STORY OF THE THIRD TRIBE part 2

STORY OF THE THIRD TRIBE
 part 2

DARK AGES 
during the time 
of the lost civilization of the roman empire

THE STORY OF THE THIRD TRIBE
 Across the wide plains of Northern India, attempting to re-people it with the men of olden time, historical insight fails us at about the seventh century during the fall ofRome resulted to decadence.. Almost everything in the known world  stopped...
there were no more business dealings,Most of the people live smal communities.. because most of the large towns an cities were destroyed by the barbarians.... No more schools.. almost all people became ignorant  The only remaining instituion that kepp the people moving were the churches.  Most people live arond the church....This was what happened in the west

BUT INTHE EASTERNWORLD   LIFE CONTINUED 
THROUGH THE ARABS 0 BY THE ABBASID DYNASTY OF BAGHDAD


THEN CHINA STARTED ITS CIVILIZATION FOLLOWED BY INDIA....
 the World was still there, though, at the time,  far back as B.C. 2000, the voices of Aryans who have lived and died are still to be heard


The Punjâb floods unbroken to the very foot of the hills, may gain from it an idea of the wide ocean whose tide undoubtedly once broke on the shores of the Himalayas.

 The same eye may follow in fancy the gradual subsidence of that sea, the gradual deposit of sand, and loam brought by the great rivers from the high lands of Central Asia. It may rebuild the primeval huts of the first inhabitants of the new continent--those first invaders of the swampy haunts of crocodile and strange lizard-like beasts--but it has positively no data on which to work. The first record of a human word is to be found in the earliest hymn of the Aryan settlers when they streamed down into the Punjâb.

 It is not only that these Aryan invaders were themselves in a state of civilisation which necessarily implies long centuries of culture, of separation from barbarians; but besides this, they found a people in India civilised enough to have towns a disciplined people, who invented tools; women whose ornaments were of gold, poisoned arrows whose heads were of some metal that was iron.

 All this, and much more, is to be gathered in the  aboriginal inhabitants of India. Naturally enough, as inevitable foes, they are everywhere mentioned with abhorrence,  with the impression of a "tawny race who utter fearful yells."

 Who, were these people?


 Certain it is that for long centuries the reddish or tawny Dâsyas managed to resist the white-skinned Aryas, so that even ain the great war of  Mâhâbhârata--that is, some thousand years later than --they struggle was still going on. n those days the Aryan Pandâvas dispossessed an aboriginal dynasty from the throne of Magadha. The new  dynasty belonged to the mysterious Nâga or superior Serpent race, and they followed  the path of Alexander's invasion of India found some satrapies still held by the remnants of the Seleucids

 It is impossible,  to avoid wondering whether the Aryans really found the rich plains of India a howling wilderness peopled by savages close in culture to the brutes, or whether, in parts of the vast continent at least, they found themselves pitted against another invading race, a barbarians whodestroyed the ARoman Empire  the Goths, Simmerians Dacians the Huns from the north-east as the Aryan hails from north-west?

 So the story is told. These Dâsyas, "born to be cut in twain," have yet the audacity to have different dogma, conflicting canons of the law. Even in those early days religion was the great unfailing cause of living.



 THE TIME OF MAHABRATA

B.C. 2000 TO B.C. 1400

 "Land of the Five Rivers," iNDIA rivers were counted as seven. That is to say, the Indus was called the mother of the six--not five--streams which, as now, joined its vast volume. In those days this juncture was most probably in comparatively close proximity to the sea. Of these six rivers only five remain: the Jhelum, the Chenâb, the Râvi, the Beâs, the Sutlej. The bed of the sixth river, the "most sacred, the most impetuous of streams," which was worshipped as a direct manifestation of Sarâswati, the Goddess of Learning, is still to be traced near Thanêswar, where a pool of water remains to show where the displeased Plunged into the earth and dispersed herself amongst the desert sands.

 The stream never reappears; but its probable course is yet to be traced by the colonies of Sarâswata Brahmans, who still preserve, more rigidly than other Brahmans, the archaic rituals of the Vedas. The reason for this purity of rite being, it is affirmed, the grace-giving quality of Mother Sarâswati's water which, with curious quaint cries, is drawn in every village from the extraordinarily deep wells (many of which plunge over 400 feet into the desert sand), at whose bottom the lost river still flows.

 Into this Land of the Seven Rivers, then, came---wanderers who describe themselves as of a white complexion. That they had straight, well-bridged noses is also certain. To this day, as Mr Risley the great ethnologist puts it, "a man's social status in India varies in inverse ratio to the width of his nose"; that is to say, the nasal index, as it is called, is a safe guide to the amount of Aryan, as distinguished from aboriginal blood in his veins. One constant epithet given to the great cloud-god Indra--to whom, with the great fire-god Agni, the vast majority of the hymns in the Rig-Veda are addressed--is "handsome-chinned." But the Sanskrit word sipra, thus translated "chin," also means "nose"; and there can be no doubt that as the "handsome-nosed" one, Indra would be a more appropriate god for a people in whom, that feature was sufficiently marked to have impressed itself, as it has done, on countless generations

 When the Aryans came a matter still under dispute. That they were a comparatively civilised people is THAN THE DâsyasTHEY TOOK TO ORGANIZE THE NATIVES  , of the cultivation of corn, of ploughing, and sowing, and reaping.

 

Practically Indian agriculture has gone FOR THE NEXT   four thousand years.

 Aryan wanderings before India was reached. One of them begins thus: "Oh! Pushan, the Path-finder, help us to finish our journey!"

 Many kinds of grain were cultivated, but the chief ones seem to have been wheat and barley. Rice is not mentioned. Animals of all sorts were sacrificed, and their flesh eaten; and as we read of slaughter-houses set apart for the killing of cows, we may infer that the Aryan ancestors of India were not strict vegetarians

 It appears to have been the fermented juice of some asclepiad plant which was mixed with milk. The plant had to be gathered on moonshiny nights, and many ceremonials accompanied its tituration, and the expressing of its sap

 So the ancient Aryan rises to the mind's eye as a big, stalwart, high-nosed, fair-skinned man, with a smile and a liking for exhilarating liquor, who, after long wanderings with his herds over the plains of Central Asia--where, reading the stars at night, he sang as he watched his flocks to Pushan the Path-finder--looked down one day from the heights of the Himalayas over a fair expanse of new-born land by the ripples of a receding sea, and found that it was good.

 So for many a long year he lived, fighting, ploughing, and praying--.

 Yet the religious feeling of these primitive Aryans was not all tinged by doubt, by sadness; some of their hymns to the Dawn breathe the spirit of deep joy which is in those who recognise,

 

 

ABOUT B.C. 1400 TO ABOUT B.C. 1000

 The area of India which has now to be considered is much larger. Oudh, Northern Behar, and the country about Benares are comprised in it; but Southern India remains as ever, unknown, even if existent.

 Even the remaining  Yajur, the Sâma and the Athârva, partake around the -Sanhita , there grew up  called Brahmânas,became archaic under the pressure of a greater complexity in life

 Brahmânas are but a barren field. Full of elaborate hair-splitting, cumbered with elaborate regulations for the performance of every rite; prolix, prosy, they reflect only a religion which was fast breaking down into canonical pomposity. It is true that towards the end of the Epic period matters improved a little, and in the teachings of the Ûpanishads--last of the so-called "revealed Scriptures" of India--we find a very different note; but as these seem to belong, by right of birth, more to the Philosophical period which follows on the Epic, we will reserve them for subsequent consideration

 

strong tribe called Bhâratas or Kurus who had settled near Delhi did for long years struggle with another strong tribe called the Panchâlas, who had settled near Kanauj, is more than likely. With this background, then, of truth, the story of the Mâhâbhârata is a fine romance, and throws incidentally many a side-light on Hindu society in these remote ages. But it is prodigiously long. In the only full English translation which exists it runs to over 7,500 pages of small type. Anything more discursive cannot be imagined. The introduction of a single proper name is sufficient to start an entirely new story concerning every one who was ever connected with it in the most remote degree. But it is a treasure house of folk-lore and folk tales, interspersed, quaintly, by keen intellectual reasonings on philosophical subjects, and still more remarkable efforts to pierce the great Riddle of the World by mystical speculations. It is, emphatically, in every line of it, fresh to the uttermost. It is the outcome of minds--for it is evidently an accretion of many men's imaginations--that still felt the first stimulus of wonder concerning all things, to whom nothing was common, nothing impossible.

 

To most critics this main thread presents itself as a prolonged war between the Kaurâvas and their first cousins the Pandâvas--in other words, between the hundred sons of Dhritarâshta, the blind king, and the five sons of his brother Pându--but to the writer the leit motif is the story of Bhishma. It is a curious one; in many ways well worthy of a wider knowledge than it has at present in the West.

 Bhishma, then, was the heir of Shantânu, the King of Hastinapûr. His birth belongs to fairy tale, for he was the son of Ganga, the river goddess, who consented to be the wife of the love-struck Shantânu on condition that, no matter what he might see, or she might do, no question should be asked, no remark made. There is therefore a distinct flavour of the world-wide Undine myth in the tale. In this case the lover-husband is of the most forbearing type. It is not until he sees his eighth infant son being relentlessly consigned to the river that he cries: "Hold! Enough! Who art thou, witch?" In consequence of this, in truth, somewhat belated curiosity, the goddess leaves him, after assuring him that her purpose is accomplished. Seven Holy Ones condemned to fresh life by a venial fault have been released by early death, and this last child is his to keep as being, indeed, the pledge of mutual love

====================================

 

a strong tribe called Bhâratas or Kurus who had settled near Delhi did for long years struggle with another strong tribe called the Panchâlas, who had settled near Kanauj, is more than likely. With this background, then, of truth, the story of the Mâhâbhârata is a fine romance, and throws incidentally many a side-light on Hindu society in these remote ages. But it is prodigiously long. In the only full English translation which exists it runs to over 7,500 pages of small type. Anything more discursive cannot be imagined. The introduction of a single proper name is sufficient to start an entirely new story concerning every one who was ever connected with it in the most remote degree. But it is a treasure house of folk-lore and folk tales, interspersed, quaintly, by keen intellectual reasonings on philosophical subjects, and still more remarkable efforts to pierce the great Riddle of the World by mystical speculations. It is, emphatically, in every line of it, fresh to the uttermost. It is the outcome of minds--for it is evidently an accretion of many men's imaginations--that still felt the first stimulus of wonder concerning all things, to whom nothing was common, nothing impossible.

 

 A prolonged war between the Kaurâvas and their first cousins the Pandâvas--in other words, between the hundred sons of Dhritarâshta, the blind king, and the five sons of his brother Pându.

 

THE KING OF HASTINAPUR

 Bhishma, then, was the heir of Shantânu, the King of Hastinapûr. His birth belongs to fairy tale, for he was the son of Ganga, the river goddess, who consented to be the wife of the love-struck Shantânu on condition that, no matter what he might see, or she might do, no question should be asked, no remark made. There is therefore a distinct flavour of the world-wide Undine myth in the tale. In this case the lover-husband is of the most forbearing type. It is not until he sees his eighth infant son being relentlessly consigned to the river that he cries: "Hold! Enough! Who art thou, witch?" In consequence of this, in truth, somewhat belated curiosity, the goddess leaves him, after assuring him that her purpose is accomplished. Seven Holy Ones condemned to fresh life by a venial fault have been released by early death, and this last child is his to keep as being, indeed, the pledge of mutual love.

 

 So far good. Bhishma is brought up as the heir until he is adolescent. Then his father falls in love with a fisherman's daughter who is obdurate. She refuses to marry, except on the condition that her son, if one is born, shall inherit the kingdom. Even a promise that this shall be so is not sufficient for her. She claims that Bhishma must not only swear to resign his own claim to the throne in favour of her son, but must also take a solemn vow of perpetual celibacy, so closing the door against future claims on the part of his children. Devoted to his father, the boy, just entering on manhood, accedes to the proposal; his father marries, and dies, leaving a young heir to whom Bhishma becomes regent. An excellent one, too, as the following extract concerning his regency will show:

 "In thOse days the Earth gave abundant harvest and the crops were of good flavour. The clouds poured rain in season and the trees were full of fruit and flowers. The draught cattle were all happy, and the birds and other animals rejoiced exceedingly, while the flowers were fragrant. The cities and towns were full of merchants and traders and artists of all descriptions. And the people were brave, learned, honest and happy. And there were no robbers, nor any one who was sinful; but devoted to virtuous acts, sacrifices, truth, and regarding each other with love and affection, the people grew up in prosperity, rejoicing cheerfully in sports that were perfectly innocent on rivers, lakes and tanks, in fine groves and charming woods

 

the capital of the Kurus (Hastinapûr), full as the ocean and teeming with hundreds of palaces and mansions, and possessing gates and arches dark as the clouds, looked like a second Amaravati (celestial town). And over all the delightful country whose prosperity was thus increased were no misers, nor any woman a widow, but the wells and lakes were ever full, full were the groves of trees, the houses with wealth, and the whole kingdom with festivities.

 

 

A golden age indeed! . And for this, Bhishma the Brother Regent and Sâtyavâti the Queen-Mother

 

 

THE BOY KING

The Boy-King appears to have been but a poor creature. Even Bhishma's famous exploit of carrying off the three beautiful daughters of the King of Benares--Amva, Amvîka and Amvalîka--as brides for the lad, does not seem to have kept him from evil courses.

 

 

True, the elder of these three "slender-waisted maidens, of tapering hips and curling hair," cried off the match by bashfully telling the softhearted Bhishma that she had set her affections on some one else; whereupon he, holding that "a woman, whatever her offence, always deserveth pardon," bid her follow her own inclinations. Still the two remaining brides did not avail to prevent the young bridegroom from succumbing to disease, leaving them childless.

 

 Here, then, was a situation. Bhishma and the Queen-Mother, both of an age, left without an heir! After Eastern TRADITIOn she urges him to take his half-brother's place, and raise up offspring to his father and to herself. But bRISHMA  is firm to his oath. "Earth," he says, "may renounce its scent, water its moisture, light its attribute of showing form, yea! even the sun may renounce its glory, the comet its heat, the moon its cool rays, and very space renounce its capacity for generating sound; but I cannot renounce Truth." Pressed to the uttermost he can only reiterate: "I will renounce the three worlds, the empire of heaven, and anything which may be greater than this, but Truth I will not renounce."

 

 Poor Bhishma! One feels that he is , beset by loving women, for when another father for possible heirs is found, Amvîka, who had expected Bhishma, refuses to look at his successor, the result being that her son Dhritarâshta is born blind, and being thus unfitted for kingship, Amvalîka's son Pandu becomes heir to the throne

 

Hinc illæ lachrymal! Bhishma's vow of celibacy produces the rivals, and his part in the epic henceforward shows but dimly on the bloody background of the long quarrel between the hundred God-given sons of Dhritarâshta, and the five -begotten sons of Pandu.

 Yet, overlaid as it is by diffuse divergencies, the story of self-sacrifice, of a man whom all women love and none can gain, goes on. Bhishma, on Pandu's death, installs the blind Dhritarâshta as Regent King, and continues, as ever, faithful to his trust. Once or twice a ring of human pathos, human regret, is heard in the harmony of his good counsels, his unswerving loyalty, his fast determination to "pay the debt arising out of the food which has been given me."

 

 

 Again, when Amva, the eldest princess of the three maidens whom Bhishma had carried off as brides for his brother, returns in tears from seeking the lover he had allowed her to rejoin, saying that the prince will have none of Bhishma's leavings, there is human regret in the latter's refusal to accept the assertion that the carrying off was equal to a betrothal, and that he is bound in honour to marry the maiden himself! Yet of this refusal comes much. The injured girl calls on High Heaven for requital, and though her champion Râma is unable to conquer the invincible Bhishma, Fate intervenes finally.

 Once when Arjuna, third of the five Pandus, climbs up on his knees, all dust-laden from some boyish game, and, full of pride and glee, claims him as father--"I am not thy father, O Bhârata!" is the gentle reply.

 Amva's  prayers, austerities, find fruit. It was revealed that She was Chikandîni, the daughter of a great king whose wife conceals the child's sex for twenty-one years, until the most valiant of princesell cone, 

 Bhishma. For among the many confessions of a soldier's faith which the latter here makes is this: "With one who hath thrown away his sword, with one fallen, with one flying, with one yielding, with woman or one bearing the name of woman, or with a low, vulgar fellow--with all these I do not battle." So Chikandîn is beyond Bhishma's retaliation, and when in the final fight he "struck the great Bhârata full on the breast," the latter "only looked at him with eyes blazing with wrath; remembering his womanhood, Bhishma struck him not."

 

 In the course of this war he built a watch-fort at a village called Patali, on the banks of the Ganges, where in after years he founded a city which, under the name of Patâliputra (the Palibothra of Greek writers), became eventually the capital, not only of Magadha, but of India--India, that is, as it was known in these early days

 Patali is the Sanskrit for the bignonia, or trumpet-flower; we may add, therefore, to our mental picture of the remaining four Ses-nâga kings, that they lived in Trumpet-flower City

 

For the rest, two great monarchs, Bimbi-sâra and Ajâta-sutru, must have been near, THEY WERE contemporaries of Darius, King of Persia, who founded an Indian satrapy in the Indus valley. This he was able to do, in consequence of the information collected by Skylax of Karyanda, during his memorable voyage by river from the Upper Punjâb to the sea near Karâchi, thus demonstrating the practicability of a passage by water to Persia. All record of this voyage is, unfortunately, lost; but the result of it was the addition to the Persian Empire of so rich a province, that it paid in gold-dust tribute to the treasury, fully one-third of the total revenue from the whole twenty satrapies; that is to say, about one million sterling, which in those days was, of course, an absolutely enormous sum.

 

 About  B.C. 361, or , the reign of the Ses-nâga kings ends abruptly. The dream-vision of the steps of old Râjgrîha with Scythian princelings--parricidal princelings--riding up to their palaces on processional horses, or living luxuriously in Trumpet-flower city, vanishes, and something quite as dream-like takes its place.

  The Nanda dynasty, and the story, if it does nothing else, proves that the family was really of low extraction. That it gained the throne by the assassination of a rightful king, is also certain. But revenge was at hand. The tragedy was to be recast, replayed, and in B.C. 321 Chandra-gûpta, the Sandracottus of the Greeks, himself an illegitimate son of the first Nanda, and half-brother, so the tale runs, of the eight younger ones, was, after the usual fashion of the East, to find foundation for his own throne on the dead bodies of his relations.

 But some four years s came to pass, while young Chandra-gûpta, ambitious, discontented, was still wandering about Northern India almost nameless--for his mother was a Sudra woman--he came in personal contact with a new factor in Indian history. It was recalled that on March, B.C. 326, Alexander the Great crossed the river Indus, and found himself the first Western who had ever stood on Indian soil. So, ere passing to the events which followed on Chandra-gûpta's rude seizure of the throne of Magadha, another picture claims attention.  of the great failure of a great conqueror

 

B.C. 620 TO B.C. 327

 Scythic hordes invaded India from the north-east, during great war of Kauravas ana Pandavas  they met in conflict with the Aryan invaders from the north-west on the wide, Gangetic plains, possibly close to the junction of the Sone River with the Ganges.

 There were ten of these kings,  Sesu-nâga, Sakavârna, Kshema-dhârman, and Kshattru-jâs, may live again as personalities. At present we must be content with imagining them in their palace at Raja-griha, or "The kings abode surrounded by mountains."

  These Ses-nâga princes, their Scythian faces, flat, oblique-eyed, yet aquiline, showing keen under the golden-hooded snake standing uræus-like over their low foreheads, riding up the steep, wide steps leading to their high-perched palaces, on their milk-white steeds; these latter, no doubt, be-bowed with blue ribbons and bedyed with pink feet and tail, after the fashion of processional horses in India even nowadays. Riding up proudly, kings, indeed, of their world, holders of untold wealth in priceless gems and gold--gold, unminted, almost valueless, jewels recklessly strung, like pebbles on a string.

n these days the kingdom of Magadha-- Scythic principality--was entering the l against that  ancient Aryan kingdom of Kosâla, of the warriors of these kingdoms joined the great war between the extreme north-west of the Punjâb and Ujjain, in the fifth century  

 Sesu-nâga the king.  conquered and annexed the principality of Anga and built the city of New Rajagrîha, which lies at the base of the hill below the old fort. But something there is in his reign  grips attention more than conquests or buildings. During  his rule, the he foundedf two great religions gave to the world tje teachings of Mâhâvîra and Gâutama Buddha the first teachings of Jainism and Buddhism preached at his palace doors. He is supposed to have reigned for nearly five and twenty years, and then to have retired into private life, leaving his favourite son, Ajâta-sutru, as regent

 And here tragedy sets in; tragedy in which Buddhist tradition avers thE Deva-datta, the Great Teacher's first cousin and bitterest enemy, was prime mover. For one of the many crimes imputed to this arch-schismatic by the orthodox, is that he instigated Ajâtasutru to put his father to death.


 Whether this be true or not, certain it is that Bimbi-sâra was murdered, and by his son's orders; for in one of the earliest Buddhist manuscripts extant there is an account of the guilty son's confession to the Blessed One (i.e., Buddha) in these words: "Sin overcame me, Lord, weak, and foolish, and wrong that I am, in that for the sake of sovranty I put to death my father, that righteous man, that righteous king."

 tradition has it, that death was compassed by slow starvation, the prompt absolution which Buddha is said to have given the royal sinner for this act of atrocity becomes all the more remarkable. His sole comment to the brethren after Ajâta-sutru had departed appears to have been: "This king was deeply affected, he was touched in heart. If he had not put his father to death, then, even as he sate here, the clear eye of truth would have been his."

 

  Origins and Impacts of the Persian Empire

 

The origin of the Persian Empire can be attributed to the leadership of one

man—Cyrus the Great. A brilliant and powerful Persian king, Cyrus’ strategy

for enlarging the Persian kingdom was to conquer nearby lands and then

unite them into one empire. Through his skillful leadership and a strong

military, Cyrus was able to create a vast empire that would last for more

than two hundred years. The origins and impacts of Cyrus the Great’s empire

made it possible for the emperors who came after him, such as Darius I, to

continue to expand and control the Persian Empire.

A people called the Medes controlled the land that connects east and

west Asia. The land was called Media. In this land were small Persian

kingdoms. Around 550

B

.

C

.

Cyrus the Great, a Persian king, took control of

these lands from the Medes. He then formed a government and chose both

Median and Persian nobles to be civilian offi cials. Next, Cyrus used his

strong military to attack states throughout Anatolia (Asia Minor). Soon this

region fell under his control. He went on to conquer the lands to the east

known as the Fertile Crescent. The Persian empire was now immense.

Cyrus was a skillful ruler. He adopted a policy of toleration toward the

people he conquered. For example, he allowed them to speak their own

languages, practice their own religions, and follow their own ways of life. He

also declared the fi rst Charter of Human Rights. Etched on a clay cylinder,

this charter set forth Cyrus’ goals and policies. His respect for the people

made Cyrus popular and made it easier for him to create a peaceful and

stable empire.

After Cyrus’ death, there was a period of unrest under a weak emperor.

Then a strong emperor, Darius I, came to power. Building on what Cyrus had

achieved, Darius divided the Persian Empire into several provinces to make

it easier to govern. He appointed a governor called a satrap to carry out his

orders in each province and to collect taxes. Darius also started use of a

Royal Road that allowed messages, soldiers, and mail to be sent quickly

across the empire. He promoted trade and business and established a law

code. The Persian Empire would have a long life because of the efforts

of Darius. 

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Amga

:

The kingdom of Amga is mentioned in the Amhara Veda and was located roughly at the site of the pres

ent

day Bihar and some parts of West Bengal. On the north was River Ganga and it was separated from the

Magadha by River Champa.Anga was one of the most flourishing cities and was an important center

of

trade

and commerce. It was regarded as one of the six

principal cities of early India.

Asoka / Ashcake

:

Asoka, also known as Ashcake was a kingdom that was located in the south of India. During the time of

Buddha, this tribe was located on the banks of river Godavari. The capital city of Asoka was known as

Potana.It

was situated in central India and extended till

southern India. It is estimated that Asoka was situated roughly at

the place where modern day Maharashtra is located.

Avanti

:

Avanti was a very important kingdom located in

Western India

and was c

onsidered to be one of the four

important monarchies during the time Buddhism

began in India. River Netravali used to flow right through

Avanti thus dividing it into north and south provinces. Avanti was located roughly at the place where the state of

Madh

ya Pradesh is located now. Avanti was an important center of Buddhism and later became a part of

Magadha Empire

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Kais

/kasha

:

The Aryans who had settled around Varanasi were known as Kassite city was flanked by the rivers Varna

and Asia from which the

place derives its name.Kasi was the most powerful kingdom of the sixteen Jana Padas

before the rise of Buddhism. During the rise of Buddha, it was converted into Kosala.This place is mentioned as

Kaushik / Kuaka in the Mistaya Purina.

[2]

Kasha was at fir

st the most powerful of them and perhaps played an important part in the subversion of

theVidehan monarchy; its capital Varanasi is described in various sources as an important city. According to the

Dasaratha Janaki, one of the Buddhist birth stories, Ram

a, whom it describes both as the brother and husband of

Site, was the king of Kasha and not Ajodhya where his modern devotees (Ramabhaktas) demolished a medieval

mosque leading to a communal holocaust in the country. The economic importance of Kasha lay in

the fact that

it had emerged as a leading center of textile manufacture in the time of the Buddha; the Kashaya(orange brown)

robes of the Buddhist monks are said to have been manufactured here

Koru

:

The origin of the Koru clan can be traced to the Puru

-

Bharata family. Some of them were settled in central

India and some were living beyond the Himalaya

n ranges. It is said that the founder of Kururashtra in

Kurukshetra was the son of Samvarsana called Kuru.The Korus were known for their profound wisdom

and

sound health. The Korus switched to republic form of government from monarchy during 5th Century B.

C.

Machala / Mistaya

:

T

he kingdom of Mistaya or Machala is said to have comprised the region of the present day Jaipur in

Rajasthan along with Altar and Bharatpur.The founder of this kingdom was king Vibrate and the capital of this

kingdom was named Vir

atanagara after him. The Mistaya once formed a part of the Cedi kingdom as there are

evidences that show that this place was ruled by the king of Cedi.

Magadha

:

The Magadha’s are referred to in the Amhara Veda. According to the early scriptures, the Magad

ha’s were

not fully Brahmins. Thus; they were loathed at and were spoken of in contempt. Except for King Propaganda, no

other ruler is mentioned in the Vedas. It is stated in the Mahabharata that Magadha came into the limelight

under the king Bimbisara and

later under his son Ajatasatru.It was one of the chief empires of India during those

times. The kingdom of Magadha was situated roughly where the present day Bihar is located.(we will discuss

after about Magadha dynasty in detail)

Malala

:

Most of the sc

riptures of the Jains and Buddhists mention the Malls. Their tribe was supposed to be quite

powerful and they lived somewhere towards the Eastern India. The Malls had a republic form of

society

and

their dominant territory comprised of nine provinces. Two

of these nine provinces (Pave and Kasandra) gained 

Panchal

:

the Panchal as were located in the north of India and had their prov

ince to the east of the Korus. They were

located between the Himalayan ranges and river Ganga.One can say that it was located roughly at the place

where the modern day Uttar Pradesh is located. The Panchal as were originally monarchial in nature and later

transformed to the republican form of government during the 5th Century B.C.They are mentioned in

Kausalya’s Arthashastra as following the constitution of the king.

Sarasin

:

The location of the Sarasin was around the west side of river Yamuna and had its

capital city at Mathura.

The king of Sarasin, Avantiputra played a vital role in promoting Buddhism in his kingdom. He was one of the

chief disciples of Buddha and aimed at spreading his knowledge and wisdom all through his kingdom. The

capital city of Ma

thura was an important center for the worship of Lord Krishna. With time, the kingdom of

Sarasin was annexed by

Magadha Empire.

Hajji / Veii

:

the Hajji or Veii comprised of eight to nine allied races and this kingdom became an important center of

cultural

and political activities. It was essentially located in northern India. Out of the nine races, the Licchhavis,

the Verdeans, the Jnatrikas and the Hajjis were the most important. The Licchhavis were an independent clan

and their capital was called Vaishal

i.It was an important center of Buddhism and the headquarters of the

powerful republic of Vajjis.Buddha is supposed to have visited Licchhavis on many occasions. As time passed,

the kingdom of Licchhavis was conquered by the king of Magadha, Ajatasatru.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ArYANS from the Central Asian Plains had invaded the Valley and then expanded out into the rest of India. They had also melded their religious belief's with local belief's to form the Hindu religion

 In the far northeast, Brahmins performed as teachers and gave instruction to local original inhabitant elites, who had not been completely Hindunized. These elites were accustomed to deference from local people, and they were offended by the posturing, pride and arrogance of the Brahmins. They resisted the claims of  the Brahmins to higher rank and superior knowledge. Some among them opposed the bloodletting of Hinduism's animal sacrifices. Some of them also thought the Brahmins to be too involved in ceremonial formalities and ritual, and saw the Brahmin's view of gods and salvation as strange.

 With this dissent against orthodox Hinduism, a variety of men with vision appeared, they tried to fill the void left unfulfilled by Hinduism. These new sect leaders denied the authority of the Vedas, and each developed a code of conduct and a way of living and thinking, that would hopefully lead to enlightenment and fulfillment.

 

 

The Jains 

This movement was supported by original inhabitants of wealth and influence, who gave their support to one or another of these religious visionary's in their area. These new Sect leaders wandered across the northeast, sometimes with large bands of followers. They entered communities to engage in disputations with rival sects and orthodox Brahmins, these disputations were welcomed entertainment for local people, unused to thoughts and concepts from the outside world.

The most successful of the new sects were those that attempted to provide relief from orthodox Hinduism's failure to alleviate human suffering. One such sect was the Jains - from the Sanskrit verb ji, meaning to conquer. The Jains sought relief from suffering, by conquest over one's own passions and senses. This conquest they believed, gave one purity of soul.

According to legend, the Jains were led by Nataputta Vardhamana, the son of a royal governor from the Magadha region, "Nataputta Vardhamana" gave up his princely status for a life of asceticism, and he became known as Mahavira (Great Souled One). Legend describes Mahavira's beginnings as a reformer - as not seeking to overthrow the Hindu caste system or the worship of Hindu gods, but wishing to do something about the misery that he saw all around him. Legend describes him as having sympathy, not only for people, but also for the animals that the Brahmins sacrificed.

Jain lay persons took the following vows: never to intentionally destroy a living thing, never to speak falsehoods, never to steal, to always be faithful in marriage, to always be chaste outside of marriage, to possess no more money or other things than one had set for oneself as sufficient, (a practical restriction that varied with how wealthy one was), to travel no farther than the limits that one had set for oneself, to think no evil thoughts about others, to sit in meditation as often as one had planned, to spend time as a temporary monk or nun, and to support the nuns and monks with contributions.

 

================================

Chandragupta Maurya and Bindusara

321 B.C. to 272 B.C.

When Alexander quitted the Panjab, he posted no Macedonian garrisons in that province, making over the care of his interests to King Poros, who must have been independent in practice. Ambhi, King of Taxila, was also entrusted with authority as a colleague of Poros. After the assassination of Philippos, Alexander had sent orders from Karmania to Eudamos, commandant of a Thracian garrison on the Indus, to act as resident pending the appointment of a satrap, and to supervise the native princes. But this officer had no adequate force at his command to enforce his authority, which must have been purely nominal. He managed, however, to remain in India, probably somewhere in the basin of the Indus, until about 317 B.C., when he departed to help Eumenes against Antigonos, taking with him a hundred and twenty elephants, and a small force of infantry and cavalry. He had obtained the elephants by treacherously slaying a native prince, perhaps Poros, with whom he had been associated as a colleague

 The province of Sind, on the Lower Indus, below the great confluence of the rivers, which had been entrusted by Alexander to Peithon, son of Agenor, remained under Greek influence for a still shorter period. At the time of the second partition of the Macedonian empire in 321 B.C. at Triparadeisos, Antipater was avowedly unable to exercise any effective control over the Indian. rajas, and Peithon had been obliged already to retire to the west of the Indus. The Indian provinces to the east of the river were consequently ignored in the partition, and Peithon was content to accept the government of the regions bordering on the Paropanisadai, or Kabul country. That country probably continued to be administered by Roxana’s father Oxyartes, whom Alexander had appointed satrap. Sibyrtios was confirmed in the government of Arachosia and Gedrosia; Stasandros, the Cyprian, was given Aria and Drangiana; and his countryman Stasanor was appointed governor of Bactria and Sogdiana. These arrangements clearly prove that in 321 B.C., within two years of Alexander’s death, the Greek power to the east of the Indus had been extinguished, with the slight exception of the small territory, wherever it may have been, which Eudamos managed to hold for some four years longer.


fears of his return, and the native princes undoubtedly took the earliest possible opportunity to assert their independence and exterminate the weak foreign garrisons. The news of Alexander’s decease was known in India probably as early as August, but no serious fighting would have been undertaken by ordinary commanders until the beginning of the cold season in October; for Alexander’s indifference to climatic conditions was not shared by Indian chiefs, who were accustomed to regulate their military movements strictly in accordance with precedent. We may feel assured that as soon as the news of the conqueror’s death had been confirmed beyond doubt, and the season permitted the execution of military operations with facility, a general rising took place, and that Macedonian authority in India was at an end early in 322 B.C., except for the small remnant to which Eudamos continued to cling.
The leader of the revolt against the foreigners was an able adventurer, Chandragupta by name, at that time a young man, probably not more than twenty-five years of age. Although he was on his father’s side a scion of the royal house of Magadha, – the principal State in Northern India, – his mother was of lowly origin, and, in accordance with Hindu law, he belonged to her caste and had to bear the reproach of inferior social rank. The family name Maurya, assumed by the members of the dynasty founded by Chandragupta, is said to be a derivative from Mura, his mother’s name. In some way or other, young Chandragupta incurred the displeasure of his kinsman, Mahapadma Nanda,

reigning King of Magadha, and was obliged to go into exile. During his banishment he had the good fortune to see Alexander, and is said to have expressed the opinion that the Macedonian king, if he had advanced, would have made an easy conquest of the great kingdom on the Ganges, by reason of the extreme unpopularity of the reigning monarch. Mahapadma Nanda was reputed to be the son of a barber, who had secured the affections of the late queen. The guilty pair had then murdered the king, whose throne was seized by the barber-paramour. His son, the now reigning monarch, was avaricious and profligate, and naturally possessed few friends.
Chandragupta, having collected, during his exile, a formidable force of the warlike and predatory clans on the north-western frontier, attacked the Macedonian garrisons immediately after Alexander’s death, and conquered the Panjab. He then turned his victorious arms against his enemy, the King of Magadha, and, taking advantage of that monarch’s unpopularity, dethroned and slew him, utterly exterminating every member of his family. His adviser in this revolution was a subtle Brahman named Chanakya, by whose aid he succeeded in seizing the vacant throne. But the people did not gain much by the change of masters, because Chandragupta, “after his victory, forfeited by his tyranny all title to the name of liberator, oppressing with servitude the very people whom he had emancipated from foreign thraldom.” He inherited from his Nanda predecessor a huge army, which he increased until it numbered


thirty thousand cavalry, nine thousand elephants, six hundred thousand infantry, and a multitude of chariots. With this irresistible force, all the northern States, probably as far as the Narmada, or even farther, were overrun and subjugated; so that the dominions of Chandragupta, the first paramount sovereign or emperor in India, extended from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea.
While Chandragupta was engaged in the consolidation of his empire, a rival was laying the foundations of his power in Western and Central Asia, and preparing to attempt the recovery of Alexander’s Indian conquests. In the course of the internecine struggle between the generals of Alexander, two had emerged as competitors for supreme power in Asia – Antigonos and Seleukos, who afterward became known as Nikator, or the Conqueror. Fortune at first favoured Antigonos and drove his antagonist into exile; but in 312 B.C. Seleukos recovered possession of Babylon, and six years later felt himself justified in assuming the regal style and title. He is conventionally described as King of Syria, but was in reality the lord of Western and Central Asia. The eastern provinces of his realm extended to the borders of India; and he naturally desired to recover the Macedonian conquests in that country, which had been practically abandoned, although never formally relinquished. In pursuit of this object, Seleukos crossed the Indus in 305 B.C., and attempted to imitate the victorious march of Alexander. The details of the campaign are not known, and it is impossible


When the shock of battle came, the hosts of Chandragupta were too strong for the invader, and Seleukos was obliged to retire and conclude a humiliating peace. Not only was he compelled to abandon all thought of conquest in India, but he was constrained to surrender a large part of Ariana to the west of the Indus. In exchange for the comparatively trifling equivalent of five hundred elephants, Chandragupta received the satrapies of the Paropanisadai, Aria, and Arachosia, the capitals of which were respectively the cities now known as Kabul, Herat, and Kandahar. The satrapy of Gedrosia, or at least the eastern portion of it, seems also to have been included in the cession, and the high contracting powers ratified the peace by “a matrimonial alliance,” which phrase probably means that Seleukos gave a daughter to his Indian rival. This treaty may be dated in 303 B.C. As soon as it was concluded, Seleukos started on his long march westward to confront Antigonos, whom he defeated and slew at Ipsos in Phrygia in 301 B.C. As Ipsos was at least 2500 miles distant from the Indus, the march to it must have occupied a year or more.
The range of the Hindu Kush Mountains, known to the Greeks as the Paropanisos or Indian Caucasus, in this way became the frontier between Chandragupta’s provinces of Herat and Kabul on the south, and the Seleukidan province of Bactria on the north. 

ThGupta Empire: An Indian Golden Age

The Gupta Empire, which ruled the Indian subcontinent from 320 to 550 AD,

ushered in a golden age of Indian civilization

.

It will forever be remembered as the

period during which literature, science, and the arts flourished in India as never before

 

 

Since the fall of the Mauryan Empire in the second century BC, India

had

remained divided

.

For 500 years, India

was

a patchwork of independent kingdoms

.

During the late third century, the powerful Gupta family gained control of th

e local

kingship of Magadha (modern

-

day eastern India and Bengal)

.

The Gupta Empire is

generally held to have begun in 320 AD

,

when Chandragupta I (not to be confused with

Chandragupta Maurya

,

who founded the Mauryan Empire), the third king of the dynasty

,

ascended the throne

.

He soon began conquering neighboring regions

.

His son,

Samudragupta

(often called

Samudragupta the Great) founded a new capital city,

Pataliputra, and

began a conquest of the entire subcontinent

.

Samudragupta

conquered most of Ind

ia, though in the more distant regions he reinstalled local kings in

exchange for their loyalty

 

 

Chand

ragupta II and the Flourishing of Culture

 

 

Samudragupta was also a great patron of the arts

.

He was a poet and a

musician, and he brought great writers, philosophers, and artists to his court

.

Unlik

e the

Mauryan kings after Ashoka, who were Buddhists, Samudragupta was a devoted

worshipper of the Hindu gods

.

Nonetheless, he did not reject Buddhism, but invited

Buddhists to be part of his court and allowed the religion to spread in his realm

 

 

Samudragupta was briefly succeeded by his eldest son Ramagupta, whose reign

was short

.

In 380 AD, a younger son of Samudragupta, Chandragupta II, came to the

throne

.

Like his father, Chandragupta is often called “the Great.”

Under his rule, the

Gupta Empire reached its zenith, and this is considered the golden age of India

. H

is

reign

, like his father’s,

was marked by religious tolerance and great cultural

achievement

s

.

Poetry and drama flourished at the court of Chandragupta II

,

at his new capital of

Ujjain

.

Hindu legend tells of a great king of Ujjain called

Vikramaditya

,

who kept a

group

of unrivaled poets, known as the Nine Gems, at his court

.

The

Vikramaditya

of legend

is almost certainly Chandragupta II

.

The poets at his court included

Kalidasa, one of the

greatest authors of Sanskrit poetry and drama

.

His plays are some of the most famous

works of Indian literature, and continue to have an influence on play

wrights to this day

.

Visual art also flourished in the reign of Chandragupta II

.

Hindu art reached new

heights, as exemplified in the carved reliefs of the

Dashavata Temple

.

Chandragupta II

also patronized Buddhist art

.

The

Ajanta Caves, decorated with

images of the life of

Buddha, provide a vivid example of

Gupta

-

era

Indian painting

.

Chandragupta II also sponsored work on medicine, mathematics, and science

.

One of the greatest thinkers of the time was

Aryabhatta, who made great contributions

 

 o math

ematics and astronomy

.

He developed the concept of zero, and accurately

described the earth as a sphere and figured out that it rotates

on its axis.

He may have

even realized that it rotates around the sun

.

The

Sushruta Samhita

, a work on medicine

and s

urgery, also dates to this period

.

Besides presiding over a cultural golden age, Chandragupta II expanded the

empire through military feats

.

He conquered many new lands for his empire, and even

expanded the empire outside the Indian subcontinent

.

When

he died in 415 AD, the

Gupta Empire was at its height

.

 

Decline of the Gupta Empire

The Gupta Empire declined precipitously under Chandragupta II’s successors

.

By the middle of the fifth century a new and dangerous enemy to the empire appeared:

nomad

ic

-

pastoralist warriors from the Eurasian steppe

.

These invaders were called

Huna or Huns by the Indians, and today are commonly called Hephalites or White Huns

(to distinguish them from the other Huns

, who were

attacking the Roman Empire around

the same ti

me)

.

In the year 480 AD, the Huns launched a full

-

scale invasion of India

.

By the year 500 AD, the Huns had overrun the Gupta Empire

.

Though the Huns were eventually driven out of India, the Gupta Empire would

never recover

. The Gupta D

ynasty retained

only its home territory of

Magadha in the

chaos, and it had permanently lost control of the rest of India

.

T

he subcontinent once

again became a patchwork of independent states

.

However

,

the legacy of the Gupta

Empire, and the cultural renaissance it

pre

sided

over,

has

continue

d

to be a source of

inspiration for India

up to

the

present

day

.