India’s First empires

The Mauryan Dynasty

• Following the exit of Alexander the Great in 327BC, west Indian kingdoms were weak and open to invasion

• Chandragupta Maurya invades from his empire in east India. Founds the Mauryan Dynasty

Chandragupta Maurya

How did he control the empire?

• Centralized the government by establishing the capital city at Pataliputra

• Created a strong and organized army which was paid

• Created a communications system with a postal service

• Established a network of spies to keep an eye on activities in the kingdom

Asoka

Asoka

• Believed to be the greatest king in the dynasty- 273BC- 232BC

• Why was he a great ruler?– Strong military ruler, but he came to hate

killing and bloodshed– Dedicated his life to peace and to follow the

teachings of Buddha– Ruled by example, government officials had to

care for the people

Asoka

• Built hospitals for people and animals

• Supplied medicine to the people

• Ordered wells dug in all areas to help rural farmers

• Built new roads for travel and trade

• Planted trees and built shelter so travelers could get out of the sun

Asoka expands Buddhism

• Sent teachers throughout the empire and Asia

• Ordered the building of stone pillars, which had carved lessons of the Buddha

• Ordered the building of 1000s of stupas or shrines of Buddha

The fall of the Mauryan Empire

• After Asoka’s death, the kings who followed were not good rulers and made bad decisions– Raised taxes on merchants– Seized peasants crops– Didn’t live by the teachings of Buddha– Things got so bad the last king was murdered

by his own general

Chandragupta II

The Gupta Empire

• For 500 years, India has no strong ruler and is split into small kingdoms

• AD 320 a prince named Chandragupta II becomes powerful and unites the empire through diplomacy( marriages)

• After his death his son Samudragupta expands the empire to the north and Guptas rule for 200 years

Gupta Empire

• Empire grows rich from trade of salt, cloth, iron, silver and gold

• Gupta kings make Hinduism the official religion

• Supported learning: artists, writers, mathematicians, astronomers, and doctors

Literature

• Vedas- ancient hymns and prayers were written down

• Epics– Mahabharata - war

– Ramayana- hero king

– Both were long poems about brave warriors and their heroic deeds

– Kalidasa was a famous writer who wrote: poems, love stories and plays

Math

• Algebra

• Decimal system

• Infinity

• Idea of zero

• Number system we use today

• Algorithms- series of steps to solve a problem

Medicine

• Set broken bones

• Performed operations

• Gave inoculations

• Performed plastic surgery

• Used medicines

Astronomy

• Mapped the stars and planets movements

• Understood the Earth was round by studying eclipses

• Sun was center of the universe

• Idea of atoms

• Measured year by the solar system 365.35 days