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India has been inhabited for hundreds of thousands of years; of this there is little doubt. And if you read India was civilized as long as 5,000 years ago. By "civilized" we mean that the citizens of India's two most famous cities (only discovered some 80 years ago), Mohenjadaro and Harappa, lived in style, in multi-story brick houses which offered such conveniences as running water, in cities all of whose streets were paved. About a thousand years later, the Aryans moved into India from the region that eventually became Persia, bringing with them their own cultures and traditions. This included India's oldest chronicles, the Rig Veda, a collection of more than a thousand hymns which, according to tradition, were passed down orally, and which some believe are far older than the 1,500 B.C. timeframe usually assigned to them.

The inhabitants of the Indus River valley first developed an urban culture based on commerce and sustained by agriculture around 2500BCE, but declined around 1500 B.C., probably due to environmental changes. During the second millennium B.C., pastoral, Aryan-speaking tribes migrated from the northwest into the subcontinent, settled in the middle Ganges River valley, and adapted to antecedent cultures.

The Aryans were not the only ones to arrive - they were then followed by many others - the Macedonian Greeks of Alexander the Great, the Scythians, the Huns and the Islamic empires. Of these, however, the Muslims would be the most resilient and pervasive in influence, bar the Aryans. By the end of the mediaeval era, India was now a patchwork of different states, all of them in competition with one another. To the north, there were the Muslim sultans, while Hindhus continued to hold sway in the south as they had since time immemorial.

Dawn on the Indus[edit | edit source]

"https://www.harappa.com/"

The Indus valley civilization saw its genesis in the holy land now known as India around 2500 BC. The people inhabiting the Indus River valley were thought to be Dravidians, whose descendants later migrated to the south of India. The deterioration of this civilization that developed a culture based on commerce and sustained by agricultural trade can be attributed to ecological changes. The second millennium BC was witness to the migration of the bucolic Aryan tribes from the North West frontier into the sub continent. These tribes gradually merged with their antecedent cultures to give birth to a new milieu.

The Aryan tribes soon started penetrating the east, flourishing along the Ganga and Yamuna Rivers. By 500 BC, the whole of northern India was a civilized land where people had knowledge of iron implements and worked as labor, voluntarily or otherwise. The early political map of India comprised of copious independent states with fluid boundaries, with increasing population and abundance of wealth fueling disputes over these boundaries.

Ancient India[edit | edit source]

"The Indus Valley Civilisation (also known as the Harappan Civilisation) was a civilised society that flourished between 2600BC and 1900BC in what is now Pakistan and north-western India, in the valley of the Indus River. It was characterised by highly developed urban life, particularly in the two main cities to have been excavated, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, and the port city of Lothal. The basis on which the cities could exist was agricultural surplus, and this was ensured by a widespread and advanced system of irrigation and land drainage.

It was the third literate urban civilisation - after those in Mesopotamia (from c. 3500 B.C.) and Egypt (c.3200B.C.) – and arose like its predecessors (and China over half a millennium later) as a result of the organisation required to meet a very similar set of challenges. All were in areas of low rainfall where a flood plain existed, bereft of all the requirements of settlement except for the annual renewal of fertility as the great rivers, fed by snow-melt and spring rains hundreds or even thousands of miles upstream spread their nutriment in time for summer planting. All were also within a practical proximity of regions where the building necessities of stone and/or timber and clay were plentiful, along with metals, summer grazing lands, and other necessities of a sophisticated urban culture.

Recent excavations in the Kachi plain, between the hills of modern Baluchistan, Western Pakistan, and the Indus basin, have revealed evidence of farming, independently developed in the area and of a comparable level to Iran, millennia before the rise of cities. The cultivation of barley is evident, and the herding of sheep, goats and cattle had replaced hunting as a source of meat and clothing. The remains of mud-brick houses have been found, along with tools and even adornments made of materials only found a long distance from this area, signifying trade. The partially excavated settlement of Mehgarh, dated to well before 6000B.C. contains houses, storehouses, burial places and evidence of an increasing sophistication in the path towards organised agriculture in the region.

At some stage around the middle of the 4th millennium B.C. groups of these people began colonising the Indus basin. Here they found a largely treeless, unwooded, stoneless plain which was, however, extremely fertile from its annual inundation from the floodwaters of the Indus River and its tributaries. During the next 1000 years (the Early Indus Period) there developed walled towns, roads, increasingly fine craftsmanship, and extensive trade.

By 2500 B.C. - the start of what is known as the Mature Indus Period - a sophisticated civilization of a standard equal to those in Egypt and Mesopotamia had developed, throughout the region covered by the Indus basin, between the Thar desert and the mountains to the north and west; and along the coast for hundreds of miles on either side of the mouth of the Indus. Earlier diversity within the area had been replaced by a culturally uniform society covering the whole of the above region. About 100 settlements have been discovered so far - walled towns of baked brick, many of them containing a citadel surrounded by a residential area; some with evidence of town planning. No palaces have been found, and no evidence of a king or emperor. There may have been a priestly elite but nothing is known of the religion of this culture. There must have been some sort of central authority however, because of the sameness of the script found throughout the region, the complete uniformity of standards in weights and measures (ranging from heavy enough to require ropes for lifting to tiny weights used by jewellers), and even a standardised brick size. As well as its literacy and these practical applications of standardisation, the following aspects are notable:

The larger towns had sophisticated sewerage and drainage systems, complete with what would now be called “inspection openings” at intersections for checking and cleaning purposes. Personal mirrors have been found, also etched jewelry, perfumes, and white lead skin cosmetic similar to that fashionable in 5th century Athens and, later, in Rome. Toys, including models of ships, a little cart hauled by two bullocks, and other small objects testify not only to a regard for children but a focus on trade and the use of the wheel. A network of trade routes existed both within the borders of the culture and without. Indus cargo seals have been found in Mesopotamia, and Sumerian cylinder seals in Morenjo-daro. There were also overland routes into what are now Afghanistan and through Iran. There is evidence of an Indus trading post on the Amu Darya River, in south-central Asia.


The reasons for the eventual decline and collapse of the Indus Valley society are unclear. A shift in the course of the Indus River left the city of Marenjo-daro – one of the two centres of the culture – and its surrounds dry and agriculturally unviable. There are theories that, elsewhere, chronic flooding may had the same devastating effect, that disease and disruption to trade helped the decline. The end of a much-weakened culture may have come with the arrival in the region of (Indo-Aryan) Sanskrit speaking people – part of that general migration of people (“volkerwaderunge”) starting with the arrival of the Hittites in Anatolia (modern Turkey) about the turn of the third millennium B.C. (c.2000 B.C.) that, over the next millennium would populate most of Europe, Persia, much of the Indian sub-continent and as far east as what is now western China with peoples with common linguistic roots that we call Indo-European and Indo-Aryan.

The Indus Civilisation was the last of the great truly ancient civilisations to come to light. British engineers used bricks from some ancient towns whilst working on a new rail line in the 1850s not realising the antiquity of these places, and in the following decades inscribed seals and other finds aroused interest. It was not until well into the 20th century that modern archaeological techniques were used and only since the Second World War has the full extent of the civilisation been realised.

Its origins appear to be indigenous, like the other three founding civilisations. The script, which has not been deciphered, and other cultural finds have no similarity with other cultures. The society that followed in the region, and would spread through most of India – the culture of the Rig Veda that is still a prime part of the Hindu culture today – was completely different.

References:

The Times History of Archaeology ”Empires of the Indus” – Alice Albinia "The Seventy Great Mysteries of the Ancient World"; Ed.Brian M Fagan" The roots of ancient India were settlements in the Indus River Valley, in what is now Pakistan and northwest India (note where Pakistan is on the map to the right). This was one of the most fertile regions in the world at the time, with plentiful farm products and animals. The region was surrounded in the north by the Himalaya mountains, protected to the west by the Indu Kush mountains, and insulated from the east by the Great Indian Desert. Just as Egypt had unique geographic protections against invasion by foreign enemies, so did the Indus River Valley. Two cities have been discovered there: Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa (pronounced "huh-ROP-uh"). Other small towns have also been unearthed. This ancient civilization existed from about 3000 B.C. to 1300 B.C., and its peak was 2600 to 1900 B.C. It is known as the Indus Valley Civilization or Harappan Civilization, named after its big city, Harappa. These early settlements existed long before classical Indian civilization, which thrived from 300 B.C. to A.D. 500 (similar in time to the Roman Empire).

Writings have been found from ancient India, but no one has been able to decipher them yet. The symbols are extremely tiny, and all the writings we have contain only a few of these symbols. This is a good challenge for young experts in language (linguistics)!

In terms of technology, the inhabitants of these ancient settlements were quite advanced. The ancient peoples of the Indus River Valley civilization had modern use of water: pipes, drains and even indoor bathrooms. They were precise with mathematics, and used this skill to measure weight and mass accurately. But unlike most other civilizations in the 2000s B.C., the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa do not contain any large palaces or monuments to false gods.

The ancient Indian people survived on agriculture and traded with Mesopotamia. Many of the inhabitants were tradesmen, as artistic artifacts from Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa illustrate.

The fertile land and geographic protection of the Indus River Valley allowed and facilitated success by early civilizations there. The Sarasvati River, which is named after a Hindu goddess, was the largest in ancient India, flowing west of Delhi and providing water to a region described in the Rig Veda, a sacred Vedic Hindu text. (The river has since completely dried up, but was proven to have existed by satellite photographs of India.) Food and commerce in the Indus River Valley was based on barley (yava), copper (ayas) and cattle. By 2600 B.C., the Indus-Sarasvati civilization became the largest civilization in the ancient world, spreading from Pakistan to many areas of India today. It had trade connections with Mesopotamia, Afghanistan, Central Asia and elsewhere. Its population is estimated to have been 100,000, which is substantial even by today's standards.

By 2000 B.C., the world's population was 27 million people, 22% of whom lived in India. Interestingly, India still contains a high percentage of the world's population, but not quite as high as back then: today India has 16% or so of the world's population, or about 1 billion people. Three of the world's ten most populated cities today are in India: Bombay (recently renamed as Mumbai), Calcutta and Delhi.

The collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization came about from a mixture of geographic and human forces. Sometime around 2000 B.C., the course of the Indus River shifted away from various centers of civilization. This was compounded in the years up to 1500 B.C. by the hostile incursions of Indo-European (Aryan) nomads invading through the Bolan and Khyber passes in the Hindu Kush mountain range. The Aryans spoke Sanskrit, an Indo-European language. They conquered the Dravidians and forced them southward into what is now India. Hindu literature describes these struggles in the "Rig Veda" and two long poems known as the "Mahabharata" and the "Ramayana". By 900 B.C., iron smelting was discovered and became useful in making weapons and tools to clear fields and the jungle for agriculture. The Aryans were very successful in cultivating the land along the banks of the Ganges River Valley, aided by forceful winds known as monsoons that brought rain from the Indian Ocean. Rice was the most popular crop, and remains the world's leading crop even today.

By 975 B.C., King Hiram of Phoenicia encouraged trade between India and King Solomon of Israel. In 950 B.C., Jewish people arrived in India in King Solomon's merchant fleet, and later established colonies there. Around the same time, perhaps due to increased trade, Sanskrit began to decline as the spoken language of India. Priestly Sanskrit was later refined between 750 and 250 B.C.

Some of the people in the Indus River Valley likely migrated southeast to what is India today. The Vedic (pronounced VAYD-ik) civilization existed from about 1500 to 500 B.C., and is credited with developing the religion and culture of Hinduism (explained further below). Notice that the "classical" civilization of India came later, after this foundation had been laid. Classical India consisted of two major empires: the Mauryan Empire (322-185 B.C.) and the Gupta Empire (A.D. 320-467). Before, during and after these empires there was very little in the way of a central government, and thus India is best understood by studying its major religion, Hinduism. This is one of the oldest and longest-surviving religions in the history of the world. India is also the origin of two other major religions, Buddhism and Jainism. One of Jesus' Apostles (Thomas) went to India and established a Christian community there that thrives to this day.

The Vedic Age[edit | edit source]

The Vedic Age is the "heroic age" of ancient Indian civilization and the formative period when the basic foundations of Indian civilization were laid down. These include the emergence of early Hinduism as the foundational religion of India, and the social/religious phenomenon known as the varna or caste system. Much of what we know about this period of ancient Indian history is as a result of the faithful word-of-mouth transmission of the Vedas from one generation to another. This period of India's history lasted from around 1500 BC through to 500 BC; that is, from the early days of the Aryan migration into north-west India through to the age of the Buddha, introducing into India a religion based on the worship of many gods and goddesses. The Aryan belief-system that the Vedas reflect was distantly-related to those held by other Indo-European peoples of the ancient world, such as the Greeks and the Germans. This ancient religion is depicted in collections of oral poetry and prose - hymns, prayers, chants, spells and commentaries - known as the "Vedas" which were first composed at around the time of the Aryan entry into India and in following centuries before being written down many centuries later, long after the "Vedic Age",

However, some time in the centuries before they had entered India, the practice of fire ceremonies of the god Agni had become a focal part of their worship, a trait which they shared with their near-relatives, the Iranians (the word "Iranian" comes from the same root as the word "Aryan"). Another leading god was Indra, the High God. Also, the concept of the "Cycle of Life" - reincarnation of the soul from one earthly life to another - also arose in this period. A clay goblet used in Vedic times Violent times The Aryans came into north-west India as pastoral, semi-nomadic tribes led by warrior chieftains.

BMAC[edit | edit source]

2100-1700 BC - Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex [BMAC] The discovery of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex [BMAC] is attributed to Professor Sariadini at the time of the USSR: this zone covers Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan essentially, plus a little bit of Iran and India. Physical proof of an advanced civilization in northern Afghanistan around 2100-1800 BC (or 2000-1750 BC, or more broadly 2400-1600 BC) has come from more than a dozen exacavations conducted during the 1970s in the region that archaeologists refer to as the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC). While we can still only glimpse at the constellation of cities that existed in ancient times, findings made at BMAC already reveal a series of cities and settlements, each with a distinctive and exceptionally large architectural footprint, with temple structure, administrative quarters and defensive walls.

The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex culture is defined on the basis of typologically similar artifacts (seals, ceramics) and monumental buildings, reflecting the emergence of a complex society. It lasted for about 250 years and then collapsed, as evidenced by the precipitous decline of urban settlements and the disappearance of artifacts. At the same time, however, there is an abundance of BMAC artifacts on the Iranian plateau and in the Indo-Iranian borderland, although no artifacts indigenous to the plateau and Indo-Iranian borderland have been found in the heartland of the BMAC culture itself. The material culture of BMAC is distinctive both in style and quality of its production. Exceptionally fine silver and gold vessels, ceremonial shaft-hole axes adorned with figures of animals in combat, alabaster jars, and chlorite or calcite female figures abound in a variety of shapes with a wealth of incised and appliquéd designs and decorative motifs.

Large numbers of nomadic invaders or migrants, pastoral citiless people travelling on horseback and by chariot, long known (conveniently, perhaps wrongly) as Aryans (derived from the Sanskrit word for "nobles"), migrated south from the Caspian Sea region across the Oxus (present-day Amu Darya) River to present-day Afghanistan during the late early 2nd millennium (by circa 1700 BC). No contemporaneous record exists of the Aryans' journey. But according to legend, they sang hymns as they travelled that were passed on by word of mouth from one generation of priests to another until c. 1200 BC, when the hymns were added to a collection of volumes known as the Rig Veda (1700-1100 BC). These texts celebrate a tribe, centuries earlier, emerging from the Hindy Kush and crossing the Kubha, or Kabul, River around 1500 BC, as these nomadic wanderers put the Central Asian vastness behind them. Though evidence remains slim, some of the Aryan migrants appear to have stopped their wandering and settled in Afghanistan, while others continued south toward the India subcontinent. Meanwhile, a third branch of the Aryan Migration turned westward and settled on the Iranian plateau, in a place called Ariana, where an unknown scribe, or scribes, around 1800 BC produced the Persian hymns known as the Avesta, which mentions a city in northern Afghanistan termed Bakhdi (Balkh) "beautiful, crowned with banners.”

Some scholars have suggested that the Old Avestan texts belong to the Iranian communities of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, whereas the Young Avestan reflect the religious evolution of the same population after they settled in the northeastern part of the Iranian Plateau (ca. 1200-1000? BC). Some suggest the Indo-Aryans were in India a long time before traditional dating, and that they were coming from a zone in the Middle East that could correspond to the Iranian plateau with a migration from there essentially East and North East, meeting then the BMAC.

Like any other facet of human culture, Rigvedic religion was neither static nor without history. It has a prehistory that includes some of the local (Indus) beliefs as well as several layers of those picked up 'along the way' _ from a hypothetical steppe homeland (wherever exactly situated), via the general area of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) and the Afghan mountains to the Greater Panjab.

The steppe war chariot could have been introduced to the Near East through Central Asia, where there was clear and undoubted evidence for contact between the fortified, brick-walled oasis cities of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) and Sintashta and Petrovka charioteers from the northern steppes about 2100-1800 BCE. The BMAC oasis communities had far-flung trade relationships with cities and citadels across the Iranian Plateau, where the Elamite state and other smaller alliances were locked in combat with Mesopotamian kings during the Ur III period.

All known cities in the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex contained monumental structures with heavy defensive walls, each located aproximately 30 to 50 kilometers (roughly a day's march) from each other. The temples in these ancient cities contain fire altars, sacrificial areas and architectural features described in passages of the Rig-Veda and the Avesta — the holy texts of the Indo-Aryans and the Zoroastrians. The city in northern Afghanistan named Baktra (present-day Balkh) is recorded in the Avesta as the birthplace of Zarathustra Spitama (Zoroaster), the founder of Zoroastianism, one of the first great world religions that is continually practiced to this day. The reasons that the cities of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex were suddenly abandoned are not known. Possibly the widespread calamity known as the Bronze Age Collapse (which imploded the palace economies of the Aegean and Anatolia during the late 2nd millennium) impacted trade with settlements in Central Asia. Or possibly a severe drought or other envionmental catastrophe forced the BMAC settlers in Central Asia to flee.

Once in India, they settled down as rulers over the native Dravidian populations they found there, and formed tribal kingdoms. The different kingdoms were often at war with one another, and echoes of these violent times can still be heard in one of the greatest epics of ancient India, the "Mahabharata", which has come down to us from this period of history. The Upanishads Another body of literature that was composed towards the end of the Vedic Age were the "Upanishads". Originally, these were included in the Vedas, to which they formed commentaries; however, they were gradually separated out and assumed an identity of their own. The 200 sections of prose and poetry of which they are composed explore concepts only dimly perceived, if at all, in the earlier Vedas. These include the idea that the material world is unreal - indeed, it is an illusion. So too are earthly emotions such as desire and suffering. To break the weary cycle of reincarnation which all souls have to go through, therefore, involves renouncing desire and other human feelings which bind the soul to the material world. This will allow the soul to be united with the "World Soul" (Brahma), and so achieve peace.

These ideas helped to give the religious thought of ancient India a very distinctive flavour. They have influenced Indian civilization throughout its long history, right up to the present day. (Read more on ancient Indian literature, including from the Vedic age) A great religion takes shape The Vedas, the Mahabharata and the Upanishads formed the foundational writings of the Hindu religion, which was gradually taking shape in the Vedic Age. They show that the ancient Vedic religion was evolving into something different. This was probably to a large extent the result of influences from the older Dravidian populations over whom the Aryans ruled. During the course of centuries the Aryan nature deities lost much of their importance, and three new gods took their place: Vishnu, the preserver; Shiva, the destroyer; and Brahma, the creator. An image of Vishni Author: Ramanarayanadatta astri An image of Vishni Author: Ramanarayanadatta astri The ideas associated with the Upanishads became important, and these had a profound effect on social life. The notion that every element of creation - humans, animals, plants, rocks and so on - had a portion of the World Soul dwelling in them ("Atman") gained acceptance within ancient Indian society. With it came a respect for all living things.

However, as will be seen, the Vedic Period too had a dark side. It was during this period of history that ancient India developed its distinctive caste system. The tendencies towards social division had been present ever since the coming of Aryans into India. As happened at many different times and places in world history, the conquerors set themselves up as a ruling class. However, unlike in other parts of the world, where the differences between the conquerors and the conquered gradually disappeared over time, in India they solidified in the form of divisions between the castes, between whom intermarriage was forbidden. The priestly caste - the Brahmins - were at the top of the social ladder, as being closest to Brahma. Below them came the warrior caste, the Kshatryas. Then came the Vaishyas, the ordinary Aryan tribesmen, farmers, craftsmen and traders. Finally came the Shudras, menial workers, the labourers, servants and those performing services which are ritually unclean. There were also many people outside the caste system altogether, excluded from Aryan-dominated society. These were called the "Untouchables". They were not really regarded as human beings, and performed the most degrading tasks of all, such as dealing with human waste.

The Iron Age[edit | edit source]

The rebirth of urban civilization As the Vedic Age drew to a close, the tribal society of the early Aryans gave way to a more complex social organization. The use of iron spread form the Middle East from around 800 BC. This made agriculture more productive, and populations grew. Trade expanded, both within India and with the lands to the west. From the Middle East came the use of writing, and the great oral traditions of Aryan society began to be written down. Organized kingdoms with centralised authority emanating out from the royal palaces arose in place of the looser, clan-based tribal states. Not just kingdoms, either; in some places, particularly in the mountain areas and on the fringes of the Aryan world (essentially present-day modern Pakistan and northern and north-central India), confederations of clan-chiefs arose which later generations have labelled "republics". This makes ancient India the only place (as far as we know) in which the republican form of government flourished in the ancient world apart from in the Classical world of the ancient Mediterranean. The Vedic Age in World History The place of the Vedic Age in World History is as the period of ancient India which gave birth to Indian civilization - one of the great civilizations of the world. The fact that Vedic society gave pride of place to the priestly caste of Brahmins is directly related to the emergence of a religious culture which, in the following period of India's history, would lead to the appearance of three distinct but closely-related religions - mature Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Together, these religions claim the allegiance of billions of people in the world today.

In the 4th and 5th centuries CE, northern India was unified under the Gupta Dynasty. During this period, known as India's Golden Age, classical Hindu culture and political administration reached new heights. However, by the beginning of the sixth century, the Gupta Empire began to decline, and the Empire splintered into several smaller kingdoms, as had been happening in both Rome and China almost a century before. The fall of the Gupta and the fragmentation of India would eventually pave the way to gradual Muslim domination of the north from the 10th century onward.

The Guptas (c 4th-6th century CE)[edit | edit source]

Chandragupta I (320 – 335 CE) started a rapid expansion of the Gupta Empire and soon established himself as the first sovereign ruler of the empire, marking the end of 500 hundred years of domination of the provincial powers and resulting disquiet that began with the fall of the Mauryas. Even more importantly, it began a period of overall prosperity and growth that continued for the next two and half centuries which came to be known as a “Golden Age” in India’s history. But the seed of the empire was sown at least two generations earlier than this when Srigupta, then only a regional monarch, set off the glory days of this mighty dynasty in circa 240 CE.

The empire reached its zenith under Chandragupta's great-grandson, Kumaragupta I (circa 415 – 455 CE), and covered what is today the northern half of the modern Republic of India, as well as the eastern bank of the Sindh river (in what is now Pakistan) and the bay of Bengal (Chinese sources suggest that the original Gupta territories were just west of this region). Kumaragupta was able to maintain peace, aided by his able son Skandagupta (455 – 467 CE) who was the last of the sovereign rulers of the Gupta Dynasty. In turn, Skandagupta was a great scholar and wise ruler. For the well being of the denizens he carried out several construction works, but these were the last of the glory days of the empire.

After Skandagupta’s death the dynasty became embroiled with domestic conflicts. The rulers lacked the capabilities of the earlier emperors to rule over such a large kingdom. This resulted in a decline in law and order, as well as the empire's ability to feed and defend itself. On top of this, the Gupta kings remained more occupied with self-indulgence than in preparing to meet with the challenges of their enemies. By the mid-sixth century, the Gupta empire was no more: the exact turn of events that took place to this day is unknown, but Indian archaeologists have discovered evidence for a massive flood at this very time. Gupta coinage eventually disappears (the first sign of the effacing of a dynasty), and so India entered the chaotic Middle Kingdoms period of the Mediaeval era.

A World of Maya: The Middle Kingdoms[edit | edit source]

Three features, as political scientist Radha Champakalakshmi has noted, commonly characterize the sociopolitical realities of post-Gupta India. First, the spread of Brahmanical religions was a two-way process of Sanskritization of local cults and localization of Brahmanical social order. Second was the ascendancy of the Brahman priestly and landowning groups that later dominated regional institutions and political developments. Third, because of the seesawing of numerous dynasties that had a remarkable ability to survive perennial military attacks, regional kingdoms faced frequent defeats but seldom total annihilation.

In the wake of the fall of the Guptas, India was now dominated by several ruling houses and clans, but of these only a handful appear to have survived long enough to gain dominance: the Chalukyas of Vatapi (556–757) and Pallavas of Kanchipuram (300–888), who dominated south-western India throughout all this time, and the Pushyabhuti dynasty, centred around central northern India at Thanesvar, near Delhi. While the Chalukya rulers were overthrown by their subordinates, the Rashtrakutas, who ruled from 753 to 973, it was the struggle for political domination between the Pallava and Chalukya realms which dominated India for most of the 7th and 8th centuries CE.

Farther beyond the banks of the Sindh, control of the land was contested between several peoples - the Hunnic Alchons, the Turkic Shahis and the Rai dynasts. By the 7th century, the Rai throne was usurped by a Brahmin named Chach, who married the last Rai king's queen and established a new dynasty: the so-called Brahmin dynasty. Meanwhile, the southeasternmost Indian lands were dominated by three ruling houses -the Cheras, the Pandyas and the Cholas - the latter would eventually create a vast empire stretching from southern India to the very shores of present-day Malaysia.

The Legacy that Outlasted the Ages[edit | edit source]

The political fragmentation of the Indian subcontinent didn't just redraw borders. It, however, was also marked by religious conflict in India itself too. Originallly the religion of the ruling classes, Buddhism had begun to lose its position in India (there are allegations that the decline began with Ashoka's son's persecution of Buddhism following his father's death) and as the conflicts of the post-Gupta era wound on, it would see its position in India gradually diminished - which, along with the process by which it declined, would have deep ramifications for India the effects of which are still felt to this very day. 

But in the meantime, even in spite of the political fragmentation that dominated India and the many countless raids and wars conducted by each kingdom against another, life continued as it would have and India continued to see great cultural development in arts, science and philosophy.

References[edit | edit source]