Ancient Indian history:

This is an attempt to summarise the important events and dynasties throughout indian history. hope it's useful

Indus valley civilization/Harappa (2500-1750 bc)


vedic age
Early (1500-1000 bc)–rig veda

later (1000-600 bc)
- Sam veda – on musical hymns
- Yajur veda – on rituals of sacrifices
- Atharva veda – on charms and spells
- Brahmanas – commentaries on the Vedas
- Aranyakas – jungle book; theme : romanticsm
- Upanishadas or vedantas (108 in number) – theme : metaphysics. Most important – chandokya.
-aryans life : discovery of iron (1000 bc ±100 years), agriculture, settled life, yajnas
- gods: Prajapati, Vishnu



The mahajanapadas ( 600 bc) – 16 in number. After a prolonged struggle, 5 of them emerged as the most powerful ones –
1. Vajji
2.Magadha
3.Kashi
4.Koshala
5.Avanti
Magadha and Avanti emerged as the most powerful; they fought for about 100 years and the Magadha empire became the first established empire in india!

Magadha dynasties:



Haryankas (500 bc)
Bimbisara They were the first to

Ajatashatru introduce metallic
Punchmarked coins in india



Shishunag – founder : shishunaga


Nanda – founder: mahapadmananda

Events:

- Alexander (326-324 bc) invaded india through Khyber pass. The first king to oppose him was Porus (Punjab).
- Alexander brought two historians with him:
Aristoblus and anasecrates
- Alexander returned through Gujarat without attacking northern india. At that time, dhananand was the king of magadh dynasty.



Maurya – founder: Chandragupta maurya (321 – 298 bc)

Landmarks:

- c. maurya was helped by vishnugupta/kautilya/chanakya
- c. maurya defeated seleucas nicotar (alexander’s successor)
(c. maurya performed ‘sallekhan’? - a Buddhist ritual of giving up food & water forever)
- megasthenes (writer of indica) was the ambassador of seleucas.

Bindusara/ Amitraghata

Ashoka (273-232 bc)
-after the kalinga war, he took up the policy of ‘dharmaghosa’ replacing ‘bherighosa’
-ashokan edicts: 14 in number found in 8 different places, written in prakrit.



Shunga – founder: pushyamitra shunga



Kanva – founder: vasudev




Arrival of foreigners


-Indo-greeks/bactrians (200 bc)
-they introduced gold coins, dates and images of kings on coins, yawanika (curtain or purdah), all for the first time

Gandhar school of art/hellenisti art:
-Mostly of Buddha in standing position.
[note: the statues found in bamiyan, begram, hadda, heart, kandhar, (afg), taxila (pak) are of this style]




Sakas/saythians (central asian tribe)
-Greatest king: rudradaman (proof: junagarh inscription)



Parthians/pahalvas (from iran)
- first Christian missionary: Saint Thomas settled In kerala.





Kushans (yutchi tribe of central asia)

-kanishka (1st & 2nd Ad) introduced the saka era
-charak: kanishka’s great physician, wrote the book, ‘kerala samhita’ ( known as encyclopedia of Indian medicine)



Vatsa




Satvahanas/andhras (100 – 300 ad)

-minted coins in lead
They were the first to give land grants
Patronized Amravati school of art: statues made in narrative form.
-mathura school of art ( origin: 200 bc): buddha ( shaveless with a lock) statues made of red sandstone



Sangam age/literature: assembly of tamil poets
-tolkappiyam: book on tamil grammar
-depict the life of three kingdoms, mainly: pandyan, chola and cheras

Indo roman trade: silk route ( china to rome via afg)



Guptas (320 – 520 ad): golden era

- ramayana & mahabharat finally compiled in this period
Manusmriti written in post-mauryan period
-samudragupta: Indian napoleon, kaviraj. Info about him from ‘prayag prasati’ (on ashokan pillar) written in Sanskrit by harisena, his court poet
-coins with image of lakshmi
-chandragupta ii/vikramaditya
Great scientific and cultural development took place during his time
Great scholars and poets during his reign: kalidas, aryabhatta (wrote aryalshittika)-the first scientist in india who separated mathematics and astronomy), amar singh (wrote amarkosh: dictionary in Sanskrit), vishakhadutta (wrote mudrarakshasha & devienandraguptam), fa-hien.
Puranas (stories of gods & goddesses) written in future tense: 18 in number
Smritis (law book)
Temple art flourished:
Bhitalgaon temple:the first to be made of bricks, ajanta
Fresco painting style: paintings done on wet plaster; theme: jataka tales

Kumaragupta I
Largest inscription about him found
Nalanda Buddhist monastery built

Skandagupta
His famous inscription: junagarh
Defeated the hunas (cen asian tribe)

Vardhans/pushyabhuti dynasty:

Harshavardhana (606 – 647 ad)
-his dramas: ratnavali, priyadarshika and nagananda, kadambari
-harsha charita: first biography of any king in india
- hiuen tsang visited india during his time; studied at nalanda


[note: Mesopotamian (Iran) civilization (5300 BC) – THE OLDEST CIVILIZATION KNOWN!]