Class 7 Social Science Chapter 6: The Age of Reorganisation
- 4 topics
- 100 MCQs
- 28 short answers
- 12 long answers
- 68 flashcards
- 20 games
- ~175 min read
- English
Why the empire broke, and what reorganisation means
The last Maurya emperor was killed about 185 BCE by his own commander-in-chief, barely fifty years after Ashoka. Former tributary kingdoms became independent states, competing by war and by marriage. Art and writing flourished for five centuries.
What you will be able to do
- Describe how the Maurya line ended and how soon after Ashoka.
- Explain where the new kingdoms of this age came from.
- Explain what the name Age of Reorganisation is describing.
- Compare the two means a kingdom had of gaining territory.
- Sort the dynasties of the age by whether they came from inside or outside the Subcontinent.
Key points
The last Maurya emperor was killed about 185 BCE by his commander-in-chief, Pushyamitra Shunga.
That was only about half a century after Ashoka.
Many of the new kingdoms had been tributaries under Maurya overlordship.
The northwest grew weak, leaving it open to invasion from outside the Subcontinent.
Reorganisation means existing regions rearranged into competing new kingdoms.
Territory was gained by warfare, or peacefully by matrimonial alliance.
Border land was fought over hardest, because it keeps attack from the heartland.
Six named dynasties came from inside the Subcontinent and three from outside.
The age runs from the start of the 2nd century BCE to the end of the 3rd century CE.
Full explanation
A period with two names
What do you call the stretch of time that comes after a famous empire? One answer is simply the time after the Mauryas, and that answer makes it sound like a gap between things worth studying.
Some scholars call it something else: the Age of Reorganisation. That name says what was going on rather than what had stopped.
How the empire ended
Of the rulers who followed Ashoka we know remarkably little. What is generally accepted is how the line finished.
The last of the Maurya emperors was killed, about 185 BCE, by his own commander-in-chief, a man named Pushyamitra Shunga. Being murdered by the head of your army is a particular kind of ending.
Barely fifty years
Set that date beside the last chapter and the speed of it is startling. Only about half a century separates Ashoka from the collapse.
An empire that had reached across nearly the whole Subcontinent came apart within living memory of the ruler who built it to its greatest size.
Where the new kingdoms came from
Out of the wreck came kingdom after kingdom, right across the Subcontinent. And here is the part worth noticing: a good many of them were not new at all.
They had been tributary kingdoms, holding their own ground under Maurya overlordship. When the overlord went, what was left was a ruler already in place with a territory already his.
The weak corner
One region came out of this worse than the rest. The northwest lost its strength, and a weak frontier is an invitation.
That corner of the map was now open to invasion from outside the Subcontinent altogether, which is the thread the fourth topic of this chapter follows.
What reorganisation means
Now the name makes sense. Existing regions were being rearranged into new kingdoms, and those kingdoms were in constant competition to come out on top.
Nothing was being built from nothing. The same land, the same people and often the same rulers were being sorted into a different pattern.
Two ways to get ahead
A kingdom wanting more territory had two instruments, and the chapter is careful to give both.
One was force: plain warfare against a neighbour. The other was peaceful, a matrimonial alliance.
What a matrimonial alliance was
A matrimonial alliance is an agreement made through a marriage, generally between members of two royal families.
In practice it usually meant a king offering his daughter in marriage into the royal house next door, with the aim of binding the two kingdoms together. A wedding, in other words, could do the work of an army.
Why the borders mattered most
There was never a pause in the struggle over the strips of land along the frontiers, and the reason is defensive rather than greedy.
Holding the border country is how a kingdom keeps attack away from its heartland. Lose the edge and you have lost the buffer.
The thing that is easy to miss
All of that is politics, and politics in this period looks like noise: kings rising, kings falling, lines on the map shifting every generation.
Alongside the noise, something else was happening. There was a surge in art, in architecture and in literature, and cultures were exchanging a great deal with one another.
Where the dynasties came from
The chapter sorts the ruling houses of this age into two groups, and the division is by origin rather than by strength.
From inside the Subcontinent came six that the chapter names: the Shungas, the Chedis, the Satavahanas, and the three southern houses, the Cholas, the Cheras and the Pandyas.
And the ones from outside
Three more came in from beyond the Subcontinent: the Indo-Greeks, the Shakas and the Kushanas.
Keeping that division in mind matters, because the second big question of this chapter is what happened to the outsiders once they were here.
How long the age ran
If you lay this period out on a line, it starts at the opening of the second century BCE and runs to the close of the third century CE.
That is around five hundred years, which is longer than the Maurya empire and the Nanda empire put together.
Crossing from BCE to CE
Drawing that timeline has a small catch in it worth being ready for. The period starts in BCE and finishes in CE.
Those two run in opposite directions. BCE years count down towards zero, and CE years count up away from it, so 185 BCE is earlier than 100 BCE, while 100 CE is earlier than 185 CE.
What the age was really doing
So the Age of Reorganisation is not an interval and not a decline.
It is five centuries in which the political map of India was taken apart and reassembled by competition, while the art, the buildings and the writing of the Subcontinent went through one of their richest periods. The chapters that follow look at who was doing it.
Concepts and terms
The last Maurya emperor was assassinated about 185 BCE by his own commander-in-chief, Pushyamitra Shunga, barely fifty years after Ashoka.
Many were former tributary kingdoms that had held their own ground under Maurya overlordship, so their rulers were already in place.
Existing regions being rearranged into new kingdoms that competed constantly to become the strongest, rather than anything built from nothing.
Warfare, or a matrimonial alliance: a marriage between two royal families, usually a king giving his daughter to the house next door to bind the kingdoms together.
Six dynasties of the age came from within the Subcontinent and three from beyond it, and what happened to those three is a central question of the chapter.
Watch out
Common misconceptions
A timeline, and three mistakes on it
Scenario:
A class is asked to draw this age on a line and mark the key events. One pupil leaves the whole stretch blank except for two dates, writing beside it that nothing of note happened between the empires. A second labels every kingdom on the line as newly founded. A third puts 100 BCE to the left of 185 BCE, explaining that smaller numbers always come first. The teacher asks the class to find all three errors before the lines go on the wall.
Analysis:
One drawing, three wrong assumptions, each about a different thing the chapter is careful about.
Activity:
Draw the line yourself, mark 185 BCE and 300 CE at its two ends, and check that your BCE numbers decrease as you move to the right.
Two columns: inside and outside
Title:
Two columns: inside and outside
Safety:
No hazards here.
What You Notice:
Several southern names carry stars, because the Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas were already there in the chapter on empires. They did not arrive with this age; they simply became more prominent once the overlord above them was gone.
Did you know
The man who ended the Maurya line was not a foreign invader but the head of its own army.
A wedding could do the work of an army: a matrimonial alliance bound two kingdoms without a battle.
This age runs about five hundred years, longer than the Maurya and Nanda empires together.
Memory tricks
Reorganised, not rebuilt: same land, new pattern.
Six houses from within, three from without.
Practice MCQs with answers (25)
- A Empires
- B Invasions
- C Silence
- D Reorganisation
Show answer
Why:
It says what was going on.
- A never begun in the first place
- B stopped rather than what went on
- C happened only in the south
- D been written down anywhere
Show answer
Why:
A gap between real history.
- A commander-in-chief
- B chief minister
- C eldest son
- D tributary king
Show answer
Why:
Pushyamitra Shunga.
- A Kharavela the monk-king
- B Kanishka the Kushana
- C Karikala of the Cholas
- D Pushyamitra Shunga
Show answer
Why:
He founded a dynasty of his own.
- A half a century
- B five centuries
- C five years
- D two centuries
Show answer
Why:
Startlingly quick.
- A edicts
- B emissaries
- C successors
- D pillars
Show answer
Why:
The records are thin.
- A generals
- B ministers
- C satraps
- D tributaries
Show answer
Why:
Already in place.
- A Both true, and the reason explains the assertion
- B Both true, but the reason does not explain it
- C The assertion is true and the reason is false
- D The assertion is false and the reason is true
Show answer
Why:
The reason is true and the assertion is false: it was the most exposed, which is why invasion came through it.
- A merging peacefully
- B competing
- C shrinking
- D abandoning trade
Show answer
Why:
Same land, new pattern.
- A entirely from nothing
- B only in the far south
- C on what was already there
- D nothing of any kind
Show answer
Why:
Rearrangement, not creation.
- A I and II only
- B II and III only
- C I and III only
- D I, II and III
Show answer
Why:
I and III are true. The second fails: it was the peaceful way.
- A tribute payment
- B matrimonial alliance
- C rock edict
- D border wall
Show answer
Why:
A wedding doing an army work.
- A tributary agreement
- B guild charter
- C council of sages
- D matrimonial alliance
Show answer
Why:
A political instrument.
- A treasury
- B army
- C daughter
- D capital city
Show answer
Why:
A marriage saved a war.
- A coastline
- B heartland
- C trade routes alone
- D royal family
Show answer
Why:
Lose the edge, lose the buffer.
- A literature
- B warfare
- C tribute
- D invasion
Show answer
Why:
And cultural exchange.
- A six
- B three
- C nine
- D two
Show answer
Why:
Three of them southern.
- A Kushanas
- B Shakas
- C Satavahanas
- D Indo-Greeks
Show answer
Why:
And the three southern houses.
- A three
- B six
- C one
- D nine
Show answer
Why:
They entered by the northwest.
- A Cholas
- B Cheras
- C Pandyas
- D Indo-Greeks
Show answer
Why:
Their fate is a main question.
- A 3rd century CE
- B 5th century BCE
- C 2nd century BCE
- D 1st century CE
Show answer
Why:
It closes in the 3rd century CE.
- A fifty years
- B five hundred years
- C two hundred years
- D a thousand years
Show answer
Why:
Longer than Maurya and Nanda together.
- A the Common Era
- B an unknown era
- C the Shaka Samvat
- D another calendar
Show answer
Why:
The years then run the other way.
- A They belong to a calendar that runs in the opposite direction
- B They were written down long before anybody could count upwards
- C They refer only to events that nobody can date exactly at all
- D They are measured backwards from the same fixed starting point
Show answer
Why:
Both BCE and CE are counted from one fixed point. Going backwards from it means the numbers get larger as the date gets earlier.
- A entirely abandoned
- B at their richest
- C confined to one court
- D copied from abroad
Show answer
Why:
Reorganisation, not collapse.
Important short questions (7)
The last Maurya emperor was assassinated about 185 BCE. The man who killed him was his own commander-in-chief, Pushyamitra Shunga.
Because only about half a century separates Ashoka from the collapse. An empire that had covered nearly the whole Subcontinent came apart within living memory of him.
A good many had already existed as tributary kingdoms under Maurya overlordship. When the overlord was gone, each was left with a ruler already in place and a territory already his.
Existing regions being rearranged into new kingdoms. Those kingdoms were in constant competition to become the most powerful.
A tie between two kingdoms created by marrying their royal houses together. In practice a king would give a daughter to the ruling house next door, so that the two kingdoms were tied by family.
Because holding the border country is how a kingdom keeps attacks away from its heartland. Losing the edge means losing the buffer.
From inside the Subcontinent came the Shungas, Chedis, Satavahanas, Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas. From outside came the Indo-Greeks, the Shakas and the Kushanas.
Long answer questions (3)
Because that is what was actually happening to it. The last Maurya emperor was killed about 185 BCE and the empire came apart, but what followed was not emptiness. Kingdom after kingdom appeared across the Subcontinent, and a good many of them had already existed as tributaries under Maurya overlordship, so their rulers were in place with territory of their own. Those regions were being rearranged into new states which then competed constantly to become the strongest, by warfare and by matrimonial alliance. The map of India altered a great deal, and so did the lives of the people on it. So the period is a rearrangement of what already existed rather than a gap.
One was force and the other was marriage. Warfare is the obvious instrument. A kingdom simply fought its neighbour for the ground between them. The struggle along the frontiers never really paused, because holding the border country is how a kingdom keeps attack away from its heartland. The peaceful instrument was the matrimonial alliance, a tie between two kingdoms created by marrying their royal houses together. In practice a king would give a daughter to the ruling house next door, tying the two kingdoms by family. The second method cost nothing in lives and could secure what a campaign might fail to take, which is why both were in regular use.
The politics of the age look like noise. Kings rise and fall, and the map shifts every generation. That invites the conclusion that nothing much was achieved. Alongside the political struggle, however, came a surge in the development of art, of architecture and of literature, together with rich cultural exchange between the many kingdoms and the peoples who arrived from outside. The age also ran a long time. Laid out on a line it begins at the opening of the second century BCE and ends at the close of the third century CE. That is about five hundred years, longer than the Maurya and Nanda empires put together. A timeline of it crosses from BCE to CE, where the years run in opposite directions.
Flashcards (17)
Play this topic
- Match each term to its meaning
- Inside the Subcontinent, or outside?
- Fact or myth
- Order the steps from one empire to many kingdoms
- Match each thing to what the chapter says of it
The Shungas and the Satavahanas
The Shungas ruled north and central India and declared kingship by the ashvamedha, where a loose horse marked out territory. The Satavahanas ruled the Deccan on farming and sea trade. They put ships on their coins and named princes after their mothers.
What you will be able to do
- Describe the Shunga dynasty, its extent and how long it lasted.
- Explain the ashvamedha yajna and what it claimed.
- Describe the Shunga contribution to art, naming the Bharhut Stupa.
- Explain how farming and sea trade supported the Satavahana kingdom.
- Describe what Satavahana inscriptions tell us about queens and about numerals.
Key points
Pushyamitra Shunga founded a dynasty ruling parts of north and central India.
It was smaller than the Maurya empire but he kept invaders out, and it lasted about a century.
In the ashvamedha a loose horse claimed any land it crossed unchallenged.
Stopping the horse meant a battle to settle who was greater.
Vedic rituals revived, yet other schools of thought went on flourishing.
Patanjali compiled the Yoga Sutras in this period, and Sanskrit came forward.
The Shungas added carved railings and Buddha reliefs to the Bharhut Stupa.
Satavahana coins carry ships, and trade reached the Roman Empire.
Satavahana princes were often named after their mothers.
Full explanation
Two answers to one question
A ruler in this age had to make his power visible. Two houses did it in two quite different ways, and setting them side by side is the point of this topic.
One reached for ritual. The other reached for trade.
The house the general founded
Pushyamitra Shunga, the man who had ended the Maurya line, set up a dynasty of his own. It governed parts of northern and central India.
Measured against the empire it replaced it was a small thing. Compare the two maps and the difference is obvious at once.
Small, but safe
Smaller did not mean weaker in every respect, and this is worth crediting. He kept his territory clear of the invaders who might have taken it.
With the Greeks he ended up on friendly terms, though only after fighting them first. A campaign, then an understanding.
The dynasty did not outlast him by much. Roughly a hundred years later it had disappeared.
That is a pattern this chapter repeats: a house rises, holds for three or four generations, and is replaced.
How he declared himself king
To announce that he was now the supreme ruler, Pushyamitra performed the ashvamedha yajna, a Vedic ritual that many kings used for the purpose.
The method is extraordinary. A horse was turned loose to wander wherever it chose, with soldiers walking behind it.
What the horse decided
Any land the horse crossed without being challenged counted as having joined the king's territory.
If a rival ruler stopped the animal, that refusal meant a battle, and the battle settled which of the two was the greater. The ritual was a claim and a dare in one.
What came back with the ritual
The age saw Vedic rituals and practices revive, and the ashvamedha is the clearest example.
That revival did not shut anything else down. Other schools of thought went on flourishing beside it, which is a point this chapter makes about ruler after ruler.
Sanskrit, and the Yoga Sutras
Sanskrit came forward now as one of the languages people chose for writing philosophy and literature.
The Yoga Sutras belong to this period. Patanjali gathered them together during these centuries, and you may already have met them in your Physical Education and Well-being lessons.
What the Shungas paid for
The Shungas supported writing, art and building alike.
The Bharhut Stupa, in what is now Madhya Pradesh, is the piece to remember. It was most likely put up in Ashoka's time, but the Shungas added the carved railings and the relief panels telling stories from the Buddha's life. Those carvings count among the oldest Buddhist art we have.
Southward, the other answer
South of the Shunga lands lay the Satavahanas, who ruled much of the Deccan from the second century BCE onwards. They are sometimes called the Andhras.
What little evidence survives suggests the Shungas fought wars with several neighbours, and the Satavahanas may well have been among them.
Where they ruled from
Their territory covered most of what are now Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra.
They did not keep one capital throughout. Of the several they used at different times, the two best remembered are Amravati and Pratishthana, which is Paithan today.
What the coins tell us
Satavahana coins turn up across a wide stretch of India, from Gujarat in the west to Andhra Pradesh in the east, which is coast to coast.
Many of them carry a ship. That is not decoration: it says sea trade mattered to this kingdom. The kind of vessel shown, with two masts and what look like sails, points to shipbuilding and navigation of real skill.
What fed the kingdom
Farming did well in the country watered by the Krishna and the Godavari, and that gave the kingdom a steady economic base.
A steady base is what lets a state risk anything else.
How far the trade reached
Satavahana trading networks ran as far as the Roman Empire.
Out went spices and textiles, sandalwood, and luxuries such as ivory and gold-plated pearls. In came glass, and perfumed ointments. On top of the trade itself, the tolls and taxes charged on it added to the kingdom's income.
What prosperity bought
Money and a reasonably peaceful stretch of politics together made room for literature, art and culture to develop, and the Satavahanas contributed a great deal to all three.
The Karla caves in present-day Maharashtra are one result, cut for Buddhist monks out of a rocky hillside, with great pillars and a stone stupa standing in the middle of them.
Named after their mothers
Satavahana princes were often given their mother's name as part of their own. Gautamiputra Satakarni carried the name of his mother, Gautami Balashri.
She was no ornament. She made over land to Buddhist monks and had a notable inscription cut at Nashik, which tells us she counted for something in the kingdom.
A widow queen, and some numerals
Inscriptions in the Naneghat caves near Pune concern a Satavahana widow queen who performed several Vedic rituals herself, the ashvamedha among them. They name Vedic gods including Indra, Chandra and Surya.
They also list what she gave away: land, cows, horses, elephants, silver coins and more, to priests and guests, to workers, scholars and monks. The inscriptions are in Brahmi, and some of their number symbols look rather like the ones we write today, which is part of the evidence that our numerals began in India.
Patrons of everyone
The Satavahanas themselves followed Vasudeva, which is another name for Krishna.
That did not narrow their patronage. Their kings handed out farmland free of tax to Vedic scholars and to Jaina and Buddhist monks alike, so that each could get on with study and practice. A sculpture at Pitalkhora carries an inscription saying a goldsmith made it, which is a small reminder that people's trades were not as fixed as we might assume.
Why it ended
In the third century CE the Satavahana empire came apart into smaller independent kingdoms.
Several things contributed, and two stand out: central control had grown weak, and the economy had been slipping for some time. Once again, regional powers moved into the space that left.
Concepts and terms
Founded by Pushyamitra Shunga over parts of north and central India, smaller than the Maurya empire but secure, and gone about a century later.
A Vedic ritual declaring kingship: a horse was loosed with soldiers behind it, and land it crossed unchallenged was claimed, while stopping it meant battle.
They supported writing, art and architecture, adding carved railings and Buddha reliefs to the Bharhut Stupa, among the oldest Buddhist art we have.
Farming in the Krishna and Godavari country gave a steady income, while sea trade reaching the Roman Empire, with tolls and taxes on it, added more.
Satavahana princes often carried their mother name, as Gautamiputra Satakarni carried Gautami Balashri, who gave land to monks and had an inscription cut at Nashik.
Watch out
Common misconceptions
A museum case, and four labels to check
Scenario:
A gallery sets out five objects from this chapter and a student drafts the labels. Beside a carved railing panel she writes that the whole Bharhut Stupa is Shunga work. Beside a coin showing a two-masted vessel she writes that the ship is a decorative pattern with no particular meaning. Beside a cast of a Nashik inscription she writes that royal women of the period left no public record. Beside a painting of a horse with soldiers behind it she writes that the ritual was purely ceremonial and claimed no territory.
Analysis:
Four objects, four labels, and each one understating what the object actually shows.
Activity:
Find a photograph of a Bharhut railing panel and see how many separate scenes you can count carved on one upright.
Follow the horse
Title:
Follow the horse
Safety:
No hazards here.
What You Notice:
A strong neighbour stops the horse and a weak one lets it by, which means the ritual quietly measured who was willing to fight. That is why it worked as a declaration of supremacy and not just as a ceremony.
Did you know
Satavahana coins have been found from Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh, which is coast to coast across India.
Some number symbols in the Naneghat inscriptions look rather like the numerals we write today.
A sculpture at Pitalkhora carries an inscription saying a goldsmith made it, although it is carved in stone.
Memory tricks
Shungas reached for ritual; Satavahanas reached for trade.
A loose horse claims the ground nobody dares to stop it on.
Practice MCQs with answers (25)
- A Pushyamitra Shunga
- B Kharavela of Kalinga
- C Karikala the Chola
- D Kanishka the Kushana
Show answer
Why:
The Shunga dynasty.
- A considerably larger
- B exactly the same size
- C confined to the south
- D considerably smaller
Show answer
Why:
Compare the two maps.
- A its own tributaries
- B all foreign trade
- C potential invaders
- D Vedic ritual
Show answer
Why:
Small did not mean weak.
- A permanently hostile
- B never established
- C largely friendly
- D purely commercial
Show answer
Why:
A campaign, then an understanding.
- A century
- B decade
- C millennium
- D fortnight
Show answer
Why:
A pattern of the chapter.
- A pay tribute or flee
- B concede or else fight
- C send a son or a daughter
- D build or demolish a shrine
Show answer
Why:
Silence meant surrender.
- A horse
- B bull
- C elephant
- D deer
Show answer
Why:
Its path made the claim.
- A I and II only
- B II and III only
- C I and III only
- D I, II and III
Show answer
Why:
All three are in the chapter, and together they make the ritual a claim backed by a threat rather than a ceremony alone.
- A payment of tribute instead
- B renewal of the whole ritual
- C treaty of lasting friendship
- D battle to decide supremacy
Show answer
Why:
A claim and a dare.
- A pay or flee
- B send a daughter or a son
- C concede or fight
- D build or demolish
Show answer
Why:
Silence was surrender.
- A They went on flourishing alongside the revived rituals
- B They were banned outright by order of the Shunga kings
- C They moved out of India altogether for several centuries
- D They were absorbed and lost their separate identities
Show answer
Why:
The chapter is careful here: a revival of one tradition did not mean the suppression of the others.
- A Prakrit
- B Sanskrit
- C Greek
- D Tamil
Show answer
Why:
Patanjali gathered them.
- A Panini
- B Patanjali
- C Kautilya
- D Megasthenes
Show answer
Why:
You may have met them already.
- A a grand staircase of cut stone
- B reliefs of the Buddha life
- C a gateway of worked iron
- D a dome painted in colour
Show answer
Why:
Among the earliest Buddhist art.
- A Karla caves
- B Naneghat caves
- C Bharhut Stupa
- D Grand Anicut
Show answer
Why:
Railings and reliefs.
- A Chedis
- B Satavahanas
- C Kushanas
- D Indo-Greeks
Show answer
Why:
Sometimes called the Andhras.
- A two
- B five
- C eight
- D three
Show answer
Why:
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra.
- A Kerala coast
- B Andhra Pradesh
- C Coastal Odisha
- D Western Punjab
Show answer
Why:
Capitals changed over time.
- A rival dynasties ruling at once
- B languages used in its records
- C systems of coinage side by side
- D capitals, at different dates
Show answer
Why:
Amravati and Pratishthana best known.
- A horse
- B temple
- C plough
- D ship
Show answer
Why:
Two masts, and sails.
- A Both true, and the reason explains the assertion
- B Both true, but the reason does not explain it
- C The assertion is true and the reason is false
- D The assertion is false and the reason is true
Show answer
Why:
The assertion is true and the reason is false: they did mint coins, and the ships on them are the evidence for the sailing.
- A Krishna
- B Kaveri
- C Ganga
- D Indus
Show answer
Why:
A base lets a state risk other things.
- A Chinese empire
- B Persian empire
- C Roman Empire
- D Greek mainland
Show answer
Why:
Spices, textiles, ivory outward.
- A glass
- B sandalwood
- C ivory
- D pearls
Show answer
Why:
The rest went the other way.
- A economic decline
- B change of religion
- C rise in rainfall
- D loss of language
Show answer
Why:
Regional powers filled the space.
Important short questions (7)
Pushyamitra Shunga founded it over parts of north and central India. His territory was considerably smaller than the Maurya empire, although he kept it safe from invaders.
A horse was let loose to wander freely, with soldiers following it. Any territory it crossed unchallenged counted as joining the king empire. If a rival ruler stopped it, that meant a battle to decide which of them was supreme.
Because a neighbour had only two choices. Letting the horse pass conceded the land, and stopping it meant fighting a battle over supremacy.
They patronised literature, art and architecture. At the Bharhut Stupa, probably built in Ashoka time, they added carved railings and reliefs showing stories from the Buddha life, among the earliest Buddhist art.
Farming flourished in the country watered by the Krishna and the Godavari, giving a steady base. Trade ran as far as Rome, and the tolls and taxes charged on it added further revenue.
That trade by sea was central to how this kingdom lived. The kind of vessel depicted, with two masts, also points to skilled shipbuilding and navigation.
They were often named after their mothers. Gautamiputra Satakarni took his name from his mother Gautami Balashri, who made over land to Buddhist monks and had an inscription cut at Nashik.
Long answer questions (3)
Pushyamitra Shunga, the commander who had ended the Maurya line, founded this dynasty over parts of north and central India. It was much smaller than the empire it replaced, but he kept it safe from invaders, and after some initial campaigning he ended on friendly terms with the Greeks. The dynasty did not outlast him long and was gone about a century later. To declare himself supreme ruler he performed the ashvamedha yajna. The age saw Vedic rituals revive while other schools of thought went on flourishing, Sanskrit came forward for philosophy and literature, and Patanjali compiled the Yoga Sutras. The Shungas also added the carved railings and Buddha reliefs to the Bharhut Stupa.
They ruled much of the Deccan from the second century BCE. Their ground covered what are now Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra. They used several capitals over time, of which Amravati and Pratishthana are the best known. Their base was agricultural: farming did well in the country watered by the Krishna and the Godavari, which gave the kingdom economic stability. On top of that came trade. Their coins have been found from Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh, and many carry a ship, which tells us maritime trade mattered and that their shipbuilding and navigation were advanced. Networks ran as far as Rome, exporting spices, textiles, sandalwood, ivory and gold-plated pearls, and importing glass and perfumed ointments, while tolls and taxes added further revenue.
The Satavahanas did. Their princes often carried their mother name. Gautamiputra Satakarni is the clearest case, named for his mother Gautami Balashri. What the practice suggests is that royal women held real standing rather than ornamental rank. Gautami Balashri herself was a queen of real weight. She made over land to Buddhist monks and had a notable inscription cut at Nashik. That is the sort of act which leaves a public record of influence. The Naneghat inscriptions near Pune point the same way. They concern a Satavahana widow queen who performed several Vedic rituals, the ashvamedha among them. They also list her donations of land, cows, horses, elephants and silver coins to priests, workers, scholars and monks.
Flashcards (17)
Play this topic
- Match each term to its meaning
- Shunga, or Satavahana?
- Fact or myth
- Order the stages of an ashvamedha claim
- Match each thing to what it is evidence for
Kharavela of the Chedis, and the three crowned kings
Kalinga rose again under the Chedis, and Kharavela had his reign inscribed year by year, boasting of respecting every sect. In the south the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas stayed independent through the imperial age. Poets gave the era its name.
What you will be able to do
- Describe Kharavela and what the Hathigumpha inscription records.
- Explain what rock-cut architecture is and why the method is unusual.
- Give the evidence that the southern kingdoms stayed independent.
- Explain what Sangam literature is and what historians use it for.
- Describe the three crowned kings and one achievement of each.
Key points
After the Mauryas, Kalinga rose again under the Chedi dynasty.
Kharavela followed Jain teaching and was called bhikshu-raja, monk-king.
The Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves near Bhubaneswar are rock-cut architecture.
The Hathigumpha inscription records his achievements year by year, in Brahmi.
He boasted of a council of sages from a hundred regions, and of respecting every sect.
Ashoka empire stopped at the southern kingdoms, which he names in his edicts.
Sangam comes from sangha, meaning association or coming together.
The Cholas kept their hold on parts of the south from the 3rd century BCE right down to the 13th century CE.
Karikala Grand Anicut still waters the Kaveri delta, the rice bowl of the South.
Full explanation
Kalinga comes back
Think back to the war that turned Ashoka. The region he devastated did not stay flattened.
Once the Maurya empire was out of the way, Kalinga came up again as a power of its own, this time under the kings of the Chedi line.
The monk-king
Kharavela is the Chedi ruler to remember. He followed Jain teaching closely enough to be called bhikshu-raja, which means monk-king.
That did not make him narrow. He gave his respect to every school of thought there was, which is a theme this chapter keeps returning to.
Caves cut for monks
Near Bhubaneswar are the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves, very likely made for Jain monks.
They hold finely worked panels and statues, and rooms of real size hollowed straight out of the rock. The skill of the people who cut them is the first thing anyone notices.
These caves are among the best examples of what is called rock-cut architecture, a style you will study more closely in a higher class.
The method is worth pausing on. A builder adds material; a rock-cutter takes it away, and nothing removed can be put back.
The cliff that lists a reign
One of those caves carries the Hathigumpha inscription, written in Brahmi. What it records is unusual: Kharavela's achievements set down year by year.
It covers the campaigns he won, and also the work he did for his people good. A king keeping a public annual account of himself is not something every period gives us.
What he chose to boast about
Read what he picked out to be proud of and it is not only the fighting.
He declares that he put together a standing body of ascetics and sages gathered out of a hundred different regions. He calls himself accomplished in extraordinary virtues, a respecter of every sect, and a repairer of every temple.
The Indian ethos
So here is a ruler whose public boast includes protecting beliefs that were not his own.
The chapter treats that as one piece of something larger, which it calls the Indian ethos. Watch for it: this is the third ruler in this chapter to be praised for the same thing.
Three kingdoms in the south
Turn south now, to the stretch running from roughly the third or second century BCE to the third century CE.
Three powerful kingdoms rose to prominence there: the Cheras, the Cholas and the Pandyas. They competed with each other for control of the south, and at the same time pushed the region's trade and culture forward.
The evidence that they stayed free
Here the chapter is careful, and the care is worth copying. Ashoka's empire stopped at these southern kingdoms, and he names them in his own edicts.
That tells us something precise: they kept their independence even when Mauryan power was at its height. Kharavela does claim he broke a league of southern kings who were threatening him, but nobody can say where that battle was fought, and there is no sign he ever marched into the south.
An age named after poets
This period produced a crowd of poets, and their work is known together as Sangam literature. The era took its name from them and is called the Sangam Age.
Ages are usually named after dynasties or conquests. This one is named after writing.
What sangam means
The word comes from the Sanskrit sangha, which carries the sense of an association, or of coming together. Here it refers to an assembly of the poets themselves.
Sangam literature is the oldest writing in south India. It survives as several collections, or anthologies, of poems.
Historians use it constantly on the society and culture of these centuries. The poetry itself works mostly on personal feeling, love above all, and on values the society prized, such as heroism and generosity, and it handles both with great skill and delicacy.
The Cholas
The Sangam poems speak of three crowned kings: the Cholas, the Cheras and the Pandyas.
The Cholas were a formidable line, keeping their hold on parts of the south from the third century BCE all the way to the thirteenth century CE. That is sixteen centuries, which makes them one of the longest-lasting dynasties anywhere. Their king Karikala is said to have beaten a combined Chera and Pandya force and made himself supreme.
The dam that is still working
Karikala took on projects for the public good, and one of them is still doing its job.
The Kallanai, or Grand Anicut, is an intricate water-diversion system placed at a shrewdly chosen point just downstream of Srirangam island. It turns water from the Kaveri into the central and southern parts of the delta. More land could then be farmed, which is how the area came by the name rice bowl of the South. It has been restored many times and still supplies irrigation water to millions of people in Tamil Nadu.
The Tale of the Anklet
Soon after the Sangam collections came the epic Silappadikaram. Kannagi lived happily with her husband Kovalan in Puhar, the prosperous Chola capital identified with Kaveripattinam.
Kovalan lost his heart to a dancer, and then lost everything he owned on her account. He came back to Kannagi, who forgave him, and the two went to Madurai, the Pandya capital, to start again.
How the story turns
Kannagi gave him one of her anklets to sell so they could begin. He was accused of stealing it and the Pandya king had him executed.
Kannagi proved his innocence by producing the second anklet. The king, seeing what he had done, died of the shock. She then cursed Madurai, calling down the god of fire, and the city burned, and walked west into Chera country, where they honoured her as a goddess. She is worshipped in Tamil Nadu and Kerala to this day.
What the epic is about
Underneath the story sits a question about power. The poem turns on justice, and on the ruler's dharma to protect it.
A king who kills an innocent man on a false charge has failed at the one thing he exists to do. The epic also carries us through cities full of traded goods, through all three kingdoms, and past several schools of thought.
The Cheras
The Cheras were also called the Keralaputra, the sons of Kerala. They ruled western Tamil Nadu and Kerala from a capital at Vanji, which is Karur in Tamil Nadu today.
They mattered culturally and economically both. They encouraged Tamil literature to grow and gave their patronage to the Sangam poets. Their trade connections ran to the Roman Empire and West Asia, and their kingdom became a centre for exporting spices, timber, ivory and pearls.
The Pandyas
The Pandyas held parts of Tamil Nadu and the country around, from a capital at what is now Madurai, and their rule goes back several centuries BCE. One king after another enlarged the kingdom.
Megasthenes, in his Indika, describes it as prosperous, with a strong administration, trading actively with distant powers such as the Greeks and Romans as well as doing a great deal of trade at home. Kharavela, for instance, says hundreds of pearls were brought to him from the Pandya kingdom. They were also a serious naval power, and later Pandyas gave much to the art, the architecture and the prosperity of the region.
The same boast again
The Pandyas left a great many inscriptions, and in them their kings insist on two things.
One is how much they care about the welfare of their subjects. The other is their encouragement of every school of thought and belief. Kharavela said it, the Satavahanas did it, and here it is once more.
Concepts and terms
A Chedi ruler of Kalinga who followed Jain teaching and was called bhikshu-raja, yet respected every school of thought.
Buildings made by removing stone rather than adding it, as in the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves, where nothing taken away can be put back.
Ashoka empire stopped at these kingdoms and he names them in his edicts, so they kept their independence even at the height of Mauryan power.
An era named after its poets, whose work survives as anthologies and is the oldest writing of south India, used constantly by historians.
Silappadikaram turns on justice and the ruler dharma to protect it, since a king who executes an innocent man has failed at his central task.
Watch out
Common misconceptions
Four claims about the south, and what the evidence allows
Scenario:
A visiting lecturer, speaking to the class without notes, makes four confident statements in a row. First, that Kalinga was finished as a power once Ashoka had crushed it. Second, that the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas were provinces of the Maurya empire like any other. Third, that Kharavela conquered the south, since he says so in his own inscription. Fourth, that the Sangam Age is named after the dynasty that ruled it. A student who has read this chapter raises a hand after each one.
Analysis:
Four confident statements, and a chapter that is careful about exactly these points.
Activity:
Find out which modern Indian state the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves are in, and how far they lie from Bhubaneswar.
Chart the three crowned kings
Title:
Chart the three crowned kings
Safety:
No hazards here.
What You Notice:
All three turn out to patronise literature and to insist in their inscriptions on the welfare of their subjects and on encouraging every school of thought. They competed for territory and agreed about how a king should talk about himself.
Did you know
The Cholas held power from the third century BCE to the thirteenth century CE, which is about sixteen centuries.
Karikala Grand Anicut has been restored many times and still supplies irrigation water in Tamil Nadu today.
The Sangam Age is named after an assembly of poets, not after a dynasty or a conquest.
Memory tricks
Rock-cut: built by taking away, never by adding.
Three crowned kings: Chera, Chola, Pandya.
Practice MCQs with answers (25)
- A Kalinga
- B Magadha
- C Gandhara
- D Avanti
Show answer
Why:
The Chedi kings.
- A Shunga dynasty
- B Nanda dynasty
- C Kushana dynasty
- D Chedi dynasty
Show answer
Why:
Kharavela chief among them.
- A rajadhiraja
- B bhikshu-sangha
- C bhikshu-raja
- D maharaja
Show answer
Why:
He still respected all schools.
- A tolerance could go together
- B ritual were the same thing
- C conquest were linked
- D trade were opposed
Show answer
Why:
A theme of the chapter.
- A three
- B five
- C two
- D one
Show answer
Why:
Udayagiri and Khandagiri.
- A docks on the coast
- B walls round the capital
- C tanks beside the river
- D rooms in those caves
Show answer
Why:
Panels and statues as well.
- A It is cut away out of the rock instead of being put together
- B It uses stone blocks rather than brick for all of its walls
- C It is always built on a hill rather than on level ground
- D It takes far less time to finish than any other method does
Show answer
Why:
An ordinary building is assembled by adding material. Rock-cut work goes the other way: the shape appears as stone is taken away.
- A Hathigumpha inscription
- B Nashik inscription
- C Heliodorus pillar
- D Sohagaura plate
Show answer
Why:
Year after year, in Brahmi.
- A I and II only
- B II and III only
- C I and III only
- D I, II and III
Show answer
Why:
I and II are true. The third fails: the inscription covers his public works as well.
- A temples
- B regions
- C villages
- D years
Show answer
Why:
He boasted of it publicly.
- A road
- B temple
- C wall
- D well
Show answer
Why:
And a respecter of every sect.
- A his own sect only
- B foreign traders only
- C the army alone
- D all schools of thought
Show answer
Why:
The third such ruler here.
- A Chedis
- B Cholas
- C Shungas
- D Kushanas
Show answer
Why:
The three crowned kings.
- A absorbed them fully
- B never heard of them
- C stopped at them
- D taxed them heavily
Show answer
Why:
He names them in his edicts.
- A Both true, and the reason explains the assertion
- B Both true, but the reason does not explain it
- C The assertion is true and the reason is false
- D The assertion is false and the reason is true
Show answer
Why:
The reason is true and the assertion is false: a ruler writing his own victories is not impartial, which is why the claim is doubted.
- A generals
- B kings
- C poets
- D merchants
Show answer
Why:
Hence the Sangam Age.
- A sangha, an assembly
- B samraj, a supreme ruler
- C saptanga, seven limbs
- D sutra, a brief phrase
Show answer
Why:
A coming together of poets.
- A kings
- B poets
- C monks
- D merchants
Show answer
Why:
Not a dynasty.
- A the Silappadikaram alone
- B the Hathigumpha inscription
- C the Indika
- D the Sangam literature
Show answer
Why:
The oldest south Indian writing.
- A obedience
- B secrecy
- C generosity
- D thrift
Show answer
Why:
Love is the commonest emotion.
- A Chedis
- B Cholas
- C Cheras
- D Shungas
Show answer
Why:
About sixteen centuries.
- A Kharavela
- B Kanishka
- C Pushyamitra
- D Karikala
Show answer
Why:
He built the Grand Anicut.
- A taxation
- B cultivation
- C fortification
- D forest
Show answer
Why:
Thanks to the Grand Anicut.
- A Ashtadhyayi
- B Silappadikaram
- C Arthashastra
- D Indika
Show answer
Why:
The Tale of the Anklet.
- A Pandyas
- B Cholas
- C Cheras
- D Chedis
Show answer
Why:
Their capital was Vanji.
Important short questions (7)
A leading Chedi ruler in Kalinga, and a close follower of Jain teaching. He was sometimes called bhikshu-raja, the monk-king, and yet he respected every school of thought.
It records Kharavela achievements year after year, both his victorious military campaigns and his works for the welfare of his people. A ruler keeping a public annual account of himself is unusual for the period.
He created a standing body of ascetics and sages gathered out of a hundred different regions. He was also a respecter of every sect and a repairer of every temple.
Ashoka empire stopped at them. He names them in his own edicts. So they stayed independent through the whole Mauryan period, even at its strongest. Kharavela claims to have beaten an alliance of southern kings, but nobody knows where that battle was and he seems never to have invaded.
The collected work of the many poets of this period, the oldest literature of south India. Sangam comes from the Sanskrit sangha, meaning an association or coming together, here an assembly of poets.
A complex water diversion system built by Karikala just downstream of Srirangam island. It diverted Kaveri water into the central and southern delta, letting more land be cultivated, and it still supplies irrigation in Tamil Nadu today.
Justice, and the ruler dharma to protect it. A king executes Kovalan on a false charge of theft, and Kannagi proves his innocence with her second anklet.
Long answer questions (3)
This period produced a great many poets. Their work taken together is known as Sangam literature, and the era itself is called the Sangam Age after it. The word sangam derives from the Sanskrit sangha, carrying the sense of an association or a coming together, and here it refers to an assembly of the poets. It is the oldest literature of south India and survives as several collections, or anthologies, of poems. Historians consult it constantly when investigating the society and culture of these centuries. The poetry itself works chiefly on personal emotion, love above all, and on values the society prized, such as heroism and generosity, and it treats both with great skill and delicacy.
Kharavela was a leading king of the Chedi dynasty. That house raised Kalinga up again after the Maurya empire declined. He followed Jain teachings closely and was sometimes called bhikshu-raja, monk-king, though he respected every school of thought. The Hathigumpha inscription, in Brahmi, records his achievements year after year, covering the campaigns he won and the works he did for his people good. What he chose to boast about is the interesting part. He declares he created a standing body of ascetics and sages, gathered out of a hundred different regions. He calls himself accomplished in extraordinary virtues, a respecter of every sect, and a repairer of every temple. The chapter treats a ruler extending protection to all schools of thought as part of what it calls the Indian ethos.
The Sangam poems speak of three crowned kings. The Cholas kept their hold on parts of the south from the third century BCE to the thirteenth century CE. Their king Karikala beat a combined Chera and Pandya force. He also built the Kallanai, or Grand Anicut, a water diversion system below Srirangam island. It brought more of the Kaveri delta under cultivation, and it still waters Tamil Nadu today. The Cheras, also called Keralaputra, ruled western Tamil Nadu and Kerala from Vanji, now Karur. They encouraged Tamil literature and patronised the Sangam poets. Their kingdom became a centre for exporting spices, timber, ivory and pearls to Rome and West Asia. The Pandyas ruled from Madurai, were a serious naval power, and are described in Megasthenes Indika as prosperous with a strong administration.
Flashcards (17)
Play this topic
- Match each term to its meaning
- Which kingdom does each belong to?
- Fact or myth
- Order the events of the Tale of the Anklet
- Match each place to what happened there
The invaders who became Indian, and two schools of art
Indo-Greeks, Shakas and Kushanas entered through the weakened northwest and were absorbed. Their own coins carry Indian deities, and Kanishka struck the Buddha and Shiva alike. Gandhara worked grey schist, Mathura red sandstone.
What you will be able to do
- Explain where the Indo-Greeks came from and why the northwest was open.
- Give the evidence that the invaders were absorbed into Indian culture.
- Describe the Shakas and the Shaka Samvat calendar.
- Describe the Kushanas, Kanishka, and what his coins show.
- Distinguish the Gandhara and Mathura schools of art.
Key points
Satraps Alexander left behind became independent rulers called the Indo-Greeks.
After Maurya power went, the northwest made a soft target for invasion.
The invaders arrived as conquerors and were heavily influenced by local culture.
The Heliodorus pillar calls Vasudeva the god of gods, and names three precepts.
Indo-Greek coins usually show a king and a Greek deity, but some show Indian ones.
The Shakas ruled from the closing decades of the 2nd century BCE down to the 5th century CE.
The Shaka Samvat runs 78 years behind the Gregorian and became the national calendar in 1957.
Kanishka coins carry the Buddha in Greek script, and Shiva with Nandi.
Gandhara used grey-black schist; Mathura used red sandstone with little Greco-Roman influence.
Full explanation
Back to the weak corner
So far this chapter has stayed with houses that grew up inside the Subcontinent. Now it turns north, where something quite different was building.
The same centuries brought people in through the northwest frontier, and they took the northwest, the north and the centre of the Subcontinent into their hands.
What Alexander left behind
Begin with the leftovers of Alexander's short campaign in the Indus plains. As he pulled out of the country he had taken, he left satraps in charge.
Those regional governors gradually stopped being anybody's officials and set up domains of their own. The rulers who came out of that process are called the Indo-Greeks.
Why the northwest was easy
Once Maurya power had gone, the northwestern lands, roughly what are now Pakistan and Afghanistan, made a soft target.
So they were taken. But the taking is not the interesting part.
Conquerors, and then what
They arrived as conquerors and were then worked on heavily by the culture they found.
Out of that meeting came a blend: Greek and Indian ways ran together in how the region was ruled, in what it made, in what it spoke and in how it lived. The invaders changed the place, and the place changed them.
The pillar at Vidisha
The Heliodorus pillar, near Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, shows this plainly. It is named for an Indo-Greek ambassador.
In his inscription he sets Vasudeva down as the god over gods. A Greek envoy honouring an Indian deity in those terms is not a man keeping his distance.
The same inscription sets down something else. It says there are three immortal precepts, or footsteps, which lead to heaven when they are practised.
They are self-restraint, charity and consciousness. A short list, carved by a foreigner, in an Indian religious idiom.
Most of what we know about these rulers comes from their coins, which archaeologists have dug up across north India in quantity.
They were struck in gold, in silver, in copper and in nickel. The usual pattern puts a king on one face and a Greek deity on the other.
And the coins that break the pattern
Some do something else entirely. Instead of a Greek deity they carry an Indian one: Vasudeva-Krishna, or Lakshmi.
Think about what that means. A ruler chooses the images on his own money, and these rulers chose images their subjects would recognise and respect.
The Shakas
Indo-Greek rule was ended by the people who came next. The Shakas, sometimes called the Indo-Scythians, also invaded the northwest.
They ruled from the closing decades of the second century BCE down to the fifth century CE. Their kingdoms rose once the Indo-Greeks were spent, and they held power until the Kushanas arrived.
A calendar still in use
One thing from the Shaka period is still with us. The Shaka Samvat calendar was developed then.
It runs 78 years behind the Gregorian calendar, except between January and March, when the gap is 79. In 1957 it became the Indian National Calendar, so an official government publication may well carry both.
The Kushanas
The Kushanas came originally from central Asia and probably entered India in the second century CE.
At its height their empire reached from central Asia across large parts of northern India. Their rule brought a great deal of cultural mixing, and it left a deep mark on the history of the Subcontinent.
Kanishka
Kanishka was probably the most powerful of the Kushana rulers, and there is a famous statue of him without its head, 1.85 metres tall.
Its Brahmi inscription reads: great king, king over kings, son of God, Kanishka. Set that beside the Sanskrit titles from the last chapter and you can see an outsider adopting the local language of power wholesale.
What he put on his money
Kanishka coins are worth looking at closely. On one, he holds a spear and is titled King of Kings, while the other face shows the Buddha, labelled in Greek script.
On another, an emperor stands on one face, and on the reverse Shiva together with his bull Nandi. A Greek script, a Buddhist figure and a Hindu deity, all issued by one central Asian king.
Why a ruler would do that
It is worth asking what that choice says about him.
Coins travel everywhere and everybody handles them. A ruler who puts the Buddha on one issue and Shiva on another is telling every community in his territory that it is included.
Holding the Silk Route
The Kushanas controlled significant stretches of the Silk Route, the long line of trade that joined China to the Mediterranean world through central Asia and Persia.
Under them trade grew, and India was connected to other parts of Asia and to the West.
Two schools of art
Kushana art carried on what the Indo-Greeks had started, and it is celebrated for fusing Indian and Greek styles. Its sculptures show deities of many kinds together, which says something about how beliefs coexisted.
This era also saw deities begin to be shown in more human form, Surya the sun god among them, and the growth of religious art that laid the ground for temple building later on.
Gandhara
The Gandhara manner took shape across the western part of Punjab. It mixed Greco-Roman elements with Indian ones.
Most of its sculptures were cut in fine detail out of a grey-black schist. Its sculptors turned out Buddha figures of real quality, the bodies accurately observed and the robes falling in deep folds.
Mathura
The Mathura style developed around Mathura, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, and its character is distinctly Indian.
It worked mainly in red sandstone, and it shows far less Greco-Roman influence than Gandhara does. Its subjects are Indian deities: Kubera, Lakshmi, Shiva, the Buddha, yakshas and yakshinis. Its figures are fuller, and modelled smoothly.
How to tell them apart
Put the two side by side and three things separate them.
The stone: grey-black schist against red sandstone. The influence: Greco-Roman blended in, against very little of it. The figures: accurate bodies with deep-folded robes, against fuller forms smoothly worked.
What the age amounts to
For all the political conflict and the struggles for power, this was a period of remarkable cultural exchange and absorption.
The shared inheritance shows in the art and the architecture, where styles worked on one another while Indian themes stayed dominant. Sanskrit literature flourished too, and major texts including the Mahabharata and the Ramayana were composed. The lesson the chapter draws is to read this tapestry not as the property of any one kingdom or ruler, but as something that works by interaction and absorption over time.
Concepts and terms
Satraps Alexander left behind as he withdrew gradually set up domains of their own, and those rulers are called the Indo-Greeks.
They arrived as conquerors and were worked on heavily by local culture, producing Greek and Indian ways running together in government, art, language and daily life.
A ruler chooses the images on his own money, so Indo-Greek coins carrying Vasudeva-Krishna or Lakshmi, and Kanishka coins carrying the Buddha and Shiva, show deliberate inclusion.
A calendar developed in the Shaka period, running 78 years behind the Gregorian, 79 between January and March, made the Indian National Calendar in 1957.
Grey-black schist against red sandstone; Greco-Roman blending against little of it; realistic anatomy and deep-folded robes against fuller forms smoothly modelled.
Watch out
Common misconceptions
Two unlabelled sculptures and a handful of coins
Scenario:
A museum receives a crate with no paperwork. Inside are two sculptures and four coins. The first sculpture is a Buddha in grey-black stone, carved in fine detail, with carefully observed anatomy and robes falling in deep folds. The second is a fuller, smoothly modelled figure in red sandstone. Of the coins, one shows a king on one face and a Greek god on the other. One shows Lakshmi. One shows a spear-carrying king titled King of Kings, with the Buddha in Greek script on the reverse. One shows Shiva with a bull. The curator asks what can be said.
Analysis:
Six objects, no labels, and a chapter that has supplied exactly the tests needed.
Activity:
Find a photograph of a Gandhara Buddha and a Mathura Buddha, and see whether you can tell them apart before reading the caption.
Build the test card for the two schools
Title:
Build the test card for the two schools
Safety:
No hazards here.
What You Notice:
The stone row decides nearly every case on its own, which is why it belongs at the top. The other rows confirm what the stone has already suggested.
Did you know
The Shaka Samvat is still the Indian National Calendar, so an official publication may print two dates side by side.
The famous statue of Kanishka stands 1.85 metres tall and has lost its head.
A Kushana king put the Buddha on one coin, labelled in Greek script, and Shiva with the bull Nandi on another.
Memory tricks
Gandhara: grey schist and Greek. Mathura: red stone and Indian.
Look at a ruler coins to see whom he wanted included.
Practice MCQs with answers (25)
- A Shakas
- B Kushanas
- C Chedis
- D Indo-Greeks
Show answer
Why:
Officials who stopped being officials.
- A overlord to be controlled
- B river to farm beside
- C temple to worship at
- D mine to grow rich on
Show answer
Why:
Satraps became kings.
- A I and II only
- B II and III only
- C I and III only
- D I, II and III
Show answer
Why:
II and III are true. The first fails: they arrived as conquerors from outside.
- A driven out again within a decade
- B influenced by local culture
- C ignored by their own subjects
- D taxed by their neighbours
Show answer
Why:
The place changed them too.
- A warfare only
- B coinage only
- C nothing else
- D governance
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Why:
A thorough mixing.
- A Sarnath capital
- B Heliodorus pillar
- C Hathigumpha cave
- D Bharhut railing
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Why:
In Madhya Pradesh.
- A Zeus
- B Surya
- C Vasudeva
- D Kubera
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Why:
A Greek envoy honouring an Indian deity.
- A two
- B three
- C five
- D seven
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Why:
Self-restraint, charity, consciousness.
- A palaces intact
- B letters in archives
- C coins in quantity
- D edicts on cliffs
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Why:
Gold, silver, copper, nickel.
- A pillars
- B seals
- C coins
- D statues
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Why:
Some broke the pattern.
- A Nandi the bull
- B Kubera of wealth
- C Surya the sun god
- D Vasudeva-Krishna
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Why:
Images subjects would respect.
- A the money itself
- B inscriptions only
- C temples only
- D palace walls
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Why:
Coins pass through every hand.
- A Shakas
- B Kushanas
- C Pauravas
- D Chedis
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Why:
Also called Indo-Scythians.
- A Indo-Greeks
- B Shungas
- C Cholas
- D Kushanas
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Why:
Each wave displaced the last.
- A Gregorian
- B Vikram Samvat
- C Shaka Samvat
- D Kali Yuga
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Why:
78 years behind the Gregorian.
- A 78 years
- B 79 years
- C 57 years
- D 100 years
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Why:
The gap is 79 from January to March.
- A Both true, and the reason explains the assertion
- B Both true, but the reason does not explain it
- C The assertion is true and the reason is false
- D The assertion is false and the reason is true
Show answer
Why:
The reason is true and the assertion is false: it is still in official use, by that very decision.
- A Kushanas
- B Shakas
- C Indo-Greeks
- D Satavahanas
Show answer
Why:
Their empire spanned far.
- A Kharavela
- B Karikala
- C Heliodorus
- D Kanishka
Show answer
Why:
King of kings, son of God.
- A bull Nandi
- B goddess Lakshmi
- C the Buddha
- D sun god Surya
Show answer
Why:
Another of his coins shows Shiva.
- A Kubera
- B Vasudeva
- C Nandi
- D Yaksha
Show answer
Why:
One king, three traditions.
- A taxed fairly
- B included
- C converted
- D defeated
Show answer
Why:
Coins pass through every hand.
- A Uttarapatha
- B Silk Route
- C Dakshinapatha
- D Grand Anicut
Show answer
Why:
China to the Mediterranean.
- A Gandhara
- B Mathura
- C Sangam
- D Bharhut
Show answer
Why:
It grew up in western Punjab.
- A It produced no images of the Buddha at any point at all
- B It worked only in metal rather than in any kind of stone
- C It used red sandstone and showed little Greco-Roman influence
- D It belonged to a much later century than Gandhara did
Show answer
Why:
The chapter separates them by material and by influence: grey-black schist and Greco-Roman style at Gandhara, red sandstone and local style at Mathura.
Important short questions (7)
From the satraps Alexander left behind when he withdrew from the areas he had conquered. Over time those regional rulers established independent domains of their own.
They came as conquerors. The deep culture they found then worked on them heavily. Greek and Indian ways ended up running together in rule, in making, in speech and in living.
It is named after an Indo-Greek ambassador. His inscription sets Vasudeva down as the god over gods. It also names three immortal precepts that lead to heaven: self-restraint, charity and consciousness. A Greek envoy writing in that idiom shows how far absorption went.
Because a ruler chooses the images on his own money. Putting Vasudeva-Krishna or Lakshmi on a coin was a deliberate choice of images his subjects would recognise and respect.
It was developed during the Shaka period. It runs 78 years behind the Gregorian reckoning, apart from January to March when the gap is 79 years. It became the Indian National Calendar in 1957.
One carries the Buddha labelled in Greek script and another carries Shiva with the bull Nandi. Since coins pass through every hand, a ruler striking both is signalling that every community in his territory is included.
Gandhara worked mostly in grey-black schist while Mathura used red sandstone. Gandhara blended Greco-Roman elements while Mathura showed much less of that influence. Gandhara made realistic anatomy and flowing robes while Mathura made fuller figures with smooth modelling.
Long answer questions (3)
They came in through the weakened northwest frontier and took control, but they did not stay separate. Arriving as conquerors, they were heavily influenced by the rich local culture, and the interaction produced Greek and Indian ways running together in rule, in art, in language and in daily life. The evidence is in things they made themselves. The Heliodorus pillar near Vidisha, named for an Indo-Greek ambassador, carries his inscription setting Vasudeva down as the god over gods. Some Indo-Greek coins drop the Greek deity and carry Vasudeva-Krishna or Lakshmi instead. Kanishka struck the Buddha on one coin, labelled in Greek script, and Shiva with the bull Nandi on another.
The two schools are separated by three things. Gandhara took shape across the western part of Punjab, working Greco-Roman manners together with Indian ones. Most of its sculptures were cut in intricate detail from grey-black schist. Its sculptors turned out Buddha figures of real quality, the bodies accurately observed and the robes falling in deep folds. Mathura grew up around Mathura in present-day Uttar Pradesh and is distinctly Indian in character. It used mainly red sandstone and shows far less Greco-Roman influence. Its subjects are Indian deities such as Kubera, Lakshmi, Shiva, the Buddha, yakshas and yakshinis, in fuller figures smoothly worked. As for the period, despite its political conflicts it saw remarkable cultural exchange and assimilation, with Indian themes staying dominant and Sanskrit literature flourishing.
The first were the Indo-Greeks. When Alexander withdrew from the Indus plains he left satraps behind. In time those regional rulers set up independent domains, which is where the name comes from. After the Mauryas declined the northwest was an easy target, so they took it. The second wave ended their rule. These were the Shakas, sometimes called Indo-Scythians, who also invaded the northwest. They ruled from the closing decades of the second century BCE down to the fifth century CE, and the Shaka Samvat calendar belongs to their period. They held power until the third wave arrived. These were the Kushanas, out of central Asia, who probably entered India in the second century CE. In time their reach ran from central Asia across much of northern India.
Flashcards (17)
Play this topic
- Match each term to its meaning
- Gandhara, or Mathura?
- Fact or myth
- Order the waves that entered through the northwest
- Match each object to what it shows
Class 7 Social Science Chapter 6 — frequently asked questions
The last Maurya emperor was assassinated about 185 BCE. The man who killed him was his own commander-in-chief, Pushyamitra Shunga.
Because only about half a century separates Ashoka from the collapse. An empire that had covered nearly the whole Subcontinent came apart within living memory of him.
A good many had already existed as tributary kingdoms under Maurya overlordship. When the overlord was gone, each was left with a ruler already in place and a territory already his.
Pushyamitra Shunga founded it over parts of north and central India. His territory was considerably smaller than the Maurya empire, although he kept it safe from invaders.
A horse was let loose to wander freely, with soldiers following it. Any territory it crossed unchallenged counted as joining the king empire. If a rival ruler stopped it, that meant a battle to decide which of them was supreme.
Because a neighbour had only two choices. Letting the horse pass conceded the land, and stopping it meant fighting a battle over supremacy.
A leading Chedi ruler in Kalinga, and a close follower of Jain teaching. He was sometimes called bhikshu-raja, the monk-king, and yet he respected every school of thought.
It records Kharavela achievements year after year, both his victorious military campaigns and his works for the welfare of his people. A ruler keeping a public annual account of himself is unusual for the period.
He created a standing body of ascetics and sages gathered out of a hundred different regions. He was also a respecter of every sect and a repairer of every temple.
From the satraps Alexander left behind when he withdrew from the areas he had conquered. Over time those regional rulers established independent domains of their own.
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