CLASS 12TH Ancient History – New NCERT Notes

THEME 1 - BRICKS, BEADS AND BONES

(THE HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION)
• The Harappan seal, is possibly the most distinctive artefact of the Harappan or Indus
Valley civilization. Made of stone called steatite.
• The Indus Valley Civilization is also called the Harappan culture.
• The civilization is dated between 2600 – 1900 BCE.
• Earlier and later cultures are often called Early Harappan and Late Harappan.
• This culture is sometimes called the Mature Harappan culture.
• BP stands for Before Present, BCE stands for Before Common Era & CE stands for
Common Era.
• c. stands for the Latin word circa and means approximate.

BEGINNINGS

• Terracotta models of the plough have been found at sites in Cholistan and at Banawali
(Haryana).
• Archaeologists also found evidence of a ploughed field at Kalibangan (Rajasthan).
• Traces of canals have been found at the Harappan site of Shortughai in Afghanistan.
• Proofs which show water is drawn from wells was used for irrigation. Besides water
reservoirs found in Dholavira (Gujarat).
• Mohenjo-Daro is the best known Harappan site.

MOHENJO- DARO, A PLANNED URBAN CENTRE

• The most unique feature of the Harappan civilization was the development of urban
centers.
• Although Mohenjo-Daro is the most well-known site, the first site to be discovered was
Harappa.
• The settlement is divided into the sections, one smaller but higher and the other much
larger but lower.
• Archaeologists designate these as the Citadel and the lower town respectively.
• A distinctive feature of Harappan cities was the carefully planned drainage system.
• The lower town provides examples of residential buildings, centered on a courtyard,
with rooms all sides.
• Every house had its own bathroom paved with bricks, with drains connected through
the wall to street drains.
• Scholars have estimated that the total number of wells in Mohenjo-Daro was about 700.
• Every house was connected to street drains, made of bricks.
• In some cases, limestone was used for the covers.
• These cities had very long drainage channels.
• Citadel were probably used for special public purposes. These include the warehouse.
• The Great Bath was a large rectangular tank in a courtyard surrounded by a corridor on
all four sides.
• There were rooms on three sides.

TRACKING SOCIAL DIFFERENCES

• At burials in Harappan sites the dead were generally laid in pits.

• Some graves contain pottery and ornaments.
• Jewellery has been found in burials of both men and women.
• It appears that the Harappans did not believe in burying precious things with the dead.
• Archaeologists broadly classify as utilitarian and luxuries.
• Little pots of faience (a material made of ground sand or silica mixed with colour and a
gum and then fired) were probably considered precious because they were difficult to
make.
• All the gold jewellery found at Harappan sites was recovered from hoards.

FINDING OUT ABOUT CRAFT PRODUCTION

• Chanhudaro, a tiny settlement (less than 7 hectares) as compared to Mohenjo-Daro

(125 Hectares), almost exclusively devoted to craft production.
• Variety of materials used to make beads is remarkable: stones like carnelian, jasper,
crystal, quartz and steatite; metals like copper, bronze and gold; and shell, faience and
terracotta or burnt clay.
• Specialized drills have been found at Chanhudaro, Lothal and more recently at
Dholavira.
• Specialized centers for making shell objects including bangles, ladies and inlay.
• Finished products from Chanhudaro and Lothal were taken to the large urban centers
such as Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.
• Craft production was also undertaken in large cities such as Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.

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 STRATEGIES FOR PROCURING MATERIALS.

• Nageshwar and Balakot in areas where shell was available.

• Other such sites were Shortughai, in far-off Afghanistan, near the best source of lapis
lazuli, a blue stone, and Lothal which was near sources of carnelian (from Bharuch in
Gujarat), steatite (from South Rajasthan and North Gujarat) and metal from Rajasthan.
• Procuring of raw materials may have been to send expeditions to areas such as the
Khetri region of Rajasthan (for copper) and South India (for gold).
• There are evidence in the Khetri area for what archaeologists call the Ganeshwar-
Jodhpura culture.
• Copper was also probably brought from Oman.
• Mesopotamian texts datable to the third millennium BCE refers to copper coming from
a region called Magan, perhaps a name for Oman.
• Mesopotamian sites also contain traces of nickel.
• Magan and Meluhha (Harappa region), they mention the products from Meluhha:
carnelian, lapis lazuli, copper, gold, and varieties of wood.
• Some archaeologists think the haja-bird was the peacock.

SEALS, SCRIPTS, WEIGHTS

• Seals and sealings were used to facilitate long-distance communication.

• The sealing also conveyed the identity of the sender.
• Harappan seals usually have a line of writing.
• Most inscriptions are short, the longest containing about 26 signs. It has just too many
signs- somewhere between 375 and 400. It is apparent that the script was written from
right to left.
• Exchanges were regulated by a precise system of weights, usually made of stone called
chert and generally cubical.

ANCIENT AUTHORITY

• There are indications of complex decisions being taken and implemented in Harappan
society, the extraordinary uniformity of Harappan artefacts as evident in pottery.
• A stone statue was labelled and continues to be known as the “priest-king”.
• The ritual practices of Harappan civilization are not well understood yet.
• Some archeologists are of the opinion that Harappan society had no rulers, and that
everybody enjoyed equal status. Others feels that there was no single ruler but several.
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 THE END OF THE CIVILIZATION

• There is evidence that by c. 1800 BCE most of the Mature Harappa sites in regions such
as Cholistan had been abandoned.
• There was an expansion of population into new settlements in Gujarat, Haryana and
Western U.P.
• Artefacts and settlements indicate a rural way of life inn what are called “Late
Harappan” or “successor cultures”.
• These range from climatic changes, deforestation, excessive floods, the shifting and/or
drying up of rivers, to overuse of the landscape.

DISCOVERING THE HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION

• Cunningham, the first Director-General of the ASI, made a sketch of the first known seal
of Harappa.
• In 1924, John Marshall, Director-General of the ASI, announced the discovery pf a new
civilization in the Indus Valley to the world.
• In fact, John Marshall was the first professional archaeologist to work in India.
• Marshall tended to excavate along regular horizontal units; all the artefacts recovered
from the same unit were grouped together.
• It was R.E.M. Wheeler, after he took over a Director-General of the ASI in 1944, wheeler
recognized that it was necessary to follow the stratigraphy of the mound.
• The major sites are now in Pakistani territory.
Constant use and reuse of the landscape results in the build up of occupational debris, called a
mound.
Occupations are detected by traces of ancient materials.
Abandonment or desertions, what are called “sterile layers”, can be identified by the absence of
such traces.
The study of layers is called stratigraphy.

PROBLEMS OF PIECING TOGTHER THE PAST

• The problems of archaeological interpretation are perhaps most evident in attempts to

reconstruct religious practices. Early archeologists thought that certain objects which
seemed unusual or unfamiliar may have had a religious significance.
• These included terracotta figurines of women, heavily jewelled, with elaborate head-
dresses. Great Bath and fire altars found at Kalibangan and Lothal.
• One-horned animal, often called the “unicorn”- depicted on seals seem to be mythical.
• In some seals, a figure shown seated cross-legged in a “yogic” posture, sometimes
surrounded by animals, has been regarded as a depiction of “proto-Shiva”, in Hinduism,
the conical stone objects have been classified as lingas.
• The earliest religious text, the Rigveda (complied c. 1500-1000 BCE) mentions a god
named Rudra.
Shamans are men and women who claim magical and healing powers, as well as an ability
to communicate with the other world.
 THEME 2 - KINGS, FARMERS AND TOWNS
(EARLY STATES AND ECONOMIES (c. 600 BCE-600CE))
• This was the period during which the Rigveda was composed by people living along
the Indus and its tributaries, agricultural settlements emerged in many parts of the
subcontinent.
• New modes of disposal of the dead, including the making of elaborate stone
structures known as megaliths.

PRINSEP AND PRIYADASI

• Some of the most momentous developments in Indian epigraphy took place in the
1830s.
• James Prinsep, an officer in the mint of the East India Company, deciphered Brahmi and
Kharosthi.
• He mentioned, King referred to as Priyadassi – meaning “pleasant to behold”.
• Indian scholars used inscriptions and texts composed in a variety of languages to
reconstruct the lineages a major dynasty that had ruled the subcontinent.

THE EARLIEST STATES

• The sixth century BCE is often regarded as a major turning point in early Indian History.
• It is an era associated with early states, cities, the growing use of iron, the development
of coinage, etc.
• It also witnessed the growth of diverse systems of thought, including Buddhism and
Jainism.
• Buddhists and Jaina texts mention sixteen states known as Mahajanpadas.
• Mahajanpadas were ruled by kings, some known as ganas or sanghas, were oligarchies,
where power was shared by a number of men, often collectively called rajas.
• Both Mahavira and Buddha belonged to such ganas.
• Each Mahajanpadas had a capital city, which was often fortified.
Janapada, meaning the land where a jana (a people, clan or tribe) sets its foot or settles. It
is a word used in both Prakrit and Sanskrit.

• From c. sixth century BCE onwards, Brahmanas began composing Sanskrit texts known
as the Dharmasutras. These laid down norms for rulers, who were ideally expected to be
Kshatriyas.
• Between the sixth and the fourth centuries BCE, Magadha (presently in Bihar) become
the most powerful Mahajanpada.
• Magadha was a region where agriculture was especially productive.
• Elephants was used as an important component of the army.
• Ambitious Kings like Bimbisara, Ajatasattu and Mahapadma Nanda are the best known,
and their ministers, who helped implement their policies.
• Rajagaha (the Prakrit name of present day Rajgir in Bihar) was the capital of Magadha.
• Later, in the fourth century BCE, the capital was shifted to Pataliputra, present day
Patna.

INSCRIPTIONS

• Inscriptions are writings engraved on hard surfaces, such as stone, metal or pottery.
• Inscriptions are virtually permanent records, some of which carry dates.
• Others are dated on the basis of palaeography or styles of writing, with a fair amount of
precision.
• The earliest inscriptions were in Prakrit, a name for languages used by ordinary people.
• Sample of Inscriptions;

AN EARLY EMPIRE

• The growth of Magadha culminated in the emergence of the Mauryan Empire,

Chandragupta Maurya, who founded the empire (c. 321 BCE), extended control as far
northwest as Afghanistan and Baluchistan, and his grandson Asoka, arguably the most
famous ruler of early India, conquered Kalinga (presently coastal Orissa).
• Account of Megasthenes (a Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya).
• Another source that is often used is the Arthashastra, parts of which were probably
composed by Kautilya or Chanakya.
• Inscriptions of Asoka (c. 272/268-231 BCE) on rocks and pillars are often regarded as
amongst the most valuable sources.
• Asoka was the first ruler who inscribed his messages to his subjects and officials on
stone surfaces – natural rocks as well as polished pillars.
• He followed Dhamma, this includes respect towards elders, generosity towards
Brahmanas and those who renounced worldly life, treating slaves and servants kindly,
and respect for religions.
• There were five major political centers in the empire – the capital Pataliputra and the
provincial centers of Taxila, Ujjayini, Tosali and Suvarnagiri (the golden mountain).
• Asoka tries to hold his empire together by propagating dhamma.
• Special officers, known as the Dhamma Mahamatta were appointed to spread the
message of dhamma.
• The Mauryan Empire lasted about 150 years.
• By the second century BCE, new chiefdoms and kingdoms emerged in several parts of
the subcontinent.

LANGUAGES AND SCRIPTS

Most Asokan inscriptions were in the Prakrit language while those in the northwest of the
subcontinent were in Aramaic and Greek. Most Prakrit inscriptions were written in
Kharosthi. The Aramaic and Greek scripts were used for inscriptions in Afghanistan.

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 NEW NOTIONS OF KINGSHIP

• New kingdoms that emerged in the Deccan and further south, including the chiefdoms
of the Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas in Tamilakam (the name of the ancient Tamil
country).
• It included parts of ancient Tamil country, which included parts of present-day Andhra
Pradesh and Kerela.
• Chiefs of kings, including Satavahanas who ruled over parts of western and Central India
(c. second century BCE-second century CE) and the Shakas, a people of Central Asian
origin who established kingdoms in the north-western and western parts of the
subcontinent, derived revenues from long-distance trade.
• The Kushanas (c. first century BCE-first century CE), who ruled over a vast kingdom
extending from Central Asia to northwest India.
• Their history has been reconstructed from inscriptions and textual traditions.
• Colossal statues of Kushana rulers have been found installed in a shrine at Mat near
Mathura (U.P).
• Similar statues have been found in a shrine in Afghanistan also.
• Many Kushana rulers also adopted the title devaputra, or “son of god”.
• By the fourth century, there is evidence of larger states, including the Gupta Empire.
• Samantas, men who maintained themselves through local resources including control
over land.
• Histories of the Gupta rulers have been reconstructed from literature, coins and
inscriptions, including prashastis.
• Prayaga Prashasti (also known as the Allahabad Pillar inscription) composed in Sanskrit
by Harishena, the court poet of Samudragupta, arguably the most powerful of the
Gupta rulers (c. fourth century CE).
A chief is a powerful man whose position may or may not be hereditary. He derives support
from his kinfolk.
According to Greek sources, the Mauryan ruler had a standing army of 600,000 foot-
soldiers, 30,000 cavalry and 90,000 elephants
Silappadikaram, an epic written in tamil, by Senguttuvan (a Pandya chief).

A CHANGING COUNTRYSIDE

• The Jatakas were written in Pali around the middle of the first millennium CE.
• One story known as the Gandatindu Jataka describes the plight of the subjects of a
wicked king, includes elderly women and men, cultivators, herders, village boys and
even animals.
• There was a growing differentiation amongst people engaged in agriculture.
• The term gahapati was often used in Pali texts to designate the second and third
categories.
• Early Tamil literature (the sangam texts) mentions different categories of people living in
the villages – large landowners or Vellalar, ploughmen or uzhavar and slaves or adimai.
• Some of these inscriptions were on stone, but most were on copper plates.
• Most of the inscriptions were in Sanskrit.
• The rest was in local language such as Tamil or Telugu.
• Land grants such as this one has been found in several parts of the country.
• Some feel that land grants were part of strategy adopted by ruling lineages to extend
agriculture to new areas.
The Sudarshana, a beautiful lake in Gujarat was an artificial reservoir.
Transplantation is used for paddy cultivation in areas where water is plentiful.
A gahapati was the owner, master or head of a household, who exercised control over the
women, children, slaves and workers who shared a common residence. He was also the
resources.
The Manusmriti is one of the best-known legal texts if early India, written in Sanskrit and
compiled between c. second century BCE and c. second century CE.
The Harshacharita is a biography of Harshavardhana, the ruler of Kannauj, composed in
Sanskrit by his poet, Banabhatta (c. seventh century CE).

TOWNS AND TRADE

• Many of the cities were capitals of Mahajanpadas.

• Pataliputra were on riverine routes. Others such as Ujjayini, were along land routes, and
yet others, such as Puhar, were near the coast, from where sea routes began.
• Many cities like Mathura were bustling centers of commercial, cultural and political
activity.
• From excavations, fine pottery bowls and dishes, with a glossy finish, known as Northern
Black Polished Ware, probably used by rich people, and ornaments, tools, weapons,
vessels, figurines, made of a wide range of materials – gold, silver, copper, bronze, ivory,
glass, shell and terracotta.
• By the second century BCE, we find short votive inscriptions in a number of cities.
• It is likely that craftsperson used a range of iron tools to meet the growing demands of
urban cities.
• Successful merchants, designated as masattuvan in Tamil and setthis and sattavahas in
Prakrit.
• To some extents, exchanges were facilitated by the introduction of coinage. Punch-
marked coins made of silver and copper (c. sixth century BCE onwards) were amongst
the earliest to be minted and used.
• Numismatists have studies these and other coins to reconstruct possible commercial
networks.
• Attempts made to identify the symbols on punch-marked coins with specific ruling
dynasties, including the Mauryans, suggest that these were issued by kings.
• The first coins to bear the names and images of rulers were issued by the Indo-Greeks.
• The first gold coin was issued c. first century CE by the Kushanas.
• Hoards of Roman coins have been found from archaeological sites in south India.
• Coins were also issued by tribal republics such as that of the Yaudheyas of Punjab and
Haryana (c. first century CE).
• Most spectacular gold coins were issued by the Gupta rulers.
• From c. sixth century CE onwards, finds of gold coins taper off.

Each city had a history of its own. Pataliputra, for instance began as à village known as
Pataligrama. Then, in the fifth century BCE the Magadhan rulers decided to shift their
capital from Rajagaha to this settlement and renamed it. By the fourth century BCE, it was
the Capital of the Mauryan Empire and one of the largest cities in Asia. Subsequently, its
importance apparently declined. When the Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang visited the city in the
seventh century CE, he found it in ruins, and with a very small population.

• Antimony is a mineral used as a coloring substance.

• Archaeological evidence of a bead-making industry, using precious and semi-
precious stones.
• “Periplus” is a Greek word meaning sailing around and “Erythraean” was the Greek
name for the Red Sea.
 • Numismatics is the study of coins, including visual elements such as scripts and
images, metallurgical analysis and the contexts in which they have been found.

HOW ARE INSCRIPTIONS DECIPHERED?

• Most scripts used to write modern Indian languages are derived from Brahmi, the script
used in most Asokan inscriptions.
• It was only after decades of painstaking investigations by several epigraphists that James
Prinsep was able to decipher Asokan Brahmi in 1838.
• Kharosthi, the script used in inscriptions in the northwest, is different.
• Devanampiya, often translated as “beloved of the gods” and piyadassi, or “pleasant to
behold”, the name Asoka is mentioned in some other inscriptions, which also contains
these titles.
• Asokan inscriptions have been found in present-day Orissa.
 THEME 3 - KINSHIP, CASTE AND CLASS
EARLY SOCIETIES (c. 600 BCE-600 CE)
• Several changes in economic and political life between c. 600 BCE and 60 CE.
• In focusing on the Mahabharata, a colossal epic running in its present form into over
100,000 versus with depictions of a wide range of social categories and situations.

THE CRITICAL EDITION OF THE MAHABHARATA

• One of the most ambitious projects of scholarship began in 1919, under a leadership of
a noted Indian Sanskritist, V.S Sukthankar. A team comprising dozens of scholars
initiated the task of preparing a critical of the Mahabharata.
• They selected the versus that appeared common to most versions and published these
in several volumes, running into over 13,000 pages. The project took 47 years to
complete.
• Our understanding of these processes is derived primarily from texts written in Sanskrit
by and for Brahmanas.

KINSHIP AND MARRIAGE MANY RULERS AND VARIED PRACTICES

• Families are usually parts of larger networks of people defined as relatives, or to use a
more technical term, kinfolk.
 • The Mahabharata, describes a feud over land and power between two groups of
cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, who belonged to a single ruling family, that of
the Kurus, a lineage dominating one of the Janapadas.
• Pandavas emerged victorious. After that, patrilineal succession was proclaimed.
• Under patriliny, sons could claim the resources (including the throne in the case of
kings) of their fathers when the latter died.
• Most ruling dynasties (c. sixth century BCE onwards) claimed to follow system.
• Exogamy, (literally, marrying outside), meant that the lives of young girl and women
belonging to families that claimed high status were often carefully regulated to ensure
that they were married at the “right” time and the “right” person.
• This gave rise to the belief that kanyadana or the gift of a daughter in marriage.
• The Brahamanas responded by laying down codes of social behaviour in great detail.
These were meant to be followed by Brahamanas in particular and the rest of society in
general.
• These norms were compiled in Sanskrit texts known as Dharmasutras and
Dharmashastras; The most of such works, the Manusmriti, was compiled between c.
200 BCE and 200 CE.
• The Dharamasutras and Dharamashashtra recognized as many as eight forms of
marriage, the first four considered as “good” while the remaining were condemned.
• One Brahmanical practice, evident from c. 1000 BCE onwards, was to classify people
(especially Brahmanas) In terms of gotras.
• Each gotra was named after a Vedic seer, and all those who belonged to the same gotra
were regarded as his descendants. Iwo rules about gotra were particularly important:
women were expected to give up their father's gotra and adopt that of their husband on
marriage and members of the same gotra could not marry.
• Satavahanas rulers were identified through metronymics.
Sanskrit texts use the term kula to designate families and jnati for the larger network of kinfolk.
The term vamsha is used for lineage.
Patriliny means tracing descent from father to son, grandson and son on. Matriliny is the term
used when descent is traced through the mother.
Endogamy refers to marriage within a unit - this could be a kin group, caste, or a group living in
the same locality.
Exogamy refers to marriage outside the unit.
Polygyny is the practice of a man having several wives.
Polyandry is the practice of a woman having several husbands.
To justify their claims, Brahmans often cited a verse from a hymn in the Rigveda known as the
Purusha sukta, describing the sacrifice of Purusha, the primeval man.
The Brahmana was his mouth, of his arms was made the Kshatriya.
His thighs became the Vaishya, of his feet the Shudra was born.

SOCIAL DIFFERENCES; WITHIN AND BEYOND THE FRAMEWORK OF CASTE

• Term caste, which refers to a set of hierarchically ordered social categories. The ideal
order was laid down in the Dharmasutras, and Dharmashastras.
• While placing groups classified as Shudras and "untouchables" at the very bottom of the
social order. Positions within the order were supposedly determined by birth.
• The Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras also contained rules about the ideal
"occupations" of the four categories or varnas.
• Brahmans were supposed to study and teach the Vedas, perform sacrifices and get
sacrifices performed, and give and receive gifts.
• Kshatriyas were to engage in warfare, protect people and administer justice, study the
Vedas, get sacrifices performed, and make gifts.
• The last three "occupations" were also assigned to the Vaishyas, who were in addition
expected to engage in agriculture, pastoralism and trade.
• Shudras were assigned only one occupation - that of serving the three "higher" varnas.
• According to Shashtras, only Kshatriyas could be kings.
• The Shungas and Kanvas, the immediate successors of the Mauryas, were Brahmanas.
• Rulers such as Shakas, from Central Asia, were regarded as mlechchhas, barbarians or
outsiders by the Brahmanas.
• Rudradaman, the best-known Shaka ruler (c. second century CE), rebuilt Sudarshana
Lake.
• Best-known ruler of the Satavahana dynasty, Gotami-puta Siri-Satakani, claimed to be
both a unique Brahmana (eka bamhana) and a destroyer of the pride of Kshatriyas.
• The Satavahanas claimed to be Brahmanas, whereas according to the Brahmans, kings
ought to have been Kshatriyas.
• In Brahmanical theory, jati, like varna, was based on birth. However, while the number
of varnas was fixed at four, there was no restriction on the number of jatis. In fact,
whenever Brahmanical authorities encountered new groups - for instance, people living
in forests such as the nishadas or wanted to assign a name to occupational categories
such as the goldsmith or swarnakara.
• The inscriptions provide a fascinating glimpse of complex social processes and provides
insights into the nature of guilds or shernis.
• A Chinese pilgrim, Xuan Zang (c. seventh century), observed that executioners and
scavengers were forced to live outside the city.
• The Manusmriti laid down the “duties” of the chandalas.
Sanskrit texts and inscriptions used the term vanik to designate merchants.
Some historians suggest that the term rakshasa is used to describe people whose practices
differed from those laid down in Brahmanical texts.
Those who are proud of their birth and are ignorant do not deserve gifts. On the Contrary,
those who are free from vices are worthy of offerings.

BEYOND BIRTH RESOURCES AND STATUS

• Social differences between men and women were sharpened because of the
differences in access to resources.
• For men, the Manusmriti declares, there are seven means of acquiring wealth;
inheritance, finding, purchase, conquest investment, work and acceptance of gifts
from good people.
• According to the Brahmanical texts, another criterion (apart from gender) for
regulating access to wealth was varna.
• The Buddhists recognized that there were differences in society, but not regard
these as natural or inflexible. They also rejected the idea of claims to status on the
basis of birth.

EXPLAINING SOCIAL DIFFERENCES: A SOCIAL CONTRACT

• The Buddhists also developed an alternative understanding of social inequalities, and of

the institutions required to social conflict.
• In a myth found in a text known as the Sutta Pitaka they suggested that originally
human beings did not have fully evolved bodily forms, nor was the world of plants fully
developed.
• All beings lived in an idyllic state of peace, taking from nature only what they needed for
each meal.
• However, there was a gradual deterioration of this state as human beings became
increasingly greedy, vindictive and deceitful.

HANDLING TEXTS HISTORIANS AND THE MAHABHARATA

• The versions of the Mahabharata we have been considering is in Sanskrit (although

there are versions in other languages as well).
• Historians usually classify the contents of the present text under two board heads –
sections that contain stories, designated as the narrative, and sections that contain
prescriptions about social norms, designated as didactic.
• Didactic refers to something that is meant for purposes of instruction.
• The original story was probably composed by charioteer-bards known as sutas.
• From the fifth century BCE, Brahmanas took over the story and began to commit it to
writing.
• Between c. 200 BCE and 200 CE. This was the period when the worship of Vishnu was
growing in importance, and Krishna, one of the most figures of the epic, was coming to
be identified with Vishnu.

THEME 4 - THINKERS, BELIEFS AND BUILDINGS

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS (c. 600 BCE-600 CE)
A GLIMPSE OF SANCHI

• The most wonderful ancient buildings in the state of Bhopal are at Sanchi
Kanakhera.
• The rulers of Bhopal, Shahjehan Begum and her successor Sultan Jehan Begum,
provided money for the preservation of the ancient site.
• One of the most important Buddhist centers, the discovery of Sanchi has vastly
transformed our understanding of early Buddhism.
• The mid-first millennium BCE is often regarded as a turning point in world history: it
saw the emergence of thinkers such as Zarathustra In Iran Kong Zi in China. Socrates,
Plato and Aristotle in Greece, and Mahavira and Gautama Buddha, among many
others, in India.
• The early Vedic tradition, known from the Rigveda, compiled between c. 1500 and
1000 BCE. The Rigveda consists of hymns in praise of a variety of deities, especially
Agni, Indra and Soma. Many of these hymns were chanted when sacrifices were
performed, where people prayed for cattle, sons, good health, long life, etc.
• Rajasuya and Ashvamedha, were performed by chiefs and kings who depended on
Brahmana priests to conduct the ritual.
• Many ideas found in the Upanishads (c. sixth century BC onwards) show that people
were curious about meaning of life, the possibility of life after death, and rebirth.
• Debates took place in the Kutagarashala – literally, a hut with a pointed roof – or in
groves where travelling mendicants halted.
• Mahavira and Buddha, questioned the authority of the Vedas.
• The Buddha and other teachers taught orally through discussion and debate.
• None of the Buddha’s speeches were written down during his lifetime.
• After his death (c. fifth-fourth century BCE) his teachers were compiled by his
disciples at a council of “elders” or senior monks at Vesali (Pali for Vaishali in present
day Bihar).
• These compilations were known as Tipitaka.
• The Vinaya Pitaka includes rules and regulations.
• Buddha teachings were included in the Sutta Pitaka.
• Abhidhamma Pitaka dealt with philosophical matters.
• Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa were written containing regional histories of Buddhism.
• Buddhists texts were preserved in manuscripts for several centuries in monasteries
in different parts of Asia.

BEYOND WORLDLY PLEASURES THE MESSAGE OF MAHAVIRA

• Vardhamana, who came to be known as Mahavira in the sixth century BCE.

According to Jaina tradition Mahavira was preceded by 23 other teachers or
Tirthankaras - literally, those who guide men and women across the river of
existence.
 • The most important idea in Jainism is that the entire world is animated: even
stones, rocks and water have life. Non-injury to living beings, especially to
humans, animals, plants and insects, is central to Jaina philosophy.
• According to Jaina teachings, the cycle of birth and rebirth is shaped through
karma. Asceticism and penance are required to free oneself from the cycle of
karma. This can be achieved only by renouncing the world; therefore, monastic
existence is a necessary condition of salvation.
• Jaina monks and nuns took five vows: to abstain from killing, stealing and lying;
to observe celibacy; and to abstain from possessing property.
• Jaina scholars produced a wealth of literature in a variety of languages – Prakrit,
Sanskrit and Tamil.
• Earliest stone sculptures associated with religious traditions were produced by
devotees of the Jaina tirthankaras, and have been recovered from several sites
throughout the subcontinent.

THE BUDDHA AND THE QUEST FOR ENLIGHTMENT

• One of the most influential teachers of the time was the Buddha.
• Siddhartha, as the Buddha was named at birth, was the son of a chief of the Sakya clan.
• Buddha, he taught dhamma of the path of righteous living.
• Hagiography is a biography of a saint or religious leader. This often praise the saint’s
achievements.

THE TEACHINGS OF THE BUDDHA

• The Buddha’s teachings have been reconstructed from stories, found mainly in the Sutta
Pitaka.
• According to Buddhist philosophy, the world is transient (anicca) and constantly
changing; it is also soulless (anatta).
• Sorrow (dukkha) is intrinsic to human existence. It is by following the path of
moderation existence.
• It is by following the path of moderation between severe penance and self-indulgence
that human beings can rise above these worldly troubles.
• Buddha regarded the social world as the creation of humans rather than of divine origin.
• Buddha emphasized individual agency and righteous action as the means to escape from
the cycle and rebirth and attain self-realization and nibbana, literally the extinguishing
of the ego and desire.
• His last words; “Be lamps unto yourselves as all of you must work out your own
liberation".
 FOLLOWERS OF THE BUDDHA

• Initially, only men were allowed into the Sangha, but later women also came to be
admitted.
• Buddha’s foster mother, Mahapajapati Gotami was the first woman to be ordained as a
bhikkhuni.
• Once within the Sangha, all were regarded as equal.
• The importance attached to conduct and values rather than claims of superiority based
on birth, the emphasis placed on metta (fellow feeling) and karuna (compassion),
especially for those who were younger and weaker than oneself, were ideas that drew
men and women to Buddhist teachings.

STUPAS

• From earliest times, people tended to regard certain places as sacred.

• These included sites with special trees or unique rocks, or sites of awe-inspiring natural
beauty.
• These sites, with small shrines attached to them, were sometimes described as chaityas.
• Chaitya may also have been derived from the word chita, meaning a funeral pyre, and
by extension a funerary mound.
• Buddha, was born in Lumbini, where he attained enlightenment (Bodh Gaya), where he
gave his first sermon (Sarnath) and where he attained nibbana (Kusinagara).
• Buddha such as his bodily remains or objects used by him were buried there. These
were mounds known as Stupas.
• Ashokavadana, Asoka distributed portions of the Buddha’s relics to every important
town and ordered the construction of stupas over them.
• Bhikkhus and bhikkunis also contributed towards building these monuments.
• The stupa, originated as a simple semi-circular mound of Earth, later called anda.
• Above the anda was the harmika, a balcony like structure which represented the abode
of the gods.
• Arising from the harmika was a mast called the yashti, often surmounted by a chhatri or
umbrella.

“DISCOVERING” STUPAS THE FATE OF AMARAVATI AND SANCHI

• Amaravati was one of the largest and most magnificent Buddhist stupas over built. By
the 1850s, some of the slabs from Amaravati had begun to be taken to different places;
to the Asiatic Society of Bengal at Calcutta, to the India Office in Madras and some even
to London.
• Sanchi was discovered in 1818.
• The mahachaitya at Amaravati is now just an insignificant little mound, totally denuded
of its former glory.

SCULPTURE

• In some symbols, the empty seat was meant to indicate the meditation of Buddha, and
the stupa which represent the mahaparinibbana.
• This stood for the first sermon of the Buddha, delivered at Sarnath.
• Beautiful women swinging from the edge of the gateway, holding onto a tree.
• According to popular belief, this was a woman whose touch caused trees to flower and
bear fruit.
• Animals were often used as a symbol of human attributes. Elephants, for example, were
depicted to signify strength and wisdom.
• Another motif is that of a woman surrounded by lotuses and elephants which seem to
be sprinkling water on her as if performing and abhisheka or consecration.
• Maya, the mother of the Buddha, others identify her with a popular goddess,
Gajalakshmi (goddess of good fortune).
• One of the modern art historians, James Fergusson, considered Sanchi to be a center of
tree and serpent worship.

NEW RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS

• By the first century CE, there is evidence of changes in Buddhist ideas and practices.
Early Buddhist teachings had given great importance to self-effort in achieving nibbana.
• The concept of the Bodhisatta also developed. Bodhisattas were perceived as deeply
compassionate beings who accumulated merit through their efforts but used this not to
attain nibbana.
• This new way of thinking was called Mahayana – literally, the “great vehicle”. Those
who adopted these beliefs described the older tradition as Hinayana or the “lesser
vehicle”.
• Supporters of Mahayana regarded other Buddhists as followers of Hinayana. However,
followers of the older tradition described themselves as theravadins, that is, those who
followed the path of old, respected teachers, the theras.
• Vaishnavism (a form of Hinduism within which Vishnu was worshipped as the principal
deity) and Shaivism (a tradition within which Shiva was regarded as the chief god), in
which there was growing emphasis on the worship of a chosen deity.
• In the case of Vaishnavism cults developed around the various avatars or incarnations of
the deity. Ten avatars were recognized within the tradition. These were forms that the
 deity was believed to have assumed in order to save the world whenever it was
threatened by disorder and destruction because of the dominance of evil forces.
• Vishnu was one way of creating a more unified religious tradition.
• Shiva, for instance was symbolized by the linga, although he was occasionally
represented in human form too.
• Vasudeva-Krishna was an important deity in the Mathura region.
• The early temple was a small square room, called the garbhagriha, with a single
doorway for the worshipper to enter and offer worship to the image.
• A tall structure, known as the shikhara, was built over the central shrine.
• Temple walls were often decorated with sculpture.
• One of the unique features of early temples was that some of these were hollowed out
of huge rocks, as artificial caves.
• Kailashnatha Temple, Ellora (Maharashtra). This entire structure is carved out of a single
piece of rock.

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