The document summarizes several important empires and periods in ancient Indian history. It describes the establishment of the Maurya Empire by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, which unified most of northern India for the first time. It then discusses the expansion of the empire and rule of Ashoka, who promoted Buddhism. Next, it outlines the Gupta Empire from 320-467 CE, considered a golden age of Indian culture with advances in literature, art, science, and mathematics. It concludes by noting the invasions from central Asian groups like the Huns and establishment of Muslim rule over northern India by 1200 CE.

1. India’s first Empires
Maurya ( 322- 232 BCE)
Gupta (320-467 CE)

2.  The strong village culture based on caste,
and local rajas made political unity difficult
and even irrelevant in India.

3.  Macedonian conquests
in the Indus Valley
spread Hellenistic
Culture to India.

4. Persian then Macedonian rule helped
unify India.

5.  The Magadha
Kingdom formed
alliances against the
invaders.

6. In 322 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya
(CHUN•druh•GUP•tuh MAH•oor•yuh) defeats
Seleucus.
The Maurya Empire 322- 232 BCE)

7. By 321 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya defeats the
rajas in eastern and northern India, unifying India
for the first time.
The Maurya Empire

8. The Maurya Empire
 He establishes the
capital at Pataliputra
in the northern
Ganges Valley.

9. Pataliputra
 The city had a moat, walls, and 570 watchtowers
ancient Pataliputra india

10. Pataliputra
 Gold and Silver columns decorated the
palace hall.

11. Pataliputra
 Trade flourished merchants exported
elephants, silk, spices, cotton and perfume to
China.

12. Pataliputra
 The Greek ambassador Megasthenes said
it was more splendid than any city of the
Seleucid Empire

13. Chandragupta Maurya
 He used the Persian
bureaucracy, dividing India
into provinces, each governed
by one of his relatives.

14. Chandragupta Maurya
 Farmers had to pay 50
percent tax, which supported
his army and public works.

15. Chandragupta Maurya
 He created a standing army of 500,000.

16. Chandragupta Maurya
 His chief minister
Kautilaya wrote the
Arthashastra.

17. Chandragupta Maurya
 A book on political
realism, advising
rulers to get power
by any means as
long as the ruler
pleases his people.
(like Machiavelli’s
the Prince or Sun
Zi’s Art of War).

18. Chandragupta Maurya
 Chandragupta had many spies reporting
on officials.

19. Chandragupta Maurya
 He feared assassination and always had
his food tasted and never slept in the same
room 2 nights in a row.

20. Chandragupta Maurya
 He abdicated the throne and become a
Janis monk. He led such an ascetic life
that he starved himself to death

21. The Maurya Empire
 His secular rule greatly reduced the power
of the Brahmans.

22. From 268-232 BCE,
Chandragupta’s grandson,
Asoka expanded the Empire.
He is considered the greatest
ruler of India.
The Maurya Empire

23. Asoka (304 – 232 BCE)
He converts to Buddhism
after the gruesome
battle of Kalinoa in
262 BCE.
 Dedicated his life to
Buddhism.
 Built extensive roads.
 Conflict  how to balance Kautilya’s
methods of keeping power
and Buddha’s demands to
become a selfless person?

24. Asoka’s
Empire

25.  He built hospitals for
people and animals, roads
with trees and shelters to
shade travelers.
Asoka

26. He issued laws against violence and practiced
religious toleration.
Asoka

27. He carved the laws into pillars placed in the center
of towns.
Asoka

28. Some of the Pillars of Asoka
Sanskrit
Language

30. Asoka
 Merchants quickly converted to Buddhism.
Trade grew as India became the major
crossroads in the commercial network going
from the Pacific to the Mediterranean.

31. Asoka
 Asoka spread Buddhism and built temples
all over South and Central Asia.

32.  A stupa is a mound-like structure with
Buddhist relics, used as a place of
meditation.

34. Title: Great Stupa, Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India
Artist: n/a
Date: Erected 3rd century BCE; enlarged c. 150-50 BCE
Source/ Museum: n/a
Medium:
Size: height 3 1/3" (8.5 cm)

36. Title: Yakshi bracket figure, detail from great Stupa, Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India
Artist: n/a
Date: n/a
Source/ Museum: n/a
Medium: n/a
Size: n/a

38.  Vihara is a Buddhist monastery.

39.  Vihara is a Buddhist monastery.

40.  Vihara is a Buddhist monastery

42.  Sangharama is a free
standing temple and
monastery including its
gardens.

44. Asoka
 After the death of Asoka died the empire
degraded into many small warring states.

45. Bactrian Greeks
 In the second century BCE, King
Demetrius set up a Hellenistic
kingdom.

46. Bactrian Greeks
 Indian scholars studied
Hellenistic medicine and
astronomy.

47. The Kushan Kingdom
and the Silk Road
 In the first century CE,
nomadic warriors
established the new
Kushan kingdom
(Afganistan).

48. The Kushan Kingdom
and the Silk Road
 Mostlikely, not
Indoeuropean, rather
Yuezhi from the arid
grasslands in modern-day
Xinjiang. By the 1st
Century, they took over
Bactria (Afganistan).

49. The Kushan Kingdom
and the Silk Road
 The Kushans prospered from the trade that
passed through their land on its way
between the Roman and Chinese Empires .

50. The Kushan Kingdom and the Silk Road
 The Silk Road reached from the city of Changan in
China across central Asia to Mesopotamia, about
6,436 km.

51. The Kushan Kingdom
and the Silk Road
 People and camels transported luxury goods
through mountains and deserts, winding up
at Antioch in Syria.

52. The Kushan Kingdom
and the Silk Road
 Chinese merchants made large fortunes
trading luxury goods, such as silk, spices,
teas, and porcelain.

53. The Kushan Kingdom
and the Silk Road
 Indian merchants sent ivory, textiles, precious
stones, and pepper.

54. The Kushan Kingdom
and the Silk Road
 The Romans desired silk and considered it
worth its weight in gold.

55. The Kushan Kingdom
 The Buddhist Kushans hired Hellenistic
sculptors and artists. They developed the
Gandaran school of sculpture.

59. Title: Standing Buddha, from Gandhara (Pakistan)
Artist: n/a
Date: Kushan period, c. 2nd-3rd century CE
Source/ Museum: Lahore Museum, Lahore
Medium: Schist
Size: height 7'6" (2.28 m)

60. Title: Buddha and Attendants, from Katra Keshavdev, Mathura, Madhya Pradesh, India
Artist: n/a
Date: Kushan period,c. late 1st-early 2nd century CE.
Source/ Museum: Government Museum, Mathura
Medium: Red Sandstone
Size: height 271/4" (69.2cm)

62. The Kushan Kingdom
 They held a great council of Buddhist
monks to regulate Buddhism, creating
Mahayana Buddhism.

63. The Kushan Kingdom
 By 250 CE, the Sassanid Persians (224 –
651) conquered the Kushan kingdom.

64. Gupta Empire: 320 – 467 CE

65.  The Gupta Empire
considered the
Golden Age of
Indian culture.
Gupta Empire: 320 – 467 CE

66. Gupta Rulers
 Chandra Gupta I
 r. 320 – 335 CE
 “Great King of Kings”
 Chandra Gupta II
 r. 375 - 415 CE
 Profitable trade with
the Mediterranean
world!
 Hindu revival.

67. Fa-Hsien: Life in Gupta India
 In the 5c, Chinese Buddhist
monk traveled along the Silk
Road and visited India.
 He followed the path
of the Buddha.
 He reported the people to
be happy, relatively free, polite
and generous.
Commented on the
"untouchability," doomed to
menial labor.

68. Chandra Gupta II

69. International Trade Routes
during the Guptas

70. Extensive Trade:
4c
spices
gold & ivory

71. Achievement in the
Gupta Empire
 Universities
 Literature
 Painting
 Sculpture
 Metalwork
 Mathematics
 Roads

72. Universities
 Time of great learning
 No women were allowed to attend, except for the
daughter’s of teachers
 Upper Castes only

73. Nalanda University
 Buddhist school.
 Eight colleges
 Three libraries
 Hospital
 Monastery
 Courses in Buddhist
and Hindu philosophy

74. Gupta Arts, Science and
Technology
 Caraka a great doctor developed a code of
ethics for doctors
 Health care free

75. Gupta Arts, Science and
Technology
 Advance in iron making.
 Medical advances and tools
like scalpels.
 Plastic surgery

76. Gupta Arts, Science and
Technology
 Indian numbers latter borrowed by Arabs are
what we use today along with the zero.
 0123456789

77. Gupta Arts, Science and
Technology
 In 628 AD, Brahmagupta solved quadratic
equations.
 Ax2 +Bx=C

78. Literature
 Writers wrote poetry,
fables, and folktales,
and plays.
 Many focuses on
Hindu law and religion

79. The Puranas (“Ancient Lore”)
 Described many Hindu
legends, which had
been passed down
orally.

80. The Mahabharata (“Great
Work”)
 Themes relate to
Hindu values of good
versus evil.

81. The Bhagavad Gita
 The Bhagavad Gita is the most famous book.

82. The Bhagavad Gita
 The warrior Arjuna struggles with the
problem of battle against his family.

83. Bhagavad Gita
 Krishna (Vishnu) tells him
to obey the warrior code,
emphasizing the duty to
one’s caste.

84. Gupta Literature Spread
 Beyond India to
Greece and Persia.
 Gupta folktales
inspired the Arabian
story of Aladdin and
the lamp.

85. Kalidasa
 The greatest of Indian poets, most famous
play Shakuntala.

86.  Kalidasa wrote stories in which humans
wrestled with imperfection and fate, the
opposite of Greek tragedies. Romantic
works with happy endings.

87. Gupta
Art
Greatly influenced
Southeast Asian art & architecture.

88. Gupta Architecture
 The stupa became elaborate often with
scenes of Buddah’s life. Style spread to
Buram and Thailand.

92. Gupta Architecture
 The rock cut temples carved into solid cliffs.

93. Gupta Architecture
 Principle chamber was the Chaitya.
 Ajanta 29 chambers

94. Title: Cave-Temple of Shiva. View along the east-west axis to the Shiva shrine. Elephanta, Maharashtra, India
Artist: n/a
Date: Mid- 6th century CE
Source/ Museum: n/a
Medium: n/a
Size: n/a

95. Ellora 34 chambers

96. Ellora 34 chambers

97. Ellora 34 chambers

99. Gupta Architecture
 Portray world of universe of Hindus
Buddhists and Jains.

100. Gupta Architecture
 Free standing temples hug the ground, rather
than go to sky Hindu belief that divinity
related to earth.

103. Title: Buddhist Temple of Borobudur
Artist: n/a
Date: Sailendra dynasty, 835-60 CE
Source/ Museum: Java, Indonesia
Medium: Lava stone
Size: perimeter of lowest gallery 1,180', diameter of crowning stupa 52'

104. Gupta Architecture
 Best examples outside India, like Ankor Wat
Cambodia.

105.  Dedicated to Vishnu, the Khmer Empire of
Cambodia built this temple in the 12th C.

110. Sculpture
 The Gupta period
developed a wholly
Indian sculpture.

112. Title: Eternal Shiva
Artist: n/a
Date: Mid-6th century CE
Source/ Museum: n/a
Medium: rock-cut relief in the Cave-Temple of Shiva at Elephanta
Size: Height approx. 11" (3.4 m)

114.  Painting made great advances in the Gupta
period.

115.  . The most famous painting in the caves of
Ajanta

118. Title: Bodhisattva, detail of a wall painting in Cave I, Ajanta, Maharashtra, India
Artist: n/a
Date: Gupta period, c. 475 CE
Source/ Museum: n/a
Medium: n/a
Size: n/a

120. Hindu reform and comeback
 Buddhism weakened as merchants lost
money as international trade crashes when
both Rome and Han China collapse.

121. Hindu reform and comeback
 Buddhist monks stayed in monasteries
isolated from urban and village life.

122. Hindu reform and comeback
 The Brahman class made a comeback.
 Hindu leaders built shrines for all castes and
women, stressing individual worship.

123. Hindu Society
 Brahms became gurus again.
 Men progress four stages
student, provider, hermit and
holy man.

124.  Buddha becomes one of the many Hindu
Gods

125. Hindu reform and comeback
 Castes became more complex with
additional sub castes.
 Buddhism absorbed by Hinduism.

126. White Huns 480-500 CE
 The kingdom of the Guptas ended with the
invasion of the Huns.

127. White Huns 480-500 CE

 India breaks down into 70 warring Hindu
states.

128. Peaceful contacts between Muslims
and India by the 7th and 8th Centuries.

129. These turned into military invasions during the 11th
Century led by the Turkish Muslim Mahmud of
Ghazani (971-1030).

130. Nicknamed the “Sword of Islam”, Mahmud led 17
plundering and slaughtering invasions and soon
controlled the Indus Valley (Pakistan today).

131.  The Indus Valley Muslim promise of
equality led to many Hindus
converting to Islam.

132.  By 1200 CE, the
Muslim Sultanate
of Delhi had
conquered all of
India.

133.  The Muslim rulers in India viewed themselves
as conquerors. They maintain a strict
separation between the Muslim ruling class and
the Hindu population.

134.  Muslims destroyed many Hindu temples and
massacred thousands of Hindus.

135.  Many Hindus considered Muslims another
higher caste, others as barbarian invaders.

136.  While they became more tolerate, the conflict
between Muslims and Hindu lasts until this
day.

137.  1526–1857 Mughal Empire Islamic decedents
of Genghis Khan
 British East India Company 1700’s
 1857 British Crown Annexes India
 1900 on many independence movements
 1920 Gandhi
 1947 India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim)
gains independence, when the USA forces
England to give up colonies after WW II

138. Indian Classical Tradition
 Classical characteristics of India can be
found in the village rather than in the polis as
in Greece, provincial rule in Persia or empire
as in Rome.
 The caste is the social fabric of India
fundamental to Hinduism.
 In the contest between trade that nourished
Buddhism and agriculture of Hinduism,
farming won. Buddhism found a home
elsewhere.

140. Hw pg 86 1-6
pg 104 1-6 20

141. The Kushan Kingdom
and the Silk Road
 In the first century CE, nomadic warriors
seized power and established the new
Kushan kingdom (Afganistan).
 For the next two centuries, the Kushans
spread over northern India as far as the
central Ganges Valley.

142. Soon after Asoka died, however, his empire
collapsed.
Around 320 AD, Chandra Gupta I came to
power in the north. He was not related to
the first emperor Chandragupta Maurya of
the Maurya Empire , but he too took the title
of king and began to conquer other areas in
the name of the Gupta Empire.

143. The Gupta Golden Age
 Added western coast
to empire
 religion
 science
Flourishing of arts

144. Medicine Literature
Mathematics
Astronomy
Printed
medicinal guides
1000 diseases
classified
Plastic
Surgery
C-sections
performed
Inoculations
500 healing
plants identified
Decimal
System
Concept
of Zero
PI = 3.1416
Kalidasa
Solar
Calendar
The earth
is round
Gupta
India
Gupta
Achievements

145. The Kingdom of the Guptas
 In 320, a new state was created in the
central Ganges Valley by a local prince
named Chandra Gupta I .
 He rebuilt the capital at Pataliputra

146. The Kingdom of the Guptas
 Under a series of efficient monarchs—
especially Chandra Gupta II, who reigned
from 375 to 415—the Gupta Empire created
a new age of Indian civilization.

147. The Kingdom of the Guptas
 Chinese traveler, Faxian (FAY•SYEN), who
spent several
 years there in the fifth century. Faxian, a
Buddhist
 monk, admired the Gupta rulers, their
tolerance of
 Buddhism, and the prosperity of the country

148. Medicine Literature
Mathematics
Astronomy
Printed
medicinal guides
1000 diseases
classified
Plastic
Surgery
C-sections
performed
Inoculations
500 healing
plants identified
Decimal
System
Concept
of Zero
PI = 3.1416
Kalidasa
Solar
Calendar
The earth
is round
Gupta
India
Gupta
Achievement
s

149. Bhartrhari
 5c India court poet and
philosopher.
Knowledge is man's crowning
mark,
A treasure secretly buried,
The source of luxury, fame,
and bliss,
A guru most venerable,
A friend on foreign journeys,
The pinnacle of divinity.