ChAPTER 7 Rome and Its Empire

• See Map 6.4 for India.

• The religious fervor that swept through south Asia in the age of the Buddha and the Hindu revival can be seen in the cave temples carved out of solid stone at Ajanta in central India.

• The emergence of Buddhism and other popular religious alternatives in the 6th and 5th centuries b gave rise to the religious ferment that shaped all aspects of Indian life, including the art and architecture of Ajanta and Ellora.
• These monumental buildings, and particularly the exquisite sculptures and paintings they contain, also tell us a lot about the nature of society, everyday life, and popular culture, as well as the worldview and ambitions of those who lived in what many historians consider India's golden age.
• The rivalry between the major religious systems shows in the mixture of Buddhist shrines and monastic quarters and Hindu and Jain cave temples.
• The common adoption of rituals, objects of worship, and basic beliefs by the adherents of different Indian religions were mirrored by the blend of religions at Ajanta and Ellora.

• Some of the best illustrations we have of everything from Indian ships and styles of dress at different social levels to musical instruments and tools for farming and construction can be found in the wall paintings and stone-carved sculptures.
• Stone friezes on the walls of the shrines and temples show popular legends of the Buddha's life and path to enlightenment and the rich mythology that developed around the gods and goddesses.

• The kings and their consorts, brahman priests and Buddhist monks, workers and temple dancers portrayed in the Ajanta and El ora cave temples help us to visualize more than a few centuries of history that is covered in this chapter.
• The rise of Buddhism in the 6th century b.c.e.
• led to the fall of the brahman-dominated society in the Gangetic plains.
• The emergence of the Maurya dynasty was aided by Buddhism, but it was weakened by the decline of its empire.
• In the centuries after the demise of the Mauryas, there was an intense, although peaceful, competition between different schools of Buddhism.
• The rulers of the Gupta empire had patronage in north India from the 4th to the 6th century.

• By the middle of the first century b.c.e., the Indian social order was dominated by the Brahmans.

• After the fall of Harappa, the forces that made for the renewal of civilization in south Asia shifted their focus to the foothills of the Himalayas.
• The tribes of warrior-herders settled in the lush teachers and advisors.

• It was easier to clear the woods for farming than it was to clear the plains along the Ganges.
• In the hill regions, single tribes or confederations of tribal groups developed small states based on a combination of sed entary agriculture and livestock breeding.
• The hills surrounding a single large valley or several adjoining valley systems made up most of the territories of these states.
• The states were ruled by a council of the free warrior elite.
• Even though their offices and powers were more similar to tribal chiefs, individual leaders were usually called kings.

• They were elected or removed from office by the warriors' council.

• Traditional nomadic values and lifestyles were well suited to the hill republics.
• The warrior elites were kept busy at activities that brought them wealth and honor.

• I R M T S.

• The priests and gods were worshiped.

• They were expected to protect their kingdoms from invaders and internal social conflicts.
• Although, as the map lar epics and philosophical tracts, rulers were taught to revere the brahmans shows, the Mauryan monarchs claimed to rule most of present-day and follow their advice, to patronize public works, and to rule in ways that south Asia, much of

• The overthrow of evil rulers is supported by some passages in the ancient texts.

• The court intrigues and assaults of rival rulers that were common in the era of brahman dominance make it highly unlikely that monarchs who lived up to all these ideals would have survived.
• The sources suggest a darker side to kingship that may have been closer to the realities of the age.
• Kings were afraid of their thrones and lives.
• Rivals, including their own sons, threatened them.
• The pleasures of being a military commander were lost to people who had extensive use of spies, informers, and palace guards.

• Although most rulers of the kingdoms on the Ganges plains were members of the war rior elite, brahmans living at the court centers often exercised more real power.
• Their positions as the chief advi sors to the kings made them influential figures in the ruling circles.
• In a society where few could read or write, the brahmans were obvious candidates for administrative positions, from heads of bureaucratic departments to judges and tax collectors.
• The brahmans were the only ones who knew how to perform the sacred rituals needed to crown a new king.
• Without divine status a ruler's legitimacy was in doubt, because they alone knew the rites that confer it.
• Once the ruler was installed, brahman astrologers foretold his future and regulated his daily schedule, telling him when to make war or have relations with his wives.

• The power and prestige of the brahmans were linked to their ability to mediation between the gods and humans.
• The priests of the early Aryan invaders offered sacrifice to the gods and spirits, who were often involved in human affairs.
• By the 7th and 6th centu ries, the sacrifice had become more powerful than the gods.
• The god had no choice but to grant the wish of the petitioner if the sacrifice was done correctly.
• If the proper cer emony was conducted correctly, a king could ensure victory, a peasant village sufficient rain, or a barren woman fertility.
• Only the brahmans were allowed to read the sacred texts where the prayers and instructions for various types of sacrifice were set forth.

• The most frequently depicted court is the state administrators.

• South Indian people who had stopped enjoying the pleasures of the material world were portrayed as celestial dancers.
• Some of them were bronze.
• The position of the god's hands and the sorcerers, who believed in their objects held in them, each represent a different ability to tell fortunes and cast magic spells.
• All brahmans, from the palaces of kings to his power, may be destructive.
• Privileged beings, exempt from taxes and protected from his head, are held in the posture of injury by the harsh punishments imposed on those who dared to assault them.
• The left hand farthest away holds a lowing passage from an ancient religious text.
• It's not a drum, it's time.
• Not even kings were exempt from the horrible fate of the demon ofIgnorance, which seems to want to befell those who harmed a brahman, according to his left foot crush.

• The kingdom is broken up when a king seeks to devour a Brahman.

• There is a country in which a priest is not treated fairly.

• The ethical prescriptions found in the sacred Vedas shaped the daily lives of the peoples of south Asia, in addition to the power exercised by the brahmans and the services they provided.
• Between 1200 and 900 b.c.e., the brahman priests transmitted these texts.
• In the last centuries b.c.e., Sanskrit became the standard and scholarly language of India, similar to Greek and Latin in the West.
• From the chants and ritual formulas of the early Vedas, the texts were increasingly devoted to religious and philosophical speculation and moral prescriptions.
• As Indian civilization moved to even greater complexity, the context for further changes was provided by this highly religious culture.

• As full civilization took shape for the second time in Indian history, the rise of kings and brahman dominance were only two of many social changes that continued low social status.
• The towns around the court were susceptible to religiously centers of the lowland kings and grew up as servant, artisan, and merchant groups to cater to the needs of the rulers, their courtiers, and often large numbers of brahman advisors and administrators.

• Along the Ganga and other rivers, towns developed that were devoted to trade or the specialized manufacture of key products such as pottery, tools, and cotton textiles.
• Merchants and artisans became distinct social groups as a result of the increase in commerce and specialized production.
• The merchants were owed large sums of money by the larger trading houses in order to get a prominent place in the Indian social hierarchy.

• The peasantry was the most important social group in this period.
• As farm ing replaced herding as the basis for the economies of the lowland kingdoms, peasants came to make up a large percentage of India's population.
• Although they were dwarfed by rainforests throughout the classical era, mud-walled farming villages still spread across the plains of northern India.
• Irrigation networks and new agricultural tools have increased productivity and the ability to support larger numbers of nonfarming specialists.
• Most peasants grew staple crops such as rice, millet, and wheat, but some villages specialized in cotton, indigo, and sugar cane.

• The tribal social order of the early Aryan invaders had changed over the centuries because of the class division between warriors, priests, and commoners.
• The indians were particular to different regions in south Asia.
• They were arranged according to the caste hierarchy.

• Scholars and wandering holy men who avoided physical labor and refused to eat animal flesh were revered more for their purity than those who dealt with human waste or slaughtered animals.

• Most of the central and lower layers of the caste hierarchy were made up of artisan subgroup.

• The indian caste system is the most extreme example of a type of social organization that violates the most determined obligations and privileges of members of each revered principle.

• Classical Chinese and Greek societies provided exceptions to the general patterns of division between a freeperson and a slave.
• In China, people from a lowly caste system believe that their lot in life is determined by their families and well- placed families and that they can fall into poverty if they don't.
• The social systems of all other classical civilizations were presumed to be more stable than the rule and that people should be limited in their mobility.
• Chinese thinkers were content with the station they had been allotted at birth.

• Modern Western civilization has exported to the peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America through creation myths and religious beliefs.

• The importance of the estab is that a person's place in society should not be determined by social order but by personal duty to defend it.
• The actions and qualities were not challenged.
• The second is that there is an opportunity to rise.
• Each person or fall-in social status should be open to everyone and protected so they can focus on the law.
• The duties and obligations of that place are reflected in some of the most cherished myths, such as the idea that anyone can aspire to be president of the United States.
• Males and females alike were required to sub for example, or that an ordinary person has the right to chal ordinate their individual yearnings and talents to the needs of the politically and economically powerful.

• Human society has achieved equality, rather than something a person's acceptance of his or her place in the hierarchy would do.
• All humans are recipients of material sustenance and a social slot.
• The benefits of intelligence and talent were denied to people who fought the system.

• Modern societies would have been incomprehensible in the classical age.

• The Indians' reverence for cows, which may have been present in Harappan society, made the latter occupation particularly polluted.
• The untouch ables were divided into caste groups and the sweepers looked down on the manure handler who hated leatherworkers.

• The boundaries of caste groups hardened over time.
• The caste's position in the Indian social hierarchy was determined by its diet and the caste groups with which its members could eat and exchange food.
• The social groups with which members of a caste were allowed to marry and read the Vedas were determined by the caste's status.
• The popular merchants were allowed to read the sacred texts.

• A person can't change his or her caste status because he or she was born into a caste group.
• Individuals were tied to their caste's fortunes over time as a caste group could collectively rise or fall in status.
• The duties and status of the caste into which one was born could lead to beatings and other forms of physical abuse.
• This penalty usually meant death because no one, position or career could be determined by a member of the outcast's own family, and Hindu culture required drink or other services.

• The caste system was upheld by Indian rulers and they believed that occupation to the best was supernaturally ordained.
• One of the main duties of a righteous monarch was to preserve the ability of a person in order to have a caste hierarchy and ensure that people at each level do their jobs and behave in a better way in the future.

• For example, peasants provided food for the brahmans, who saw of Indian religious traditions that the to their religious and ritual needs, and for the warriors, who defended them from bandits and foreign souls of living creatures persisted in invaders.
• Brahmans and warriors returned ate share of wealth and power after enjoying a disproportion supernatural realm.
• In times of social crisis and natural calamity, the to remain with other humans or animals after death.

• It was widely accepted that a person's soul existed through many human lives and was in the next life.

• The merit and demerit are determined by the actions of the person in whose body they reside.
• The caste that the soul would be earned in previous lives was determined by a soul's karma.

• A person who was born as a brahman had a large surplus of merit, while a person who was born as a sweeper paid the penalty for the sins of their past lives.

• The only way to ensure a better situation in the next rebirth was to have the souls in the Upanishads accept one's situation in the present and perform the tasks that were given to them.

• The epic tales of honor, love, and social duty from classical India were not written down until the last centuries b.c.
• The extended family was seen as the ideal by the middle centuries of the last millennium.
• Those who could support a long time.

• From great-grandparents to their great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, lived in the same dwelling or family compound.

• These arrangements provided a high degree of security and human connection, even though they offered limited privacy and often led to family quarrels.
• Lower-caste groups can't afford to support extended households.
• Nuclear families, made up of parents and their children, were the most common Indian fami lie.

• The visions of the positions and roles of women in the epics suggest that attitudes toward women may have changed.
• Women were seen as weak, passionate, frivolous, and fond of gossip.
• Women were clearly subordi nated to men within the family.
• Although youths were expected to obey and honor their mothers, parental venera tion was focused on the father.
• The wives were told to be attentive to their husbands' needs and ready to obey their every command.
• Sita was chosen for her beauty and devotion to her husband.
• She followed when he was exiled in the forest.
• When she was taken away by the demon, Rama raced to defend himself and his honor.
• After saving her from the clutches of Ravanna, Rama refused to take her back because he suspected that she had been raped.
• He wouldn't accept her as his wife until she proved her virtue by walking through a fire unscathed.
• The fate of women was controlled by men throughout both epics.

• Women in the epics were depicted as cunning and strong- willed.
• Courage and strength of character were displayed by them.
• Women who were renowned scholars of the sacred Vedic texts were not allowed to read them.
• Although the last two activities were not highly esteemed, women in this era made their mark as teachers, poets, musicians, and artists.
• Girls from high-caste families were allowed to go to the special ceremonies that celebrated their twice-born or exalted status, an honor boys continued to enjoy after it died out for young women.
• The palace guards of several monarchs demonstrated the martial arts skills of women.

• A new civilization came into being around 1000 years after the first Aryan tribes entered India.
• Sedentary agriculture was productive enough to support a variety of specialized elites and true cities.
• The most complex scheme of social stratification and labor division in human history was developed by the Indians in the caste system.
• Notable accomplishments in artistic creativity and religious speculation were made by them.

• Although most of the artwork was done in wood, the thought of the age has been transmitted through extensive Sanskrit texts such as the Vedas and the great Indian epics.
• Krishna counsels Arjuna, one of the great warriors of the epic, as he prepares for battle.

• To action alone hast a right and never at all to its fruit, and neither should there be any attachment to action.

• The winner of wealth should abandon attachment with an even mind in success and failure, for evenness of mind is called yoga.

• The wise who have united their intelligence with the Divine, renouncing the fruits which their action yields and freed from the bonds of birth, reach the sorrowless state.

• The religious, philosophical, and artistic creativity that occurred in south Asia in the last centuries b.c.e.
• were preceded by the great achievements of the brahmanic age.
• The succession of wars between the kings they advised, the self-serving dominance of the brahmans, and the religious bankruptcy displayed by the cults all prompted major challenges.
• Between 500 b.c.e.
• and the millennium, these challenges and brahman responses enriched Indian civilization.

• In the late 6th century b.c.e., numerous chal enges to the brahmanical order emerged in the teachings order that had developed in and practices of a diverse range of religious figures.
• The migrations into India were questioned by some outsiders.

• They posed questions about the nature of the universe and the goals of life, and they often came up with very different answers.
• Some tried out new techniques of meditation and self-mortification, while others promoted new religions that would free the mass from the oppressive teachings of the brahmans.
• The most globally influential religious and philosophical breakthrough of an age of remarkable intellectual ferment was made by the Buddha.

• The Making of a religious Teacher Accounts of the Buddha's life are cluttered with myths and miracles that it is difficult to know what kind of man he actually was and what message he originally preached.
• We are pretty sure that he lived from the mid 6th century to the second decade of the 5th century b.c.e.
• The rule of kings and the hold of the brahmans was weak in one of the warrior clans of the hill states south of the Himalayas.
• He was the son of the local ruler who was haunted by a prophecy made by a religious seer at the time of the Buddha's birth, according to Buddhist traditions.

• The king gave his son every imaginable human pleasure and comfort in order to prevent this.
• The prince was curious about the world beyond the palace walls.
• For the first time in his life, the Bud dha encountered illness, old age, death, and a wandering ascetic when he ventured into the nearby countryside with the aid of a trusted servant.
• The prince became withdrawn after he encountered human suffering.
• The holy man had predicted that he would abandon all claims to succeed his father as king and set off with a group of wandering ascetics.

• He con the Guptas, did yogic exercises, fasted almost to death, and chanted sacred prayers.

• The legend says that the Buddha collapsed because he was discouraged by his failure to find the answer to the questions that had driven him to take up the life of a wandering ascetic.
• The Buddha was saved from death by the care of a young woman.
• He achieved enlightenment by disciplining his mind and body and discovering the Four Noble Truths.

• The Buddha believed that all living things experience suffering because they are attached to objects that are permanent.
• He reasoned that we begin to die when we are born.
• Love and friendship can be ended by death if one loves or befriends someone.
• Attachments to the il usory and impermanent things of the world are the source of suffering.

• The only way to escape suffering is to stop wanting the things of the world and realize that your sense of self is part of the illusion.
• The eight-step process that includes right action, thinking, and meditation can be used to achieve enlightenment.
• The individual is freed from suffering once enlightenment has been attained.

• The Buddha set out to spread his message to all humanity because of his great compassion for all living creatures.
• He was the most successful of the many seers who traveled through the hill and lowland kingdoms in this era, some of whom challenged the teachings of the brahmans and offered alternative modes of worship.
• The Buddha gained a large follow ing which included both men and women.
• His followers turned his teachings into a religion.
• One of the great salvationist faiths of all time was a pessimistic and antiworldly vision of existence, without gods or the promise of an eternal paradise.

• The Buddha was worshiped as a deity in the form of sculptures after his death.
• The monks who devoted their lives to spreading his message were his most faithful disciples.
• They held conferences in which they tried to gather information about his life.
• There were disagreements over points of doctrine at these sessions.
• Rival schools of monks vied with each other and formed sects to build a following.

• The rival schools created elaborate systems.
• The monks stressed more accessible aspects of the new religion in order to attract a broader following.

• They told stories of the Buddha's life, which included traditions that his mother had been a virgin and that he had been visited by scholars soon after his birth.
• The popular mind equates nirvana with heaven.
• The tortures of hell became a central feature of popular Buddhism.
• The faithful used to worship the Buddha as a Savior who would come back to help them find their way to heaven.
• Buddhist monks continued their emphasis on meditation and the achievement of nirvana, but lay people were encouraged to perform good acts that would earn them enough merit for their souls to go to one of the Buddhist heavens after death.

• The religious beliefs and caste system were criticized by many philosophers.
• The Buddha was the most successful at winning converts.
• The monks and monastic organizations provided a viable alterna tive to the brahman priesthood as centers of scholarship, education, and religious ritual, and often directly opposed the beliefs that the brahmans championed.
• The Buddha did not accept the teachings of the Vedas as the ultimate authority on all issues, despite the fact that he retained the ideas of karma and reincarnation.
• He ridiculed the powers the brahmans claimed to have.
• He preferred self-mastery over ritual.
• He struck at the heart of the brahmans' social and religious dominance.

• The Buddha rejected the lifestyles of both the brahmans who had become addicted to worldly power and the brahman ascetics who practiced extreme forms of bodily mortification.
• The caste system was an aim that he tried to do away with.
• The Buddha taught that women were capable of attaining nirvana and accepted them as his followers.
• Provisions for the communities of nuns were included in Buddhist monastic organizations.
• We have evidence that shows monastic life was a fulfilling career for women in India.
• In an era when educational and other occupational opportunities for women were more limited, this outlet was doubly meaningful.

• Intellectual and social ferment swept northern India in the 6th century b.c.e.
• This was an important case of direct contact between two civiliza tion areas during the classical period.
• Alexander began his last major campaign of conquest when his armies crossed the Hindu Kush into India.
• Although his incursions began well, the ultimate retreat of his armies showed that his rapidly built empire was overextended and Indian forces were among the most formidable he faced in his many campaigns.
• His armies won a number of battles against the people in the upper Indus valley.

• Alexander's troops proved more than a match for the war chariots, archers, and cavalry of his Indian adversaries.
• After the surprise wore off, his veteran soldiers were able to deal with the elephants that had frightened their horses.

• Alexander had a passion for further conquests.
• His soldiers, weary of endless battles and fearful of the stiffening resistance of Indian princes, refused to go further east.
• Alexander agreed to lead his forces out of India.
• The people who survived an epic march through the desert went back to Persia in 324 b.c.e.
• Alexander's death left his Indian conquests to be fought over by his commanders.

• Alexander's invasion of India's northwest resulted in the loss of territory to several Greek rulers.
• It stimulated trade between India and the Mediterranean region.
• The flow of Greek ideas to India and the impact of Indian thinking on religious movements in the Mediterranean were of particular importance.
• Indian philosophers owe a lot to Greek philosophers and the mystery religions that swept the eastern Mediterranean around the birth of Christ.
• The combination of Indian and Greek styles led to a school of sculpture that was both distinctive and influential in shaping approaches to the depiction of the Buddha.
• Greek physical features and artistic techniques were combined with Indian motifs.

• The beginning of the decline of Buddhism in the 3rd century b.c.e.
• was due to the changes in religious practices and brahman interaction with other Indian social groups.

• The most lasting effects of Alexander's invasion were the military and political.

• Chandragupta embarked on a sustained campaign to build a great empire after his original base was on the Ganges plain.
• The empire was founded by the founder of the Maurya dynasty.

• He ruled from a palace that was carved and decorated.
• In the 4th century b.c.e., a dynasty was established in himself and on state occasions sat on a high throne above hundreds of his Indian subcontinent.
• He was guarded by a corps of Amazons.

• The food was tasted by servants to make sure it wasn't poisonous.

• The political treatise was written during the reign to allow the king to move about the palace undetected.
• He tried to replace regional lords with his and scientific forms of warfare and built a standing army that Greek writers estimated use of spies and assassins at 500,000.

• The duties must be punished harshly.

• It is little wonder that Chandragupta and his successors quickly conquered the Indian subcontinent, converting it to a vast empire that included all of south Asia but the southern tip.

• The Mauryan Empire was extended to the east along the Ganges plains by Buddhism and the spread of new religion.

• Bindusara was a highly cultured man, but little is known about him.
• He once asked for wine, figs, and a philosopher from a Greek ruler in western Asia.

• The Greeks did not trade in philosophers.

• Ashoka's reign as one of the great periods in Indian history was marked by a lack of wisdom and toler ance in the early years of his rule.
• He eliminated several of his brothers in a bloody struggle to win the throne.
• Ashoka was both impetuous and bad-tempered according to contemporary Buddhist sources.
• One example of Ashoka's brutal excesses was his insistence that a woman from his harem be put to death for being ugly.
• He was delighted in conquest until he saw the horrible sufferings caused by his conquest in eastern India.
• His conversion to Buddhism was the result of that experience and regret.

• Ashoka worked to serve his people and promote their welfare after his conversion.
• He used his money to build roads, hospitals, and rest houses and to encourage vegetarianism in order to reduce the slaughter of animals in his kingdom.
• His attempts to curb the slaughter of cows, either for sacrifice or for food, were important.
• The sacred status that this animal attained in Indian civilization was contributed to by these efforts, in con junction with a long-standing reverence for cattle that reached back to the Harappan era.

• The influence of Buddhism on Ashoka's personal life spilled over into the events surrounding the Buddha's life or his state policy.
• The symbols associated with his teachings were displayed.
• Ashoka, the great dome ruler spreading peace and good government, tried to build a white covered dirt mound that would be used as a base for an imperial bureaucracy that would enforce his laws and sanctions against was painted white and it struck approaching pilgrims as a great war and animal slaughter.
• He tried to establish a cloud on the horizon.

• Ashoka's efforts were supported by 1000 MILES and artisans.

• The orders of Buddhist monks increased in wealth and membership as a result of the generous patronage of 1000 KILOMETERS.
• It took less than two centuries to support the Buddhist alternative.
• China and Japan strengthened the position of the family after the missionaries carried the Buddhist faith from central Asia to Sri Lanka.

• The spread of great monastery complexes throughout the subcontinent was one of the signs of the Buddhist surge under Ashoka and his successors.
• Most of the monasteries were made of wood and were destroyed by invaders.
• Most of the freestanding stupas were covered with mounds of dirt.
• The shrines and monasteries, such as those at Ajanta pictured and discussed at the beginning of the chapter, were more technically impressive.

• Ashoka's dedication to Buddhism resulted in his efforts to spread the faith beyond the Indian subcontinent.
• He sent missions to Sri Lanka to the south and to the Himalayan kingdoms to the north, as well as one led by one of his sons.
• Establishing Buddhism in each region was important because the converted rulers and monks in these areas were instrumental in spreading the religion to the rest of Asia.
• Buddhism was brought to many parts of southeast Asia from Sri Lanka.
• It was carried into Tibet, China, and the rest of east Asia from Nepal and central Asia.

• The two lions that were established by bears did not survive his death.
• He was owed the throne by the rulers.

• The sculpture obscures the other two lions because the empire was divided between rival claims within the Maurya household and the local lords who attempted to reestablish the many kingdoms.
• The sculpture was absorbed into the empire.
• The Mauryan Empire ceased to exist by 185 b.c.e.

• Ashoka used the lions as the emblem of his rule after political instability returned to the subcontinent.

• Stone shrines built to house pieces of bone or hair are said to be relics of the Buddha.

• After the fall of the Mauryan dynasty, the influence of Buddhism in its largely peaceful Buddhism in Indian society became vulnerable to rivalry with Brahmanism.
• The rise of huge monasteries was the result of Buddhist monks becoming more and more concentrated in trend.
• The monks grew obsessed with fine and the consolidation of the points of philosophy that had little or no relevance to ordinary believers.
• Buddhism in India did not have a sequence of family and life-cycle rituals or folk festivals that Western scholars could interact with.
• They focused their services on wealthy Hindus who donated to the monasteries.
• The support made the rounds to collect religious and social order.

• They stressed the importance of personal worship and small, everyday offerings of food and prayers to the gods.
• The rate of increase from the last centuries.
• Hinduism emphasized intense devotion to gods, who were seen as manifestations of one divine developed from the blend of essence.
• Certain gods were revered by certain popular polythesistic cults and occupational groups, such as the elephant-headed, pot-bellied deity who was favored by mysticism.

• Temples sprang up to house the many statues that were worshiped as the gods.
• Devotional cults were open to everyone at all levels, including the untouch personification of the Cosmic forces of ables.
• At times, women were allowed to be cult poets and singers.

• The role the brahmans played in the everyday Hindu god of sacrifice was enlarged by these occasions.
• Hinduism absorbed salvationist Buddhism.

• The brahmans allowed their followers to worship the Buddha as a form of Vishnu, a god of the Hindu pantheon.

• The release of the soul from the endless cycle of rebirths was stressed in the later books of the Vedas.
• The means by which this was achieved were moderate asceticism and meditation.
• The orthodox Hindu schools taught that the soul was real and its ultimate purpose was to restore religious harmony with the universal divine essence from which it had come.

• The world was an extension of a single reality that encompassed everything.

• Buddhism in India was weakened by economic changes that altered the social circumstances that favored the new religion.
• The fall of the Han Empire in the 3rd century c.e.
• was critical to the decline of the Rome-China trading axis.
• It made large-scale traders more dependent on local kings and warrior households, which were the main allies of the brahmans, and it undermined the position of merchant groups that had been major patrons of Buddhism.

• The pattern of trade in the ancient eurasian World was related to the great expan centuries b.c.e.
• and included much of the trade between the main centers.

• Exchange developed from Rome and the Mediter Chinese silks and porcelains were carried the entire length of the ranean Sea to China and Japan.
• The trading networks that made the network to be sold in markets at the other edge, in Rome, included both those established between ports con example.
• High-priced luxury goods such as spices and exchanges were usually carried over the great dis nected by ships and sea routes.

• By the last centuries b.c.e., a vibrant oceanic trading system was in place across the Afro-Eurasian continents, and the Indian subcontinent was central as a producer and consumer in this vast network of contact and exchange.

• The map provides an overview of the great trading network in the 3rd century b.c.e.

• The main centers of production, the goods exported overland and overseas, and the main direc tions of trade in these products are shown.

• The Dynasty that succeeded the supporters of Hinduism sealed the fate of Buddhism in India.
• One of the Buddhist's demise was gradual and only occasionally accelerated by violent persecution.
• After the fall of the Guptas in north India and the Hindu kingdoms in the south, the Mauryas in the 3rd century lost their Buddhist strength.

• Under Ashoka, Mauryas had.

• The Guptas brought peace and prosperity to a large part of north India.

• The brahmans' roles as sanctifiers and advisors to kings were restored after the family's rise to power.
• The princes of the imperial court and the sons of local notables became more prominent than the Gupta emperors in the area controlled by the brahmans.

• The ruler lavishes presents on brahmans that are linked to the court.

• With their power base and sources of patronage restored, brahman priests, poets, scholars, and patrons of the arts became the driving force behind an era of splendid achievement in literature, music, art, architecture, and the natural sciences.

• The great temples that rose above the rapidly growing urban centers were the most dramatic expressions of the Hindu resurgence.
• The temples helped spur urban growth.

• Merchants, artisans, servants, and laborers migrated to the towns where the temples were located to serve the growing number of pilgrims who journeyed to the sacred sites.
• The stone gateways and sanctuary towers were carved to honor the Hindu gods and goddesses.
• In eastern and South India, the temple towers teemed with sculptures of deities and friezes of their exploits; with animals, which were often the vehicles or manifestations of major gods or goddesses; and with humans engaged in all manner of activities, including sexual intercourse.

• The ancient Greeks valued the accurate representation of Hindu art more than the symbolism.
• The god or goddess depicted in the sculpture stood for more than one thing, including creation, destruction, fertility, and death.

• The rise of the Gupta dynasty initiated one of the great ages of Indian literary achievement.
• In the Gupta period and the centuries that followed, many of the great classics of Sanskrit, the sacred and classical Indian language, and Tamil, one of the major languages of the south, were written.

• The poet Kalidasa lived in a time when Gupta power was at its peak.
• He provided vivid pictures of life in the Gupta age in his poems.

• The smoke of incense from open windows will cause your body to grow fat.

• The palace peacocks will welcome you with a dance.

• The pavement is marked with red dye from the feet of women.

• The nature of time, space, and causality were written by Hindu scholars in the classical era.
• Many of the arguments contained in these works are similar to those found in modern science.
• The era of the Hindu revival was a time of great Indian achievement in mathematics and sciences.
• The Hindu resurgence of the early centuries was associated with them.

• Most human societies use the temple as the core of the system of numbers.

• The streets of Madura, one of the oldest cities in India, are called "Arabic" because they were built in We in the "West" and symbolizing the structure merchants and scholars came to be known and used in Europe.

• Major discoveries in medicine were made by Indians.
• Hospitals, surgical techniques, and sophisticated treatments for a variety of illnesses were developed by them.

• The caste divisions grew more complex and were offset to some extent by the different areas in the subcontinent.
• The caste system has become more rigid and the dress styles of men have become harsher and more pervasive.
• In some areas, untouchables were able to warn high-caste groups that they were in danger of being polluted by clapping sticks together or shouting.
• The untouchable was required to leave the road and levels if he tried to exert over women.

• The untouchables were not allowed to worship in the temples used by other caste groups, and they were not allowed to use any wells.
• They were separated from the rest of the towns and rural villages.

• The Hindu law states that women are considered to be minor and subject to the supervision of Women in Classical India.

• The fact that large dowries were required to arrange marriages with suitable spouses meant that girls were seen as an economic liability.
• Female infants were killed to save families from financial ruin.

• Men were in charge of the women's lives.
• The document box states that a young woman was raised to defer to her husband and respond to his wishes.

• Establishing alliances between families was the main purpose of marriages.
• The groom and bride had little say in the arrangement.
• Child marriages were common among the upper castes.
• Young girls left their homes to live with their hus bands' families.
• If the literature from this and later periods is any indication, their mothers-in-law was often bossy and critical in their new households.
• A young girl's place in the new household depended on her ability to bear sons, who would care for her in old age.
• A woman whose husband died before she had a son was doomed to live in the remote corners of the family compound.
• Women who have sons were not to be looked at.
• They weren't allowed to remarry or go out alone because of the memory of their dead husbands.

• Only marriage was open to women.
• A single woman was seen as an economic liability and a stain on her family's honor.
• The possibility of becoming a nun diminished as the Buddhist monasteries shrunk.
• A woman needs to become a courtesan in order to establish some degree of independence.

• Courtesans, who are sometimes celebrated in the literature of this period, could become well educated, acquire wealth, and find outlets for their talents.
• They could not hope to have social respectability or raise families of their own because they were far above the prostitutes.
• Courtesans depended on the tastes and preferences of men who dominated all aspects of interaction between the sexes in the Gupta age.

• Although women were limited in career options and largely confined to the home, life for those of the upper castes had its rewards, at least once a woman had established her place in her husband's fam ily by having sons.
• They were entertained by swings, games, and wandering musicians at periodic festivals and in their own compounds.
• They enjoyed one of the world's great cuisines while dressed in silks and fine cottons.
• The very wealthy were given the place of honor to which their caste entitled them when they ventured away from the family compound.

• The men from the upper castes were well-off.
• The ideal Hindu life was established in this era for men only and they were expected to experience the four stages.
• It was written by sons of well-to-do families.
• Vatsayana's work contains detailed instructions for higher-caste males, including on virtually all aspects of the good life for the wealthy young man.
• There are suggestions for grooming, hygiene, etiquette, grooming and hygiene, as well as advice on the best way selection of wives, and lovemaking.

• Young men were expected to come to marriage knowledgeable in the ways of love, but young women who were not virgins were disgraced and unmarriageable.

• The student was expected to become a householder and a faithful husband in the second stage of life.
• Preserving or adding to the family fortune was a major task in this phase of life, and bearing sons to perform one's funeral rites and continue the family line was essential.
• At some point in middle age, the householder was supposed to leave his family and go to the forest to join the hermits in meditation.
• The upper-caste man was expected to become a wandering holy man in his final years, dependent on the charity of others.
• Few men advanced beyond the householder stage.
• The Gupta age shows that religion and society can accommodate scholar ship, bodily denial, and meditation as valid paths to self-fulfillment.

• A bride doesn't need anything else.
• Remember his advice in the early centuries.
• The play is called a Shakuntala.

• Cinderella-style tale about a beautiful young woman, Shakuntala, I belong here, Father.

• Don't worry, my child; you are well-off.

• She was instructed by her He is noble and great to join her husband at his palace.

• As the East gives us light, you will give him a son.

• The pain of separation will go away.

• Be friendly with the ladies of the palace.

• No matter what happens, never be angry with your husband.

• Be humble in everything.

• For most Indian peasants, artisans, and sweepers at the lower levels of the caste system, the pleasures of upper-caste youths or the life of a wandering holy man were not available.
• Most Indians worked hard and lived a boring life.
• Most of them spent their lives serving their caste superiors.
• Women at the lower-caste levels were able to buy and sell in the local market.
• They didn't have ser vants to do many household chores and had to do backbreaking farming tasks.

• There were small pleasures.
• Low-caste groups could attend temple festivals, watch dances, and dramatics, and risk their meager wages in dice games or betting on roosters specially bred to fight with each other.
• In an age when India was one of the most fertile and productive regions on the planet, it is likely that all the ordinary people lived in the world.

• Despite the decline of long-distance trade with China and Rome, the Indian economy continued to grow.
• The trading cities on the east and west coasts and the southern seaports have become more important for leadership in international commerce.
• Strong trading links were maintained with kingdoms in Sri Lanka and throughout southeast Asia, which were influenced by Indian cultural exports.
• India became the pivot of the great Indian Ocean trading network that stretched from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf in the west to the South China Sea in the east until the age of European overseas expansion in the 16th century.
• India was known as a land of great wealth and many religions by the time of the Guptas.
• A Chinese Buddhist, Fa-hsien, was on a pilgrimage to India.
• They don't have to register with the police.
• There isn't a death penalty.

• In south Asian culture, large Gupta Decline and a return to Political breasts are standard forms of feminine beauty.

• There ismentation in many cases to be a goddess.
• The well-conditioned figures of female dancers may have been reflected in the stylized physical features.
• The Guptas held onto the collection of the Gupta era for nearly 250 years, and they were a prominent vassal kingdoms that they passed off as an empire.
• There are signs of a future danger feature of major court centers and large temple complexes in the northwest.

• The Gupta rulers failed to crush resistance from their vassals and challenges from states to the south of the Gupta domain because of the growing threat on their northern frontier.
• By the middle of the century, Gupta's attempts to hold back Hun invaders were faltering.
• A flood of nomadic invaders broke into the able rulers of the Gupta dynasty.
• After Gupta's late 5th-century reign, the empire dissolved into a patchwork of local kingdoms and warring states as a result of their pillaging and widely dispersed assaults.
• The Delhi Sultanate was established in the early pressure of nomadic invasions.

• In the 13th century, northern India was divided and vulnerable to outside invasions.

• Civilization was critical in China.
• Laozi proposed a different view of the proper role in trade with these regions, and Indian merchants played a key role in that.

• In Persia, Indian religions and epics, art and architecture, and concepts of Zoroaster founded a new religion, while in Palestine the prophets kingship sparked the rise of centralized states and complex societ.
• In Cambodia and the kingdom Pythagoras, the writings of Thales and Angkor Wat laid the groundwork for the advancement of Majapahit.
• India was caught up in the ranean Indian influences that were felt in areas as diverse as artistic transcontinental trend of social experimentation and intellectual techniques.
• Christianity was affected by influ more than any classical civilization.

• Most of the Eastern Hemisphere would eventually be encompassed by the brahman-dominated civilization.

• Indian merchants and sailors would carryogy and prosperous urban centers throughout the Indian Ocean and to the emporiums of the ond in size only to that of China through much of human history.

• The period dominated by the Mauryas in between saw the spread of the Mountains.
• Buddhism was one of the most well-known religions in the world in this era, as literature came to enrich and at times spur major changes.