The development of Indian civilization from c. 1500 BC to c.

AD 1200
Principal sites of the Indus Civilization.
The European scholars who reconstructed early Indian history in the 19th century regarded it as
essentially static and Indian society as concerned only with things spiritual. Indologists, such as
the Geran !a" !#ller, relied heavily on the $ans%ritic tradition and saw Indian society as an
idyllic village culture ephasizing &ualities of passivity, editation, and otherworldliness. In
sharp contrast was the approach of the 'ritish historian (aes !ill and the utilitarians, who
condened Indian culture as irrational and iniical to huan progress. !ill first forulated a
periodization of Indian history into )indu, !usli, and 'ritish periods, a schee that, while
still coonly used, is now controversial. *uring the 19th century, direct contact with Indian
institutions through adinistration, together with the utilization of new evidence fro recently
deciphered inscriptions, nuisatics, and local archives, provided fresh insights. +ationalist
Indian historians of the early ,-th century tended to e"aggerate the glory of the past .ut
nevertheless introduced controversy into historical interpretation, which in turn resulted in ore
precise studies of Indian institutions. In recent decades, historians have reconstructed in greater
detail the social, econoic, and cultural history of the su.continent.
/ a0or change in the interpretation of Indian history has .een a &uestioning of an older notion
of 1riental despotis as the deterining force. /rising out of a traditional European perspective
on /sia, this iage of despotis grew to vast proportions in the 19th century and provided an
intellectual 0ustification for colonialis and iperialis. Its deterinistic assuptions clouded
the understanding of early interrelationships aong Indian political fors, econoic patterns,
and social structures.
/ considera.le change is noticea.le during this period in the role of institutions. Clan2.ased
societies had asse.lies, whose political role changed with the transforation of tri.e into state
and with oligarchic and onarchical governents. Centralized iperialis, which was
attepted in the !auryan Period 3c. 4,56175 'C8, gave way gradually to decentralized
adinistration and to what has .een called feudalistic pattern in the Post2Gupta Period9i.e.,
fro the :th century /*. /lthough the village as an adinistrative and social unit reained
constant, its relationship with the ainstrea of history varied. The concept of divine %ingship
was %nown .ut rarely ta%en seriously, the clai to the status of the caste of royalty .ecoing
ore iportant. 'ecause confority to the social order had precedence over allegiance to the
state, the idea of representation found e"pression not so uch in political institutions as in caste
and village asse.lies. The pendulu of politics swung fro large to sall %ingdos, with the
forer attepting to esta.lish epires9the sole successful attept .eing that of the !auryan.
Thus, true centralization was rare, .ecause local forces often deterined historical events.
/lthough iperial or near2iperial periods were ar%ed .y attepts at the evolution of unifor
cultures, the periods of saller %ingdos 3often referred to as the *ar% /ges .y earlier
historians8 were ore creative at the local level and witnessed significant changes in society and
religion. It was also these sall %ingdos that often .oasted the ost ela.orate and ipressive
onuents.
The a0or econoic patterns were those relating to land and to coerce. The transition fro
tri.al to peasant society was a continuing process, with the gradual clearing of wasteland and the
e"pansion of the village econoy .ased on plow agriculture. ;ecognition of the iportance of
land revenue coincided with the eergence of the iperial syste in the <th century 'C= and
fro this period onward, although the iperial structure did not last long, land revenue .ecae
central to the adinistration and incoe of the state. >re&uent entions of individual ownership,
references to crown lands, nuerous land grants to religious and secular grantees in the Post2
Gupta Period, and detailed discussion in legal sources of the rights of purchase, .e&uest, and sale
of land all clearly indicate that private ownership of land e"isted. !uch ephasis has .een laid
on the state control of the irrigation syste= yet a systeatic study of irrigation in India reveals
that it was generally privately controlled and that it serviced sall areas of land. ?hen the state
.uilt canals, they were ainly in the areas of the winter and suer onsoons and where
village asse.lies played a doinant part in revenue and general adinistration, as, for e"aple,
in the Col @a 3Chola8 %ingdo of $outh India.
The ur.an econoy was crucial to the rise of civilization in the Indus Aalley 3c. ,B--6,--- 'C8.
Cater, the 1st illenniu 'C saw an ur.an civilization in the Ganges Aalley and still later in
coastal $outh India. The eergence of towns was .ased on adinistrative needs, the
re&uireents of trade, and pilgriage centres. In the 1st illenniu /*, when coerce
e"panded to include trade with western /sia, the eastern !editerranean, and Central and
$outheast /sia, revenue fro trade contri.uted su.stantially to the econoies of the
participating %ingdos, as indeed Indian religion and culture played a significant part in the
cultural evolution of Central and $outheast /sia. Gold coins were issued for the first tie .y the
Dus @En@asand in large &uantity .y the Guptas= .oth %ingdos were active in foreign trade. Gold
was iported fro Central /sia and ;oe and later perhaps fro eastern /frica .ecause, in
spite of IndiaFs recurring association with gold, its sources were liited. E"panding trade
encouraged the opening up of new routes, and this, coupled with the e"panding village econoy,
led to a ar%ed increase of %nowledge a.out the su.continent during the Post2!auryan Period.
?ith increasing trade, guilds .ecae ore powerful in the towns. !e.ers of the guilds
participated in the adinistration, were associated with politics, and controlled the developent
of trade through erchant e.assies sent to places as far afield as ;oe and China. +ot least,
guilds and erchant associations held envied and respecta.le positions as donors of religious
institutions.
The structure of Indian society was characterized .y caste. The distinguishing features of a caste
society were endogaous %inship groups 3jti8 arranged in a hierarchy of ritual ran%ing, .ased
on notions of pollution and purity, with an intereshing of service relationships and an
adherence to geographic location. There was soe coincidence .etween caste and access to
econoic resources. /lthough ritual hierarchy was unchanging, there appears to have .een
o.ility within the fraewor%. !igrations of peoples .oth within the su.continent and fro
outside encouraged social o.ility and change. The nucleus of the social structure was the
faily, with the pattern of %inship relations varying fro region to region. In the ore cople"
ur.an structure, occupational guilds occasionally too% on jti functions, and there was a
continual eergence of new social and professional groups.
;eligion in early Indian history did not constitute a onolithic force. Even when the royalty
attepted to encourage certain religions, the idea of a state religion was a.sent. In the ain,
there were three levels of religious e"pression. The ost widespread was the worship of local
cult deities vaguely associated with a0or deities, as seen in fertility cults, in the worship of
other goddesses, in the GE%ta2Ga%ti cult, and in Tantris. Cess widespread .ut popular,
particularly in the ur.an areas, were the ore puritanical sects of 'uddhis and (ainis and the
.ha%ti tradition of )induis. / third level included classical )induis and ore a.stract levels
of 'uddhis and (ainis, with an ephasis on the a0or deities in the case of the first and on
the teachings of the founders in the case of the latter two. It was this level, endorsed .y affluent
patronage, that provided the .ase for the initial institutionalization of religion. 'ut the three
levels were not isolated= the shadow of the third fell over the first two, the ore hoely rituals
and .eliefs of which often crept into the third. This was the case particularly with )induis, the
very fle"i.ility of which was largely responsi.le for its survival. >ors of 'uddhis, ranging
fro an ephasis on the constant refineent of doctrine, on the one hand, to an incorporation of
agical fertility cults in its .eliefs, on the other, faded out toward the end of this period.
$ans%rit literature and the .uilding of )indu and 'uddhist teples and sculpture .oth reached
apogees in this period. /lthough literary wor%s in $ans%rit continued to .e written and teples
were .uilt in later periods, the achieveent was never again as inspiring.

C. 1500c. 500 BC
Principal sites of the Indus Civilization.
'y a.out 15-- 'C an iportant change .egan to occur in the northern half of the Indian
su.continent. The Indus Civilization had declined .y a.out ,--- 'C 3or perhaps as late as 1:5-
'C8, and the stage was .eing set for a second and ore lasting ur.anization in the Ganges Aalley.
The new areas of occupation were contiguous with, .ut seldo identical to, the core of the
)arappan area. There was continuity of occupation in the Pun0a. and Gu0arEt, and a new thrust
toward ur.anization cae fro the igration of peoples fro the Pun0a. into the Ganges Aalley.

Early edic !eriod
In addition to the archaeological legacy discussed a.ove, there reains fro this period the
earliest literary record of Indian culture, the Aedas. Coposed in archaic, or Aedic, $ans%rit,
generally dated .etween 15-- and 7-- 'C, and transitted orally, the Aedas coprise four a0or
te"ts9the ;ig2 3;@g28, $Ea2, Ha0ur2, and /tharvavedas. 1f these, the ;igveda is .elieved to .e
the earliest. The te"ts consist of hyns, chars, spells, and ritual o.servations current aong the
Indo2European2spea%ing people %nown as /ryans 3fro the $ans%rit rya, Ino.leJ8, who entered
India fro the Iranian regions.
Theories concerning the origins of the /ryans, whose language is also called /ryan, relate to the
&uestion of what has .een called the Indo2European hoeland. In the 1:th and 17th centuries
/*, European scholars who first studied $ans%rit were struc% .y the siilarity in its synta" and
voca.ulary to Gree% and Catin. This resulted in the theory that there had .een a coon
ancestry for these and other related languages, which cae to .e called the Indo2European group
of languages. This, in turn, resulted in the notion that the Indo2European2spea%ing people had
had a coon hoeland fro which they had igrated to various parts of /sia and Europe. The
theory stirred unliited speculation, which continues today, regarding the original hoeland and
the date of the dispersal fro it. The study of Aedic India is still .eset .y Ithe /ryan pro.le,J
which often clouds the genuine search for historical insight into this period.
That there was a igration of Indo2European spea%ers, possi.ly in waves, dating fro the ,nd
illenniu 'C, is clear fro archaeological and epigraphic evidence in western /sia.
!esopotaia witnessed the arrival, in a.out 1:B- 'C, of the Dassites, who introduced the horse
and the chariot and .ore Indo2European naes. / treaty fro a.out 1<-- 'C .etween the
)ittites, who had arrived in /natolia at a.out the .eginning of the ,nd illenniu 'C, and the
!itanni epire invo%ed four deities9Indara, Kruvna, !itira, and the +Esatyas 3naes that
occur in the ;igveda as Indra, Aarun @a, !itra, and the /Lvins8. /n inscription at 'oHaz%My in
/natolia of a.out the sae date contains Indo2European technical ters pertaining to the
training of horses, which suggests cultural origins in Central /sia or the southern ;ussian
steppes. Clay ta.lets dating to a.out 1<-- 'C, written at Tell El2/arna in /%%adian cuneifor,
ention naes of princes that are also Indo2European.
+earer India, the Iranian Plateau was su.0ect to a siilar igration. Coparison of Iranian
/ryan literature with the Aedas reveals stri%ing correspondences. Possi.ly a .ranch of the Iranian
/ryans igrated to northern India and settled in the $anta $andhog region, e"tending fro the
Da.ul ;iver in the north to the $arasvatN and Kpper Ganges2Hauna *oa. in the south. The
$arasvatN, the sacred river at the tie, is thought to have dried up during the later Aedic Period.
Conceived as a goddess, it was personified in later )induis as the inventor of spo%en and
written $ans%rit and the consort of 'rahE, proulgator of the Aedas. It was in the $anta
$andhog region that the a0ority of the hyns of the ;igveda were coposed.
The ;igveda is divided into 1- ma alas 3.oo%s8, of which the 1-th is .elieved to .e soewhat
later than the others. Each ma ala consists of a nu.er of hyns, and ost ma alas are
ascri.ed to priestly failies. The te"ts include invocations to the gods, ritual hyns, .attle
hyns, and narrative dialogues. The 9th ma ala is a collection of all the hyns dedicated to
soma, the unidentified hallucinogenic 0uice that was drun% on ritual occasions.
>ew events of political iportance are related in the hyns. Perhaps the ost ipressive is a
description of the .attle of the 1- chiefs or %ingsO when $udEs, the %ing of the preeinent
'haratas of southern Pun0a., replaced his priest AiLvEitra with Aasis @t @ha, AiLvEitra organized
a confederacy of 1- tri.es, including the PPru, Hadu, TurvaLas, /nu, and *ruhyu, which went to
war against $udEs. The 'haratas survived and continued to play an iportant role in historical
tradition. In the ;igveda, the head of a clan is called the rj= this ter has coonly .een
translated as I%ing,J .ut recent scholarship suggests IchiefJ as ore appropriate in this early
conte"t. If such a distinction is recognized, the entire corpus of Aedic literature can .e interpreted
as recording the gradual evolution of the concept of %ingship fro earlier clan organization.
/ong the clans there is little distinction .etween /ryan and non2/ryan, .ut the hyns refer to
a people, called the sas, who are said to have had an alien language and a dar% cople"ion and
to worship strange gods. $oe sas were rich in cattle and lived in fortified places 3pur8 that
were often attac%ed .y the god Indra. In addition to the sas, there were the wealthy Pan @is, who
were hostile and stole cattle.
The Early Aedic was the period of transition fro noadic pastoralis to settled village
counities interi"ing pastoral and agrarian econoies. Cattle were initially the doinant
coodity, as indicated .y the use of the word gotra 3IcowpenJ8 to signify the endogaous
%inship group and gavis t i 3Isearching for cowsJ8 to denote war. / patriarchal e"tended faily
structure gave rise to the practice of iyoga 3IlevirateJ8, which peritted a widow to arry her
hus.andFs .rother. / counity of failies constituted a grma. The ter vi is generally
interpreted to ean Iclan.J Clan asse.lies appear to have .een fre&uent in the early stages.
Aarious categories of asse.lies are entioned, such as viatha, samiti, and sabh, although the
precise distinctions aong these categories are not clear. The clan also gathered for the yja, the
Aedic sacrifice conducted .y the priest, whose ritual actions ensured prosperity and i.ued the
chief with valour. The chief was priarily a war leader with responsi.ility for protecting the
clan, for which function he received a bali 3Itri.uteJ8. Punishent was e"acted according to a
principle rese.ling the wergil 3Ian payentJ8 of ancient Geranic law, where.y the social
ran% of a wronged or slain an deterined the copensation due hi or his survivors.

"ater edic !eriod #c. $00c. 500 BC%
The principal literary sources fro this period are the $Ea2, Ha0ur2, and /tharvaveda 3ainly
ritual te"ts8, the 'rEhan@as 3anuals on ritual8, and the Kpanishads 3Kpanis @ads8 and
Qran@ya%as 3collections of philosophical and etaphysical discourses8. /ssociated with the
corpus are the stra te"ts, largely e"planatory aids to the other wor%s, coprising anuals on
sacrifices and cereonies, doestic o.servances, and social and legal relations. 'ecause the
te"ts were continually revised, they cannot .e dated accurately to the early period. The Dharma-
stra te"ts of this period .ecae the nuclei of the sociolegal Dharma-stras of later centuries.
)istorians forerly assigned the two a0or Indian epics, the Mahbhrata and the Rmya a,
to this period, .ut su.se&uent scholarship has rendered these dates less certain. 'oth wor%s are
i"tures of the historical and the legendary, .oth were rewritten and edited, .oth suffered fro
fre&uent interpolations even as late as the early centuries /*, and .oth were later converted into
sacred literature with the deification of their heroes. Conse&uently, iportant as they are to the
literary and religious tradition, they are not easily identified with a historical period. The central
event of the Mahbhrata, whose geographic setting is the Kpper Ganges2Hauna *oa. and
ad0oining areas, is a war .etween two groups of cousins9the Dauravas and the PEn @d @avas.
Though the traditional date for the war is a.out 41-, 'C, ost historians would prefer a later
one. The events of the Rmya a relate to the iddle Ganges Aalley and central India, with later
interpolations e"tending the area southward.
The geographic focus of the later Aedic corpus oves fro the $anta $andhog region into the
Ganges2Hauna *oa. and the territories on its fringe. The areas within this land of the ryas,
called QryEvarta, were naed for the ruling clans. 'y the end of the period, clan identity had
changed gradually to territorial identity, and the areas of settleent cae eventually to for
states. The people .eyond the QryEvarta were tered the mlecchas, the ipure .ar.arians
unfailiar with the speech and custos of the ryas.
The literature is replete with the naes of clans. The ost powerful aong the, coanding
the greatest respect, was the Duru2PaRcEla, which incorporated the two failies of Duru and
PPru 3and the earlier 'haratas8 and of which the PaRcEla was a confederation of lesser2%nown
tri.es. They occupied the Kpper *oa. and the Duru%s @ etra region. In the north the DE.o0a,
GandhEra, and !adra groups predoinated. In the iddle Ganges Aalley the neigh.ours and
rivals of the Duru2PaRcElas were the DELN, DoLala, and Aideha, who wor%ed in close cooperation
with each other. The !agadha, / ga, and Aa ga peoples in the lower Ganges Aalley and delta
were outside the /ryan pale and regarded as mlecchas. !agadha 3Patna and Gaya districts of
'ihEr8 is also associated with the vrtya people, who occupied an a.iguous position .etween
the ryas and mlecchas. 1ther mleccha tri.es fre&uently entioned include the $Etvants of the
Cha.al valley and, in the Aindhyan and northern *eccan region, the Qndhra, Aidar.ha,
+is @Edha, Pulinda, and Ga.ara. The location of all these tri.es is of considera.le historical
interest, .ecause they gave their naes to the geographic area.
'y the 5th century 'C, clan identity had changed to territorial identity and the areas of settleent
changed fro chiefdos to %ingdos in soe cases. The state was eerging as a new feature.
/sse.lies such as the sabh and paris a continued as political institutions into later periods.
The larger asse.lies declined. ;udientary notions of ta"ation were the genesis of
adinistration, as were the ratis 3I0ewelsJ8, consisting of representatives of various
professions advising the chief. / a0or transforation occurred in the notion of %ingship, which
ceased to .e erely an office of a war leader= territorial identity provided it with power and
status, sy.olized .y a series of lengthy and ela.orate cereonies9the abhis ekha, generally
followed .y a0or sacrificial rituals, such as the avameha. This cereony was a faous horse
sacrifice, in which a specially selected horse was peritted to wander at will, trac%ed .y a .ody
of soldiers= the area through which the horse wandered unchallenged was claied .y the chief or
%ing conducting the sacrifice. Thus, theoretically at least, only those with considera.le power
could perfor this sacrifice. $uch a0or sacrificial rituals involved a large aount of wealth and
a hierarchy of priests. The cereonies lasted any days and involved a reciprocal econoy of
gift e"change .etween the chief and the priest, .y which the latter received wealth in %ind and
the forer esta.lished status, prosperity, and pro"iity to the gods.
The conspicuous display and consuption of these cereonies has elicited coparison with the
potlatch of the Dwa%iutl and related +orth /erican Indian peoples. The assuption of such
sacrifices was that the clan had settled in a particular area, ar%ing the end of noadis. This
led eventually to the clai of ownership .y %ings of the wastelands, although a rulerFs right to
collect ta"es was viewed not as a conse&uence of his ownership of wasteland .ut as his wage for
protecting society. The new trends ephasized the iportance of the priests and the aristocracy
3'rahans and Ds @ atriyas8, who were the ainstay of %ingship. The introduction, through royal
sacrifices, of notions of divinity in %ingship further strengthened the role of the priests. This was
also the period in which %ingship .ecae hereditary.
The technology of iron, or kr s a yas 3Idar% etalJ8, as it was apparently called in later Aedic
literature, and the igration into the Ganges Aalley had helped in the sta.ilization of agriculture
and of settleents. $oe of these settleents along the rivers evolved into towns, essentially as
adinistrative and craft centres. 'y the iddle of the 1st illenniu 'C, the second ur.anization
9this tie in the Ganges Aalley9had .egun.
The developent with the ost far2reaching conse&uences for Indian culture is the structure of
society that has coe to .e called caste. / hyn in the ;igveda contains a description of the
prieval sacrifice and refers to the eergence of four groups fro the .ody of the god Pra0Epati
9the 'rahans 3'rEhan@as8, Ds @ atriyas 3Dshatriyas8, AaiLyas 3Aaishyas8, and GPdras
3$hudras8. This is clearly a ythologized attept to descri.e the origin of the four var as, which
cae to .e regarded as the four a0or castes of Indian society.
The etyology of each is of interestO 'rahan is one who possesses agical or divine
%nowledge 3brahma8= Ds @atriya is he who is endowed with power or sovereignty 3ks atra8= and
AaiLya, derived fro vi 3IsettleentJ8, was a person settled on the land or a e.er of the clan.
The derivation of the ter GPdra, however, denoting a e.er of the group .orn to serve the
upper three var as, is not clear, which ay suggest that it was a non2/ryan word. In addition to
var a there are references to jti 3.irth8, which gradually cae to ac&uire a close association
with caste and appears to ean the endogaous %inship group. In the course of tie the
'rahans .ecae the preeinent priestly group, the interediaries with the gods at the
sacrificial rituals, and the recipients of large donations for priestly functions= in the process they
ac&uired a nu.er of privileges, such as e"eption fro ta"es and inviola.ility.
The Ds @ atriyas, who were to .ecoe the landowning failies, assued the role of ilitary
leaders and of the natural aristocracy having connections with royalty. The AaiLyas were ore
su.servient, and, although their status was not as inferior as that of the GPdras, they appear to
have .een crucial to the econoy. The traditional view of the GPdras is that they were non2/ryan
cultivators, who cae under the doination of the /ryans and in any cases were enslaved and
therefore had to serve the upper three castes. 'ut not all references to the GPdras are to slaves.
$oeties rich GPdras are entioned, and in later centuries soe of the even .ecae %ings.
The traditional view that var a reflected the organization of Indian society has recently .een
&uestioned= it has .een suggested that the rules of var a confor to a norative or presuptive
odel, and that the concept of jti is ore central to caste functioning. This view is strengthened
.y the fact that the non2'rahanical literature of later periods does not always confor to the
picture of caste society depicted in the Dharma-stras.

The &e'innin' of the hi(torical period) c. 500150 BC
3Ceft8 India c. 5-- 'C and 3right8 /Lo%aFs epire at its greatest e"tent, c. ,5- 'C.
>or this phase of Indian history a variety of historical sources are availa.le. The 'uddhist canon,
pertaining to the period of the 'uddha 3c. Bth65th century 'C8 and later, is invalua.le as a cross2
reference for the 'rahanic sources. This also is true, though to a ore liited e"tent, of (aina
sources. In the <th century 'C there are secular writings on political econoy and accounts of
foreign travelers. The ost iportant sources, however, are inscriptions of the 4rd century 'C.

!re*+a,ryan (tate(
3Ceft8 India c. 5-- 'C and 3right8 /Lo%aFs epire at its greatest e"tent, c. ,5- 'C.
'uddhist writings and other sources fro the .eginning of this period ention 1B a0or states
3mahjaapaa8 doinating the northern part of the su.continent. / few of these, such as
GandhEra, DE.o0a, Duru2PaRcEla, !atsya, DELN, and DoLala, continued fro the earlier period
and are entioned in Aedic literature. The rest were new states, either freshly created fro
declining older ones or new areas coing into iportance, such as Qvanti, /Lva%a, GPrasena,
Aatsa, Cedi, !alla, Ar @00i, !agadha, and / ga. The ention of so any new states in the eastern
Ganges Aalley is attri.uta.le in part to the eastern focus of the sources and is partly the
antecedent to the increasing preeinence of the eastern regions. 3$ee ap, India c. 5-- 'C.8

"ocation
GandhEra lay astride the Indus and included the districts of PeshEwar and the lower $wEt and
Da.ul valleys. >or a while its independence was terinated .y its inclusion as one of the ,,
satrapies of the /chaeenian Epire of Persia 3c. 519 'C8. Its a0or role as the channel of
counication with Iran and Central /sia continued, as did its trade in woolen goods. DE.o0a
ad0oined GandhEra. 1riginally regarded as a land of /ryan spea%ers, DE.o0a soon lost its
iportant status, ostensi.ly .ecause its people did not follow the sacred 'rahanic rites9a
situation that was to occur e"tensively in the north as the result of the interi"ing of peoples and
cultures through igration and trade. DE.o0a .ecae a trading centre for horses iported fro
Central /sia.
The De%ayas, !adras, and Ss @NnEras, who had settled in the region .etween GandhEra and the
'eEs ;iver, were descri.ed as descendants of the /nu tri.e. The !atsyas occupied an area to the
southwest of *elhi. The Duru2PaRcEla, still doinant in the Ganges2Hauna *oa., were
e"tending their control southward and eastward= the Duru capital had reportedly .een oved
fro )astinEpura to DauLE.N when the forer was devastated .y a great flood, which
e"cavations show to have occurred a.out the 9th century 'C. The !allas lived in eastern Kttar
Pradesh. Qvanti arose in the K00ain2+arada Aalley region, with its capital at !ahis @atN= during
the reign of Ding Pradyota, there was a atrionial alliance with the royal faily at DauLE.N.
GPrasena had its capital at !athurE, and the tri.e claied descent fro the Hadu clan. /
reference to the $ourasenoi in later Gree% writings is often identified with the GPrasena, and the
city of !ethora with !athurE. The Aatsa state eerged fro DauLE.N. The Cedi state 3in
'undel%hand8 lay on the route to the *eccan. $outh of the Aindhyas, on the GodEvari ;iver,
/Lva%a continued to thrive.
The id2Ganges Aalley was doinated .y DELN and DoLala. DELN aintained close affiliations
with its eastern neigh.ours, and its capital was later to ac&uire renown as the sacred city of
AErEnasi 3'enares8. DELN and DoLala were continually at war over the control of the Ganges= in
the course of the conflict, DoLala e"tended its frontiers to the north and the south, ultiately
coing to coprise Kttar 3northern8 and *a%s @ina 3southern8 DoLala. The new states of !agadha
3Patna and Gaya districts8 and / ga 3north of the delta8 were also interested in controlling the
river and soon ade their presence felt. The conflict eventually drew in the Ar @00istate 3'esar and
!uzaffarpur district8. >or a while, Aideha 3odern Tirhut8, with its capital at !ithilE, also
reained powerful. ;eferences to the states of the northern *eccan appear to repeat stateents
fro sources of the earlier period, suggesting that there had .een little further e"change .etween
the regions.

!olitical (y(tem(
The political syste in these states was either onarchical or a type of representative
governent that variously has .een called repu.lican or oligarchic. The fact that representation
in these latter statesF asse.lies was liited to e.ers of the ruling clan a%es the ter
oligarchy, or even chiefdo, prefera.le. $oeties within the state itself there was a gradual
change fro onarchy to oligarchy, as in the case of AaiLElN, the nucleus of the Ar @ 00i state. /part
fro the a0or states there also were any saller oligarchies, such as those of the Doliyas,
!oriyas, (REtr @%as, GE%yas, and Cicchavis. The (REtr @%as and GE%yas are especially ree.ered
as the tri.es to which !ahEvNra 3the founder of (ainis8 and Gautaa 'uddha, respectively,
.elonged. The Cicchavis eventually .ecae e"treely powerful.
The oligarchies coprised either a single clan or a confederacy of clans. The elected chief or the
president 3ga apati, ga arjya8 functioned with the assistance of a council of elders pro.a.ly
selected fro the Ds @atriya failies. The ost iportant institution was the sovereign general
asse.ly, or paris a, to the eetings of which e.ers were suoned .y %ettledru. Precise
rules governed the seating arrangeent, the agenda, and the order of spea%ing and de.ate that
terinated in a decision. / distinction was aintained .etween the failies represented and the
others. The .road authority of the paris a included the election of iportant functionaries. /n
occasional lapse into hereditary office on the part of the chief ay account for the tendency
toward onarchy aong these states. The divisiveness of factions was a constant threat to the
political syste.
The institutional developent within these oligarchies suggests a sta.ilized agrarian econoy.
$ources ention wealthy householders 3gahapatis8 eploying slaves and hired la.ourers to
wor% on their lands. The e"istence of gahapatis suggests the .rea%ing up of clan ownership of
land and the eergence of individual holdings. /n increase in ur.an settleents and trade is
evident not only fro references in the literary sources .ut also fro the introduction of two
characteristics of ur.an civilization9a script and coinage. Evidence for the script dates at least
to the 4rd century. The ost widely used script was 'rEhN, which is gerane to ost Indian
scripts used su.se&uently. / variant during this period was Dharos @t @N , used only in northwestern
India and derived fro the /raaic of western /sia. The ost coonly spo%en languages
were PrE%rit, which had its local variations in GaurasenN 3fro which PEli evolved8, and
!EgadhN, in which the 'uddha preached. $ans%rit, the ore cultured language as copared with
PrE%rit, was favoured .y the educated elite. PEn @iniFs graar, the !s t hyy", and HEs%aFs
etyological wor%, the #irukta, suggest considera.le sophistication in the developent of
$ans%rit.

Economy
$ilver .ent .ar coins and silver and copper punch2ar%ed coins cae into use in the 5th century
'C. It is not clear whether the coins were issued .y a political authority or were the legal tender
of oneyers. The gradual spread in the sae period of a characteristic type of lu"ury ware,
which has coe to .e %nown as the northern .lac% polished ware, is an indicator of e"panding
trade. 1ne ain trade route followed the Ganges ;iver and crossed the Indo2Gangetic watershed
and the Pun0a. to Ta"ila and .eyond. /nother e"tended fro the Ganges Aalley via K00ain and
the +arada valley to the western coast or, alternatively, southward to the *eccan. The route to
the Ganges delta .ecae ore popular, increasing aritie contact with ports on the eastern
coast of India. The e"pansion of trade and conse&uently of towns resulted in an increase in the
nu.er of artisans and erchants= soe eventually fored guilds 3re i8, each of which tended
to inha.it a particular part of a town. The guild syste encouraged specialization of la.our and
the hereditary principle in professions, which was also a characteristic of caste functioning.
Gradually soe of the guilds ac&uired caste status. The practice of usury encouraged the activity
of financiers, soe of who fored their own guilds and found that investent in trade proved
increasingly lucrative. The changed econoy is evident in the growth of cities and of an ur.an
culture in which such distinctions as pura 3walled settleent8, urga 3fortified town8, igama
3ar%et centre8, agara 3town8, and mahagara 3city8 .ecae increasingly iportant.

-eli'ion
These changing features of social and econoic life were lin%ed to religious and intellectual
changes. 1rthodo" traditions aintained in certain sections of Aedic literature were &uestioned
.y teachers referred to in the Kpanishads and Qran @ya%as and .y others whose speculations and
philosophy are recorded in other te"ts. There was a siza.le heterodo" tradition current in the Bth
century 'C, and speculation ranged fro idealis to aterialis. The Q0Nvi%as and the CErvE%as,
aong the saller sects, were popular for a tie, as were the aterialist theories of the 'uddhaFs
conteporary, /0Nta DeLa%a.alin. Even though such sects did not sustain an independent
religious tradition, the undercurrent of their teachings cropped up tie and again in the later
religious trends that eerged in India.
1f all these sects, only two, (ainis and 'uddhis, ac&uired the status of a0or religions. The
forer reained within the Indian su.continent= the latter spread to Central /sia, China, (apan,
and $outheast /sia. 'oth religions were founded in the Bth65th centuries 'C= !ahEvNra gave
shape to earlier ideas of the +irgranthas 3an earlier nae for the (ainas8 and forulated (ainis
3the teachings of the (ina, or Con&ueror, !ahEvNra8, and the 'uddha 3the Enlightened 1ne8
preached a new doctrine.
There were a nu.er of siilarities aong these two sects. ;eligious rituals were essentially
congregational. !onastic orders 3the sa gha 8 were introduced with onasteries organized on
deocratic lines and initially accepting persons fro all strata of life. $uch onasteries were
dependent on their neigh.ourhoods for aterial support. $oe of the onasteries developed into
centres of education. The functioning of on%s in society was greater, however, aong the
'uddhist orders. ?andering on%s, preaching and see%ing als, gave the religions a issionary
flavour. The recruitent of nuns signified a special concern for the status of woen. 'oth
religions &uestioned 'rahanical orthodo"y and the authority of the Aedas. 'oth were opposed
to the sacrifice of anials, and .oth preached nonviolence. 'oth derived support in the ain
fro the Ds @ atriya ruling clans, wealthy gahapatis, and the ercantile counity= .ecause trade
and coerce did not involve %illing, the principle of ahim s 3nonviolence8 could .e o.served
in these activities. The (ainas participated widely as the iddleen in financial transactions and
in later centuries .ecae the great financiers of western India. ?hile .oth religions disapproved
in theory of the ine&uality of castes, neither directly attac%ed the assuptions of caste society=
even so, they were a.le to secure a certain aount of support fro lower caste groups, which
was enhanced .y the .orrowing of rituals and practices fro popular local cults. The patronage
of woen, especially those of royal failies, was to .ecoe a noticea.le feature.

+a'adhan a(cendancy
3Ceft8 India c. 5-- 'C and 3right8 /Lo%aFs epire at its greatest e"tent, c. ,5- 'C.
Political activity in the Bth65th centuries 'C centred on the control of the Ganges Aalley. The
states of DELN, DoLala, !agadha, and the Ar @ 00is .attled for this control for a century until
!agadha eerged victorious. !agadhaFs success was due in part to the political a.ition of its
%ing, 'i.isEra. )e con&uered / ga, which gave hi access to the Ganges delta9a valua.le
asset in ters of the nascent aritie trade. 'i.isEraFs son /0EtaLatru ipleented his fatherFs
intentions within a.out 4- years. /0EtaLatru strengthened the defenses of the !agadhan capital,
;E0agr @ha, and .uilt a sall fort on the Ganges at PEt @aligrEa, which was to .ecoe the faous
capital PEt @aliputra 3Patna8. )e then attac%ed and anne"ed DELN and DoLala. )e still had to su.due
the confederacy of the Ar @ 00istate, and this turned out to .e a protracted affair lasting 1B years.
Kltiately the Ar @ 00is, including the iportant Cicchavi clan, were overthrown, having .een
wea%ened .y a inister of /0EtaLatru, who was a.le to sow dissension in the confederacy.
The success of !agadha was not solely attri.uta.le to the a.ition of 'i.isEra and /0EtaLatru.
!agadha had an e"cellent geographic location controlling the lower Ganges and thus drew
revenue fro .oth the fertile plain and the river trade. /ccess to the delta also .rought in
lucrative profits fro the eastern coastal trade. +eigh.ouring forests provided ti.er for
.uilding and elephants for the ary. /.ove all, rich deposits of iron ore gave !agadha a lead in
technology.
'i.isEra had .een one of the earliest Indian %ings to ephasize efficient adinistration, and
the .eginnings of an adinistrative syste too% root. ;udientary notions of land revenue
developed. Each village had a headan who was responsi.le for collecting ta"es and another set
of officials who supervised the collection and conveyed the revenue to the royal treasury. 'ut the
full understanding of the utilization of land revenue as a a0or source of state incoe was yet to
coe. The clearing of land continued apace, .ut it is li%ely that the agrarian settleents were
sall, .ecause literary references to 0ourneys fro one town to another ention long stretches of
forest paths.
/fter the death of /0EtaLatru 3c. <59 'C8 and a series of ineffectual rulers, GiLunEga founded a
new dynasty, which lasted for a.out half a century until ousted .y !ahEpada +anda. The
+andas are universally descri.ed as .eing of low origin, perhaps GPdras. *espite these rapid
dynastic changes, !agadha retained its position of strength. The +andas continued the earlier
policy of e"pansion. They are prover.ially connected with wealth, pro.a.ly .ecause they
realized the iportance of regular collections of land revenue.

Campai'n( of Ale.ander the /reat
The northwestern part of India witnessed the capaign of /le"ander of !acedon, who in 4,:
'C, in pursuing his capaign to the eastern e"treities of the /chaeenian Epire, entered
GandhEra. )e capaigned successfully across the Pun0a. as far as the 'eEs ;iver, where his
troops refused to continue fighting. The vast ary of the +andas is referred to in Gree% sources,
and soe historians have suggested that /le"anderFs Gree% soldiers ay have utinied out of
fear of this ary. The capaign of /le"ander ade no ipression on the Indian ind, for there
are no references to it in Indian sources. The ost significant outcoe of his capaign was that
soe of his Gree% copanions, such as 1nesicritus, /risto.ulus, and his adiral +earchus,
recorded their ipressions of India. Cater Gree% and ;oan authors such as $tra.o and /rrian,
as well as Pliny and Plutarch, incorporated uch of this aterial into their writings. )owever,
soe of the accounts are fanciful and a%e for .etter fiction than history. /le"ander esta.lished
a nu.er of Gree% settleents, which provided an ipetus for the developent of trade and
counication with western /sia. !ost valua.le to historians was a reference to /le"anderFs
eeting the young prince $androcottos, a nae identified in the 17th century as Candra Gupta,
which provides a chronological landar% in early Indian history.

The +a,ryan empire

3Ceft8 India c. 5-- 'C and 3right8 /Lo%aFs epire at its greatest e"tent, c. ,5- 'C.
The accession 3dated to c. 4,56c. 4,1 'C8 of Candra Gupta 3Chandragupta8 !aurya is significant
in Indian history .ecause it inaugurated the first Indian epire. The !auryan dynasty was to
rule alost the entire su.continent 3e"cept the area south of present2day DarnEta%a8, as well as
su.stantial parts of present2day /fghanistan.

Candra /,pta +a,rya
Candra Gupta overthrew the +anda power in !agadha and then capaigned in central and
northern India. Gree% sources report that he engaged in a conflict in 4-5 'C in the trans2Indus
region with $eleucus I 3+icator8, one of /le"anderFs generals, who, on the death of /le"ander,
had founded the $eleucid dynasty in Iran. The result was a treaty .y which $eleucus ceded the
trans2Indus provinces to the !aurya and the latter presented hi with 5-- elephants. / arriage
alliance is entioned, .ut no details are recorded.
The treaty ushered in an era of friendly relations .etween the !auryas and the $eleucids, with
e"changes of envoys. 1ne aong the, !egasthenes, left his o.servations in the for of a .oo%,
the $ica. /lthough the original has .een lost, e"tensive &uotations fro it survive in the wor%s
of the later Gree% writers $tra.o, *iodorus, and /rrian. / a0or treatise on political econoy in
$ans%rit is the !rtha-stra of Daut @ilya3or CEn@a%ya, as he is soeties called8. Daut @ilya, it is
.elieved, was prie inister to Candra Gupta !aurya, although this view has .een contested. In
descri.ing an ideal governent, Daut @ilya indicates conteporary assuptions of political and
econoic theory, and the description of the functioning of governent occasionally tallies with
present2day %nowledge of actual conditions derived fro other sources. The date of origin of the
!rtha-stra reains pro.leatic, with suggested dates ranging fro the <th century 'C to the
4rd century /*. !ost authorities agree that the %ernel of the .oo% was originally written during
the early !auryan Period .ut that uch of the e"isting te"t is post2!auryan.
/ccording to (aina sources, Candra Gupta .ecae a (aina toward the end of his reign. )e
a.dicated in favour of his son 'indusEra, .ecae an ascetic, and traveled with a group of (aina
on%s to $outh India, where he died in the orthodo" (aina anner .y deli.erate slow starvation.

Bind,(0ra
The second !auryan eperor was 'indusEra, who cae to the throne a.out ,9: 'C. Gree%
sources refer to hi as /itrochates, the Gree% for the $ans%rit amitraghta, the Idestroyer of
foes.J This nae perhaps reflects a successful capaign in the *eccan, Candra Gupta having
already con&uered northern India. 'indusEraFs capaign stopped in the vicinity of DarnEta%a,
pro.a.ly .ecause the territories of the e"tree south, such as those of the Col @as, PEn@d @yas, and
CTras, were well2disposed in their relations toward the !auryas.

A1o2a and hi( (,cce((or(
'indusEra was succeeded .y his son /Lo%a, either directly in ,:, 'C or, after an interregnu of
four years, in ,B7 'C 3soe historians say c. ,B5 'C8. /Lo%aFs reign is coparatively well
docuented. )e issued a large nu.er of edicts, which were inscri.ed in any parts of the
epire and were coposed in PrE%rit, Gree%, and /raaic, depending on the language current in
a particular region. Gree% and /raaic inscriptions are liited to /fghanistan and the trans2
Indus region.
The first a0or event in /Lo%aFs reign, which he descri.es in an edict, was a capaign against
Dali ga in ,B- 'C. The suffering that resulted caused hi to reevaluate the notion of con&uest
.y violence, and gradually he was drawn to the 'uddhist religion. /.out 1, years after his
accession, he .egan issuing edicts at regular intervals. In one he referred to five Gree% %ings who
were his neigh.ours and conteporaries and to who he sent envoys9these were /ntiochus II
Theos of $yria, the grandson of $eleucus I +icator= Ptoley II Philadelphus of Egypt= /ntigonus
II Gonatas of !acedonia= !agas of Cyrene= and /le"ander 3of either Epirus or Corinth8. This
reference has .ecoe the .edroc% of !auryan chronology. Cocal tradition asserts that he had
contacts with DhotEn and +epal. Close relations with Tissa, the %ing of $ri Can%a, were furthered
.y the fact that !ihinda, /Lo%aFs son 3or his younger .rother according to soe sources8, was
the first 'uddhist issionary on the island.
/Lo%a ruled for 4: years. /fter his death a political decline set in, and half a century later the
epire was reduced to the Ganges Aalley alone. Tradition asserts that /Lo%aFs son DunEla ruled
in GandhEra. Epigraphic evidence indicates that his grandson *aLaratha ruled in !agadha. $oe
historians have suggested that his epire was .ifurcated. In 175 'C the last of the !auryas,
'r @hadratha, was assassinated .y his 'rahan coander in chief, Pus @yaitra, who founded
the Gu ga dynasty.

3inancial &a(e for the empire
The !auryan achieveent lay in the a.ility to weld the diverse parts of the su.continent into a
single political unit and to aintain an iperial syste for alost 1-- years. The financial .ase
for an iperial syste was provided .y incoe fro land revenue and, to a lesser e"tent, fro
trade. The gradual e"pansion of the agrarian econoy and iproveents in the adinistrative
achinery for collecting revenue increased the incoe fro land revenue. This is confired .y
.oth the theories of Daut @ilya and the account of !egasthenes= Daut @ilya aintained that the state
should organize the clearing of wasteland and settle it with villages of GPdra cultivators. It is
li%ely that soe 15-,--- persons deported fro Dali ga .y /Lo%a after the capaign were
settled in this anner. !egasthenes writes that there were no slaves in India, yet Indian sources
spea% of various categories of slaves called sas, the ost coonly used designation .eing
sa-bhr taka 3slaves and hired la.ourers8. It is li%ely that there was no large2scale slavery for
production, although slaves were used on the land, in the ines, and in the guilds, along with the
hired la.our. *oestic slavery was coon, however.
The nature of land revenue has .een a su.0ect of controversy. $oe scholars aintain that the
state was the sole owner of the land, while others contend that there was private and individual
ownership as well. ;eferences to private ownership would see to .e too fre&uent to .e ignored.
There also are references to the crown lands, the cultivation of which was iportant to the
econoy. Two types of ta"es were levied9one on the aount of land cultivated and the other on
the produce of the land. The state aintained irrigation in liited areas and in liited periods.
'y and large, irrigation systes were privately controlled .y cultivators and landowners. There
is no support for a thesis that control of the hydraulic achinery was crucial to the political
control of the country.
/nother source of incoe, which ac&uired increasing iportance, was revenue fro ta"es levied
on .oth internal and foreign trade. The attept at iproved political adinistration helped to
.rea% the econoic isolation of various regions. ;oads .uilt to ensure &uic% counication with
the local adinistration inevita.ly .ecae arteries of e"change and trade.

+a,ryan (ociety
/ccording to !egasthenes, !auryan society coprised seven occupational groupsO
philosophers, farers, soldiers, herdsen, artisans, agistrates, and councillors. )e defined
these groups as endogaous and the professions as hereditary, which has led to their .eing
considered as castes. The philosophers included a variety of priests, on%s, and religious
teachers= they fored the sallest group .ut were the ost respected, were e"ept fro
ta"ation, and were the only ones peritted to arry into the other groups. The farers were the
largest group. The soldiers were very well paid, and, if PlinyFs figures for the ary are correct9
9,--- elephants, 4-,--- cavalry, and B--,--- infantry9their support ust have re&uired a
considera.le financial outlay. The ention of herdsen as a socioeconoic group suggests that,
although the agrarian econoy was e"panding and had .ecoe central to the state incoe,
pastoralis continued to play an iportant econoic role. The artisans pro.a.ly represented a
a0or section of the ur.an population. The listing of agistrates and councillors as distinct
groups is evidence of a large and recogniza.le adinistrative personnel.

+a,ryan 'overnment
The !auryan governent was organized around the %ing. /Lo%a saw his role as essentially
paternalO I/ll en are y children.J )e was an"ious to .e in constant touch with pu.lic opinion,
and to this end he traveled e"tensively throughout his epire and appointed a special category of
officers to gauge pu.lic opinion. )is edicts indicate fre&uent consultations with his inisters, the
inisterial council .eing a largely advisory .ody. The offices of the saihtr 3treasurer8, who
%ept the account, and the samhartr 3chief collector8, who was responsi.le for revenue records,
fored the hu. of the revenue adinistration. Each adinistrative departent, with its
superintendents and su.ordinate officials, acted as a lin% .etween local adinistration and the
central governent. Daut @ilya .elieved that a &uarter of the total incoe should .e reserved for
the salaries of the officers. That the higher officials e"pected to .e handsoely paid is clear fro
the salaries suggested .y Daut @ilya and fro the considera.le difference .etween the salary of a
cler% 35-- pa as8 and that of a inister 3<7,--- pa as8. Pu.lic wor%s and grants a.sor.ed
another large percentage of state incoe.
The epire was divided into four provinces, each under a prince or a governor. Cocal officials
were pro.a.ly selected fro aong the local populace, .ecause no ethod of ipersonal
recruitent to adinistrative office is entioned. 1nce every five years, the eperor sent
officers to audit the provincial adinistrations. $oe categories of officers in the rural areas,
such as the rjjkas 3surveyors8, co.ined 0udicial functions with assessent duties. >ines
constituted the ost coon for of punishent, although capital punishent was iposed in
e"tree cases. Provinces were su.divided into districts and these again into saller units. The
village was the .asic unit of adinistration and has reained so throughout the centuries. The
headan continued to .e an iportant official, as did the accountant and the ta" collector
3sthika and gopa, respectively8. >or the larger units, Daut @ilya suggests the aintenance of a
census. !egasthenes descri.es a coittee of 4- officials, divided into si" su.coittees, who
loo%ed after the adinistration of PEt @aliputra. The ost iportant single official was the city
superintendent 3garaka8, who had virtual control over all aspects of city adinistration.
Centralization of the governent should not .e ta%en to iply a unifor level of developent
throughout the epire. $oe areas, such as !agadha, GandhEra, and Qvanti, were under closer
central control than others, such as the DarnEta%a, where possi.ly the !auryan systeFs ain
concern was to e"tract resources without e.edding itself in the region.

A1o2a4( edict(
It was against this .ac%ground of iperial adinistration and a changing socioeconoic
fraewor% that /Lo%a issued edicts that carried his essage concerning the idea and practice of
hamma, the PrE%rit for of the $ans%rit harma, a ter that defies siple translation. It carries
a variety of eanings depending on the conte"t, such as universal law, social order, piety, or
righteousness= the 'uddhists fre&uently used it with reference to the teachings of the 'uddha.
This, in part, coloured the earlier interpretation of /Lo%aFs use of the word to ean that he was
propagating 'uddhis. Kntil his inscriptions were deciphered in 174:, /Lo%a was practically
un%nown e"cept in the 'uddhist chronicles of $ri Can%a9the Mahvam sa and D"pavam sa9and
the wor%s of the northern 'uddhist tradition9the Divyvaaa and the !okvaaa9where he
is e"tolled as a 'uddhist eperor par e"cellence whose sole a.ition was the e"pansion of
'uddhis. !ost of these traditions were preserved outside India in $ri Can%a, Central /sia, and
China. Even after the edicts were deciphered, it was .elieved that they corro.orated the
assertions of the 'uddhist sources, .ecause in soe of the edicts /Lo%a avowed his personal
support of 'uddhis. !ore recent analyses suggest, however, that, although he was personally a
'uddhist, as his edicts addressed to the 'uddhist sa gha 3order8 attest, the a0ority of the edicts
in which he attepted to define hamma do not suggest that he was erely preaching 'uddhis.
/Lo%a addressed his edicts to the entire populace, inscri.ing the on roc% surfaces or on
specially erected and finely polished sandstone pillars, in places where people were li%ely to
congregate. It has .een suggested that the idea of issuing such decrees was .orrowed fro the
/chaeenian eperors, especially fro *arius, .ut the tone and content of /Lo%aFs edicts are
&uite different. /lthough the pillars, with their anial capitals, have also .een descri.ed as
iitations of /chaeenian pillars, there is sufficient originality in style to distinguish the as
fine e"aples of !auryan iperial art. 3The official e.le of India since 19<: is .ased on the
four2lion capital of the pillar at $ErnEth near AEUEnasi.8 The carvings contrast stri%ingly with the
nuerous sall gray terra2cotta figures found at ur.an sites, which are clearly e"pressions of
!auryan popular art.
/Lo%a defines the ain principles of hamma as nonviolence, tolerance of all sects and opinions,
o.edience to parents, respect for the 'rahans and other religious teachers and priests, li.erality
toward friends, huane treatent of servants, and generosity toward all. These suggest a general
ethic of .ehaviour to which no religious or social group could o.0ect. They also could act as a
focus of loyalty to weld together the diverse strands that ade up the epire. Interestingly, the
Gree% versions of these edicts translate hamma as eusebeia 3piety8, and no ention is ade in
the inscriptions of the teachings of the 'uddha, which would .e e"pected if /Lo%a had .een
propagating 'uddhis. )is own activities under the ipact of hamma included attention to the
welfare of his su.0ects, the .uilding of roads and rest houses, the planting of edicinal her.s, the
esta.lishent of centres for tending the sic%, a .an on anial sacrifices, and the curtailing of
%illing anials for food. )e also instituted a .ody of officials %nown as the hamma-
mahmattas, who served the dual function of propagating the hamma and %eeping the eperor
in touch with pu.lic opinion.

+a,ryan decline
$oe historians aintain that the disintegration of the !auryan epire was an afterath of
/Lo%aFs policies and actions and that his pro2'uddhist policy caused a revolt aong the
'rahans. The edicts do not support such a contention. It has also .een said that /Lo%aFs
insistence on nonviolence resulted in the easculation of the ary, which was conse&uently
una.le to eet the threat of invaders fro the northwest. There is, however, no indication that
/Lo%a deli.erately ignored the ilitary wing of his adinistration, despite his ephasis on
nonviolence.
1ther e"planations for the decline of the epire appear ore plausi.le. /ong these is the idea
that there ay have .een a wea%ening of the econoy which acted as an econoic pressure on
the epire. It has .een thought that the silver currency of the !auryas was de.ased as a result of
this pressure. The e"pense re&uired for the ary and the .ureaucracy ust have tied up a
su.stantial part of the incoe. It is e&ually possi.le that the e"pansion of agriculture did not %eep
pace with the e"pansion of the epire, and, .ecause any areas were nonagricultural, the
revenue fro the agrarian econoy ay not have .een sufficient for the aintenance of the
epire. It is e"treely difficult to copute the population of the epire, .ut, on a purely
ipressionistic .asis, a figure of appro"iately 5- illion can .e suggested. >or a population of
i"ed agriculturalists and others to support an epire of this size would have .een e"treely
difficult without intensive e"ploitation of resources. ;ecent e"cavations at ur.an sites show a
distinct iproveent in aterial prosperity in the post2!auryan levels. This ay .e attri.uta.le
to an increase in trade, .ut the incoe fro trade was unli%ely to have .een sufficient to
suppleent fully the land revenue in financing the epire.
It has .een argued that the !auryan .ureaucracy at the higher levels tended to .e oppressive.
This ay have .een true during the reigns of the first two eperors, fro which the evidence is
cited, .ut oppression is unli%ely to have occurred during /Lo%aFs reign, .ecause he was
responsi.le for a considera.le decentralization at the upper levels and for continual chec%s and
inspections. / ore fundaental wea%ness lay in the process of recruitent, which was pro.a.ly
ar.itrary, with the hierarchy of officials locally recruited.

The concept of the (tate
/llegiance presupposes a concept of statehood. / nu.er of varying notions had evolved .y this
tie to e"plain the evolution of the state. $oe theorists pursued the thread of the Aedic
onarchies, in which the clan chief .ecae the %ing and was gradually invested with divinity.
/n alternative set of theories arising out of 'uddhist and (aina thought ignored the idea of
divinity and assued instead that, in the original state of nature, all needs were effortlessly
provided .ut that slowly a decline set in and an .ecae evil, developing desires, which led to
the notions of private property and of faily and finally to ioral .ehaviour. In this condition
of chaos, the people gathered together and decided to elect one aong the 3the mahsammata,
or Igreat electJ8 in who they would invest authority to aintain law and order. Thus, the state
cae into .eing. Cater theories retained the eleent of a contract .etween a ruler and the people.
'rahanic sources held that the gods appointed the ruler and that a contract of dues was
concluded .etween the ruler and the people. /lso prevalent was the theory of matsyyya,
which proposes that in periods of chaos, when there is no ruler, the strong devour the wea%, 0ust
as in periods of drought .ig fish eat little fish. Thus, the need for a ruler was viewed as a.solute.
The e"istence of the state was priarily dependent on two factorsO a a 3authority8 and harma
3in its sense of the social order9i.e., the preservation of the caste structure8. The !rtha-stra,
oreover, refers to the seven li.s 3sapt ga 8 of the state as the %ing, adinistration, territory,
capital, treasury, coercive authority, and allies. )owever, the iportance of the political notion of
the state gradually .egan to fade, partly .ecause of a decline of the political tradition of the
repu.lics and the proportional doinance of the onarchical syste, in which loyalty was
directed to the %ing. The eergence of the !auryan epire strengthened the political notion of
onarchy. The second factor was that the harma, in the sense of the social order, deanded a
far greater loyalty than did the rather .lurred idea of the state. The %ingFs duty was to protect
harma, and, as long as the social order reained intact, anarchy would not prevail. Coyalty to
the social order, which was a fundaental aspect of Indian civilization, largely accounts for the
ipressive continuity of the a0or social institutions over any centuries. )owever, it also
deflected loyalty fro the political notion of the state, which ight otherwise have peritted
ore fre&uent epires and a greater political consciousness. /fter the decline of the !auryas,
the reeergence of an epire was to ta%e any centuries.

150 BCAD 500
The disintegration of the !auryan epire gave rise to a nu.er of sall %ingdos, whose
regional affiliations were often to .e repeated in su.se&uent centuries. The Pun0a. and Dashir
were drawn into the or.it of Central /sian politics. The lower Indus Aalley .ecae a passage for
oveents fro the north to the west. The Ganges Aalley assued a largely passive role e"cept
when faced with capaigns fro the northwest. In the northern *eccan there arose the first of
any iportant %ingdos that were to serve as the .ridge .etween the north and the south.
Dali ga was once ore independent. In the e"tree south, the prestige and influence of the
CTra, Col @a, and PEn@d @ya %ingdos continued una.ated. Het in spite of political fragentation,
this was a period of econoic prosperity, resulting partly fro a new source of incoe9trade,
.oth within the su.continent and with distant places in Central /sia, China, the eastern
!editerranean, and $outheast /sia.

-i(e of (mall 2in'dom( in the north
In the ad0oining area held .y the $eleucids, *iodotus, the Gree% governor of 'actria, rose in
re.ellion against the $eleucid %ing /ntiochus and declared his independence, which was
recognized .y /ntiochus a.out ,5- 'C. Parthia also declared its independence.

Indo*/ree2 r,ler(
/ later 'actrian %ing, *eetrius 3reigned c. 19-6c. 1B: 'C8, too% his aries into the Pun0a. and
finally down the Indus Aalley and gained control of northwestern India. This introduced what
has coe to .e called Indo2Gree% rule. The chronology of the Indo2Gree% rulers is .ased largely
on nuisatic evidence. Their coins were, at the start, iitations of Gree% issues, .ut they
gradually ac&uired a style of their own, characterized .y e"cellent portraiture. The legend was
generally inscri.ed in Gree%, 'rEhN, and Dharos @t @N.
The .est2%nown of the Indo2Gree% %ings was !enander, %nown to Indian sources as !ilinda
3reigned 155614- 'C8. )e is featured in the 'uddhist te"t Milia-paha 3IVuestions of
!ilindaJ8, written in the for of a dialogue .etween the %ing and the 'uddhist philosopher
+Egasena, as a result of which the %ing is converted to 'uddhis. !enander controlled
GandhEra and Pun0a., although his coins have .een found farther south. /ccording to one theory,
he ay have attac%ed the Gu gas in the Hauna region and attepted to e"tend his control into
the Ganges Aalley, .ut, if he did so, he failed to anne" the area. !eanwhile, in 'actria, the
descendants of the line of Eucratides, who had .ranched off fro the original 'actrian line, now
.egan to ta%e an interest in GandhEra and finally anne"ed Da.ul and the %ingdo of Ta"ila
3Ta%s @aLilE8. /n iportant PrE%rit inscription at 'esnagar 3'hNlsa district8 of the late ,nd century
'C, inscri.ed at the instance of )eliodorus, a Gree% envoy of /ntialcidas of Ta"ila, records his
devotion to the Aais @n@ava AEsudeva sect.

Central A(ian r,ler(
The 'actrian control of Ta"ila was distur.ed .y an intrusion of the $cythians, %nown in Indian
sources as the Ga%as. They had attac%ed the %ingdo of 'actria and su.se&uently oved into
India. The deterination of the )an rulers of China to %eep the Central /sian noadic tri.es
3the )siung2nu, ?u2sun, and H#eh2chih8 out of China forced these noadic tri.es in their search
for fresh pastures to igrate southward and westward= a .ranch of the H#eh2chih, the Ta H#eh2
chih, oved farthest west to the /ral $ea, and this displaced the e"isting Ga%as, who poured into
'actria and Parthia. The Parthian %ing !ithradates II tried to hold the .ac%, .ut after his death
377 'C8 they swept through Parthia and continued into the Indus Aalley= aong the early Ga%a
%ings was !aues, or !oga 31st century 'C8, who ruled over GandhEra. The Ga%as oved
southward under pressure fro the Pahlavas 3Parthians8, who ruled .riefly in northwestern India
toward the end of the 1st century 'C, the reign of Gondophernes .eing ree.ered. /t !athurE,
the Ga%a rulers of note were ;E0Pvala and God @Esa. Kltiately the Ga%as settled in western India
and !Elava and cae into conflict with the %ingdos of the northern *eccan and the Ganges
Aalley9particularly during the reigns of +ahapEna, Cas @t @ana , and ;udradEan9in the first two
centuries /*. ;udradEanFs fae is recorded in a lengthy $ans%rit inscription at (unEgadh,
dating to 15-.
Du0Pla Dadphises, the H#eh2chih chief, con&uered northern India in the 1st century /*. )e was
succeeded .y his son ANa, after who cae Danis @%a, the ost powerful aong the Dus @En@a
%ings, as the dynasty cae to .e called. The date of Danis @%aFs accession is controversial, ranging
fro :7 to ,<7. The generally accepted date of :7 is also the .asis for an era presua.ly started
.y the Ga%as and used in addition to the Gregorian calendar .y the present Indian governent=
the era, possi.ly coeorating Danis @%aFs accession, was widely used in !Elava, K00ain,
+epal, and Central /sia. The Dus @En@a %ingdo was essentially oriented to the north, with its
capital at Purus @apura 3near odern PeshEwar8, although it e"tended southward as far as $ERcN
and into the Ganges Aalley as far as AErEnasi. !athurE was the ost iportant city in the
southern part of the %ingdo. Danis @%aFs a.itions included control of Central /sia, which, if
not directly under the Dus @En@as, did coe under their influence. The recently discovered
inscriptions fro Gilgit further attest such Central /sian connections. Danis @%aFs successors
failed to aintain Dus @En@a power. The southern areas were the first to .rea% away, and, .y the
iddle of the 4rd century, the Dus @En@as were left virtually with only GandhEra and Dashir. 'y
the end of the century, they were reduced to vassalage .y the $EsEnian %ing of Persia.
+ot surprisingly, adinistrative and political noenclature in northern India at this tie
reflected that of western and Central /sia. The Persian ter for the governor of a province,
khshathrapava, as used .y the /chaeenians, was )ellenized into IsatrapJ and widely used .y
these dynasties. Its $ans%rit for was ks atrapa. The governors of higher status cae to .e called
mah-ks atrapa= they fre&uently issued inscriptions reflecting whatever era they chose to follow,
and they inted their own coins, indicating a ore independent status than is generally
associated with governors. Iperial titles also were ta%en .y the Indo2Gree%s, such as basileus
basile% 3I%ing of %ingsJ8, siilar to the Persian shhashh, of which the later $ans%rit for
was mahr&hirja. / title of Central /sian derivation was the aivaputra of the Dus @En@as,
which is .elieved to have coe originally fro the Chinese Ison of heaven,J ephasizing the
divinity of %ingship.

6li'archie( and 2in'dom(
1ccupying the watershed .etween the Indus and Ganges valleys, Pun0a. and ;E0asthEn were the
nucleus of a nu.er of oligarchies, or tri.al repu.lics whose local iportance rose and fell in
inverse proportion to the rise and fall of larger %ingdos. /ccording to nuisatic evidence, the
ost iportant politically were the /ud @a.aras, Qr0unEyanas, !Elavas, Haudheyas, Gi.is,
Dun@indas, Trigartas, and Q.hNras. The Qr0unEyanas had their .ase in the present 'haratpur2
/lwar region. The !Elavas appear to have igrated fro the Pun0a. to the (aipur area, perhaps
after the Indo2Gree% invasions= they are associated with the !Elava era, which has .een
identified with the Ai%raa era, also %nown as the Dr @ta era and dating to 57 'C. It is li%ely that
southern ;E0asthEn as far as the +arada ;iver and the K00ain district was naed !Elwa after
the !Elavas. Haudheya evidence is scattered over any parts of the Pun0a. and the ad0oining
areas of ;E0asthEn and Kttar Pradesh, .ut during this period their stronghold appears to have
.een the ;ohta% district, north of *elhi= the fre&uent use of the ter ga a 3IgroupJ8 on
Haudheya coins indicates an adherence to the tri.al tradition. ;eferences to Gaivite deities,
especially DErtti%eya or $%anda, the legendary son of Giva, are stri%ing. The Gi.is also igrated
fro the Pun0a. to ;E0asthEn and settled at !Edhyai%a 3near Chitor, odern Chittaugarh8.
Coins of the Dun@indas locate the in the $hiwEli% )ills .etween the Hauna and the 'eEs
rivers. The Trigartas have .een associated with the Cha.a region of the upper ;Evi ;iver, .ut
they also ay have inha.ited the area of (Elandhava in the plains. The Q.hNras lived in scattered
settleents in various parts of western and central India as far as the *eccan. !ost of these
tri.es claied descent fro the ancient lineages of the 'ur as, and soe of the were later
connected with the rise of ;E0pPt dynasties.
In addition to the oligarchies, there were sall onarchical states, such as /yodhya, DauLE.N,
and the scattered +Ega %ingdos, the ost iportant of which was the one at PadEvatN
3Gwalior8. /hicchatrE 3the 'areilly district of Kttar Pradesh8 was ruled .y %ings who .ore naes
ending in the suffi" -mitra.

The 7, 'a 2in'dom
!agadha was the nucleus of the Gu ga %ingdo, which succeeded the !auryan. The %ingdo
e"tended westward to include K00ain and AidiLE. The Gu gas cae into conflict with Aidar.ha
and with the Havanas, who pro.a.ly were 'actrian Gree%s attepting to ove into the Ganges
Aalley. 3The word yavaa derives fro the PrE%rit yo, suggesting that the Ionians were the
first Gree%s with who the Persians and Indians cae into contact. In later centuries the nae
Havana was applied to all peoples coing fro western /sia and the !editerranean, which
included the ;oans, Persians, and /ra.s8. The Gu ga dynasty lasted for a.out one century and
was then overthrown .y the 'rahan inister AEsudeva, who founded the DEn @va dynasty,
which lasted <5 years and following which the !agadha area faded out of iportance until the
<th century /*.

8ali 'a
Dali ga rose to proinence under DhEravela, dated with soe controversy to the 1st century 'C.
DhEravela .oasts, perhaps e"aggeratedly for a pious (aina, of successful capaigns in the
western *eccan and against the Havanas and !agadha and of a triuphal victory over the
PEn@d @yas of $outh India.

The Andhra( and their (,cce((or(
The /ndhras are listed aong the tri.al peoples in the !auryan epire. Possi.ly they rose to
.eing local officials and then, on the disintegration of the epire, gradually .ecae independent
rulers of the northwestern *eccan. It cannot .e ascertained for certain whether the /ndhras arose
in the /ndhra region 3i.e., the Drishna2GodEvari deltas8 and oved up to the northwestern
*eccan or whether their settling in the delta gave it their nae. There is also controversy as to
whether the dynasty .ecae independent at the end of the 4rd century 'C or at the end of the 1st
century 'C. Their alternative nae, $EtavEhana, is presued to .e the faily nae, whereas
/ndhra was pro.a.ly that of the tri.e. It is li%ely that $EtavEhana power was esta.lished during
the reign of GEta%arn@i I, with the .orders of the %ingdo reaching across the northern *eccan=
su.se&uent to this the $EtavEhanas suffered an eclipse in the 1st century /*, when they were
forced out of the northern *eccan .y the Ga%as and settled in /ndhra. In the ,nd century /*, the
$EtavEhanas reesta.lished their power in the northwestern *eccan, as evidenced .y Ga%a coins
fro this region overstruc% with the nae GautaNputra GEta%arn @i. That the /ndhras did not
control !Elava and K00ain is clear fro the clai of the Ga%a %ing ;udradEan to these regions.
The last of the iportant /ndhra %ings was Ha0RaLrN GEta%arn@i, who ruled at the end of the ,nd
century /* and asserted his authority over the Ga%as. The 4rd century saw the decline of
$EtavEhana power, as the %ingdo .ro%e into sall poc%ets of control under various .ranches of
the faily.
The $EtavEhana feudatories then rose to power. The Q.hNras were the successors in the +Eshi%
area. The I%s @ vE%us succeeded in the Drishna2GuntPr region. The CPtP dynasty in Dun @t @ala
3southern !ahErEshtra8 had had close connections with the $EtavEhanas. The 'odhis ruled
.riefly in the northwestern *eccan. The 'r @hatphalEyanas cae to power at the end of the 4rd
century in the !asulipata area. In these regions the $EtavEhana pattern of adinistration
continued= any of the rulers had atronyics 3naes derived fro that of the other or a
aternal ancestor8= any of the royal inscriptions record donations ade to 'uddhist on%s and
onasteries, often .y princesses, and also land grants to 'rahans and the perforance of Aedic
sacrifices .y the rulers.

9o,thern Indian 2in'dom(

3Ceft8 India c. 5-- 'C and 3right8 /Lo%aFs epire at its greatest e"tent, c. ,5- 'C.
$ignificant, historically attested contact .etween the north and the Tail regions can .e
reasona.ly dated to the !auryan Period. Evidence on the early history of the south consists of
the epigraphs of the region, the Tail ca kam literature, and archaeological data.
Inscriptions in 'rEhN 3recently read as Tail 'rEhN8 date to .etween the ,nd century 'C and
the <th century /*. !ost of the inscriptions record donations ade .y royalty or .y erchants
and artisans to 'uddhist and (aina on%s. These are useful in corro.orating evidence fro the
ca kam literature, a collection of a large nu.er of poes in classical Tail, that, according to
tradition, were recited at three asse.lies of poets held at !adurai. Included in this literature are
the so2called Eight /nthologies 3(t t utogai8 and Ten Idylls 3'attuppt t u8. The graatical wor%
)olkppiyam also is said to .e of the sae period. The literature pro.a.ly .elongs to the sae
period as the inscriptions, although soe scholars suggest an earlier date. The historical
authenticity of sections of the ca kam literature has .een confired .y archaeological evidence.
TailE%a, the a.ode of the Tails, was defined in ca kam literature as appro"iately
e&uivalent to the area south of odern !adras. TailE%a was divided into 14 us 3districts8,
of which the region of !adurai was the ost iportant as the core of the Tail spea%ers. The
three a0or chiefdos of TailE%a were those of the PEn@d @yas3!adurai8, the CTras 3Cheras=
!ala.Er Coast and the hinterland8, and the Col @as3Cholas= Than0EvPr and the DEverN valley8. The
inscriptions of the PEn@d @yas, recording royal grants and other grants ade .y local citizens, date
to the ,nd century 'C. The chief +eduR0eliya 3early 4rd century /*8 is cele.rated .y the poets
of the ca kam as the victor in capaigns against the CTras and the Col @as. CTra inscriptions of
the ,nd century /* referring to the Irruporai clan have .een found near DarPr 3TiruchchirEpalli
district8, identified with the Dorura of Ptoley. *a kam literature entions the naes of CTra
chiefs who have .een dated to the 1st century /*. /ong the, +edun0Tral Qdan is said to have
attac%ed the Havana ships and held the Havana traders to ranso. )is son Gengut @t @uvan, uch
eulogized in the poes, also is entioned in the conte"t of Ga0a.EhuFs rule in $ri Can%a, which
can .e dated to either the first or last &uarter of the ,nd century /*, depending on whether he
was the earlier or the later Ga0a.Ehu. Dari%Ela 3late ,nd century /*8 is the .est %nown of the
early Col @a chiefs and was to .ecoe alost a %ind of eponyous ancestor to any failies of
the south claiing Col @a descent. The early capital was at KraiyPr, in an area that stretched fro
the Aaigai ;iver in the south to Ton @d @aian@d @ala in the north. The three chiefdos were
fre&uently at war= in addition there were often hostilities with $ri Can%a. !ention is also ade of
the ruler of Ton@d @aian@d @ala with its capital at DEnchipura. There is also fre&uent ention of
the inor chieftains, the Ael, who ruled sall areas in any parts of the Tail country.
Kltiately all the chiefdos suffered at the hands of the DalvEr, or Dala.ras, who cae fro the
.order to the north of TailE%a and were descri.ed as evil rulers, .ut they were overthrown in
the 5th century /*, with the rise of the CElu%yas 3Chalu%yas8 and Pallavas.
*a kam literature reflects the indigenous cultural tradition as well as eleents of the intrusion of
the northern $ans%ritic tradition, which .y now was .eginning to coe into contact with these
areas, soe of which were in the process of change fro chiefdos to %ingdos. In poes
praising the chiefs, herois in raids and gift2giving are hailed as the ain virtues. The
predoinant econoy reained pastoral2cu2agrarian, with an increasing ephasis on
agriculture. The Tail poes divide the land into five ecological zones, or tiais. /ong the
poes that a%e reference to social stratification, one uses the word kui 3IgroupJ8 to denote
caste. Each village had its sabh, or council, for adinistering local affairs, an institution that
was to reain a fi"ture of village life. ;eligious o.servance consisted priarily in conducting
sacrifices to various deities, aong who !urugan@ was preeinent.
Trade with the Havanas and with the northern parts of the su.continent provided considera.le
econoic oentu for the $outh Indian states. Given the terrain of the peninsula and the
agricultural technology of the tie, large agrarian2.ased %ingdos li%e those of northern India
were not feasi.le, although the cultivation of rice provided a .ase for econoic change.
Inevita.ly, trade played ore than a arginal role, and overseas trade .ecae a a0or econoic
activity. /lost as soon as the ;oan trade .egan to decline, the $outheast /sian trade
coenced= in su.se&uent centuries this .ecae the focus of aritie interest.

Contact( :ith the ;e(t
$ources fro the 1st illenniu 'C often ention trade .etween western /sia and the western
coast of India. )e.rew te"ts refer to the port of 1phir, soeties identified with $opEra, on the
west coast. 'a.ylonian .uilders used Indian tea% and cedar in the :th and Bth centuries 'C. The
'uddhist +taka literature entions trade with 'averu 3'a.ylon8. /fter the decline of 'a.ylon,
/ra. erchants fro southern /ra.ia apparently continued the trade, pro.a.ly supplying goods
to Egypt and the eastern !editerranean. The discovery of the regular seasonal onsoon winds,
ena.ling ships to drive a straight course across the /ra.ian $ea, ade a considera.le difference
to shipping and navigation on the route fro western /sia to India. Knification of the
!editerranean and western /sian world at the turn of the Christian era under the ;oan Epire
.rought ;oan trade into close contact with India9overland with northern India and .y sea
with peninsular India. The eperor /ugustus received two e.assies9alost certainly trade
issions9fro India in ,56,1 'C.
The 'eriplus Maris (rythraei 3ICircunavigation of the Erythrean Wi.e., ;edX $eaJ8, an
anonyous Gree% travel .oo% written in the 1st century /*, lists a series of ports along the
Indian coast, including !uziris 3Cranganore8, Colchi 3Dor @%ai8, Poduca, and $opata. /n
e"cavation at /ri%aedu 3near Pondicherry8 revealed a ;oan trading settleent of this period,
and elsewhere, too, the presence of ;oan pottery, .eads, intaglios, laps, glass, and coins point
to a continuous occupation, resulting even in iitations of soe ;oan ites. It would see
that te"tiles were prepared to ;oan specification and e"ported fro such settleents. Graffiti
on pottery found at a port in the ;ed $ea indicates the presence of Indian traders.
Carge hoards of ;oan coins su.stantiate other evidence. The coins are ainly of the eperors
/ugustus 3ruled ,: 'C6/* 1<8, Ti.erius 3ruled 1<64:8, and +ero 3ruled 5<6B78. Their fre&uency
suggests that the ;oans paid for the trade in gold coins. !any are overstruc% with a .ar, which
ay indicate that they were used as .ullion in India= certainly, Pliny coplained that the Indian
lu"ury trade was depleting the ;oan treasury. The coins are found ost often in trading centres
or near the sources of seiprecious stones, especially &uartz and .eryl. *a kam literature attests
the prosperity of Havana erchants trading in towns such as DEvTripat @t @ina 3in the DEverN
delta8. The 'eriplus lists the a0or e"ports of India as pepper, precious stones, pearls, tortoise
shells, ivory, spi%enard and ala.athru 3aroatic plants8, and sil% and other te"tiles. >or these
the ;oans traded glass, copper, tin, lead, realgar 3a red pigent8, orpient 3a gold pigent8,
antiony, and wine, or else they paid in gold coins.
The aritie trade routes fro the Indian ports were priarily to the Persian Gulf and the ;ed
$ea, fro where they went overland to the eastern !editerranean and to Egypt, .ut Indian
erchants also ventured out to $outheast /sia see%ing spices and seiprecious stones. ;iver
valleys and the !auryan roads were the chief routes within India. Gree% sources refer to a royal
highway .uilt .y the !auryas, connecting Ta"ila with PEt @aliputra and terinating at TEraliptN,
the ain port in the Ganges delta. 1n the western coast the a0or port of 'hr @gu%accha 3odern
'harPch8 was connected with the Ganges Aalley via ;E0asthEn or, alternatively, K00ain. >ro the
+arada valley there were routes going into the northwestern *eccan and continuing along
rivers flowing eastward to various parts of the peninsula. Goods were transported ainly in
caravans of o"en and don%eys, .ut only in the dry seasons, the rains creating ipossi.le
conditions for travel. Coastal and river shipping was clearly cheaper than overland transport. The
ain northern route connected Ta"ila with Da.ul and VandahEr and fro there .ranched off in
various directions, ainly lin%ing up with routes across Persia to the 'lac% $ea ports and the
eastern !editerranean. The route connecting China with 'actria via Central /sia, which would
shortly .ecoe faous as the $il% ;oad, lin%ed the oases of Dashgar, Har%and, Dhotan, !iran,
Ducha, Darashahr, and Turfan, in all of which Indian erchants esta.lished trading stations. The
Central /sian route .rought Chinese goods in large &uantities into the Indian and west /sian
ar%ets. It is thought that the prosperity resulting fro this trade ena.led the Dus @Enas to issue
the first Indian gold coins. /nother conse&uence was the popularity of horseanship.

9ociety and c,lt,re
The coercial econoy played a central role during this period. Circuits of e"change
developed at various levels aong groups throughout the su.continent. In soe regions these
patterns e"tended to e"ternal trade. /grarian e"pansion was not arrested, and land revenue
continued to .e a a0or source of incoe, .ut profit fro trade ade a su.stantial difference to
the ur.an econoy, noticea.ly iproving the standard of living and registering a growth in the
nu.er and size of towns.

/,ild(
The social institution ost closely related to coercial activity was the re i, or guild, through
which trade was channeled. The guilds were registered with the town authority, and the activities
of guild e.ers followed strict guidelines called the rei-harma. The ore wealthy guilds
eployed slaves and hired la.ourers in addition to their own artisans, though the percentage of
such slaves appears to have .een sall. Guilds had their own seals and insignia. They often
ade lavish donations to 'uddhist and (aina onasteries, and soe of the finest 'uddhist
onuents of the period resulted fro such patronage. In soe areas, such as the *eccan,
e.ers of the royal faily invested oney with a particular guild, and the accruing interest
.ecae a regular donation to the 'uddhist sa gha . This ust also have enhanced the political
prestige of the guild.

3inance
Increasing reliance on oney in coerce greatly augented the role of the financier and
.an%er. $oeties the wealthier guilds offered financial services, .ut the ore usual source of
oney was the erchant financier 3res t hi8. Coinage proliferated in the various %ingdos, and
inting attained a high level of craftsanship. The ost widely used coins were the gold
"ras and suvar as, .ased on the ;oan denarius 31,< grains8= a range of silver coins, such as
the earlier krs pa a 3or pa a= 5:.7 grains8 and the atama= an even wider range of copper
coins, such as the msa 39 grains8, kka i 3,.,5 grains8, and a variety of unspecified standards=
and other coins issued in lead and potin, particularly in western India. Ksury was an accepted
part of the .an%erFs trade, with 15 percent .eing the typical interest rate, although this varied
according to the enterprise for which the oney was .orrowed. E"panding trade also introduced
a ultiplicity of weights and easures.

Impact of trade
>oreign trade pro.a.ly had its greatest econoic ipact in the south, .ut the interchange of ideas
appears to have .een ore su.stantial in the north. This latter effect ay have .een attri.uta.le
to the northFs longer association with western /sia and the colonial )ellenic culture. Gree%,
along with /raaic, was widely spo%en in /fghanistan and was dou.tless understood in Ta"ila.
The spurt of geographic studies in the !editerranean produced wor%s with e"tensive descriptions
of the trade with India= these included $tra.oFs ,eography, PtoleyFs ,eography, PlinyFs
#atural -istory, and the 'eriplus Maris (rythraei. The ost o.vious and visi.le ipact
occurred in GandhEra art, which depicted Indian thees influenced .y )ellenistic and ;oan
styles, an attractive hy.rid that influenced the developent of 'uddhist iconography. The ore
prized aong o.0ects were the ivory carvings that reached /fghanistan fro Central India.

-eli'io,( patrona'e
If art reains are an inde" to patronage, then 'uddhis sees to have .een the ost favoured
religion, followed .y Gaivis and the 'hEgavata cult. 'uddhist centres generally coprised a
cople" of three structures9the onastery 3vihra8, the hall of worship 3caitya8, and the sacred
tuulus 3stpa89all of which were freestanding structures in the north .ut were initially roc%2
cut onuents in the *eccan. The (ainas found ore patrons in the *eccan. Citerary sources of
the period ention )indu teples, .ut none of copara.le anti&uity have .een found. /part
fro the GandhEra style of sculpture, a nu.er of indigenous centres in other parts of India,
such as !athurE, DErlN, +EgEr0una%on @d @a, and /arEvati, portrayed 'uddhist legends in a
variety of local stones. The ore popular ediu was terra2cotta, .y then changed fro gray to
red, depicting not only ordinary en and woen and anial figures .ut also large nu.ers of
other goddesses, indicating the continued popular worship of these deities.
The practice of 'uddhis was itself undergoing change. /ffluent patronage endowed the large
onasteries with land and slaves. /ssociation with royalty gave 'uddhis access to power.
Knder the proselytizing consciousness that had gradually evolved, 'uddhist on%s traveled as
issionaries to Central /sia and China, western /sia, and $outheast /sia. +ew situations
inevita.ly led to the need for new ideas, as is ost clearly seen in the contact of 'uddhis with
Christianity and Yoroastrianis in Central /sia. /rguents over the original teaching of the
'uddha had already resulted in a series of councils called to clarify the doctrine. The two ain
sects were the TheravEda, centred at DauLE.N, which copiled the PEli canon on 'uddhist
teachings, and the $arvEstivE a , which arose at !athurE, spread northward, and finally
esta.lished itself in Central /sia, using $ans%rit as the language for preserving the 'uddhist
tradition. / fourth council, held in Dashir during the reign of Danis @%a, ratified the separation
of the two ain schools of 'uddhis9the !ahEyEna 3Greater Aehicle8 and the )NnayEna
3Cesser Aehicle8. The ipressive doinance of 'uddhis did not arise without hostility fro the
patrons of other religions.
(ainis had .y now also split into two groups9the *iga.ara 3$%y2Clad9i.e., na%ed8, the
ore orthodo", and the GvetE.ara 3?hite2Clad8, the ore li.eral. The (ainas were not as
widespread as the 'uddhists, their ain centres .eing in western India, Dali ga for a .rief
period, and the !ysore 3odern DarnEta%a8 and Tail country.
'rahanis also underwent changes with the gradual fading out of soe of the Aedic deities.
The two a0or gods were Aishnu 3Ais @n@u8 and Giva, around who there eerged a onotheistic
trend perhaps .est e"pressed in the Aais @n@ava 'hagavadgNtE, which ost authorities would date to
the 1st century 'C. The doctrine of %ara and re.irth, ephasizing the influence of actions
perfored either in this life or in forer lives on present and future lives, .ecae central to
)indu .elief and influenced .oth religious and social notions. Aedic sacrifices were not
discontinued .ut gradually .ecae sy.ols of such cereonial occasions as royal consecrations.
$acrificial ritual was .eginning to .e replaced .y the practice of .ha%ti, a for of personal
devotion where.y the worshiper shares in the grace of the deity.

"iterat,re
Popular epics, such as the Mahbhrata and the Rmya a, were in0ected with didactic sections
on religion and orality and elevated to the status of sacred literature. Their heroes, Drishna
3Dr @ s @n@a8 and ;Ea, were incorporated into Aais @n@avis as avatars 3avatras= incarnations8 of
Aishnu. The concept of incarnations was useful in su.suing local deities and cults.
The epics also served as a treasury of stories, which provided thees and characters for countless
poes and plays. The wor%s of the draatist 'hEsa, nota.ly .vapavsavaatta and
'ratijyaugaharya a, were foundational to the $ans%rit draa. /Lvaghos @a, another a0or
draatist who wrote in $ans%rit, .ased his wor%s on 'uddhist thees. The popularity of draa
necessitated the writing of a wor% on draaturgy, the #t ya-stra 3ITreatise on *raatic /rtJ8
of the sage2priest 'harata. The coposition of Dharma-stras 3treatises on sacred duties8,
aong which the ost often &uoted is ascri.ed to !anu, .ecae iportant in a period of social
flu" in which traditional social law and usage were iportant as precedent. / coentary on the
earlier $ans%rit graar of PEn@ini was provided .y the Mahbhs ya of PataR0ali, tiely .ecause
even the non2Indian dynasties of the north and west ade e"tensive use of $ans%rit. 1f the
sciences, astronoy and edicine were foreost, .oth reflecting the interchange of ideas with
western /sia. Two .asic edical treatises, coposed .y Cara%a and $uLruta, date to this period.

A((imilation of forei'ner(
The presence of foreigners, ost of who settled in Indian cities and adopted Indian ha.its and
.ehaviour in addition to religion, .ecae a pro.le for social theorists .ecause the newcoers
had to .e fitted into caste society. It was easier to accoodate a group rather than an individual
into the social hierarchy, .ecause the group could .e given a jti status. Technically, conversion
to )induis was difficult .ecause one had to .e .orn into a particular caste, and it was %ara
that deterined oneFs caste. The theoretical definition of caste society continued as .efore, and
the four var as were referred to as the units of society. The assiilation of local cults deanded
the assiilation of cult priests, who had to .e accoodated within the 'rahanic hierarchy.
The Gree%s and the Ga%as, clearly of non2Indian origin and initially the ruling group, were
referred to as Ifallen Ds @atriyas.J The AaiLya and GPdra groups did not pose such a serious
pro.le, .ecause their vague definition gave the social o.ility. It is li%ely that in such
periods of social change soe lower2caste groups ay have oved up the ladder of social
hierarchy.

AD 500<50
=orthern India
The /,pta(

The Gupta epire at the end of the <th century.
)istorians once regarded the Gupta Period 3c. 4,-65<-8 as the Classical /ge of India, the period
during which the nors of Indian literature, art, architecture, and philosophy were esta.lished. It
was also thought to have .een an age of aterial prosperity, particularly aong the ur.an elite,
and of renascent )induis. $oe of these assuptions have .een &uestioned .y ore e"tensive
studies of the post2!auryan, pre2Gupta period. /rchaeological evidence fro the earlier Dus @En@a
levels suggests greater aterial prosperity, to such a degree that soe historians argue for an
ur.an decline in the Gupta Period. !uch of Gupta literature and art derived fro that of earlier
periods, and renascent )induis is pro.a.ly ore correctly dated to the post2Gupta tie. The
Gupta real, although less e"tensive than that of the !auryas, did encopass the northern half
and central parts of the su.continent. The Gupta Period also has .een called an iperial age, .ut
the adinistrative centralization so characteristic of an iperial syste is less apparent than
during the !auryan Period.
The Guptas, a coparatively un%nown faily, cae fro either !agadha or eastern Kttar
Pradesh. The third %ing, Candra Gupta I 3Chandragupta I8, too% the title of mahrjhirja. )e
arried a Cicchavi princess9an event cele.rated in a series of gold coins. It has .een suggested
that, if the Guptas ruled in PrayEga 3odern /llahE.Ed in eastern Kttar Pradesh8, the arriage
alliance ay have added !agadha to their doain. The Gupta era .egan in 4,-, .ut it is not
clear whether this date coeorated the accession of Candra Gupta or the assuption of the
status of independence.
Candra Gupta appointed his son $audra Gupta to succeed hi a.out 44-, according to a long
eulogy to $audra Gupta inscri.ed on a pillar at /llahE.Ed. The coins of an o.scure prince,
DEcha, suggest that there ay have .een contenders for the throne. $audra GuptaFs capaigns
too% hi in various directions and resulted in any con&uests. +ot all the con&uered regions
were anne"ed, .ut the range of operations esta.lished the ilitary prowess of the Guptas.
$audra Gupta ac&uired PEt @aliputra, which was to .ecoe the Gupta capital. Proceeding down
the eastern coast, he also con&uered the states of *a%s @inapatha .ut reinstated the van&uished
rulers.
/ong those he rendered su.servient were the rulers of QryEvarta, various forest chiefs, the
northern oligarchies, and .order states in the east, in addition to +epal. !ore distant doains
.rought within $audra GuptaFs or.it were regarded as su.ordinate= these coprised the I%ing
of %ingsJ of the northwest, the Ga%as, the !urun @d @as, and the inha.itants of Iall the islands,J
including $inhala 3$ri Can%a8, all of which are listed in the inscription at /llahE.E . It would
see that the capaign e"tended Gupta power in northern and eastern India and virtually
eliinated the oligarchies and the inor %ings of central India and the Ganges Aalley. The
identity of the islands reains pro.leatic, as they could either have .een the ones close to
India or those of $outheast /sia, with which counication had increased. The Ganges Aalley
and central India were the areas under direct adinistrative control. The capaign in the eastern
coastal areas ay have .een propted .y the desire to ac&uire the trading wealth of these
regions. The gri iage of $audra Gupta as a ilitary con&ueror is aeliorated, however, .y
references to his love of poetry and .y coins on which he is depicted playing the lyre.
$audra Gupta was succeeded a.out 47- .y his son Candra Gupta II, though there is soe
evidence that there ay have .een an interediate ruler. Candra Gupta IIFs a0or capaign was
against the Ga%a rulers of K00ain, the success of which was cele.rated in a series of silver coins.
Gupta interest lay not erely in the political control of the west .ut in the wealth the area derived
fro trade with western and southeastern /sia. Gupta territory ad0oining the northern *eccan
was secured through a arriage alliance with the AE%Et @a%a dynasty, the successors of the
$EtavEhanas in the area. /lthough Candra Gupta II too% the title of Ai%raEditya 3$un of
Aalour8, his reign is associated ore with cultural and intellectual achieveents than with
ilitary capaigns. )is Chinese conteporary, >a2hsien, a 'uddhist on%, traveled in India
and left an account of his ipressions.
/dinistratively, the Gupta %ingdo was divided into provinces called ea or bhukti, and these
in turn into saller units, the praea or vis aya. The provinces were governed .y kumrmtyas,
high iperial officers or e.ers of the royal faily. / decentralization of authority is evident
fro the coposition of the unicipal .oard 3ahis t ha-ahikara a8, which consisted of the
guild president 3agara-res t hi8, the chief erchant 3srthavha8, and representatives of the
artisans and of the scri.es. *uring this period the ter smata, which originally eant
neigh.our, was .eginning to .e applied to interediaries who had .een given grants of land or to
con&uered feudatory rulers. There was also a noticea.le tendency for soe of the higher
adinistrative offices to .ecoe hereditary. The lac% of fir control over con&uered areas led to
their resuing independence. The repeated ilitary action that this necessitated ay have
strained the %ingdoFs resources.
The first hint of a fresh invasion fro the northwest coes in the reign of Candra GuptaFs son
and successor, DuEra Gupta 3c. <156<558. The threat was that of the )uns, or )Pn@as as they are
called in Indian sources, a .ranch of the )ephthalites. $%anda Gupta 3c. <556<B:8, who
succeeded DuEra Gupta, and his successors all had to face the full2fledged invasion of the
)Pn@as. $%anda Gupta anaged to rally Gupta strength for a while, .ut after his death the
situation deteriorated. *issensions within the royal faily added to the pro.le. Gupta
genealogies of this period show considera.le variance in their succession lists. 'y the id2Bth
century, when the dynasty apparently cae to an end, the %ingdo had dwindled to a sall size.
+orthern India and parts of central India were in the hands of the )Pn@as.
The first )Pn@a %ing in India was ToraEn@a 3early Bth century8, whose inscriptions have .een
found as far south as Eran 3!adhya Pradesh8. )is son !ihNra%ula, a patron of Gaivis, is
recorded in 'uddhist tradition as uncouth and e"treely cruel. The Gupta rulers, together with
HaLodharan of !Elava, see to have confronted !ihNra%ula and forced hi .ac% to the north.
Kltiately his %ingdo was liited to Dashir and Pun0a. with its capital at GE%ala 3$iEl%ot8.
)Pn@a power declined after his reign.
The coing of the )Pn@as .rought northern India once ore into close contact with Central /sia,
and a nu.er of Central /sian tri.es igrated into India. It has .een suggested that the
Gur0aras, who gradually spread to various parts of northern India, ay .e identified with the
Dhazars of Central /sia. The )Pn @a invasion challenged the sta.ility of the Gupta %ingdo, even
though the ultiate decline ay have .een caused .y internal factors. / severe .low was the
resultant disruption of the Central /sian trade and the decline in the incoe that northern India
had derived fro it. $oe of the north Indian tri.es igrated to other regions, and this
oveent of peoples effected changes in the social structure of the Post2Gupta Period. The rise
of ;E0pPt failies and IDs @atriyaJ dynasties 3see .elow The ;E0pPts8 are associated .y soe
scholars with tri.al chiefs in these new areas.

9,cce((or (tate(
1f the %ingdos that arose as inheritors of the Gupta territory, the ost iportant were those of
Aala.hN 3$aurEs @t @ra and DEthiEwEr8= Gu0arEta 3originally the area near (odhpur8, .elieved to .e the
nucleus of the later PratihEra %ingdo= +andipurN 3near 'harPch8= !au%hari 3!agadha8= the
%ingdo of the later Guptas 3in the area .etween !Elava and !agadha8= and those of 'engal,
+epal, and DEarPpa 3in the /ssa Aalley8. 1rissa 3Don@goda8 was under the !En @a and
Gailod.hava dynasties .efore .eing con&uered .y GaLE %a , %ing of Gaud @a 3lower 'engal8. In the
early :th century, GaLE %a anne"ed a su.stantial part of the Ganges Aalley, where he cae into
conflict with the !au%haris and the rising Pus @pa.hPti dynasty of ThEnesar 3north of *elhi8.
The Pus @ pa.hPti dynasty aspired to iperial status during the reign of )ars @ a 3)ars @avardhana8.
$thEn@vNLvara 3ThEnesar8 appears to have .een a sall principality, pro.a.ly under the suzerainty
of the Guptas. )ars @a cae to the throne in B-B and ruled for <1 years. The first of the a0or
historical .iographies in $ans%rit, the -ars acarita 3I*eeds of )ars @aJ8, was written .y 'En@a, a
cele.rated author attached to his court, and contains inforation on )ars @aFs early life. / fuller
account of the period is given .y the Chinese 'uddhist pilgri )s#an2tsang, who traveled
through India and stayed for soe tie at a onastery at +ElandE. )ars @a ac&uired Dannau0 3in
>arru%hE.Ed district8, which .ecae the eponyous capital of his large %ingdo. )e waged a
a0or .ut unsuccessful capaign against Pula%eLin II, the CElu%ya %ing of the northern *eccan,
and was confined to the northern half of the su.continent. +or was his success spectacular in
western India against Aala.hl, +andipurl, and $indh 3lower Indus Aalley8. In his eastern
capaign, however, )ars @a et with little resistance 3GaLE %a having died in B4B8 and ac&uired
!agadha, Aa ga, and Don @goda 31rissa8. )is alliance with 'hEs%aravaran of DEarPpa
3/ssa8 proved helpful. /lthough )ars @a failed to .uild an epire, his %ingdo was of no ean
size, and he earned the reputation of .eing the preeinent ruler of the north. )e is ree.ered
as the author of three $ans%rit plays9Ratvall, 'riyaarik, and #gaa9the thee of
the last indicating his interest in 'uddhist thought. The TFang eperor of China, TFai Tsung, sent
a series of e.assies to )ars @a, esta.lishing closer ties .etween the two reals. /fter the death of
)ars @ a, the %ingdo of Dannau0 entered a period of decline until the early 7th century, when it
revived with the rise of HaLovaran, who is eulogized in the PrE%rit poe ,au a-vaha 3IThe
$laying of Wthe Ding ofX Gaud @aJ8 of AE%pati. HaLovaran cae into conflict with CalitEditya,
the %ing of Dashir of the Dar%ot @a dynasty, and appears to have .een defeated.
In the 7th century the rising power in western India was that of the Gur0ara2PratihEra. The
;E0pPt dynasty of the Guhilla had its centre in !ewEr 3with Chitor as its .ase8. The CEpa faily
were associated with the city of /n @ahilapEt @a%a 3odern PEtan8 and are involved in early ;E0pPt
history. In the )aryEna region, the Toara ;E0pPts, originally feudatories of the Gur0ara2
PratihEras, founded the city of *hilli%E 3*elhi8 in :4B. The political pattern of this tie reveals
the genesis of regionalis and of new political and econoic structures.
In the early 7th century, a new power .ase was esta.lished .riefly with the arrival of the /ra.s in
$indh. Inscriptions of the western Indian dynasties spea% of controlling the tide of the mleccha,
which has .een interpreted in this case to ean the /ra.s= soe Indian sources use the ter
yavaa. The con&uest of $indh ar%ed the easternost e"tent of /ra. territorial control. / local
chronicle fro $indh, the *hach-ma, gives an account of these events. The initial naval
e"pedition et with failure, so the /ra.s conducted an overland capaign. The /ra. hold on
$indh was loose at first, and the local chiefs reained virtually independent, .ut .y :,< the
invaders had esta.lished direct rule, with a governor representing the caliph. /ra. attepts to
advance into Pun0a. and Dashir, however, were chec%ed. The Indians did not fully
coprehend the agnitude of /ra. political and econoic a.itions. /long the west coast, the
/ra.s were seen as failiar traders fro western /sia. The possi.le copetition with Indian
trade was not realized.

The Deccan

The Gupta epire at the end of the <th century.
In the *eccan, the AE%Et @a%adynasty was closely tied to the Guptas. ?ith a nucleus in Aidar.ha,
the founder of the dynasty, AindhyaLa%ti, e"tended his power northward as far as AidiLE 3near
K00ain8. /t the end of the <th century, a collateral line of the AE%Et @a%as was esta.lished .y
$arvasena in Aatsagula 3'Esi, in /%ola district8, and the northern line helped the southern to
con&uer Dun@t @ala 3southern !ahErEshtra8. The doination of the northern *eccan .y the ain
AE%Et @a%a line during this period is clearly esta.lished .y the atrionial alliances not only with
the Guptas .ut also with other peninsular dynasties such as the Ais @n@u%un@d @ins and the
DEda.as. The AE%Et @a%as were wea%ened .y attac%s fro !Elava and DoLala in the 5th
century. Kltiately, the CElu%yas of AEt @Epi 3'EdEi8 ended their rule.
1f the yriad ruling failies of the *eccan .etween the <th and :th centuries9including the
+alas, the Dalacuris, the Ga gas, and the DEda.as9the ost significant were the CElu%yas
3Chalu%yas8, who are associated with AEt @Epi 3'N0Epur district8 in the Bth century /*. The
CElu%yas controlled large parts of the *eccan for two centuries. There were any .ranches of
the faily, the ost iportant of which were the Eastern CElu%yas, ruling at Pis @ t @apura
3PithEpura in the GodEvari delta8 in the early :th century= the CElu%yas of Aeulavada 3near
DarNnagar, /ndhra Pradesh8= and the renascent later CElu%yas of DalyEn@N 3.etween the 'hNa
and GodEvari rivers8, who rose to power in the 1-th century. CElu%ya power reached its zenith
during the reign of Pula%eLin II 3B1-6B<,8, a conteporary of )ars @a 3see a.ove $uccessor
states8. The early years of Pula%eLinFs reign were ta%en up with a civil war, after which he had to
recon&uer lost territories and reesta.lish his control over recalcitrant feudatories. Pula%eLin then
capaigned successfully in the south against the DEda.as, the /lPpas, and the Ga gas.
Ceading his aries north, he defeated the CEt @as, !Elavas, and Gur0aras. Pula%eLinFs final
triuph in the north was the victory over )ars @a of Dannau0. Pula%eLin then turned his attention
to the eastern *eccan and con&uered southern DoLala, Dali ga, Pis @t @apura, and the
Ais @n@u%un@d @in %ingdo. )e started the collateral .ranch of the Eastern CElu%yas .ased at
Pis @t @apura with his younger .rother Ais @n@uvardhana as the first %ing. Pula%eLin then launched
another a0or capaign against the powerful $outh Indian %ingdo of the Pallavas, in which he
defeated their %ing !ahendravaran I, inaugurating a CElu%ya2Pallava conflict that was to
continue for any centuries. Pula%eLin II sent an e.assy to the court of the Persian %ing
Dhosrow II. Good relations .etween the Persians and the Indians of the *eccan were of great
advantage to the Yoroastrians of Persia, who, fleeing fro the IslEic persecution in su.se&uent
centuries, sought asylu in India and settled along the west coast of the *eccan. Their
descendants today constitute the Parsi counity.
Control over .oth coasts enhanced the CElu%ya %ingFs already fir hold on the *eccan. The
a0or river valleys of the plateau9the +arada, TEpi 3TEpti8, GodEvari with its tri.utaries, and
Drishna9were in CElu%ya hands, as were the valua.le routes in the valleys. This aounted to
control of the west coast trade with western /sia and the Dali ga and /ndhra trade on the east
coast with $outheast /sia. The centuries2long conflict .etween the northern and the southern
*eccan, of which the CElu%ya2Pallava conflict was .ut a facet, also had geographic, political,
and econoic causes. /ny $outh Indian power see%ing to e"pand would inevita.ly try to ove
up the east coast, which was not only the ost fertile area of the peninsula .ut was also wealthy
fro the incoe of trade with $outheast /sia. Therefore, control of the northern *eccan re&uired
control of the east coast as well. ?ith the a0or aritie activity gradually concentrating on
$outheast /sian trade, in which even the west coast had a large share, the control of .oth coasts
was of considera.le econoic advantage. It was along the east coast, therefore, that the conflict
.etween the two regions often erupted. The ne"t 1-- years of CElu%ya power witnessed the
continuation of this conflict, wea%ening .oth contenders. Kltiately, in the id27th century, a
feudatory of the CElu%yas, *antidurga of the ;Es @t @ra%Pt @afaily, rose to iportance and
esta.lished hiself in place of the declining CElu%ya dynasty. The Eastern CElu%yas, who had
anaged to avoid involveent in the conflict, survived longer and cae into conflict with the
;Es @t @ra%Pt @as. /nother .ranch of the CElu%yas esta.lished itself at CEt @a in the id2:th century
and played a proinent role in o.structing the /ra. advance.

9o,thern India
The southern part of the peninsula split into any %ingdos, each fighting for supreacy. CTra
power relied ainly on a flourishing trade with western /sia. The Col @as retired into
insignificance in the KraiyPr 3TiruchchirEppalli8 area. The PEn@d @yaswere involved in fighting the
rising power of the Pallavas, and occasionally they fored alliances with the *eccan %ingdos.
The origin of the Pallava dynasty is o.scure. It is not even clear whether the early Pallavas of the
4rd century /* were the ancestors of the later Pallavas of the Bth century, who are soeties
distinguished .y the title Iiperial.J It would see, though, that their place of origin was
Ton@d @aian@d @ala, with its centre at DEnchipura 3ancient DERcN8. PrE%rit copperplate charters
issued .y the early %ings fro DEnchipura often ention places 0ust to the north in /ndhra
Pradesh, suggesting that the dynasty ay have igrated to the DEnchipura area. The $ans%rit
and Tail epigraphic records of the later %ings of the dynasty indicate that the later Pallavas
.ecae doinant in the Bth century after a successful attac% against the Dala.hras, which
e"tended their territory as far south as the DEverN ;iver. The Pallavas reached their zenith during
the reign of !ahendravaran I 3c. B--6B4-8, a conteporary of )ars @a and Pula%eLin II. /ong
the sources of the period, )s#an2tsangFs account serves as a connecting lin%, as he traveled
through the doains of all three %ings. The struggle for Ae gi .etween the Pallavas and the
CElu%yas .ecae the iediate prete"t for a long, drawn2out war, which .egan with the defeat
of the Pallavas. /part fro his capaigns, !ahendravaran was a writer and artist of soe
distinction. The play associated with hi, Mat t avilsaprahasaa, treats in a farcical anner the
idiosyncrasies of 'uddhist and Gaiva ascetics.
!ahendravaranFs successor, +arasi@havaran I !ahEalla 3c. B4-6BB78, avenged the Pallava
defeat .y capturing AEt @Epi. )e sent two naval e"peditions fro !ahE.alipPr 3!Eallapura8
to $ri Can%a to assist the %ing !Enavaa in regaining his throne. Pallava naval interests laid
the foundation for e"tensive reliance on the navy .y the succeeding dynasty, the Col @as. Toward
the end of the 7th century, the Ga gas and the PEn@d @yas 0oined coalitions against the Pallavas. /s
the CElu%yas declined under pressure fro the ;Es @t @ra%Pt @as, the PEn@d @yas gradually too% on the
Pallavas and, .y the id29th century, advanced as far as Du.a%ona. This defeat was avenged,
.ut, .y the end of the 9th century, Pallava power had ceased to .e significant.

9ociety and c,lt,re
$oe of the Pallava %ings too% an interest in the Ql @ vErs and +Eya Ers , the religious teachers
who preached a new for of Aais @n@avisand Gaivis .ased on the .ha%ti cult. /ong the
Gaivas were /ppar 3who is said to have converted !ahendravaran fro (ainis8 and
!En@i%%avEca%ar. /ong the Aais @n@avas were +aE vEr and a woan teacher, Qn @d @El @. The
oveent aied at preaching a popular )induis, in which Tail was preferred to $ans%rit,
and ephasized the role of the peripatetic teacher. ?oen were encouraged to participate in the
congregations. The Tail devotional cult and siilar oveents elsewhere were in a sense
copetitive with 'uddhis and (ainis, .oth of which suffered a gradual decline in ost areas.
(ainis found a foothold in DarnEta%a, ;E0asthEn, and Gu0arEt. 'uddhis flourished in eastern
India, with a0or onastic centres at +ElandE, Ai%raaLNla, and PEhErpur that attracted vast
nu.ers of students fro India and a.road. Ti.etan and eastern Indian cults, particularly the
Tantric cults, influenced the developent of Aa0rayEna 3Thunder.olt Aehicle8 'uddhis. The
widespread Ga%ti cult associated with )indu practice was .ased on the notion that the ale can
.e activated only .y union with the feale. Thus the gods were given consorts9Ca%s @N and GrN
for Aishnu, and PErvatN, DElN, and *urgE for Giva9and ritual was directed toward the worship of
the other goddess. !uch of the ritual was derived fro the earlier fertility cults and local rites
and .eliefs that were assiilated into )induis.
*uring the sae period, orthodo" 'rahanis received encourageent, especially fro the
royal failies. Cearned 'rahans were given endowents of land. The perforance of Aedic
sacrifices for purposes of royal legitiacy gave way to the %eeping of genealogies, which the
'rahans now controlled. The new 'rahanis ac&uired a locality and an institution in the
for of the teple. The earliest reains of a )indu teple, discovered at $Enchi, date to the
Gupta Period. These e"treely siple structures consisted of a shrine roo, called a garbhagr ha
3Iwo. house,J or sanctu sanctoru8, which contained an iage of the deity and opened onto
a porch. 1ver the centuries, additional structures were added until the teple cople"es covered
any acres. In the peninsula, the early roc%2cut teples iitated 'uddhist odels. /lthough the
CElu%yas did introduce freestanding teples, ost of their patronage e"tended to roc%2cut
onuents. The Pallavas also .egan with roc%2cut teples, as at !ahE.alipPr, .ut, when they
too% to freestanding teples, they produced the ost ipressive e"aples of their tie.
/s teples and onasteries .ecae larger and ore cople", the decorative arts of ural
painting and sculpture flourished. Early e"aples of ural painting occur at 'Egh 3*hEr district8
and $ittanavEsal 3Pudu%%ottai district8, and the tradition reached its apogee in the urals at
/0anta 3/urangE.Ed district8 during the AE%Et @a%a and CElu%ya periods. The fashion for urals
in 'uddhist onasteries spread fro India to /fghanistan and Central /sia and ultiately to
China. E&ually ipressive was the 'uddhist sculpture at $ErnEth, in Kttar Pradesh. It is possi.le
that the proliferation of 'uddhist iages led to the depiction of )indu deities in iconic for.
Teples were richly endowed with wealth and land, and the larger institutions could
accoodate colleges of higher learning 3ghat ik and mat ha8, priarily for priests. These
colleges .ecae responsi.le for uch of the foral education, and inevita.ly the use of $ans%rit
.ecae widespread. There was an apprecia.le developent of )indu philosophy, which now
recognized si" a0or schoolsO +yEya, AaiLes @i%a, $E@%hya, Hoga, !NE@sE, and AedEnta.
Indicative of the growing doination of 'rahanic intellectual life, the ancient 'ur as were
now written su.stantially in their present for under 'rahanic influence.
The flowering of classical $ans%rit literature is indicated .y the plays and poes of DElidEsa
3!bhijakutala, Mlavikgimitra, /ikramorva"ya, Raghuvam a, Meghata8, although
DElidEsaFs precise date is uncertain. In the south, the propagation of $ans%rit resulted in the
0irtrju"ya, an epic written .y 'hEravi 3:th century8= in *an@d @inFs Daakumracarita, a
collection of popular stories 3Bth century8= and in 'hava.hPtiFs play Mlatimhava . Tail
literature flourished as well, as evidenced .y two didactic wor%s, the )irukku al and #la iyr,
and .y the ore lyrical .il appaikaram and Ma imekhal ai, two Tail epics. ;epresenting a less
coon genre of literature in the Gupta Period was the 0ma-stra of AEtsyEyana, a anual on
the art of love. This was a collation and revision of earlier te"ts and displays a rear%a.le
sophistication and ur.anity. It was a period of literary e"cellence, though in the other arts such
levels of e"cellence cae later. +ot all the achieveents can .e associated with the Gupta
dynasty.
The onasteries and teples were centres of foral learning, and the guilds were centres of
technical %nowledge. The i"ture of the theoretical and practical, however, soeties occurred,
as in the case of edicine, particularly veterinary science. /dvances in etallurgy are attested in
such o.0ects as the $ultEngan0 'uddha and a faous iron pillar now at !ehrauli 3*elhi8. Gold
and silver coins of the Gupta Period e"hi.it a refineent that was not to .e surpassed for any
centuries. !atheatics was particularly advanced, pro.a.ly ore so than anywhere in the world
at the tie. Indian nuerals were later .orrowed .y the /ra.s and introduced to Europe as
/ra.ic nuerals. The use of the cipher and the decial syste is confired .y inscriptions.
?ith advances in atheatics there was copara.le progress in astronoy. Qrya.hat @a, writing
in /* <99, calculated 1 3pi8 to 4.1<1B and the solar year to 4B5.457BZ days and stated that the
Earth was spherical and rotated on its a"is. That European astronoy was also %nown is
suggested .y the Bth2century astronoer AarEhaihira, who entions the ;oa%a $iddhEnta
3$chool of ;oe8 aong the five a0or schools of astronoy.
Cegal te"ts and coentaries were a.undant9the .etter %nown .eing those of HE0Raval%ya,
+Erada, 'r @haspati, and DEtyEyana. Earlier te"ts relating to social pro.les and property rights
received particular attention. The Post2Gupta Period saw considera.le and lasting social change,
which resulted not only fro outside influences .ut also fro the interaction of the elite
$ans%ritic culture with ore parochial non2$ans%ritic cultures. The e"panding village econoy
opened up new areas geographically, and the increasing iportance of guilds in the towns
indicated fresh perspectives on social life. These activities also incorporated new groups and
cultures into the e"isting nors of Indian society.

<50c. 1200
=orthern India
The tripartite (tr,''le
The 7th century saw a struggle for control over the central Ganges Aalley, focusing on Dannau0,
aong the Gur0ara2PratihEra, the ;Es @t @ra%Pt @a , and the PEla dynasties. The PratihEras rose to
power in the Qvanti2(alaor region and used western India as a .ase. The CElu%yas fell a.out :54
to one of their own feudatories, the ;Es @t @ra%Pt @as under *antidurga, who esta.lished a dynasty.
The ;Es @t @ra%Pt @a interest in Dannau0 pro.a.ly centred on the trade routes fro the Ganges
Aalley. This was the first occasion on which a power .ased in the *eccan ade a serious .id for
a pivotal position in northern India. >ro the east the PElas also participated in the copetition.
They are associated with Pun @d @ravardhana 3'ogra district8, and their first ruler, GopEla 3c. :5-6
::-8, included Aa ga in his %ingdo and gradually e"tended his control to the whole of 'engal.
AatsarE0a, a PratihEra ruler who cae to the throne a.out ::7, controlled eastern ;E0asthEn and
!Elava. )is a.ition to ta%e Dannau0 .rought hi into conflict with the PEla %ing, *harapEla
3c. ::-671-8, who had .y this tie advanced up the Ganges Aalley. The ;Es @t @ra%Pt @a %ing *hruva
3c. :7-6:948 attac%ed each in turn and claied to have defeated the. This initiated the so2called
tripartite struggle. *harapEla soon retoo% Dannau0 and put his noinee on the throne. The
;Es @t @ra%Pt @as were preoccupied with pro.les in the south. AatsarE0aFs successor, +Ega.hat @aII 3c.
:9467448, reorganized PratihEra power, attac%ed Dannau0, and for a short while reversed the
situation. )owever, soon afterward he was defeated .y the ;Es @t @ra%Pt @a %ing Govinda III 3:946
71<8, who in turn had to face a confederacy of southern powers that %ept hi involved in *eccan
politics, leaving northern India to the PratihEras and PElas. 'ho0a I 3c. 74B67758 revived the
power of the PratihEras .y .ringing DElaR0Era 3'Enda district8, and possi.ly Dannau0 as well,
under PratihEra control. 'ho0aFs plans to e"tend the %ingdo, however, were thwarted .y the
PElas and the ;Es @t @ra%Pt @as. !ore serious conflict with the latter ensued during the reign of
Drishna II 3c. 7:7691<8.
/n /ra. visitor to western India, the erchant $ulayEn, referred to the %ingdo of (uzr
3which is generally identified as Gur0ara8 and its strong and a.le ruler, who ay have .een
'ho0a. 1f the successors of 'ho0a, the only one of significance was !ahNpEla 3c. 9-769<,8,
whose relationship with the earlier %ing reains controversial. ;E0aLe%hara, a renowned poet at
his court, iplies that !ahNpEla restored the %ingdo to its original power, .ut this ay .e an
e"aggeration. 'y the end of the 1-th century, the PratihEra feudatories9CauhEns 3CEhaEnas8,
Candellas 3ChandelEs8, Guhilas, Dalacuris, ParaEras, and Caulu%yas 3also called $ola %is89
were asserting their independence, although the last of the PratihEras survived until 1-,:.
!eanwhile *evapEla 3c. 71-675-8 was reasserting PEla authority in the east and, he claied, in
the northern *eccan. The end of the 9th century, however, saw the decline of the PEla %ingdo,
with feudatories in DEarPpa 3odern /ssa8 and Kt%ala 31rissa8 ta%ing independent titles.
PEla power revived during the reign of !ahNpEla 3c. 97761-478, although its stronghold now was
'ihEr rather than 'engal. >urther attepts to recover the old PEla territories were ade .y
;EapEla, .ut PEla power gradually declined. There was a .rief revival of power in 'engal
under the $ena dynasty 3c. 1-:-61,798.
In the ;Es @t @ra%Pt @a %ingdo, /oghavars @a3c. 71<67:78 faced a revolt of officers and feudatories
.ut anaged to survive and reassert ;Es @t @ra%Pt @a power despite interittent re.ellions.
Capaigns in the south against Ae gi and the Ga gas %ept /oghavars @a preoccupied and
prevented hi fro participating in northern politics. The ;Es @t @ra%Pt @a capital was oved to
!Enya%het @a 3!al%hed, in /ndhra Pradesh8, dou.tlessly to facilitate southern involveents,
which clearly too% on ore iportant diensions at this tie. $poradic capaigns against the
PratihEras, the Eastern CElu%yas, and the Col @as, the new power of the south, continued 3see
.elow The Col @as8. Indra III 391<69,:8 captured Dannau0, .ut, with ounting political pressures
fro the south, his control over the north was inevita.ly short2lived. The reign of Drishna III 3c.
94969B78 saw a successful capaign against the Col @as, a atrionial alliance with the Ga gas,
and the su.0ugation of Ae gi. ;Es @t @ra%Pt @a power declined suddenly, however, after the reign of
Indra, and this was fully e"ploited .y the feudatory Taila.
Taila II 39:4699:8, who traced his ancestry to the earlier CElu%yas of AEt @Epi, ruled a sall part
of 'i0Epur. Kpon the wea%ening of ;Es @t @ra%Pt @a power, he defeated the %ing, declared his
independence, and founded what has coe to .e called the Cater CElu%ya dynasty. The %ingdo
included southern DarnEta%a, Don%an, and the territory as far north as the GodEvari. 'y the end
of the 1-th century, the Cater CElu%yas clashed with the a.itious Col @as. The CElu%yasF capital
was su.se&uently oved north to DalyEn @N 3in 'Ndar8. Capaigns against the Col @as too% a ore
serious turn during the reign of $oeLvara I 31-<46B78, with alternating defeat and victory. The
Cater CElu%yas, however, .y and large retained control over the western *eccan despite the
hostility of the Col @as and of their own feudatories. In the iddle of the 1,th century, however, a
feudatory, 'i00ala 3115B6B:8 of the Dalacuri dynasty, usurped the throne at DalyEn @N. The last of
the CElu%ya rulers, $oeLvara IA 311716c. 11798, regained the throne for a short period, after
which he was overthrown .y a feudatory of the HEdava dynasty.
1n the periphery of the large %ingdos were the saller states such as +epal, DEarPpa,
Dashir, and Kt%ala 31rissa8 and lesser dynasties such as the GilEhEras in !ahErEshtra. +epal
had freed itself fro Ti.etan suzerainty in the 7th century .ut reained a a0or trade route to
Ti.et. DEarPpa, with its capital at PrEg0yotis @apura 3near GauhEti8, was one of the centres of the
Tantric cult. In 1,54 a a0or part of DEarPpa was con&uered .y the /hos, a $han 3!yanar8
people. Politics in Dashir were doinated .y tur.ulent feudatories see%ing power. 'y the 11th
century Dashir was torn .etween rival court factions, and the oppression .y )ars @ a accentuated
the suffering of the people. $aller states along the )ialayan foothills anaged to survive
without .ecoing too e.roiled in the politics of the plains.

The -0>p?t(
In ;E0asthEn and central India there arose a nu.er of sall %ingdos ruled .y dynasties that
cae to .e called the ;E0pPts 3fro $ans%rit rja-putraO Ison of a %ingJ8. The nae was
assued .y royal failies that claied Ds @ atriya status and lin%ed their lineage either with the
$Pryava@Li or the Candrava@Li, the royal lineages of the itihsa-pur a tradition, or else with
the /gni%ula 3>ire lineage8 .ased on a lesser yth in which the eponyous ancestor arises out of
the sacrificial fire. The four a0or ;E0pPt dynasties9PratihEra, ParaEra, CauhEn, and Caulu%ya
9claied /gni%ula lineage. The references in ;E0pPt genealogies to supernatural ancestry
suggest either an o.scure origin9perhaps fro sei2)induized local tri.es who gradually
ac&uired political and econoic status9or else a non2Indian 3pro.a.ly Central /sian8 origin.
The Caulu%yas of Gu0arEt had three .ranchesO one ruling !attaayPra 3the !Elava2Cedi region8,
one esta.lished on the erstwhile %ingdo of the CEpas at /n @ahilapEt @a%a 3PEtan8, and the third at
'hr @gu%accha 3'harPch8 and CEt @a in the coastal area. 'y the 11th century they were using
Gu0arEt as a .ase and attepting to anne" neigh.ouring portions of ;E0asthEn and /vanti.
DuErapEla 3c. 11<46:,8 was responsi.le for consolidating the %ingdo. )e is also .elieved to
have .ecoe a (aina and to have encouraged (ainis in western India. )eacandra, an
outstanding (aina scholar noted for his coentaries on political treatises, was a well2%nown
figure at the Caulu%ya court. !any of the ;E0pPt %ingdos had (aina statesen, inisters, and
even generals, as well as (aina traders and erchants. 'y the 1<th century, however, the
Caulu%ya %ingdo had declined.
/d0oining the %ingdo of the Caulu%yas was that of the ParaEras in !Elava, with inor
.ranches in the territories 0ust to the north 3!ount Q.u, 'EnswEra, Pngarpur, and 'hNnEl8.
The ParaEras eerged as feudatories of the ;Es @t @ra%Pt @as and rose to einence during the reign
of 'ho0a. /n attac% .y the Caulu%yas wea%ened the ParaEras in 11<4. /lthough the dynasty
was later re2esta.lished, it reained wea%. In the 14th century the ParaEras were threatened .y
.oth rising HEdava power in the *eccan and the Tur%ish %ingdo at *elhi 3see .elow The
coing of the Tur%s8= the latter con&uered the ParaEras in 14-5.
The Dalacuris of TripurN 3near (a.alpur8 also .egan as feudatories of the ;Es @t @ra%Pt @as, .ecoing
a power in central India in the 11th century during the reigns of GE geyadeva and his son
Ca%s @N%arn@a, when attepts were ade to con&uer territories as far afield as Kt%ala 31rissa8,
'ihEr, and the Ganges2Hauna *oa.. )ere they cae into conflict with the Tur%ish governor of
the Pun0a., who had e"tended his territory as far as AErEnasi. To the west, there were conflicts
with 'ho0a ParaEra, and the Dalacuris declined at the end of the 1,th century.
The Candellas, whose %ingdo coprised ainly 'undel%hand 3(e0a%a.hu%ti8, were feudatories
of the PratihEras. /ong the iportant rulers was *ha ga 3c. 95-61--78, who issued a large
nu.er of inscriptions and was generous in donations to (aina and )indu teples. *ha gaFs
grandson AidyEdhara 31-1:6,98, often descri.ed as the ost powerful of the Candella %ings,
e"tended the %ingdo as far as the Cha.al and +arada rivers. This .rought hi into direct
conflict with !ah@Pd of Ghazna, when the latter swept down fro /fghanistan in a series of
raids. 'ut the ensuing .attles were indecisive. The Candellas also had to face the attac%s of the
CauhEns, who were in turn .eing harassed .y the Tur%s. The Tur%ish %ingdo at *elhi
encroached into 'undel%hand, .ut the Candellas survived until the 1Bth century as inor
chieftains.
The GEhad @avElas rose to iportance in AErEnasi and e"tended their %ingdo up the Ganges2
Hauna *oa. including Dannau0. The %ing (ayacandra 31,th century8 is entioned in the poe
'r thv"rja-rso of Cand.ardEi, in which his daughter, the princess $anyogita, elopes with the
CauhEn %ing Pr @thvNrE0a. (ayacandra died in .attle against the Tur%ish leader, !uh @aad of
GhPr, and his %ingdo was anne"ed.
Inscriptional records associate the CauhEns with Ca%e GE%a.harN and its environs 3$E.har
$alt Ca%e in (aipur district8. CauhEn politics were largely capaigns against the Caulu%yas and
the Tur%s. In the 11th century the CauhEns founded the city of /0ayaeru 3/0er8 in the
southern part of their %ingdo, and in the 1,th they captured *hilli%E 3*elhi8 fro the Toaras
and anne"ed soe Toara territory along the Hauna ;iver. Pr @thvNrE0a IIIhas coe down .oth
in fol% and historical literature as the CauhEn %ing who resisted the Tur%ish attac%s in the first
.attle at Tarain 3TarEorN8 in 1191. Pr @thvNrE0a, however, was defeated at a second .attle in the
sae place in 119,= the defeat ushered in Tur%ish rule in northern India.

The comin' of the T,r2(
The esta.lishent of Tur%ish power in India is initially tied up with politics in the Pun0a.. The
Pun0a. was ruled .y (ayapEla of the )indu $hEhiya dynasty, which had in the 9th century
wrested the DE.ul Aalley and GandhEra fro a Tur%ish $hEhiya. Political and econoic relations
were e"treely close .etween the Pun0a. and /fghanistan. /fghanistan in turn was closely
involved with Central /sian politics. $e.#%tigin, a Tur%, was appointed governor of Ghazna in
9::. )e attac%ed the )indu $hEhiyas and advanced as far as PeshEwar. )is son !ah @Pd
succeeded to the Ghazna principality in 997. !ah @Pd went to war with the $hEhiya dynasty and
alost every year until his death in 1-4- led raids against the rich teple towns in northern and
western India, using the wealth o.tained fro the raids to finance successful capaigns in
Central /sia and .uild an epire there. )e ac&uired a reputation as an iconoclast as well as a
patron of culture and was responsi.le for sending to India the scholar al2'NrPnN, whose study
)a r"kh al--i is a source of valua.le inforation. !ah @Pd left his governors in the Pun0a.
with a rather loose control over the region.
In the 1,th century the GhPrid Tur%s were driven out of DhorEsEn and later out of Ghazna .y the
DhwErez2$hEhs. Inevita.ly the GhPrids sought their fortune in northern India, where the
conflict .etween the Ghaznavids and the local rulers provided an e"cellent opportunity.
!uh@aad of GhPr advanced into the Pun0a. and captured Cahore in 1175. Aictory in the
second .attle of Tarain consolidated !uh@aadFs success, and he left his general Vut @.2ud2*Nn
/y.a% in charge of his Indian possessions. !uh@aad was assassinated in 1,-B on his way
.ac% to /fghanistan. Vut @.2ud2*Nn reained in India and declared hiself sultan of *elhi, the
first of the !alP% 3$lave8 dynasty.

The Deccan and the (o,th
In the northern *eccan the decline of the Cater CElu%yas .rought a.out the rise of their
feudatories, aong the the HEdava dynasty 3also claiing descent fro the Hadu tri.e8 .ased
at *evagiri 3*aulatE.Ed8, whose %ingdo 3$eunadeLa8 included the DhEndesh 3now divided into
*hPle and (algaon8, the +Eshi%, and the /hadnagar districts. The %ingdo e"panded during
the reign of $i@hana 3c. 1,1-6<:8, who capaigned against the )oysal @a in northern DarnEta%a,
against the lesser chiefs of the western coast, and against the DE%atNya %ingdo in the eastern
*eccan. Turning northward, $i@hana attac%ed the ParaEras and the Caulu%yas. The HEdavas,
however, facing the Tur%s to the north and the powerful )oysal @as to the south, declined in the
early 1<th century.
In the eastern *eccan the DE%atNya dynasty was .ased in the +algonda and ?arangal areas
3odern /ndhra Pradesh state8 and survived until the Tur%ish attac% in the 1<th century. The
Eastern CElu%yas ruled in the GodEvari ;iver delta, and in the 14th century their fortunes were
tied to those of the Col @as. The Eastern Ga gas , ruling in Dali ga, cae into conflict with the
Tur%s advancing down the Ganges ;iver valley to the delta during the 14th century.

The Col @a(
The Col @as 3Cholas8 were .y far the ost iportant dynasty in the su.continent at this tie,
although their activities ainly affected the peninsula and $outheast /sia. The nucleus of Col @a
power during the reign of Ai0ayElaya in the late 9th century was Than0EvPr, fro which the
Col @as spread northward, anne"ing in the 1-th century what reained of Pallava territory. To the
south they cae up against the PEn @d @yas. Col @a history can .e reconstructed in considera.le
detail .ecause of the vast nu.er of lengthy inscriptions issued not only .y the royal faily .ut
also .y teple authorities, village councils, and trade guilds. ParEnta%a I 39-:69548 laid the
foundation of the %ingdo. )e too% the northern .oundary up to +ellore 3/ndhra Pradesh8,
where his advance was stopped .y a defeat at the hands of the ;Es @t @ra%Pt @a %ing Drishna III.
ParEnta%a was ore successful in the south, where he defeated .oth the PEn @d @yas and the
Ga gas. )e also launched an a.ortive attac% on $ri Can%a. >or 4- years after his death, there
was a series of overlapping reigns that did not strengthen the Col @a position. There then followed
two outstanding rulers who rapidly reinstated Col @a power and ensured the %ingdo its
supreacy. These were ;E0arE0a I and ;E0endra.
;E0arE0a 397561-1<8 .egan esta.lishing power with attac%s against the PEn @d @yas and
[llaan@d @ala 3$ri Can%a8. +orthern $ri Can%a .ecae a province of the Col @a %ingdo. /
capaign against the Ga gas and CElu%yas e"tended the Col @a .oundary north to the
Tunga.hadra ;iver. 1n the eastern coast the Col @as .attled with the CElu%yas for the possession
of Ae gi. / arriage alliance gave the Col @as an authoritative position, .ut Ae gi reained a
.one of contention. / naval capaign led to the con&uest of the !aldive Islands, the !ala.Er
Coast, and northern $ri Can%a, all of which were essential to the Col @a control over trade with
$outheast /sia and with /ra.ia and East /frica. These were the transit areas, ports of call for the
/ra. traders and ships to $outheast /sia and China, which were the source of the valua.le spices
sold at a high profit to Europe.
;E0arE0a IFs son ;E0endra participated in his fatherFs governent fro 1-1,, succeeded hi two
years later, and ruled until 1-<<. To the north he anne"ed the ;EichPr *oa. and oved into
!Enya%het @a in the heart of CElu%ya territory. / revolt against !ahinda A of $ri Can%a gave
;E0endra the e"cuse to con&uer southern $ri Can%a as well. In 1-,16,, the now2faous northern
capaign was launched. The Col @a ary capaigned along the east coast as far as 'engal and
then north to the Ganges ;iver9alost the e"act reverse of $audra GuptaFs capaign to
DEnchipura in the <th century /*. The ost spectacular capaign, however, was a naval
capaign against the Grivi0aya %ingdo in $outheast /sia in 1-,5. The reason for the assault on
Grivi0aya and neigh.ouring areas appears to have .een the interference with Indian shipping and
ercantile interests see%ing direct trading connections with $outh China. The Col @a victory
reinstated these connections, and throughout the 11th century Col @a trading issions visited
China.

The Aoy(al @a( and !0n@d@ya(
The succession after ;E0endra is confused until the eergence of Dulottu ga I 31-:-611,,8, .ut
his reign was the last of any significance. The 1,th and 14th centuries saw a gradual decline in
Col @a power, accelerated .y the rise of the )oysal @asto the west and the PEn@d @yas to the south.
The )oysal @as .egan as hill chieftains northwest of *\rasaudra 3odern )ale.Nd8, feudatory to
the CElu%yas. Ais @n@uvardhanaconsolidated the %ingdo in the 1,th century. The )oysal @as were
involved in conflict with the HEdava %ingdo, which was see%ing to e"pand southward,
particularly during the reign of 'allEla II 311:461,,-8. )ostilities also developed with the Col @as
to the east. The aries of the Tur%s eroded the )oysal @a %ingdo until, in the 1<th century, it
gave way to the Ai0ayanagara epire. In the 14th century the PEn@d @yas .ecae the doinant
power in the south, .ut their supreacy was .rief .ecause they were attac%ed in the 1<th century
.y Tur%ish aries. Inforation on the dynasty is suppleented .y the colourful account of
!arco Polo, who visited the region in 1,77 and 1,94.

9ociety and c,lt,re
/part fro the political events of the tie, a coon developent in the su.continent was the
recogniza.le decentralization of adinistration and revenue collection. >ro the Col @a %ingdo
there are long inscriptions on teple walls referring to the organization and functioning of
village councils. Aillages that had .een donated to 'rahans had councils called the sabh= in
the non2'rahan villages the council was called the ur. Eligi.ility &ualifications generally
relating to age and ownership of property were indicated, along with procedural rules. The
council was divided into various coittees in charge of the different aspects of village life and
adinistration. /ong the responsi.ilities of the council was the collection of revenue and the
supervision of irrigation. ;eferences to village .odies and local councils also occur in
inscriptions fro other regions. / ore recent view held .y soe historians, which has .een
uch contested, holds that the Col @a state was a segentary state with control decreasing fro
the centre outward and a ritual hierarchy that deterined the relations .etween the centre and the
units of the territory. The nature of the state during this period has .een the su.0ect of widespread
discussion aong historians.
In the *eccan, the rise and fall of dynasties was largely the result of the feudatory pattern of
political relationships. The sae held true of northern India and is seen .oth in the rise of
various ;E0pPt dynasties and in their ina.ility to withstand the Tur%ish invasions. There is
considera.le controversy aong historians as to whether it would .e accurate to descri.e the
feudatory pattern as feudalis per se. $oe argue that, although it was not identical to the classic
e"aple of feudalis in western Europe, there are sufficient siilarities to allow the use of the
ter. 1thers contend that the dissiilarities are su.stantial, such as the apparent a.sence of an
econoic contract involving %ing, vassal, and serf. In any event, the patterns of land relations,
politics, and culture changed considera.ly, and the a0or characteristic of the change consists of
fors of decentralization.
The coonly used ter for a feudatory was smata, which designated either a con&uered
ruler or a secular official connected with the adinistration who had .een given a grant of land
in lieu of a salary and who had asserted ownership over the land and gradually appropriated
rights of ruling the area. There were various categories of smatas. /s long as a ruler was in a
feudatory status, he called hiself smata and ac%nowledged his overlord in official docuents
and charters. Independent status was indicated .y the eliination of the title of smata and the
inclusion instead of royal titles such as mahrja and mahr&hirja. The feudatory had
certain o.ligations to the ruler. /lthough virtually in sole control adinistratively and fiscally
over the land granted to hi, he nevertheless had to pay a sall percentage of the revenue to the
ruler and aintain a specified .ody of troops for hi. )e was peritted the use of certain
sy.ols of authority on foral occasions and was re&uired, if called upon, to give his daughter
in arriage to his suzerain. These a0or adinistrative and econoic changes, although
priarily concerning fiscal arrangeents and revenue organization, also had their ipact on
politics and culture. The grantees or interediaries in a hierarchy of grants were not erely
secular officials .ut were often 'rahan .eneficiaries who had .een given grants of land in
return for religious services rendered to the state. The grants were fre&uently so lucrative that the
'rahans could arry into the failies of local chiefs, which e"plains the presence of 'rahan
ancestors in the genealogies of the period.

The economy
Cultivation was still carried out .y the peasants, generally GPdras, who reained tied to the land.
$ince the revenue was now to .e paid not to the %ing .ut to the smata, the peasants naturally
.egan to give ore attention to his re&uireents. /lthough the smatas copied the life2style of
the royal court, often to the point of setting up iniature courts in iitation of the royal odel,
the syste also encouraged parochial loyalties and local cultural interests. 1ne anifestation of
this local involveent was a sudden spurt of historical literature such as 'ilhan @aFs
/ikram kaevacarita , the life of the CElu%ya %ing Ai%raEditya AI, and Dalhan @aFs
Rjatara gi " , a history of Dashir.
The earlier decline in trade was gradually reversed in this period, with trade centres eerging in
various parts of the su.continent. $oe ur.an centres developed fro points of e"change for
agrarian produce, whereas others were involved in long2distance trade. In soe cases, traders
fro elsewhere settled in India, such as the /ra.s on the !ala.Er Coast= in other cases Indian
traders went to distant lands. Powerful trading guilds could en0oy political and ilitary support,
as was the case during the Col @a onarchy. Even the rich )indu teples of $outh India invested
their oney in trade. PEla contacts were ainly with Grivi0aya, and trade was co.ined with
'uddhist interests. The onasteries at +ElandE and Ai%raaLNla aintained close relations. 'y
now eastern India was the only region with a siza.le 'uddhist presence. The traditional trade
routes were still used, and soe %ingdos drew their revenue fro such routes as those along
the /rEvalli ;ange, !Elava, and the Cha.al and +arada valleys. $ignificantly, the a0or
technological innovation, the introduction of the sa%ia 3Persian wheel8, or araghat t a, as an aid to
irrigation in northern India, pertains to agrarian life and not to ur.an technology.

9ocial mo&ility
)istorians once .elieved that the Post2Gupta Period .rought greater rigidity in the caste structure
and that this rigidity was partially responsi.le for the ina.ility of Indians to face the challenge of
the Tur%s. This view is now .eing odified. The distinctions, particularly .etween the 'rahans
and the other castes, were in theory sharper, .ut in practice it now appears that social restrictions
were not so rigid. 'rahans often lived off the land and founded dynasties. !ost of the groups
claiing Ds @atriya status had only recently ac&uired it. The conscious reference to .eing
Ds @ atriya, a characteristic aong ;E0pPts, is a noticea.le feature in Post2Gupta politics. The fact
that any of these dynasties were of o.scure origin suggests soe social o.ilityO a person of
any caste, having once ac&uired political power, could also ac&uire a genealogy connecting hi
with the traditional lineages and conferring Ds @atriya status. / nu.er of new castes, such as the
DEyasthas 3scri.es8 and Dhatris 3traders8, are entioned in the sources of this period. /ccording
to the 'rahanic sources, they originated fro intercaste arriages, .ut this is clearly an attept
at rationalizing their ran% in the hierarchy. !any of these new castes played a a0or role in
society. The hierarchy of castes did not have a unifor distri.ution throughout the country. 'ut
the preeinent position of the 'rahan was endorsed not erely .y the fact that any had lands
and investents .ut also .y the fact that they controlled education. >oral learning was virtually
restricted to the institutions attached to the teples. Technical %nowledge was availa.le in the
various artisan guilds. )ierarchy e"isted, however, even aong the 'rahans= soe 'rahan
castes, who had perhaps .een tri.al priests .efore .eing assiilated into the $ans%ritic tradition,
reained ordinary village priests catering to the day2to2day religious functions.

-eli'ion
The local nucleus of the new culture led to a large range of religious e"pression, fro the
powerful teple religion of 'rahanis to a widespread popular .ha%ti religion and even ore
widespread fertility cults. The distinctions .etween the three were not clearly dearcated in
practice= rites and concepts fro each flowed into the other. The foral worship of Aishnu and
Giva had the support of the elite. Teples dedicated to Aais @n@ava and Gaiva deities were the ost
nuerous. 'ut also included were soe of the chief deities connected with the fertility cult, and
the other goddesses played an iportant role. The 'ur as had .een rewritten to incorporate
popular religion. +ow the 2papur as were written to record rites and worship of ore
localized deities. /ong the ore popular incarnations of Aishnu was Drishna, who, as the
cowherd deity, accoodated pastoral and erotic thees in worship. The love of Drishna and
;EdhE was e"pressed in sensitive and passionate poetry.
The introduction of the erotic thee in )induis was closely connected with the fertility cult
and Tantris. The latter, naed after its scriptures, the )atras, influenced .oth )indu and
'uddhist ritual. Tantris, as practiced .y the elite, represented the conversion of a widespread
fol% religion into a sophisticated one. The ephasis on the other goddess, related to that
e"pressed in the Ga%ti 3$ha%ti8 cult, strengthened the status of the feale deities. The erotic
aspect also was related to the iportance of ritual coition in soe Tantric rites. The depiction of
erotic scenes on teple walls therefore had a agico2religious conte"t.
Aa0rayEna 'uddhis, current in eastern India, +epal, and Ti.et, shows evidence of the ipact of
Tantris. The goddess TErE eerges as the saviour and is in any ways the 'uddhist counterpart
of Ga%ti. 'uddhis was on the way out9the 'uddha had .een incorporated as an avatar of
Aishnu9and had lost uch of its popular appeal, which had .een aintained .y the siple
ha.its of the on%s. The traditional source of 'uddhist patronage had dwindled with declining
trade. (ainis, however, anaged to aintain soe hold in ;E0asthEn, Gu0arEt, and DarnEta%a.
The protest aspect of .oth 'uddhis and (ainis, especially the opposition to 'rahanic
orthodo"y, had now .een ta%en over .y the Tantrists and the .ha%ti cults. The Tantrists e"pressed
their protest through soe rather e"tree rites, as also did soe of the heretical sects such as the
DElau%has and DEpEli%as. The .ha%ti cults e"pressed the ore puritanical protest of the ur.an
groups, gradually spreading to the rural areas. Preeinent aong the .ha%ti groups during this
period were the Ci gEyats , or ANraLaivas, who were to .ecoe a powerful force in DarnEta%a,
and the Pandharpur cult in !ahErEshtra, which attracted such preachers as +Eadeva and
(REneLvara.

"iterat,re and the art(
It was also in the mat ha and the ghat ik, attached to the teples, that the influential
philosophical de.ates were conducted in $ans%rit. >oreost aong the philosophers were
Ga %arEcErya 39th century8, ;EEnu0a 31-1:6114:8, and !adhva 314th century8. The
discussions centred on religious pro.les, such as whether %nowledge or devotion was the ore
effective eans of salvation, and pro.les of etaphysics, including that of the nature of reality.
Court literature, irrespective of the region, continued to .e coposed in $ans%rit, with the any
courts copeting for the patronage of the poets and the draatists. There was a revival of
interest in earlier literature, generating copious coentaries on prosody, graar, and
technical literature. The nu.er of le"icons increased, perhaps necessitated .y the growing use
of $ans%rit .y non2$ans%rit spea%ers. Citerary style tended to .e pedantic and iitative, although
there were nota.le e"ceptions, such as (ayadevaFs lyrical poe on the love of ;EdhE and
Drishna, the ,"tagovia. The .ha%ti teachers preached in the local languages, giving a
treendous fillip to literature in these languages. /daptations of the Rmya a, Mahbhrata,
and 3hagavag"t were used regularly .y the .ha%ti teachers. There was thus a gradual .rea%ing
away fro $ans%rit and PrE%rit via the /pa.rah@La 3the Icroo%ed languageJ8 and the eventual
eergence and evolution of such languages as Dannad @a, Telugu, !arEthN, Gu0arEtN, 'engali, and
1r @iyE and of the dialects of 'ho0puri, !aithili, and !EgadhN.
The period was rich in sculpture, in .oth stone and etal, each region registering a variant style.
?estern India and ;E0asthEn ephasized ornateness, with the (aina teples at !ount Q.u
attaining a perfection of rococo. +ElandE was the centre of stri%ing .ut less ornate iages in
.lac% stone and of 'uddhist .ronze icons. Central Indian craftsen used the softer sandstone. In
the peninsula the profusely sculptured, roc%2cut teples such as the DailEsa at Ellora, en0oying
CElu%ya and ;Es @t @ra%Pt @a patronage, created a style of their own. The doinant style in the south
was that of Col @a sculpture, particularly in .ronze. The severe .eauty and elegance of these
.ronze iages, ainly of Gaiva and Aais @n@ava deities and saints, reains unsurpassed. / new
genre of painting that rose to popularity in +epal, eastern India, and Gu0arEt was the illustration
of 'uddhist and (aina anuscripts with iniature paintings.
Teple architecture was divided into three ain styles9gara, rvi a, and vasara9which
were distinguished .y the ground plan of the teple and .y the shape of the ikhara 3tower8 that
rose over the garbhagr ha 3cu.ical structure8 and that .ecae the coanding feature of teple
architecture. The +orth Indian teples confored to the gara style, as is seen at 1siEn
3;E0asthEn state8= Dha0urEho 3!adhya Pradesh state8= and DonEr%a, 'hu.aneshwar, and Puri
31rissa state8. The 1rissa teples, however, reain nearest to the original archetype. The $outh
India n, or rvi a, style with its coanding gopuram 3gateways8 can .e seen in the
;E0arE0eLvara and the Ga gai%on @dac\l @apura teples. The *eccan style, vasara, tended to .e
an interi"ture of the northern and the southern, with early e"aples at AEt @Epi, /ihol @e, and
Pat @t @ada%al and, later, at )ale.Nd, 'elPr, and $onEthpur in the vicinity of !ysore. The wealth
of the teples ade the the focus of attac% fro plunderers.
The &uestion that is fre&uently posed as to why the Tur%s so easily con&uered northern India and
the *eccan has in part to do with what ight .e called the edieval ethos. / conteporary
o.served that the Indians had .ecoe self2centred and unaware of the world around the. This
was su.stantially true. There was little interest in the politics of neigh.ouring countries or in
their technological achieveents. The edieval ethos e"pressed itself not only in the IfeudatoryJ
attitude toward politics and the parochial concerns that .ecae doinant and prevented any
effective opposition to the Tur%s .ut also in the trappings of chivalry and roanticis that
.ecae central to elite activity.
It has .een generally held that the edieval period of Indian history .egan with the arrival of the
Tur%s 3dated to either /* 1--- or 1,-B8, .ecause the Tur%s .rought with the a new religion,
IslE, which changed Indian society at all levels. Het the fundaental changes that too% place
around the 7th century, when the edieval ethos was introduced, would see far ore
significant as a criterion of change.