Empires Han

Empires: Gupta India  Life in the Gupta Empire  Society in India  Complex social hierarchy based on caste membership (birth groups called jati)  occupations strictly dictated by caste  Earlier part of time period - women had property rights  Decline in the status of women  corresponding to increased emphasis on acquisition and inheritance of property  ritual of sati for wealthy women (widow cremates herself in her husband's funeral pyre)  Culture in India  Hinduism became the dominant religion  Buddhism began in India during this era;  Mauryans Buddhist, Guptas Hindu  Great epic literature such as the Ramayana and Mahabarata  Extensive trade routes within subcontinent & with others  connections to Silk Road  heart of Indian Ocean trade  coined money for trade  So-called Arabic numerals developed in India  employing a 10-based system

 Politics in the Mauryan & Gupta  The Mauryan Empire, 324 B.C.E.–184 B.C.E.  The core of was the kingdom of Magadha  founded by Chandragupta Mauryan  Fought against Alexander the Great in his invasion  included almost the entire subcontinent  capital at Pataliputra  imperial establishment  Large Army  700,000 men, 9000 elephants, and 10,000 chariots 25 % tax on the agricultural products  state monopolies on mines, shipbuilding, and armaments.  Mauryan Emperors  Chandragupta Maurya (326)  Secret police  danger of conspiracy  Chandragupta lived in strict seclusion

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 attended only by women who cooked his  in the evening carried him to his apartment  Courts  Arthashastra (Treatise on Material Gain) by Kautilya early “mirror for princes”  Superceded the Laws of Manu (ca. 1500 BCE) Later Mauryans  Ashoka  Adopts Buddhism  yet is tolerant  Rock and Pillar Edicts  Right behavior, kindness to animals, kindness to prisoners  Promote rest areas and travel and those devoted to Dharma Building the Gupta Empire  Founded by Chandra Gupta  Title of maharajadhiraja – Great One  never as strong as the Mauryan Empire  brought northern and central India under their control,  but not the south  Lack of political unity  geographic barriers and diversity of people  tended to fragment into small kingdoms;  political authority less important than caste membership  numerous small kingdoms ruled the Deccan and south India Structure of the Gupta Empire  Imperial institutions  controlled iron deposits,  and collected a 25 % agricultural tax  used their army to control the core of their empire  provincial administration was left to governors  did not have sufficient military force  characterized by religious toleration  to the outside world by extensive trade networks Pax Gupta  Guptas did not produce as dynamic a leader as Ashoka  did provide classical India with its greatest period of stability  Greek-speaking Bactrians ruled in northwest India  Smaller and more decentralized than Maurya  Invasion of White Huns weakened the empire