.............following

America’s      wealthiest,      most powerful  families, many of whom live in New    York   and   New      England,   are sometimes called “Brahmans,” the name of   the   highest   caste   in   India.   It   is

interesting that such a nickname came about, because   most   of    America’s Brahmans (like most Americans in general) would say that  all people are created equal.  The  Indian caste system, on  the other hand, was based on the idea  that people are created  unequal. A  Brahman could  not  change his luck, which was good; but neither could an Untouchable, a fact that  condemned millions and millions of people to lives of misery.

In contrast to a class  system, the caste system was more  like the official policy of racial segregation  that existed in the southern United States  up  until the

1960s, and in South Africa until the  early

1990s. The end of segregation in the American South came about in large part through the efforts of the Rev. Martin Luther  King, Jr.  (1929–1968), a  great admirer of the Indian leader Mohandas  K. Gandhi   (1869–1948). Thanks to Gandhi’s efforts, the  caste  system  in  India was officially outlawed in 1947.

Hindus believe that a person is reincarnated (ree-in-KAHR-nay- ted) thousands of times.

In the present life, a person may be rich and beautiful, but in the next life, they may find themselves in a lower caste. They may come back as an Untouchable or even as an animal. On the other hand, a member of a lower caste may be reincar- nated as a member of a higher one. Because they believe that people can come back to life as animals, Hindus have a deep respect for animal  life. For  this reason, most of them are vege-

India       195

tarians (people who do not eat  meat). Animals are  given posi- tions of honor in Hindu life. Thus in modern Indian cities, one may see cows wandering around freely. Cars stop regularly to let them cross busy streets. In some places, one may even see shrines, or holy places, dedicated to animals.

Karma and reincarnation

The question of whether one reincarnates to a higher or lower level revolves around karma (KAHR-mah). Karma is a bit like the Western idea of destiny, but it is much harder to change one’s karma. Nonetheless, good actions generate good karma, increasing  the possibility of a  higher  reincarnation, whereas bad actions generate bad karma. For  this reason, Hin- dus, like people of many other religions, believe that it is good to give up a life of pleasure and worldly possessions in order to seek greater personal wisdom, or enlightenment.

Hindus  who  are   most  dedicated  to  enlightenment become  gurus or holy ones who practice fasting (not  eating) and   meditation  (contemplative  thinking)  in  an  attempt to empty the mind of  all  thoughts and  desires. As   part  of their meditation, they may use mantras (MAHN-truhz), chants that are  thought to aid the worshiper in releasing thoughts of self and concentrating on the Brahman. A  simple and well-known mantra is the single word Om (AUM). Through meditation and right  living, it is believed, the believer can become  one  with the Brahman,  also called the “Godhead.”

These  are  some of the basic ideas of Hinduism, but it should be emphasized that the religion of India is as vast and varied as the land  itself. In fact, Hinduism and India are  very closely tied: hence the words Indus, India, Hindu, and Hindi, the name for one of the most  important of the many  languages spoken on the subcontinent, share common roots.

Just  as  it  is  impossible to  study the  history  of the Israelites without studying their scriptures, so the Vedas  and other great writings of ancient Indian civilization can be under- stood only by referring to the Vedic and  Hindu religions. Hin- duism in turn greatly influenced the visual arts; for example, India is famous for statues of gods with many  arms. Through the caste system, Hinduism has had  far-reaching social impli- cations and has greatly affected the entire fabric of life in India.

196               Ancient  Civilizations: Almanac

Buddhism

Around the end of the Epic Age, a new religion sprang up in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. Bud- dhism shared many  of Hinduism’s  beliefs, but it focused on ending the  cycle of  reincarnation  and   achieving  Nirvana (nuhr-VAH-nah), a term that suggests the idea of blowing out a fire. The “fire” in this case was personal desire; by subduing  all thoughts of self, Buddhists believe that  an individual can become  one with the Godhead.

Also      unlike  Hinduism, Buddhism had   a  definite founder, a young prince born c. 563 B.C. in northern India between the Ganges  and  the Himalayas. His name was  Sid- dartha   Gautama  (sid-AHR-tah   GOW-tuh-muh),  but  he  is known to history simply as “the Buddha,” a term that means “The Enlightened One.” Raised in incredible luxury, the prince was never allowed to learn that suffering existed; but at the age  of 29, his curiosity led him to sneak out from the palace of his father. Beyond its walls, he discovered a world of horrible dis- ease and  misery—the reality of life in ancient India and  most other parts of the world.

The young Siddartha was so moved by what he had seen that he decided to embark on a journey to discover  the reason for suffering and the path to the enlightenment that would end such  suffering. For  many  years, he studied  with various  holy men and   ascetics  (uh-SET-ikz).  An  ascetic is  someone who renounces all earthly pleasures, even such basic ones as food and shelter, as part of the search for spiritual  truth. Eventually, how- ever, Siddartha decided that punishing the body was not the best  way to enrich the spirit, and he broke with the ascetics. He spent many more years seeking truth and eventually became  enlight- ened—that is, he understood the reasons for suffering, and  the way to escape  it. From then on, he was known as the Buddha.

For the remainder of his life (he died in about 483 B.C.), the Buddha taught his belief system, which he called the “Mid- dle Way.” It involved accepting “Four Noble Truths”: that pain is a part of human  life; that desire leads only to suffering and ultimately destruction; that only by giving up one’s desires can one achieve Nirvana and  end the cycle of reincarnation; and that one must follow a set of principles he called  “the Eight- fold Path” [see sidebar, “The Eightfold Path of Buddhism”] in order to achieve Nirvana.

India       197

The eightfold path of Buddhism

The Buddha (c. 563–c. 483  B.C.)  taught  that  only  by  following   the “Eightfold Path” could one reach the state of Nirvana and thus be freed from the  endless cycles of  reincarnation. The eight aspects of this path are:

1. Facing   the realities of life, including the facts of suffering and death.

2. Holding  right and good intentions.

3.  Having     right  speech, which  means avoiding gossip and lies.

4. Being honest and not breaking earthly laws.

5. Living a righteous life.

6. Opposing evil.

7. Maintaining a sober mind, free of false beliefs.

8.  Engaging  in  "right    concentration" through regular meditation.

Though      Buddhism   clearly shared many  ideas with  Hinduism— and  in fact  many  Hindus believe  that Buddha was the god  Vishnu in human form—the differences between the two faiths are  at  least as  important. Most notable, of  course, is  the Buddhist belief that one can escape  the Hindus’ endless cycle of reincarnation. Another important  difference is the Buddhists’ rejection of the Hindu gods and the rit- uals associated with them. (In fact, the concept of a “god” as  such  is not an important aspect of Buddhism.)

From a social standpoint, how- ever, by far the most significant change presented by the  Buddhists  was  their refusal  to  accept   the  caste  system. Among   the Buddha’s earliest followers were a  barber,  who  of course  was  a member of a  lower caste, and  a king, who like Siddartha himself was a Ksha- triya. Buddhists did  not care about the social distinctions that were an impor- tant part of Hinduism. For  that reason, their religion spread  quickly  among  the lower castes.

Other religions of the Indian subcontinent

It appears that Zoroastrianism had  some influence in

India. For instance, soma was a part of early Zoroastrian rituals, as it was in the Vedic religions. Zoroastrianism spread to India along  with the Persian Empire and  declined after that empire fell.

After  ancient  times, other  religions  would come  to India, most notably Islam. The latter would become  the domi- nant faith in the extreme western and  eastern ends of the sub- continent.  These  areas are  now known as  Pakistan  (PAH-kee- stahn,  site of  the Indus Valley  civilization) and  Bangladesh (BAHNG-lah-desh). Another important faith was Sikhism (SEEK-

198           Ancient  Civilizations: Almanac

izuhm), which   like Buddhism  developed out  of  Hinduism. Sikhism took hold in northwestern India during the A.D. 1400s.

But    during ancient  times, when the arrival  of  those faiths still lay  far in the future, the only  significant religion other than  the Vedic/Hindu faith and Buddhism was  Jainism (JYN-izm). The  founder of  the  Jain  faith was  Vardhamana Mahavira (vard-hah-MAH-nah  mah-hah-VEER-ah;  599–527

B.C.). Like Buddhism, Jainism originated in the eastern part of India. In fact, there are  numerous similarities between the two religions and their founders, who lived at about the same time. Like Siddartha, Mahavira was born a Kshatriya, but he left his home around the age  of thirty to embark on a life of meditation and  study. After twelve years, he reached a state of enlighten- ment, becoming known as Jina (JEE-nah), or “Conqueror.”

Though   completely separate  from Buddhism,  the principles of Jainism are  remarkably similar, involving a quest to be  freed from the cycles of reincarnation. On  the  other hand, Jains, as believers in this faith are  called, place a great emphasis on ascetic practices, which  the Buddha opposed in favor of his “Middle Way.” Jainism gained far fewer converts than  Hinduism or Buddhism. In modern  India the religion claims only  about  3.5 million  believers.  Nonetheless, the Jains’ belief in ahimsa (ah-HEEM-sah), or nonviolence, would have a great impact on the Mahatma Gandhi, India’s greatest modern leader.

A  period of upheaval (c. 500–324 B.C.)

By  the end of the Epic Age, in the 500s B.C., there was no longer such  a thing as one Indo-European civilization  in India. Instead, the Indo-Europeans had  split into more than a dozen different kingdoms, the most important of which  was Magadha (MAH-guh-duh), in eastern  India. While  Siddartha was on his quest for enlightenment, he spent most of his time in Magadha, a highly organized state formed in the 600s B.C.

Magadha would later come to prominence as the cen- ter of the Mauryan Empire. In between the end of the Epic Age (which, it should be stressed, was not a clearly defined period of time) and   the rise of  the Mauryan  Empire, there were roughly two centuries of upheaval, or unrest. During  this time,

India       199

various  princes, or rajas (RAH-zhahz), within India fought for control. The beginning and  end of the  era  were marked by invasions from the west.

The first invading force came from Persia, when Darius I marched  against  India in 521 B.C. Three  years later, the Per- sians had  conquered the entire Punjab region. They managed to hold on to it for many  years, but as their empire declined, local rajas reclaimed power in the region.

The  second   invasion  occurred  in  326   B.C.,  when

250,000 soldiers under Alexander the Great crossed the Indus. They moved eastward, deep into the  Punjab,  and  Alexander might have kept going, but his troops were ready to go home. They reached the Beas (BEE-ahs) River in July of 326  B.C., then turned back toward Greece.  After the Greeks  left, it appeared that they had made almost no lasting cultural impact on India, but the Greek  influence would resurface more than a century later. In the meantime, India saw the rise of a new conqueror inspired by the conquests of Alexander the Great.

The Mauryan Empire (324–184 B.C.)

In 324 B.C., a new king named Chandragupta  Maurya (kahn-drah-GOOP-tah MOHR-yah; r.  324–301 B.C.)  took  the throne of Magadha and established a new dynasty. In his cap- ital of Pataliputra (pah-tuh-lee-POO-trah), northwest of mod- ern-day Calcutta (KAL-kuh-tuh) on the Ganges River, he raised an army of 700,000 soldiers and 10,000 chariots, along with a force unique to the India: 9,000 elephants. Taking advantage of  the power vacuum  left by Alexander’s  departure, Chan- dragupta created an empire that would grow to include  virtu- ally  all of the  Indian  subcontinent, except for the Dravidian stronghold in the south.

Legend  has it that Chandragupta  had  a brilliant advi- sor,   a   Brahman    named  Kautilya (kow-TEEL-yah),  who authored a  book  called   the Arthashastra  (ahr-thah-SHAHS- trah). The latter provided advice  to rulers on how to govern. Although  the book certainly existed, historians do not believe that   Kautilya wrote  the  entire  work.   Nonetheless,  the Arthashastra has aided scholars of India in understanding the organization of the Mauryan Empire. So have the writings of

200            Ancient  Civilizations: Almanac

Megasthenes (meh-GAS-theh-neez), a Greek who spent time in the court of Chandragupta.

The Mauryan Empire was a splendid one, and Patalipu- tra was said to be the greatest city of that time. Its size—8 miles (12.9 kilometers) long and  1.5 miles  (2.4 kilometers) wide— shows the extent to which  cities had  grown since the time of  the Indus Valley civilization. Around the city  stood some 570 guard towers, and beyond them a moat 900 feet (274.3 meters) wide and 30 feet (9.1 meters) deep. Equally impressive was the level  of organization in  Chandragupta’s   government. There was an extensive network of civil servants, including spies who reported to the emperor on any opposition to his rule.

Late in his reign, Chandragupta went up against Seleu- cus, who had  taken control  of Persia after  Alexander’s death. By    defeating  the Seleucids, he secured his control  over the western part  of the subcontinent. But  Chandragupta feared that one of his subjects would assassinate him. When a famine spread throughout the land, he decided to step down from the throne in 301 B.C. He became a Jain, adopting a lifestyle of fast- ing and later dying of starvation.

Just as Cyrus I of Persia was followed by the much less remarkable Cambyses, the  next  ruler,  Chandragupta’s   son Bindusara (bin-doo-SAHR-ah), was a minor figure. Bindusara died in about 270 B.C., and as with the Persians, a power strug- gle ensued. Some time in the 260s B.C., a unifying leader com- parable to Persia’s Darius I took the throne; but whereas Dar- ius came from outside the royal family, Asoka (ah-SHOH-kah; c. 302-c. 202 B.C.) was the son of Bindusara and the grandson of Chandragupta.

In the beginning of his reign, Asoka  behaved  like  a typical conqueror of ancient times. He fought many wars and spread his empire throughout the subcontinent in a series of victories that  left many  of his enemies dead.  In the eighth year of his reign, however, after  a particularly bloody  battle, Asoka became  disgusted when he realized how many  lives he had destroyed. This led him to renounce warfare and convert to Buddhism.

With Asoka’s religious conversion, the entire character of the Mauryan Empire changed. He devoted himself to mak- ing life  better for his subjects, and  he commanded  that  his

India       201

Line of eight stupas on top of rocky hillside in the Indus Valley. Corbis/Nevada Weir. Reproduced by permission.

principles of government be carved  onto large rocks that can still be viewed today. One such inscription reads: “There is no better work than  promoting the welfare of the whole  world. Whatever may  be  my great deeds,  I have done  them to dis- charge my debt  to all beings.” These  were remarkable words, particularly from an ancient monarch. Asoka reinforced them with  deeds. He  appointed officials  he called  “inspectors  of morality” to ensure that  people  were  being treated well. He instituted a number of public works projects such as the plant- ing of trees to provide travelers with shady places to rest.

Asoka  set out once again  to conquer the world, only this time with faith and  not the sword. He sent missionaries to bring the Buddhist message to far-flung places, including Egypt and Greece. Though Buddhism  never took hold in those coun- tries, it did spread to Ceylon, where it replaced Hinduism as the dominant religion. Both    in Ceylon  and  in  India, Buddhists built huge domed temples of stone called stupas (STOO-pahz).

202            Ancient  Civilizations: Almanac

After Asoka’s death in about 232 B.C., however, Bud- dhism in India began to decline. So did  the Mauryan Empire. During  his lifetime, a number of would-be emperors had  vied for the throne, and their rivalries helped send the empire into a state of disarray. To rule such a vast  state required a strong ruler such  as Chandragupta  or Asoka, but none appeared. By

186 B.C., the Mauryan Empire had ceased to exist.

More upheaval (184 B.C.–A.D. 320)

For  the next five centuries, a number of forces  com- peted for control   of India. A     dynasty  called   the  Sungas (SOONG-ahz) took over the Mauryan Empire. They were weak rulers, and they faced a series of threats from the west.

In about  200 B.C.,  a new force  had  arisen in  Bactria (BAK-tree-uh), which is now part of Iran and Afghanistan. This group revolted against  the weakened Seleucids. Because  they were heavily influenced by the Greek  legacy of Alexander, the

The ten avatars of the Hindu god Vishnu. Illustration. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.

India       203

Westerners’ Lingering Fascination with India

For  as long as India has  existed, Westerners have remained  fascinated with it—both with the real  India, and with the India they have imagined. When Alexander the Great   arrived in 326 B.C.,  he and his troops expected to find all sorts of strange things:  giant ants that could dig for  gold, wool that grew on trees, and men with feet so big they could lie on their backs and use them to shade themselves from the sun.

The great Italian traveler Marco Polo (1254–1324) became one of a few Westerners to glimpse the splendors of India during the Middle   Ages. As  the Western desire for learning grew in the period after A.D. 1500, more travelers came.  The British were particularly fascinated with  India. In the 1800s British  authors would write numerous stories set on the subcontinent.

Perhaps the most famous of these British writers   was   Rudyard   Kipling (1865–1936), who celebrated  India in works such as The Jungle Book  (1894) and

Kim (1901). In spite of his fascination with India and Indians, Kipling  clearly believed that  the  British were  superior  to  the Indians, an idea  reflected in works such as the 1892  poem “Gunga-Din,” the story of a brave Hindu water-carrier who dies while ser ving   his  British masters. Many    of Kipling’s  writings were for  children, as were those of Frances  Hodgson   Burnett (1849–1924), who included  Indian scenes in works such as The Little Princess (1905).

During  the nineteenth centur y, Westerners tended to view India as the land of mystics and snake  charmers, of swamis (holy  men) who could lie on beds of nails or  walk over hot coals. Thus they viewed Indian religion as something like  a carnival sideshow.  Beginning  as early as the 1890s, however, Westerners began to take a more serious interest in the belief systems  of  the  East. This  movement culminated during the 1960s, thanks in large part to the Beatles’ George    Harrison

adjective “Greco” (GREH-koh) is often attached  to their king- dom. During  the 100s B.C., the Greco-Bactrians advanced deep into the subcontinent, at one point even reaching Pataliputra. The Sungas fought them back, but much of what is now Pak-  istan and Afghanistan came under Greco-Bactrian control.

Eventually the Greco-Bactrians were overtaken by  the Sakas (SAH-kahz), who descended from the Scythians. The Sakas occupied much  of the Punjab in the 100s B.C. Meanwhile, the Sunga dynasty gave way to the Kanvas (KAHN-vahz), who were

204            Ancient  Civilizations: Almanac

(1943–). Led by Harrison, the Beatles tried transcendental meditation (TM), a Hindu cult.  Although Harrison   and the other members of the group soon lost interest in TM, Harrison  later converted to Hinduism.

Harrison’s interest in Indian religion sprang from his fascination with  Indian music, which is played on instruments such as the sitar (SIH-tar). The sitar is a stringed instrument like the  guitar,  though much more difficult to  play. This did not stop Western rock stars  from experimenting with  it  on  songs  such  as  the  Beatles’ “Norwegian  Wood”  (1965). Harrison   also introduced  Western  audiences  to  the exotic, dreamy sounds of traditional Indian music as  played by Ravi Shankar (RAH-vee SHAHNG-kahr, 1920–). Indian music had a great influence on Western rock during the

late 1960s. For   a brief time the Nehru jacket  worn  by  Indian Prime Minister Jawarharlal  Nehru  became  a  popular

fashion item among Western youth.

More  important was the spread of Indian religious ideas in the West.  Interest in Hinduism    and Buddhism  grew  during the 1970s, but so did Eastern cults such as TM   or Hare   Krishna  (HAHR-ee  KREEZH-  nah). Often   Hare   Krishnas,  a  group distinguished by  their long robes and shaved heads,  could be seen at airports in America and  Europe, selling copies of the Bhagavad-Gita. But the influence of Eastern ideas has extended far beyond the reach of such  cults. By the  latter  part  of  the twentieth century,  words such as  karma and   yoga   (the Indian    practice   of meditation) were a part  of the English language.

Western   movies   about    India include the Academy  Award-winning  film Gandhi  (1982), which portrays the life of modern  India’s most prominent leader; Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935); Gunga Din (1939); Kim (1950); Disney’s  Jungle  Book (1967); and City of Joy (1992).

even weaker. After the short rule of the Kanvas ended, much of India came under the control of various  small-scale rajas. As for the  Sakas, who  modeled themselves  on  the   Greeks—for instance, their coins  contained Greek inscriptions—they man- aged to hold on to the Punjab until the late A.D. 300s.

Kanishka takes the throne

Outside the Indian subcontinent, a new and  far more threatening force was  gathering its power. Driven out by the

India       205

unification of China in 221 B.C., a number of nomadic tribes from Central Asia had  moved westward. One of these was the Yüeh-Chih (you-WAY CHEE), who arrived in Bactria in 165 B.C. The strongest of the five Yüeh-Chih tribes  came to be  called the Kushans.  Eventually  they invaded  the Punjab. Between about 100 B.C. and the time their greatest ruler, Kanishka (kah- NEESH-kah), took the  throne in about A.D.  78,  the Kushans subdued an  enormous  area   that  stretched from the Ganges deep into Central Asia.

Kanishka was a Buddhist, and  by uniting such a large area of territory, he was able  to spread the religion northward into China, where it came to have much  greater importance than in India. This would prove to be the greatest legacy of the Kushans, who in spite of their sizeable empire declined rapidly after the time of Kanishka.

In the aftermath, the western part  of the Indian sub- continent came under the domination of the Sassanians from Persia, as well as the Sakas, whose power still lingered. By  then, however,  a new force  was arising  from the west: Rome. The Romans engaged   in  extensive   trade with  India, whose wealth—in the form of jewels, ivory, spices, and other goods— was well-known in Europe.

Up to this point, the principal kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent had  been based either in the Punjab and Indus Valley  to the west or on the Gangetic  (gan-JET-ik)  Plain  sur- rounding the Ganges to the east. But  some time after 100 B.C., new kingdoms appeared on the Deccan Plateau to the south. Most   important of  these  was  the  Satavahana (sah-tah-vah- HAH-nah) kingdom, which ruled the western Deccan until the A.D.  200s. There  were also  several  important Tamil dynasties who controlled  areas to the east and south.

The Gupta Empire (A.D. c. 320– c. 540)

For  many  centuries, the Kushans  and  various   other small principalities controlled  the Gangetic Plain, but in about A.D. 320, a great ruler like Chandragupta  arose to build a new empire based in Magadha. His name was also Chandra Gupta (r. A.D. 320–335), but the two parts of his name were separated, just like a modern person’s:  Chandra—sometimes shown as

206           Ancient  Civilizations: Almanac

Candra—was  his personal name, and  Gupta the name of his family, a title which attached  to the dynasty he founded.

As    for whether or  not  Chandra  Gupta was  actually descended from Chandragupta, historians are  unclear on this point. What  is clear is that Chandra Gupta built a great new empire that  would usher  in what  is known as  the  “Golden Age”  of ancient  India. He extended his rule throughout the Gangetic Plain, and his son Samudra Gupta (sah-MOOD-rah; r. c.  A.D.  335–376) broadened the  reaches of  the empire to include  much   of the subcontinent. In the south,  Samudra defeated the Pallavas  (pah-LAH-vuhz), a minor  dynasty,  and conquered the Punjab to the west with much  bloodshed. By the time he died, the only other major force in northern India was the Sakas.

Chandra Gupta II (r. A.D. c. 380–c. 415) proved to be the greatest of the Gupta rulers. He dealt with the Sakas and spread his control over the areas of central India that had  been ruled by a  dynasty called  the Vakatakas  (vah-kuh-TAH-kuhz). His empire never reached the  dimensions of Asoka’s  because  his authority over the Punjab and the Deccan was much less firm than  that  of the earlier  conqueror; nevertheless,  the Gupta Empire proved to be the greatest since that of the Mauryans.

The Golden   Age

The Guptas established peace  and prosperity through- out the lands  under their rule. This political stability resulted in a golden age  comparable to that of Greece. The centuries of Gupta rule saw  great advancements  in the arts  and  sciences, and  they established a distinctly  Hindu culture. As    for Bud- dhism, its heyday in India  was  over,  and  from then on, its influence would be strongest outside the country of its birth.

Nonetheless, one of the  outstanding examples  of painting  from the Golden Age of Gupta India can be found in the Buddhist temples of Ajanta  (ah-ZHAN-tah)  in  central India. The temples themselves, carved  from  solid rock, are  a work of art. Their walls contain numerous scenes from the life of the Buddha. Like much art from the Gupta era, these paint- ings are  highly realistic  in their  portrayal of human  figures. Even the chemical makeup  of the paints  themselves shows great technological advancement.

India       207

Prince Gautama and female figure, cave painting at Ajanta, India. Corbis/Charles

&  Josette Lenars. Reproduced by permission.

Making something stick to a surface is not always easy, as anyone who has ever tried to tape a piece  of paper on a con- crete  block wall  knows. The Buddhists of Ajanta, in  order to make their paints adhere to the rock walls of the caves, used a mixture of clay, straw, hair, and even cow dung. They covered this with white plaster,  and  then  while the surface was  still wet, painted scenes on them. Italian artists of the Renaissance, such as Michelangelo (1475–1564), would use similar methods some twelve centuries later.

The Gupta age  was  also  rich  in sculpture, most of it with religious themes. These  included statues of Hindu  gods such as Shiva as well as figures of the Buddha. Even the coins issued by the Gupta Empire showed impressive-looking deities such   as  the Hindu god   of  war,  Kartikeya (kar-tee-KIE-yah), shown with six heads and ten arms. As  for the architecture of the Guptas, many of its notable examples could be  found in the many Hindu temples built during this time.

208            Ancient  Civilizations: Almanac

The Guptas also built schools, where children were edu- cated in the rich literary history of their people. Students began school  at  the age   of nine, but where they went  from there depended on their caste. By  then, the original four castes had developed into thousands of  groups. Children  of the lower castes learned practical trades such as woodworking and textile- making. The children of the higher castes, by contrast, studied the Upanishads, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata  [see side- bar,  “Classes, Castes, and  Segregation”]. When  they finished their secondary education, they might go on to one of the uni- versities established under the Guptas’ reign, where they could study subjects ranging  from agriculture to philosophy.

As   advanced as Gupta arts and  education were, how- ever, the most outstanding features of the civilization were its achievements in the sciences, including medicine and astron- omy,  and  in mathematics. In medicine, Indian  surgeons  set broken bones and  even performed plastic  surgery,  a type of operation to change a person’s physical appearance. Still more remarkable were  the  Indian  doctors’ discoveries regarding what modern people would call germs and  viruses. It appears that they understood the importance  of maintaining a clean, sterile environment for performing surgery—something West- ern doctors would not figure out until the 1800s.

Research  by Indian scientists  and  physicians  in  the area of immunization also proved to be about 1,500 years ahead of its time. To protect someone against  a disease by injecting them with the thing that causes that disease might seem com- pletely backward, but as modern scientists know, that  is pre- cisely the way to protect people against  smallpox and similar  viral infections. Smallpox  was a major  problem at the time of the Guptas, and  doctors figured out that by injecting patients with a diluted form of the cowpox  virus,  they could protect them from the horrible illness.

In the realm of astronomy, the Indians figured out that planets and moons are  not sources of light (as many Western- ers continued  to believe for centuries) but  rather  reflect the light of the Sun. They were also aware that Earth is round and that it revolves. Indian mathematicians developed the system of ten numerals used today. These  were later adopted by the Arabs, and  thus  came  to be  known (incorrectly) as  “Arabic numerals.” They also used a decimal  system, understood diffi-

India       209

Indian Mathematical Discoveries

Among the discoveries of  Indian mathematicians of the Gupta   Empire  was the   system   of   ten   numerals. Other mathematical ideas that the Gupta mathematicians appeared to  understand, though they did not  necessarily discover them, included   the  decimal  system, negative  numbers, imaginary  numbers, and algebra.

Ten  numerals: It is  possible  to develop a mathematical system based on just four numerals, or seven,  or any other amount; but by far  the most practical method   is   a   system   based   on   ten numerals, from 0 to 9. Virtually all types of mathematics in use today involve a “base-

10” system of numerals.

Decimal  system: In  a   decimal number, each place after the decimal point can be thought of as a separate  fraction, with the denominator (the number on the bottom) a  multiple of 10. In the decimal number  0.534, for  instance, the  first number to the right of the decimal point is equal to 5/10; the second equals  3/100; and the third is the same as  4/1000. As  one moves farther away  from  the decimal point, the denominator  grows larger by a factor of 10—and  thus  the value of the fraction grows smaller. If a number is in the fifth position to the right, for instance, one

can know that the denominator is 10 to the fifth power.

Negative  numbers:  A   negative number is simply a number below 0. These numbers are “real,” as  anyone who has ever had an overdrawn  checkbook knows. If a person has $100 in his account, and he writes a check for $120, that means he has

-$20 in his account. To get back to $0, he will have to deposit $20.

Imaginary numbers: An  imaginary number is the square root of a  negative number. Any number can be  squared, or multiplied by itself: thus 2 squared is 4. But what  about  the  square   root  of  -4? Obviously  it cannot be 2; nor can it be -2, because multiplying a negative number by itself creates a positive number.  Thus it is an imaginary number. As  strange as such a concept sounds, it can be useful for solving complex equations.

Algebra:  Algebra is  a  type   of mathematics that makes it possible to find the value for a previously unknown number,  which  is  called  a  variable. A simple algebraic  equation would be “8  =

2x.” The term 2x  means 2  multiplied by the  variable  x . Obviously,  if  x  can  be multiplied by 2  to equal 8, then 8 can be divided by 2  to find x.  Once  this is  done,

the value of x (4) can be found easily.

210            Ancient  Civilizations: Almanac

cult  concepts such  as negative numbers and  imaginary num- bers, and used basic concepts of algebra.

Decline of the Guptas

Kumara Gupta (koo-MAHR-ah; r. A.D. c. 414–454), who succeeded Chandra Gupta II, presided over an empire that was still strong, but he faced a powerful threat from the north. The Indians called these invaders Hunas (HOO-nuhz), but Western writers refer to them as “White Huns.” Like their cousins the Huns, who were helping to bring down the Roman Empire at about  the same time, the  Hunas had  been  displaced from northern China by the  Chinese. Now  they were looking for new lands  to conquer.

The Hunas attacked  the Gupta Empire in about  A.D.

450. Kumara died in the middle of this war,  and  though his son Skanda  Gupta (SKAHN-dah; r. c. A.D. 454–467) drove them out, the Huns  had  weakened Gupta rule. After  a  period  of power struggles, Budha Gupta took the throne in A.D. 475 and reigned for twenty years, during which time many princes and rajas competed for power. The Hunas, who turned their atten- tion to Sassanian  Persia for a time, returned in about A.D. 500. Within less than half a century, they had effectively destroyed Gupta rule.

India from the Middle Ages  to modern times

For  nearly 500  years, India remained in a state of dis- array that made it ripe for conquest from outside. This came in about A.D. 1000, when the Muslim Turks swept in. For  almost

400 years, they would control a wide swath of Indian territory from the Arabian  Sea   to  the Bay   of Bengal,  an  area   that included the river valleys of the Indus and  the  Ganges. This kingdom was called the Delhi Sultanate (DEL-ee SUL-tun-et), a name that referred to the city of Delhi, where the sultan ruled.

In 1398, a Central Asian conqueror named Timur (TEE- moor) attacked  the Delhi Sultanate. In 1526,  a descendant of his named Babur  (bah-BOOR) established the  Mogul  (MOH-  guhl) Empire. The Moguls would rule for many  years. Among their kings was Shah Jahan (SHAH jah-HAHN), who built the

India        211

Taj Mahal, photograph. Archive photos. Reproduced by permission.

famous Taj  Mahal (TAHZH  muh-HAHL) as  a  tomb  for his beloved bride. By   the late 1600s, the Hindu Marathas  (muh- RAH-thuhz) were challenging  the Muslim  Moguls.  Fighting between the two groups opened the way  for Great Britain  to conquer India.

The British began to acquire Indian territory beginning in 1765, and  over the next 122 years, they fought numerous wars to extend their control. By  1887, the entire subcontinent belonged either  to  Britain  or  to  local rulers subject  to  the British   Crown. Though  the British   were not always  kind to their Indian subjects, they also instituted a number of reforms, most notably in 1829, when they outlawed the Hindu custom of suttee (SUH-tee). After death, a Hindu was  cremated on a funeral pyre. By the rules of suttee, a man’s widow was expected to burn herself to death on the pyre.

British   power weakened with the heavy losses it  suf- fered in World  War  I (1914–1918). The period  leading up to

212            Ancient  Civilizations: Almanac

World War II (1939–1945) saw the rise of an independence movement led by Mohandas Gandhi   (moh-HAHN-dus GAHN-dee;  1869–1948). Gandhi  was sometimes  called  the Mahatma  (mah- HAHT-muh),    which    means    “great soul.” He was both a powerful political and religious leader, and his movement gathered enormous strength. In  1947, Britain granted independence to India.

Fighting quickly  broke out between Hindus and  Muslims, and Gandhi himself was  assassinated.  The conflict  led to  the establishment  of Pakistan as a separate state with a Mus- lim majority. The country was divided into two parts separated by more than

1,000  miles (1,609   kilometers) of Indian   territory.   India  fought wars with China and  later Pakistan, and  a bloody  1971 clash with Pakistan resulted   in   the   establishment    of Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) as an independent nation.

For  the better part of fifty years, India was led by a sin- gle family. First came Jawarharlal Nehru (yah-wahr-hahr-LAHL NAY-roo;  1889–1964), a  follower  of Gandhi, who  served as prime minister from 1947 to 1964. His daughter Indira Gandhi (in-DEER-uh;  1917–1984; no relation to Mohandas Gandhi) was an outspoken figure who led the nation from 1966 to 1977, and  again  from 1980 until her  assassination in 1984.  Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv (rah-ZHEEV; 1944–1991) took her place as prime minister until he was voted out in 1989. Two years later, during an election campaign, he too was assassinated.

Political unrest has  been far from the only  problem that  has  plagued modern India. There  are  fifteen  major  lan- guages in the country, and  hundreds of ethnic groups live in uneasy relations with one another. Although the caste system was abolished in 1947, poverty is still widespread. In 1999 the average Indian earned $1,600 a year, compared with $28,600 for the average American. Nonetheless, the country has made massive efforts at reform and  has done so while  maintaining

Indira Gandhi, photograph. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.

India       213

Hindu traditions that  date back thousands of years. Western peoples, while possessing far greater material  wealth  than most Indians, have remained fascinated with  the varied and exotic culture of India.

For More Information

Books

Breuilly, Elizabeth; Joanne O’Brien; Martin Palmer. Religions of the World: The Illustrated Guide to Origins, Beliefs, Traditions & Festivals. New York: Facts on File, 1997, pp. 85-125, 138-49.

Dijkstra, Henk. History of the Ancient & Medieval   World, Volume 3: Ancient

Cultures. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1996, pp. 379-90.

Dué, Andrea, ed. The Atlas  of Human  History:  Civilizations   of Asia: India, China  and the Peoples of Southeast Asia  and the Indian Ocean. Text by Renzo Rossi and  Martina Veutro. New York: Macmillan Library Ref- erence USA, 1996, pp. 16-23.

Ganeri, Anita. Exploration  into India. New York:  New Discovery  Books,

1994.

Ganeri, Anita. Religions Explained: A  Beginner’s Guide to World Faiths. Mar-  cus  Braybrooke, consultant. New York:  Henry Holt  and  Company,

1997, pp. 34-49.

Kalman,  Bobbie.  India: The Culture. New York: Crabtree  Publishing Com- pany, 1990.

Kalman,  Bobbie.  India: The Land. New York: Crabtree  Publishing  Com- pany, 1990.

Kalman,  Bobbie.  India: The People. New York: Crabtree  Publishing Com- pany, 1990.

Martell, Hazel Mary. The Kingfisher  Book  of the Ancient  World. New York: Kingfisher, 1995, pp. 52-61.

Odijk, Pamela. The Indians. South Melbourne, Australia: Macmillan, 1989. Sarin, Amita  Vohra.  India: An  Ancient  Land, a New Nation.  Minneapolis,

MN: Dillon  Press, 1984.

Stewart, Melissa. Science in Ancient  India. New York: F. Watts, 1999. Suthren-Hirst, Jacqueline. The Story of the Hindus. New York: Cambridge

University Press, 1989.

Web Sites

Essence of India—Arts &  Culture—Indian History. http://www.cyberindian. com/india/history.htm (April 22, 1999).

214             Ancient  Civilizations: Almanac

Exploring   Ancient     World  Cultures:   India.  http://eawc.evansville.edu/

inpage.htm (April 22, 1999).

Harappa  Doorways. http://www.harappa.com/welcome04.html (April 22,

1999).

The History  of Punjab. http://bucrf15.bu.edu/~rajwi/punjab/history.html

(April 22, 1999).

Jainism. http://www.angelfire.com/jainism/ (April 22, 1999).

NM’s  Creative  Impulse:  India. http://history.evansville.net/india.html

(April 22, 1999).

India        215