Pre-Mauryan Politics
A devastating civil war in this kingdom, the most powerful in India from 1200-800 BC, is the setting for the Mahabharata epic.
What is the Kuru Kingdom?
This 6th century BC sage and twenty-fourth Tirthankara is widely regarded as the founder of Jainism.
Who was Mahavira/Vardhamana?
Around the 6th century BC, the natural scientist and philosopher Acharya Kanada proposed a complex theory of this, which he called paramanu, founding the Vaisheshika school of Indian philosophy. He came upon this idea while wondering how many times a grain of rice may be divided until it couldn't any more. He is often compared to the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus, who proposed a related idea a century later.
What is atomism/atomic theory?
This region, previously famously subdued under Ashoka in 261 BC after a brutal war, regained independence with the fall of the Mauryas under the Mahameghavahana dynasty. This dynasty soon revitalized the region and conquered much of eastern India, becoming rich from trade.
What is Kalinga?
This ethnic group who today form the majority of the population of Sri Lanka are believed to have migrated to the island from northern India around the 5th century BC. The majority of them today are Buddhist, as in the 3rd century BC, Emperor Ashoka had sent his son Mahinda and his daughter Sanghamitta to spread Buddhism there.
Who are the Sinhalese?
In the 6th century BC, the University of Takshashila, which was a famous center for higher education in arts, sciences, social sciences, and religion frequented by Greek, Persian, Chinese, and Indian scholars, was founded in this kingdom, sharing a name with the region it inhabited. This region also lent its name to a unique form of art that was a blend of Greek and Indian styles.
What is Gandhara?
In Hinduism, literature is often divided into two components: shruti, or "that which is heard", which encompasses the main Vedas and sacred scriptures, and this other category, which encompasses the epics and the Puranas.
What is smriti?
This 7th-century BC Indian physician, widely known as the Father of Surgery, revolutionized medicine through his eponymous samihita treatise, which described advanced surgical instruments, medical practices and ethics, anatomy, and pathology, among other things.
Who was Sushruta?
This great Kushana emperor famously converted to Buddhism after a war with Persia in a manner reminiscent of Ashoka. He held the Fourth Buddhist Council in around 130 AD in Kashmir and helped spread Buddhism to the East.
Who was Kanishka the Great?
This ethnic group, originating in modern-day Taiwan, were master seafarers, and through maritime expansion and settlement, came to form the majority of the population of maritime Southeast Asia. Their voyages led them to places as far afield as Madagascar and the Pacific islands, even likely reaching the Americas.
Who are the Austronesians?
This powerful and tyrannical emperor of Magadha, known as Agrammes by the Greeks, was said to have been able to field hundreds of thousands of infantry and thousands of war elephants, and was one of the main reasons Alexander was forced to turn back from India. The emperor was deeply unpopular and was rumored to have been the son of a barber, and was overthrown by Chandragupta Maurya in 321 BC, ending his dynasty.
Who was Dhana Nanda?
Though Gautama Buddha originally delivered his teachings in local Prakrit, this language, which evolved from standard Magadhi, became the language of Theravada Buddhism, occupying a similar position to Sanskrit in Hinduism. It lends its name to a Buddhist Canon that forms the core of Theravada Buddhist religious literature.
What is Pali?
This 5th century BC Indian scholar, known as the Father of Linguistics, wrote the Ashtadhayi, considered the definitive treatise on Classical Sanskrit. He introduced many elements of modern linguistics, including metalanguage, formal systems, and morphological analysis.
Who was Panini?
This top general of Brihadratha Maurya assassinated the emperor in 185 BC, believing him to be too weak, thus ending the Mauryan dynasty and beginning his own. He would go on to stabilize the Magadhan realm and repel invasions by the Indo-Greeks, though Buddhist sources say he persecuted the religion.
Who was Pushyamitra Shunga?
This kingdom in modern-day Vietnam adopted Hindu Shaivism as its state religion and Sanskrit as its official language in the 4th century AD. It lends its name to a variety of fast-growing rice that, when introduced to China in the 11th century, helped lead to the Song Dynasty population explosion.
What was the Champa Kingdom?
The first of these academies of noble poets occurred in 300 BC in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, chaired by Rishi Agastya. These conferences lend their name to an era of Tamil politics, lasting from 300 BC to 300 AD, where Tamilakam was dominated by the Three Crowned Kings.
What are the Sangam academies?
This Indian god, worshipped alongside Vasudeva in ancient times, was also worshipped by Indianized Greeks, who equated him to Heracles due to his feats of strength and defeat of a serpentine monster. On Earth, he preached the importance of dharma and selfless action.
Who is Krishna?
This unique form of high-quality steel was invented in Southern India in the 3rd century BC and exported across the ancient world, coming to be known in the West as Seric iron or Damascus steel.
What is Wootz/Crucible steel?
This dynasty, founded by provincial governors in the south of India taking advantage of the decline of the Mauryas, came to control most of Central and Southern India. Known as the Andhras in the Puranas, they are famous for their rivalry with the Indo-Scythians and reached their zenith under Gautamiputra Satakarni.
Who were the Satavahanas?
This island off the coast of Yemen was an important Indian trading settlement in the ancient era, as a point where merchants could restock upon freshwater in their journey to and from India. A cave (Hoq Cave) on the island contains inscriptions from Greco-Roman, Indian, Arabian, and Persian merchants, making it a valuable historical site.
What is Socotra/Dwipa Sukhadhara?
This Magadhan prince famously imprisoned and executed his own father, Bimbisara, in order to secure the throne in 493 BC, before repenting and meeting with Gautama Buddha.
Who was Ajatashatru?
During the Sramana religious movement from the 8th to the 5th centuries BC, wherein some would adopt asceticism and seclude themselves from society to seek religious truth, led to the formation of many new religions and schools of thought, including Buddhism and Jainism. However, two other popular schools, which theorized atheistic materialism on one hand and fatalistic determinism on the other, also competed with Buddhism and Jainism.
What are the Charvaka and Ajivika schools?
This set of mathematical texts on altar construction from the 8th century BC contain approximations for pi and the square root of 2, geometric construction methods such as circling the square, and the first general formula for the Pythagorean Theorem.
What are the (Baudhayana) Sulba Sutras?
This Buddhist kingdom in the Tarim Basin in modern-day Turkestan is believed to have been founded by Kushtana, the son of Ashoka Maurya, around 224 BC. As Han China expanded, Chinese settlers also reached the kingdom, causing a war to break out. This ended in a compromise and the two colonies merged under joint Indo-Chinese leadership.
What was the Kingdom of Khotan?
This legendary port, likely located in modern-day Kerala, was famous for its export of luxury goods, such as spices, precious stones, and silk. It was one of the wealthiest ports in the world and was known to the Romans as "the first emporium of India". It was destroyed by floods in 1341, and archaeological remains have not yet definitively been found.
What is Muziris/Muciri?