama, born around 563 B.C.E. He gave up his position and inheritance in order to seek salvation. His father was determined that his son would only experience only happiness and would never know what misery was like, so he had him marry his cousin and kept him in palaces and parks. This he believed would prepare Siddhartha to take his spot as governor. One day when going out he learned from his chariot driver that all people grow old and weak. On another occasion he saw a sick man and a dead body, from which he learned that disease and death were also things that happen to all human beings. On his last trip he saw a monk who was walking and learned that some people don't live their regular lives and lead holy lives to perfect their spiritual qualities. Around 534 B.C.E Guatama left his wife, family and comforts of home to live the life of a holy man. He sought enlightenment at first by intense meditation and then later through the rigors of extreme asceticism. None of these tactics satisfied him. Then one day he sat under a large bo tree and decided that he wouldn't move until he fully understood the problem of suffering. He sat under that tree for forty nine days, being temped by demons with pleasures and also threatened him with terrors in an effort to shake his resolution. Finally after forty nine days he received enlightenment. From this he understood the problem of suffering and how it could be eliminated from the world. At this point, Guatama became the Buddha "the enlightened one". He announced his doctrine for the first time around 528 B.C.E. His teachings quickly attracted attention, and he organized a group of followers into a community of monks who owned their own yellow robes and begging bowls. They traveled on foot preaching the Buddha's doctrine and seeking handouts for meals. The Buddha himself led the group for more than forty years. Around 483 B.C.E. at the age of around eighty he died. A moderate lifestyle characterized by quiet contemplation, thoughtful reflection, and disciplined self-control would allow the Buddhists to reduce the desires for material goods and other worldly attractions.They believed this lifestyle would lead them to personal salvation, or in other words nirvana, the state of perfect spiritual independence. They did not recognize the caste system. This appealed strongly to people of the lower class. During the centuries that followed the Buddha's death, the monastic organization proved to be extremely efficient at spreading the Buddhist message. Ashoka adopted Buddhism around 260 B.C.E. after the war against Kalinga, because he was saddened by the violence and the suffering of the Kalingans. Ashoka rewarded Buddhists with grants of land, and encouraged them to spread their faith throughout India. He built monasteries and stupas and made pilgrimages to the holy sites of Buddhism.====

// Mahayana Buddhism //
====Buddhism attracted many different types of people in the lower rank in the traditional Indian social order. It was popular because it disregarded social classes and it concerned ethical behavior instead of complicated ceremonies that seemed very irrelevant to the lives and experiences of most people. Although there were simplified observances, ealy Buddhism made heavy demands on individuals seeking to escape from the cycle of incarnation. Later on, some of Buddha's followers started to worship him as god. Boddhisatvas were individuals who had reached spiritual perfections and merited the reward of nirvana. They helped others to reach nirvana and taught people about their religion. Mahayana Buddhism was now the popular religion instead of Hinayana. Mahayana just meant that there were more followers and larger salvation. It spread rapidly throughout India and attracted many converts from surrounding areas. Mahayana Buddhism flourished partly because of educational institutions that efficiently promoted faith. Monasteries were then organized and they provided basic education and in some large communities, they offered advanced instruction too. Nalanda was the best known Buddhist monastery which was founded during the Gupta dynasty in the Ganges River valley. You could study Buddhism along with Hindo philosophy, logic, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.====

// The Emergence of Popular Hinduism //
====As Buddhism generated new ideas, Hinduism underwent a similar evolution that turned it into a popular religion of salvation. Hinduism drew inspiration from the Vedas and Upanishads and increasingly departed from the older traditions of the brahmins. The epic poems, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, illustrate the development of Hindu values.====
 * ====**//Mahabharata://** Dealt with a massive war for the control of northern India between two groups of cousins.====
 * ====**//Ramayana://** Was originally a love and adventure story involving the trials faced by Prince Rama and his loyal wife, Sita. Rama and Sita were portrayed as the ideal Hindu husband and wife.====

The Bhagavad Gita ("song of the lord") best illustrates both the expectations that Hinduism made of individuals and the promise of salvation that it held out to them.
====Hindu ethics were very different from those of earlier Indian moralists. Ethical teachings made life much easier for the low classes by holding out the promise of salvation precisely to those who participated actively in the world and met their caste responsibilities. Hindu ethics commonly recognized 4 principle aims of human life.====
 * ====dharma====
 * ====artha====
 * ====kama====
 * ====moksha====

The first 3 would help you follow moksha, which is the salvation of the soul.
====Hinduism gradually replaced Buddhism as the most popular religion in India. Hinduims attracted political support and patronage particularly form the Gupta emperors and they supported an educational system that promoted Hindu values. Within a few centuries devotional Hinduism and the more recently introduced faith of Islam almost completely eclipted Buddhism in its homeland.====


 * K.L.**
 * B.P.**
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 * T.D.**