Ancient India

India is one of the worlds oldest civilizations. Its ancient history dates back further than most and has many periods. Very little is known about the earliest inhabitants of India. Ancient tools found in the Soan Valley and South India are the earliest evidence of humans in India discovered so far. Some of the tools date back to the Paleolithic Age 400,000 to 200,000 years ago, other tools date to the Mesolithic Age and the Neolithic Age (8000 BC 4000 BC). The first organized civilization of India developed in the Indus River Valley, which is part of present-day Pakistan. The Indus Valley civilization dates back to

3000 B.C. Scientists and archaeologists that studied the Indus Valley, found that the civilization was highly organized and larger than any other ancient empire, including those of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The two major cities and cultural centers of this civilization were Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. These cities were built like modern cities, with streets at right angles, brick houses with bathrooms, sewer system, and a water supply system. The Indus Valley citizens depended on agriculture. The main crops were wheat, barley, dates, and melons. They also cultivated cotton. They domesticated cats, dogs, goats, sheep and maybe even elephants. The Indus people used bronze and copper and were very artistic. They made high quality pottery. A lot of terra cotta was found at the archaeological sites. Around 2000 B.C. the Indus Valley Civilization collapsed. There are different theories about how and why it collapsed, but none have been proven. Perhaps the cities were destroyed by terrible floods, or by the river changing course and drying up the farmland, or maybe the Indus people overgrazed the land. Or possibly the Indus Valley Civilization was destroyed by invaders. Around 1500 B.C., tribes of Indo-Europeans traveled from present day Iran to northwest India. They called themselves Aryans, the noble ones. All that is known of the next 500 years

following the fall of the Indus Civilization comes from a collection of sacred hymns called the Vedas. This period is known as the Vedic Age. The oldest of the four Vedas is the Rig-Veda, which is considered one of most sacred and oldest Hindu holy texts. The Aryans spoke Sanskrit and passed the hymns down by word of mouth. Centuries later the hymns were written down. Around 1000 B.C. the Aryans had created some epics. The period from 1000 B.C. to 600 B.C. is known as the Epic Age. The three great epics, the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and the Upanishada describe history of that period. Scholars believe that some parts of the epics are not just stories or teachings, but historical accounts. One famous battle described in the

Mahabharata is the Battle of the Ten Kings, where the Bharata tribe fought an alliance of ten rival tribes. Bharat, which is Sanskrit for India is the modern day Indian name for India. These epics also provide further guidance to Hinduism and describe the caste system, in support of the Hindu beliefs of reincarnation, causality and duty. For some Hinduism was a way of life. Others did not practice Hinduism and were called Dravidas. Still others rebelled against

Hinduism and its ritual, sacrifice and above all, against the caste system. Vardhamana Mahavira (540 B.C. 467 B.C.) founded Jainism and Gautama Buddha (563 B.C. 483 B.C.) founded Buddhism. By the sixth century B.C., the Aryan tribes had spread east to the Ganges Valley and grown into small republics. There were 16 states called the mahajanapadas that clashed for control over the region. While the Aryans spread out and fought amongst each other, Persian emperor Darius made the Punjab region (the plains between the Indus River and the Gandges River) part of his empire in 516 B.C. In 327 B.C. the Persians were overthrown by Alexander the Great of Macedon. In 326 B.C. Alexander crossed the Hindu Kush and the Indus River. He defeated the Punjabi king Porus at the battle of Hydaspes and wanted to continue west. However, his soldiers rebelled, and

refused to go beyond the Beas River and they all turned back. After Alexanders death in 323 B.C. most Macedonians returned home by 316 B.C. As Alexander advanced his empire east, he defeated many fierce tribes in north-west India, thereby strengthening trade routes to the Mediterranean. In 305 BC, Seleucus Nicator returned to rule over the Punjab region and the considerable number of Greek colonists that remained in Punjab. Around 321 B.C. a young prince named Chandragupta Maurya (322 BC 296 BC) seized power and established the Mauryan Empire. Later, Chandragupta was able to negotiate with Seleucus Nicator, the Greek Viceroy, who agreed to give up Greek control of eastern Afghanistan, Baluchistan and the area west of the Indus. The Greeks sent a messenger, Megasthenes, to Chandraguptas court at Pataliputra. Megasthenes wrote a detailed account of his experiences in India in a book called Indika. Indika is the source of our knowledge of this period. Chandraguptas son and successor, Bindusara (296 BC - 273 BC), extended the kingdom south to Mysore. In 269 B.C. Chandraguptas grandson Asoka (273 B.C. - 231 B.C.) came to the throne and became the greatest ruler of ancient India. Kalinga, the region west of the Bay of Bengal resisted the Mauryan rule. Asokas conquest of Kalinga resulted in 100,000 deaths in battle, 150,000 deportations, and many more deaths from hunger and disease. Asoka felt such remorse afterwards that he turned to the Buddhist religion, the religion of peace and nonviolence. He spread Buddhism in the kingdoms of the Cholas and the Pandyas in South India, and to the five States ruled by Greek kings. He sent missionaries to Ceylon and Suvarnabhumi (Burma) and also parts of South East Asia. Asoka traveled throughout his empire and listened to his citizenry. He tried to make peoples lives easier by building roads, rest houses, free hospitals, and other public works. He communicated his laws to the people in the common language of Prakrit instead of Sanskrit, the language of the upper castes. He also inscribed his edicts, laws and

proclamations, on rocks and pillars throughout the empire. Our main source of information about Asoka and his reign come from reading Asokas Edicts. Asoka died in 231 B.C. and the Mauryan empire broke up fifty years after his death. During the years after the break up of the Mauryan empire, from 185 B.C. to 320 A.D., many foreigners invaded India. The main invaders were the Bactrian Greeks, the Parthians, the Shakas and the Kushans. During this time, Central Asia was opened to trade. One of these trade routes became known as the famous Old Silk Route. Around 320 A.D., the second great Indian empire emerged in the Ganges Valley. Chandra Gupta I was the first Gupta king, succeeded by his son Samudra Gupta, and later his grandson Chandra Gupta II. The Gupta Dynasty ruled India from 320 A.D. to 550 A.D. This period is called the Classic Age of India and also known as the Golden Age of ancient India. During this time, many temples were built and literature, art, and architecture all took a step forward. Colleges and universities were established to teach religion and other subjects. Kumara Gupta succeeded Chandra Gupta II in 415 A.D. During his reign (415 A.D. 455 A.D.) the empire was threatened in the northwest by an Asian tribe called the Huns. As time went by, the empire grew weaker and the Hun invasions and battles became stronger. By the end of the sixth century, the Gupta empire broke up into several small kingdoms. During the last five hundred years of the first millennium A.D., there was one other empire worthy of mention. This was the Chola Empire, which had control of the southern part of India. It lasted from about 800 A.D. to 1200 A.D. The Turkish invasion of India in 1001 A.D. ends the Ancient period of India and signals the beginning of the Medieval period. Recently, modern day scholars of ancient India have reexamined the history of India. Some of these historians say that the history of India that has been taught since the eighteenth

and nineteenth century is a westernized Eurocentric version, twisted to help Britain to make India its colony. Some of Indias significant achievements during the Ancient era were in science and mathematics. By the time of the Gupta empire, the decimal system was already in use in India. The Indian numerals reached Europe via the Arabs. So the Arabic numerals 0-9 we use today should really be called the Indian numerals since they came from India. In about 499 A.D., the Indian astronomer Aryabhata proposed that the earth was a sphere that spun on its axis and calculated the length of a year to a very close 365.3586 days. Aryabhata did this one thousand years before Nicolas Copernicus, the man the western world credits for the heliocentric theory. Several words in the English language such as sugar, camphor, indigo, and cash are of Indian origin according to the Oxford dictionary.

Bibliography Feuerstein, Georg. In Search of the Cradle of Civilization : New Light on Ancient India. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1995. Ganeri, Anita. Exploration Into India. Publishing Company, 1994. New York: New Discovery Books, Macmillan

Keay, John. India: A History. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000. Rajaram, Navaratna. The Politics of History: Aryan Invasion Theory and the Subversion of Scholarship. New Delhi: Voice of India, 1995. Stewart, Melissa. Science in Ancient India. New York: F. Watts, 1999.