The Mauryan Empire Chandragupta Maurya 324 301 B

– The Mauryan Empire • Chandragupta Maurya (324 -301 B. C. E. ) • The Arthasastra, a treatise on politics – When law of dharma and politics collide, the latter takes precedence • Highly centralized and despotic government – Provinces ruled by governors – Caste and Class: Social Structures in Ancient India • The Caste System – An issues of color – Varna (color or caste)– reflected informal division of labor and rigid social classification for occupation and status » » » Brahmins – priestly caste Kshatriyas – warriors Vaisya (commoner) – merchant class Sudras – peasants or artisans who were the bulk of the Indian population Pariahs (untouchable) – not considered part of the cast system; groups outside of Indian society

– Caste taboos – Jati – kinship group, of a specific caste, living in a specific area, doing a specific task • Daily Life in Ancient India – – – Family the basic unit of society Commemorative rites to ancestors Father-son relationship Males inherit property Woman is subordinate to men » Sati – wife throws herself on the funeral pyre of her deceased husband • The Economy – Most Aryans were farmers » Iron plow » Many were sharecroppers and landless – Developed trade and manufacturing

• Escaping the Wheel of Life: The Religious World of Ancient India – Hinduism • Indo-European in origin from the Aryans – – Dyaus Indra, Varuna, Vishnu Use of sacrifice Asceticism • Vedas – four collections of hymns and religious ceremonies • Upanishads – commentaries on the Vedas – Reincarnation • Soul reborn a different form after death and progresses through several existences on the wheel of life until reaching the final destination with the Great World Soul, Brahman • Karma – actions in this life; determines one’s rebirth in the next life – Cosmic scale – Brahmins at the top; in animal kingdom the cow is at the top • Dharma governs karma

• Reincarnation provides compensation for those lower on the ladder of life • Multitude of gods (33, 000) in Hinduism but only a small number of primary gods – Trinity of gods: Brahman the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva the Destroyer – Buddhism: The Middle Path • Siddhartha Gautama (c. 560 -480 B. C. E. ) – – Born in foothills of the Himalaya Mountains, son of a kshatriya family Traveled widely Follows some ideas of Hinduism Denied the existence of the individual soul • Nirvana (release from the wheel of life) • Bodhi (wisdom) – Four Noble Truths – life is suffering; suffering caused by desire; end suffering by ending desire; end desire by avoiding extremes of a life of materialism – Middle Path (Eightfold Path) – right knowledge; right purpose; right speech; right conduct; right occupation; right effort; right awareness; right meditation

Stupa at Sarnath, where Siddhartha Gautama preached his first sermon © 2004 Wadsworth, a

• Rejection of division of humanity into castes • All human beings can aspire to Nirvana as a result of their behavior in this life • Jainism – Founded by Mahavira, contemporary of Siddhartha – Doctrine of extreme simplicity; keep no possessions and rely on begging for a living – Asoka, A Buddhist Monarch (269 -232 B. C. E. ) • After a career as a bloodthirsty conqueror, converted to Buddhism and ruled benevolently • The Rule of the Fishes: India after the Mauryas – Mauryan Empire went into decline after the death of Asoka – Last Mauryan ruler overthrown, 183 B. C. E. – A number of new kingdoms sprung up – Weakness of the Mauryas was glorifying warfare for the king and aristocracy

The Empire of Asoka 1. As a result of conquests about 500 B. C. E. , the Indus valley became a satrapy (province) of the Persian Empire. Alexander's defeat of the Persians was followed by a march through the Hindu Kush into the upper Indus valley in 327 -326 B. C. E. He crossed through the Punjab and eventually installed Macedonian officials in the area. The death of Alexander (323 B. C. E. ) and the ensuing confusion gave Chandragupta Maurya (332 -298 B. C. E. ) from the Ganges valley an opportunity to expel the Macedonian officials. He then turned on the Magadha kingdom, defeating and killing its ruler. Proclaiming himself ruler, Chandragupta established his capital at Pataliputra on the Ganges. His army consisted of an infantry of 600, 000, a cavalry of 30, 000 and 9000 elephants. In 304 B. C. E. , this army defeated that of the Seleucus (successor to Alexander in Syria and Persia) and forced cession of Baluchistan and part of Afghanistan. With control over northern India, the Mauryan Empire was created. 2. The greatest of the Mauryan rulers was Chandragupta's grandson Asoka (269 -232 B. C. E. ). Like his grandfather, Asoka began his career as a warrior. When his father died in 274 B. C. E, Asoka rebelled against his older brother, the rightful ruler. After four years of bloody fighting, Asoka gained the throne in 269 B. C. E. He continued his wars until 260 B. C. E. when he conquered the last independent kingdom in northern India, Kalinga, in a savagely bloody campaign that witnessed the killing of hundreds of thousands of people. The slaughter so appalled Asoka that he forswore violence and embraced Buddhism. The empire was now used to spread Buddhist teachings throughout India and even reached Tamraparni (modern Sri Lanka). Asoka used diplomatic means to win submission from most of the remaining states until his empire extended from Afghanistan to Mysore in the southern Deccan plain. 3. The pious Asoka had inscriptions carved throughout his empire on rocks and on thirty monolith stone pillars. The messages were exhortations to moral conduct. It is in these that the earliest examples of writing are found in India. This writing system is the ancestor to classical Sanskrit and modern Hindi. Questions: 1. How was northern India brought under the control of a single ruler? 2. What were the contributions of Asoka to Indian civilization? The Empire of Asoka

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• Indian Culture – Literature • Rigveda – hymns used in religious ceremonies, second millennium B. C. E. – Bramanas and Upinishads and commentaries on the Vedas • Sanskrit language • Mahabharata, 100 B. C. E. – War of cousins for control of the kingdom; interwoven are the legends of the Hindu gods » Moral confrontation and ethics – 90, 000 stanzas – Bhagavadgita » In taking action, one must be indifferent to success or failure and consider only the moral rightness of the act itself • Ramayana – triumph of good over evil

– Architecture and Sculpture • Pillar – Asoka used stone columns alongside roads to commemorate the life of the Buddha and mark pilgrim routes to holy places • Stupa – Place of devotion meant to house a relic of the Buddha – Constructed in the form of a burial mound • Rock chamber – Rooms to house monks and ascetics – Halls for religious ceremonies – Science • • W Astronomy Elements of earth, air, fire, water, and ether Quality of textiles Massive stone pillars