Chapter 6 / Section 3

India’s First Empires

I. The Mauryan Dynasty (pgs. 210 – 211)• Indian rajas, or princes, fought over their small kingdoms for

centuries.

• Invasions from Persia in the 500s B.C., and Alexander the Great in 327 B.C., led to the first great Indian empire.

• Chandragupta Maurya (chuhn* druh*gup*tuh mah*oor*yah), and Indian prince, founded India’s first empire.

• This empire was called the

Mauryan dynasty.

• A dynasty is a series of rulers

from the same family.

• Chandragupta set up a centralized government where he ran everything from the capital city, Pataliputra (pah*tuh*lih*poo*truh).

• Chandragupta controlled his dynasty by retaining a strong army, using spies, and setting up a postal service for communications.

Emperor Asoka’s Reign• Many historians consider Asoka (uh*soh*kuh) the Mauryan dynasty’s

greatest king.

• Asoka was a strong military leader, but turned away from violence after one particularly bloody battle.

• He vowed to live a peaceful life and to follow the teachings of Buddha.

• Asoka did many great things for his people: 1. built hospitals for people and animals

2. built new roads and put shade along roads for travelers

3. sent Buddhist teachers throughout Indian and Asia

4. built thousands of stupas (stoo*puhs) – Buddhist shrines with the shape of mound or dome

5. allowed Hindu subjects to practice their religion.

The Fall of the Mauryan Empire• Asoka died in 232 B.C. and the empire grew weak.

• The kings that followed made poor decisions and became greedy.

• The last Mauryan ruler was killed in 183 B.C. by his own generals.

II. The Gupta Empire (pg. 23)• After 500 years of fighting, ANOTHER Chandragupta took

power and founded the Gupta dynasty in A.D. 320.

• After Chandragupta died, his son, Samudragupta took over and expanded the empire.

• The Guptas ruled for about 200 years and grew wealthy from trade with China, Asia, and the Mediterranean.

• Pilgrims were people who often used the trade routes to travel to a religious shrine or site and helped make cities wealthy just as tourists do today.

• The Guptas were Hindus, and they made Hinduism the official religion.

• The golden age of art and learning in India was during the Gupta empire.

III. Indian Literature and Science (pgs. 214-26)• The Vedas of India are hymns and prayers used in religious

ceremonies.

• The Vedas were recorded in Sanskrit after the Aryan people came to India.

• The epics Mahabharata (muh*hah*bah*ruh*tuh) and Ramayana (rah*mah*yah*nah) are two poems that are still famous in India today.

• The Mahabharata is the longest poem

in any written language with about 88,000 verses.

• One of India’s most famous authors was Kalidasa (kah*lih*deh*suh).

• His poem, The Cloud Messenger, is one of the most popular Sanskrit poems.

• Indian mathematicians made many important contributions as well.

• Aryabhata (ahr*yuh*buht*uh)

was a leading mathematician

during the Gupta dynasty and

was one of the first scientists

known to have used algebra.

• Indian mathematicians also developed the idea of zero and a symbol to represent it.

• They also explored the concept of infinity – something without an end.

• Gupta mathematicians created the symbols for the numbers 1 to 9 that we use today known as the Hindu-Arabic numerical system.

• Early Indians also invented algorithms (ahl*gohr*ih*thuhm) which is a series of steps that solve a problem.

• Early Indians also made contributions to astronomy: 1. followed/mapped planets and stars

2. concept that Earth is round and revolved around the Sun

3. concept of gravity

4. ideas of atoms

• Gupta doctors could set bones, perform operations, used herbs in treating illnesses, and made many medical tools.

• An Indian doctor named Shusrutu (shoosh*roo*tuh) carried out early an early form of plastic surgery.