Unit 1 Topic 3: Heimler’s Video notes: State building in India and Southeast Asia-1200-1450

- Start of with India Aka South Asia

o Even though Muslims ruled in the North and Buddhism was a major player,
Hindu kingdoms continued to have then most dominant influence in India.
o Muslims had established the Delhi Sultanate in northern India, but didn’t make
much progress in converting the Indian population to Islam.
o Two brothers were sent from the Delhi Sultanate to South India to see what kind
of prospects they would have for extending the kingdom. They were a part of the
first few folks that had converted from Hinduism to Islam, but they only did for
the sake of power and upward social mobility
o Once the brothers left the sultanate and were surrounded by the Hindu faith
once again, they converted back to Hinduism.
o Instead of extending Muslim rule to southern India they went ahead and set up a
new Hindu kingdom called the Vijayanagara Empire in 1336
- Religion “Hinduism”
o The dominant religion in India during this time was Hinduism
o “Through samsara, the atman seeks moksha to escape from the material world
and become one with Brahman, but pace of this process depends on karma.”
o Samsara is the Hindu conception of the great repeating circle of life and death.
o The atman is a divine principle that is resident withing each person.
o The atman is stuck in this cycle of death and rebirth, but the ultimate goal is to
escape that cycle and that is called Moksha.
o Atman is the divine principle that lives within every person, but the Brahman is
the divine being that undergirds all of reality
o The point of Moksha (escape) is for the atman to dissolve back into the Brahman.
o Karma is like the total of a person’s life and action. If they were good, they have
accumulated good karma and are closer to moksha. If they were bad, then the
opposite is true.
- Manifestation of the belief: Bhakti movement in 12th century
o The Bhaktis were Hindu believers that emphasized the emotional side of
devotion.
 They emphasized devotion to one god within the pantheon of Hindus
gods
o These Bhaktis were a lot like the Muslim Sufis because they both emphasize
religious experience and direct relationship with gods over rigid ritualistic
behavior.
o They created the caste system which was a hierarchical structing of society that
divided people into five groups, each one being better than the other.
  The only way to move up into better castes was to get good karma and
the only way to determine how much good karma you had was to die
- Indians shared significant intellectual capital with folks in the Middle eats. An example
being that the Arabs build on advances in astronomy begun by Indians. And the Arabs
translated Indian work on Algebra and geometry and spread them all throughout Dar Al-
Islam

- South Eats Asia

o SE is basically today’s nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Loas,

and Vietnam.
o These lands were full of Hindus and Buddhists and they has merchants to thank
for bringing such faiths to bear on the population.
o This region was perfectly capable of ruling over sea-based trade routes.
o One example of a sea-based power was the Majapahit Kingdom
- Majapahit Kingdom
o Established in 1293
o It was based on the Island of Java and largely sustained its power and wealth by
controlling sea routes.
o They were Buddhists
- Khmer empire
o A land-based empire that was established in 802 and lasted till 1431
o This empire flourished because of their complex irrigation and drainage systems
going to and from the Mekong River.
o This kind of technology led to hugs agricultural progress and therefore significant
prosperity
o These people were Hindus but later converted to Buddhism
- Muslims
o Because this was a significant trading route and because Muslims were
significant merchants in the region, Islam came to live here too- not in as big
numbers as Hinduism and Buddhism