Classical India

1
Classical India

• AP Ch. 3

2
Geography of India

• Geography
• Himalayas
• Monsoons

3
Formative Period

• Aryans (Indo-Europeans)
• Vedic Age (15001000 B.C.E.)
• Sanskrit
• Vedas
• Epic Age (1000600 B.C.E.)
• Mahabharata
• Ramayana
• Upanishads
• Varnas
• Kshatriyas warriors
• Brahmans priests
• Vaisyas traders, farmers
• Sudras laborers
• Untouchables
• Religions
• Indra
• god of Thunder
• Gautama Buddha

4
Empires

• Alexander the Great (327 B.C.E)
• Chandragupta Maurya
• Mauryan Dynasty
• autocratic
• Ashoka (269232 B.C.E.)
• conversion to Buddhism
• Kushans
• Kanishka
• collapse by 220 C.E.
• Guptas (from 320 C.E.)
• Huns
• Invade ( 535 C.E.)

India at the Time of Ashoka
The Gupta Empire
5
Political Institutions

• Law Codes
• Kautilya
• chief minister to Chandragupta
• political treatise
• Caste System
• more complex after 600 B.C.E.

6
Religion

• Hinduism
• unifying force
• but not monolithic
• Upanishads
• reincarnation
• Gurus
• mystics
• Divinities
• Shiva
• Vishnu
• Varuna
• Gautama Buddha (563483 B.C.E.)
• Nirvana, Eightfold Path
• spread

7
Economy and Society

• Patriarchal
• arranged marriages
• Textiles
• Iron working
• steel
• Long-distance trade
• Indian Influence via trade and Buddhism

8
China and India

• Contrasts
• Indian sensuality v. Chinese restraint in art
• India more rigid socially
• Merchant class respect (India)
• Similarities
• large peasant classes
• patriarchy