Introduction
The ancient civilization of India grew up in a sharply demarcated
sub-continent bounded on the north by the world's largest mountain
range-the chain of the Himalayas, which, with its extensions to east and
west, divided India from the rest of Asia and the world.
The long sea coasts of India facilitated the growth of maritime trade
and a large number of harbours were established through which trade
relations with Rome, China, Malaya, South East Asian archipelago were
set up. India's centralised position in Indian Ocean is also of great
strategic and economic importance.
India is a curious meeting place of diverse religions, races, manners
and customs. From the point of religion, India is the home of the
Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Sikhs and the Paris.
Diversity is also to be seen in the languages of the Indian people. From
the points of view of race, religions, language, manners and customs,
the Indians constitute a composite population.
In ancient literature, mention is found of five natural divisions of India:-
- Madhyadesa,i.e. Indo Gangetic plain stretcing from the
valley of the river Saraswat to the Rajmahal Hill. This division has
been known as Aryavarta from the ancient times.
- Uttarapatha or Udichya i.e. North-West India
- Pratichyaor Aparanta i.e. Western India
- Dakshinapatha or Dakshinatya i.e. the area south of Madhyadesa
- Prachya or Purvadesa, the region east of Madhyadesa
The course of history is also shaped through geographical factors, such
as geology, climate, etc. The study of Indian physiography, therefore,
can be classified into three territorial compartments, such as the
northern plains of the Indus and Ganga basin, the Deccan plateau lying
to the south of the Narmada and to the north of Krishna and Tungabhadra
rivers and the far south Tamil states. Rivers made the irrigation easier
by continuous supply of perennial water to this tract which includes
the states of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan.
The horizontal and vertical excavations have helped uncover the
period-wise sequences of cultres and of ancient remains. Excavations
have brought to light the cities which the people established around
2500 BC. They also reveal the layouts of the settlements in which people
lived, the types of pottery they used, the form of house in which
people dwelt, the kind of food they ate, and the types of implements
they used. The vast variety of rich vegetation and congenial regular
weather chain suited the human habitat and the pages of history and
replete with the stories of their linux. The
Mahajanapadas attracted the risings of smaller states. As early as in 5th century BC,
Herodotus observed that "of all the nations, that we know, it is India has the largest population."
Sources of Ancient Indian History
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Literary Sources: The ancient Indian literature were
mostly religious in nature and contains no definite date for events and
kings eg. the Puranas and the epics. Vedic literature has no trace of
political history but has a reliable glimpses of culture and
civilisation of the age. The epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Jaina and Buddhist religious texts supply us with some important historical material with doses of religious messeges.
Upanishadas: Main source of Indian philosophy; also called "Vedantas"
Jaina Parisistapravana, Buddhist Dwipavamsa and Mahavamsa contain traditions which supply us some historical materials. Gargi Samhita , a book on astronomy, the grammer of Panini and Patanjali also contain materials that help us in the recontruction of the history of the ancient period of India.
From the second half of the ancient period of Indian history, there are not only panegyrics
of kings and emperors but also political treatises dealing with the principles of
administration. Kautilya's Arthasastra and Manusmriti may
be mentioned in this connection. It was a work of the Maurya period. Vishakhadatta's
Mudrarakshasa gives a glimpse of Maurya society and culture. Similarly, events of
the Pushyamitra Sunga's reign are mentioned by Kalidasa in Malvikagnimitram.
Among the personal accounts of ancient period, Banabhatta's Harshacharita ,
dealing with the character and achievements of Harshvardhana as also history of his times,
Bakpatiraja's Gaudabaho describings how Yasovarman conquered Gauda deserves
special mention. Poet Bilhana described the history of the reign of Chalukya king
Vikramaditya VI in his Vikramanka Charita . Sandhyaakar Nandi's
Ramacharita is a description of the reign of Rampal, a king of the Pala dynasty of
Bengal. Kalhana's Rajatarangini is a valuable book on the history of the
kings of Kashmir. Likewise, Padmagupta's Nabasahasanka Charita, Hem
Chandra's Dwasraya Kavya , Nyaya Chandra's Hammir Kavya , Ballal's Bhoja Prabandha contains important historical materials.
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Archaeological Evidence :The archaeological evidence is
obtained by the systematic and skilled examination of building
monuments, and work of art. The credit for excavating the pre-Aryan past
goes to Sir William Jones of Asiatic Society of Bengal (established on
1st January 1784). General Sir Alexander Cunningham, one of its Royal
Engineers, dugged out the ruins of ancient site of pre-Aryan culture.
From his arrival in India in 1831, Cunningham, the Father of Indian Archaeology
devoted every minute he could spare from his military duties to the
study of material remains of ancient India, until in 1862, the Indian
government established the post of Archaeological Surveyor, to which he
was appointed. Until his retirement in 1885, he devoted himself to the
unravelling of India's past with complete single-heartedness.
In 1901, Lord Curzon revived and enlarged the Archaeological Survey and
appoint John Marshall its Director General. The discovery of India's
oldest cities dating back to the second Inter-Glacial period between
400,000 and 200,000 BC in 1921 by Daya Ram Shahni was the biggest
achievement of Archaeological Survey of India under Marshall, the first
relics of which were noticed by Cunningham. The cities discovered were
named Harappa and Mohenjodaro and the civilisation as the Indus Valley
Civilisation.
In 1922, an Indian officer of the Archaeological Survey, R.D.Banerjee,
founded further seals at Mohenjodaro in Sindh, and recongnized that they
were remains of a pre-Aryan civilisation of great antiquity. Under Sir
John Marshall's direction, the sites were systematically excavated from
1924 until his retirement in 1931.
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Inscriptions : Inscriptions are the most reliable evidence and their study is called epigraphy .
These are mostly carved on gold, silver, iron, copper, bronze plates or
stone pillars, rocks temple walls and bricks and are free from
interpolations. Inscriptions again are mainly of three types:- royal
eulogy, official documents like royal rescripts, boundary marks, deeds,
gift, etc. and private records of votive, donative or dedicative type.
Inscriptions in Prakrit, Pali, Sanskrit, Telgu, Tamil and other
languages have been discovered. But most of the inscriptions are in
Brahmi and Kharosti scripts.
James Prinsep, the Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal succeeded
for the first time in deciphering the Brahmi script. Among the
inscriptions of ancient past, those of emperor Ashoka are by far the
best historical evidence about his reign. Inscriptions of Kharvela, king
of Kalinga, Saka rular Rudradamana, Allahabad Prasasti by Harisena, the
court poet of Samudragupta, are important evidences for the
reconstruction of the history of India.
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Coins : The study of coins is known as numismatics.
Thousands of ancient Indian coins have been discovered from which idea
about the contemporary economic condition, currency system, development
of the matallurgical art has been obtained. The image of Samudragupta
playing on a lyre gives us an idea of his love of music. From the dates
on the coins, it has been possible to understand the contemporary
political history. Samudragupta's Aswamedha coins and Lion-slayer coins gives us an idea of his ambition and love of hunting.
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Accounts of the Foreigners : A great deal of our knowledge of ancient Indian History are supplemented by the writing of foreigners.
The below table gives a brief survey of important literary works of
foreign scholars, mentioning the subjects their works deals with.
India after Mauryas Facts
The period which became an in about 200 BC did not witness a large
empire like that of Mauryas, but it is notable for intimate and
widespread contacts between Central Asia and India. In eastern India,
Central India and the Deccan, the Mauryas were succeeded by a number of
native rulers, such as Sungas, the Kanvas and the Satavahanas.
In north-western India they were succeeded by a number of ruling dynasties from Central Asia.
In north India the tribal states which had earlier succumbed to Mauryan
imperialism, now reasserted themselves. In Punjab he existence of
several people republics is attested by numismatic evidence.
Trigarthas ruled the plane country between the rivers Ravi and Sutlej.
Yaudheyas, who were famous warriors, ruled the territory between Sutlej and Yamuna and parts of eastern Rajasthan.
Arjunayanas, Malavas and
Sibis were distributed in different parts of Rajasthan.
Following are some of the major dynasties which came in existence after Mauryas.
The Sunga dynasty (185-71 BC):
The founder of Sunga dynasty was
Pushyamitra Sunga, the commander
in chief of Brihadratha, the last Mauryan king. According to Puranas,
Pushyamitra ruled for 36 years and his reign ended in 149 four 148 BC.
Pushyamitra was succeeded by his son Agnimitra. From Kalidasa's drama
Malvikagnimitram, we learned that Agnimitra was the governor of Vidisha
during his father's regin. He ruled for eight years. Agnimitra was
succeeded by Jyestha. The next important king of this dynasty was
Vasumitra, who was the son of Agnimitira.
The last king of this dynasty was Devabhuti or Devabhumi. According to
Puranas, he was an incapable and is loving ruler. He was put to death by
his minister or amatya called Vasudeva Kanva. Thus, the kingdom of
Magadha passed from Sungas to the Kanvas.
The Sunga dynasty's greatest achievement was the safeguarding of India
from invasion of Hunas. They valiantly resisted the Huna's attacks and
saved India from being destroyed. The contributed a lot to the
development of culture also. The Sunga kinks greatly encouraged the
Brahman religion and literature.
| Hunas |
|---|
| Hunas were only of the fierce tribes from Central Asia. They have
been periodically invading India since Sunga period. They were resisted
by the rulers uptil the second half of the fifth century A.D. But the
weakness of the Empire provided them with a chance and by 485 A.D. they
were able to occupy eastern Malwa and a good portion of central India. |
Kanva dynasty (72 BC-27 BC):
The rule of the Kanvas lasted for about 45 years. For kings ruled during
this period.
Vasudeva ruled for a period of nine years and Bhumimitra for 14 years.
Narayana held the reigns of administration for 12 years --Susharma was
the last of the Kanvas. He was a peek King wholly devoid of
administrative ability. He could roll hardly for 10 years. During the
Kanva dynasty, the Brahmanical reaction persisted.
Cheta (Chetis) dynasty of Kalinga:
It is evident that Kalinga succeded from the Mauryas Empire in the years
following the death of Asoka, though it's history is not known with any
degree of certainty till the first century BC. It records the exploits
of Kharavela belonging to the Cheta or Cheti line of kings, founded by
Maha Meghavahana. He assumed the title of Kalingadhipati or Kalinga
Chakravartin as a mark of his paramountcy. A follower of Jainism,
Kharavela was a liberal patron of Jain monks for whose residence he
constructed caves on the Udayagiri hills, near Bhubaneswar in Orrisa.
Age of Satavahanas (235 BC-100 BC):
This Is the most important of the native successors of the Mauryas in
the Deccan and in Central India were the Satavahanas. The Satavahanas
are considered to be identical with the Andhras mentioned in the
Puranas. The early Satavahanas kinks appeared not in Andhra, but in
Maharashtra where most of their early inscriptions have been found.
Gautamiputra Satakarni (A.D. 106-130) was the most powerful Satavahana king. The successors of Gautamiputra rulled till A.D. 200.
| Significance of Satavahanas |
|---|
- The rise of Satavahanas signified that the economic revolutions
of the Gangetic region was repeated all over India. Added to this
because of peculiar geographical terrain of the Deccan Peninsula, a
number of small kingdoms came into existence but not big Empires
- since Satavahanas had controlled part of the Deccan and part of the
northern India they acted as the career of Aryanism to Southern India.
|
The Kushanas (45 A.D.-73 A.D.)
The Parthians were followed by Kushanas, who are also called Yuehis or
Tocharians. The Kushans were one of the five clans ino which the Yuechi
tribe was divided. There were two successive dynasties of Kushans. The
first dynasty was founded by a house of Chief who were called Kadphises
and who ruled for 28 years from about A.D. 50. It has two Kings the
first Kadphises I, who issued coins South of the Hindukush. Kadphises I
was succeeded by his sone kadphises II or Vima Kadphises.
Kanishka was the greatest Kushana king. He spread his kingdom in and
beyond the western Himalayas, including Khotan in Sinkiang. He is
credited with popularizing Buddhism in Tibet, China, Central Asia and
other parts of the world.
