1.
Maurya Empire
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The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power founded by Chandragupta Maurya which dominated ancient India between c. 322 and 187 BCE. Originating from the kingdom of Magadha in the Indo-Gangetic Plain in the side of the Indian subcontinent. The empire was the largest to have existed in the Indian subcontinent. By 316 BCE the empire had fully occupied Northwestern India, defeating and conquering the satraps left by Alexander, Chandragupta then defeated the invasion led by Seleucus I, a Macedonian general from Alexanders army, gaining additional territory west of the Indus River. The Maurya Empire was one of the largest empires of the world in its time and it declined for about 50 years after Ashokas rule ended, and it dissolved in 185 BCE with the foundation of the Shunga dynasty in Magadha. After the Kalinga War, the Empire experienced nearly half a century of peace, Mauryan India also enjoyed an era of social harmony, religious transformation, and expansion of the sciences and of knowledge. Ashoka sponsored the spreading of Buddhist ideals into Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, West Asia, the population of the empire has been estimated to be about 50–60 million, making the Mauryan Empire one of the most populous empires of Antiquity. Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls into the era of Northern Black Polished Ware, the Arthashastra and the Edicts of Ashoka are the primary sources of written records of Mauryan times. The Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath has been made the national emblem of India, the Maurya Empire was founded by Chandragupta Maurya, with help from Chanakya, at Takshashila. Chanakya swore revenge and vowed to destroy the Nanda Empire, meanwhile, the conquering armies of Alexander the Great refused to cross the Beas River and advance further eastward, deterred by the prospect of battling Magadha. Alexander returned to Babylon and re-deployed most of his troops west of the Indus River, soon after Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BCE, his empire fragmented, and local kings declared their independence, leaving several smaller disunited satraps. Chandragupta Mauryas rise to power is shrouded in mystery and controversy, on one hand, a number of ancient Indian accounts, such as the drama Mudrarakshasa by Vishakhadatta, describe his royal ancestry and even link him with the Nanda family. A kshatriya clan known as the Mauryas are referred to in the earliest Buddhist texts, however, any conclusions are hard to make without further historical evidence. Chandragupta first emerges in Greek accounts as Sandrokottos, as a young man he is said to have met Alexander. He is also said to have met the Nanda king, angered him, Chanakyas original intentions were to train a guerilla army under Chandraguptas command. The Mudrarakshasa of Vishakhadatta as well as the Jaina work Parishishtaparvan talk of Chandraguptas alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, Chanakya encouraged Chandragupta Maurya and his army to take over the throne of Magadha. These men included the general of Taxila, accomplished students of Chanakya, the representative of King Porus of Kakayee, his son Malayketu. The Macedonians may then have participated, together with other groups, the Mudrarakshasa of Visakhadutta as well as the Jaina work Parisishtaparvan talk of Chandraguptas alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, often identified with Porus
2.
South Asian Stone Age
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The South Asian Stone Age covers the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods in South Asia. Evidence for the most ancient anatomically modern Homo sapiens in South Asia has been found in the sites of Batadombalena and Belilena in Sri Lanka. In Mehrgarh, in what is today western Pakistan, the Neolithic began c.7000 BCE and lasted until 3300 BCE and the first beginnings of the Bronze Age. In South India, the Mesolithic lasted until 3000 BCE, the Iron Age began roughly simultaneously in North and South India, around 1200 to 1000 BCE. Homo erectus lived on the Pothohar Plateau, in upper Punjab, soanian sites are found in the Sivalik region across what are now India, Pakistan and Nepal. Biface handaxes and cleaver traditions may have originated in the middle Pleistocene, the beginning of the use of Acheulian and chopping tools of the lower Paleolithic may also be dated to approximately the middle Pleistocene. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA dates the immigration of Homo sapiens to South Asia to 75,000 to 50,000 years ago, an analysis of Y chromosome haplogroups found one man in a village west of Madurai to be a direct descendant of these migrators. These populations spread further to Southeast Asia, reaching Australia by 40,000 years ago, cave sites in Sri Lanka have yielded the earliest non-mitochondrial record of modern Homo sapiens in South Asia. They were dated to 34,000 years ago, for finds from the Belan in southern Uttar Pradesh, radiocarbon data have indicated an age of 18-17kya. At the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka humans lived throughout the Upper Paleolithic, chert, jasper and quartzite were often used by humans during this period. The aceramic Neolithic lasts c.7000 -5500 BCE, the ceramic Neolithic lasts up to 3300 BCE, blending into the Early Harappan period. One of the earliest Neolithic sites in India is Lahuradewa in the Middle Ganges region and Jhusi near the confluence of Ganges and Yamuna rivers, in South India the Neolithic began by 3000 BCE and lasted until around 1400 BCE. South Indian Neolithic is characterized by Ashmounds since 2500 BCE in the Andhra-Karnataka region that later into Tamil Nadu. Comparative excavations carried out in Adichanallur in the Thirunelveli District and in Northern India have provided evidence of a migration of the Megalithic culture. Archaeologists have made plans to return to Adhichanallur as a source of new knowledge in the future
3.
Soanian
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The Soanian is an archaeological culture of the Lower Paleolithic in Pakistan. Contemporary to the Acheulean, it is named after the Soan Valley in Pakistan, Soanian sites are found along the Sivalik region in present-day India, Nepal and Pakistan. The term Soan Culture was first used by Hellmut De Terra in 1936, further archaeological research was conducted by Stephen Lycett in order to determine the morphometric assessment of the Soanian techno-complex. The result of this experiment concluded that the Soanian techno-complex contains a Mode 3 Levallois technique core component, on Adiyala and Khasala, about 16 km from Rawalpindi terrace on the bend of the river, hundreds of edged pebble tools were discovered. At Chauntra in Himachal Pradesh, hand axes and cleavers were found, tools up to two million years old have been recovered. In the Soan River Gorge, many fossil bearing rocks are exposed on the surface,14 million year old fossils of gazelle, rhinoceros, crocodile, giraffe and rodents have been found there. Some of these fossils are on display at the Pakistan Museum of Natural History in Islamabad, madrasian Culture Synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures V. A. Ranov, D. Dorj, Lu Zün-E. History of civilizations of Central Asia, early man, as depicted by leading authorities at the International symposium, the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, March 1937. Ayer Publishing, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the Middle Pleistocene Pebble Tool Site of Durkadi in Central India. The Emergence of the Handaxe Tradition in Asia, with Special Reference to India, in V. N. Misra, Peter S. Bellwood. Recent advances in Indo-Pacific prehistory, proceedings of the symposium held at Poona. A Decade of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology in India, 1951-1960
4.
Mehrgarh
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Mehrgarh, sometimes anglicized as Mehergarh or Mehrgar, is a Neolithic site located near the Bolan Pass on the Kacchi Plain of Balochistan, Pakistan, to the west of the Indus River valley. The earliest settlement at Mehrgarh, in the northeast corner of the 495-acre site, was a farming village which was inhabited from circa 6500 BCE. It is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in South Asia, archaeological material has been found in six mounds, and about 32,000 artifacts have been collected. Mehrgarh is now seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization, displaying the whole sequence from earliest settlement, jean-Francois Jarrige argues for an independent origin of Mehrgarh. But given the originality of Mehrgarh, Jarrige concludes that Mehrgarh has a local background. Gallego Romero notes that Indians who are lactose-tolerant show a genetic pattern regarding this tolerance which is characteristic of the common European mutation. According to Romero, this suggests that the most common lactose tolerance mutation made a migration out of the Middle East less than 10,000 years ago. They further note that he earliest evidence of cattle herding in south Asia comes from the Indus River Valley site of Mehrgarh and is dated to 7,000 YBP, Archaeologists divide the occupation at the site into eight periods. The Mehrgarh Period I was Neolithic and aceramic, without the use of pottery, the earliest farming in the area was developed by semi-nomadic people using plants such as wheat and barley and animals such as sheep, goats and cattle. The settlement was established with simple mud buildings and most of them had four internal subdivisions, ornaments of sea shell, limestone, turquoise, lapis lazuli and sandstone have been found, along with simple figurines of women and animals. Sea shells from far sea shore and lapis lazuli found as far away as present-day Badakshan, Afghanistan shows good contact with those areas, a single ground stone axe was discovered in a burial, and several more were obtained from the surface. These ground stone axes are the earliest to come from a context in the South Asia. Periods I, II and III are contemporaneous with another site called Kili Gul Mohammed, in April 2006, it was announced in the scientific journal Nature that the oldest evidence for the drilling of human teeth in vivo was found in Mehrgarh. According to the authors, their discoveries point to a tradition of proto-dentistry in the farming cultures of that region. Here we describe eleven drilled molar crowns from nine adults discovered in a Neolithic graveyard in Pakistan that dates from 7,500 to 9,000 years ago and these findings provide evidence for a long tradition of a type of proto-dentistry in an early farming culture. The Mehrgarh Period II and Merhgarh Period III were ceramic Neolithic, using pottery, Period II is at site MR4 and Period III is at MR2. Much evidence of manufacturing activity has been found and more advanced techniques were used, glazed faience beads were produced and terracotta figurines became more detailed. Figurines of females were decorated with paint and had diverse hairstyles, two flexed burials were found in Period II with a red ochre cover on the body
5.
Edakkal Caves
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Edakkal Caves are two natural caves at a remote location at Edakkal,25 km from Kalpetta in the Wayanad district of Kerala in Indias Western Ghats. They lie 1,200 m above sea level on Ambukutty Mala, inside the caves are pictorial writings believed to date to at least 6,000 BCE, from the Neolithic man, indicating the presence of a prehistoric civilization or settlement in this region. The Stone Age carvings of Edakkal are rare and are the known examples from south India. These are not technically caves, but rather a cleft, rift or rock shelter approximately 96 ft by 22 ft, on one side of the cleft is a rock weighing several tons that covers the cleft to form the roof of the cave. The carvings are of human and animal figures, tools used by humans and of symbols yet to be deciphered, the petroglyphs inside the cave are of at least three types. The oldest may date back to over 8,000 years, evidences suggest that the Edakkal caves were inhabited several times at different points in history. The caves were discovered by Fred Fawcett, an official of the erstwhile Malabar state in 1890 who immediately recognised their anthropological and historical importance. He wrote an article about them, attracting the attention of scholars, the caves contain drawings that range over periods from the Neolithic as early as 5,000 BC to 1,000 BCE. The youngest group of paintings have been in the news for a connection to the Indus Valley Civilization. Historian Raghava Varier of the Kerala State Archaeology Department identified a depiction as “a man with jar cup” that is the most distinct motif of the Indus valley civilization, the finding, made in September 2009, indicates that the Harappan civilization was active in the region. The “a man with jar cup” symbol from Edakkal seems to be similar to the Indus motif than those already known from Tamil Nadu. Mr. Varier said “The discovery of the symbols are akin to that of the Harappan civilization having predominantly Dravidian culture and testimony to the fact that cultural diffusion could take place. It is wrong to presume that the Indus culture disappeared into thin air. ”Iravatham Mahadevan, petroglyph Rock art Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka Edakkal Caves Website On a history trail cave-biology. org Cave biology in India
6.
Chalcolithic
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The Copper Age was originally defined as a transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The archaeological site of Belovode on the Rudnik mountain in Serbia contains the worlds oldest securely dated evidence of copper smelting from 5000 BCE, the multiple names result from multiple recognitions of the period. Originally, the term Bronze Age meant that either copper or bronze was being used as the hard substance for the manufacture of tools. In 1881, John Evans, recognizing that the use of copper often preceded the use of bronze and he did not include the transitional period in the tripartite system of Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age but placed it at the beginning outside of it. He did not, however, present it as a fourth age, in 1884, Gaetano Chierici, perhaps following the lead of Evans, renamed it in Italian as the Eneo-litica, or Bronze-stone transition. The phrase was never intended to mean that the period was the one in which both bronze and stone were used. The Copper Age features the use of copper, excluding bronze, moreover, litica simply names the Stone Age as the point from which the transition began and is not another -lithic age. Subsequently, British scholars used either Evanss Copper Age or the term Eneolithic, around 1900, many writers began to substitute Chalcolithic for Eneolithic, to avoid the false segmentation. It was then that the misunderstanding began among those who did not know Italian, the -lithic was seen as a new -lithic age, a part of the Stone Age in which copper was used, which may appear paradoxical. Today Copper Age, Eneolithic and Chalcolithic are used synonymously to mean Evanss original definition of Copper Age, there was an independent invention of copper and bronze smelting first by Andean civilizations in South America extended later by sea commerce to the Mesoamerican civilization in West Mexico. The literature of European archaeology, in general, avoids the use of Chalcolithic, the Copper Age in the Middle East and the Caucasus began in the late 5th millennium BCE and lasted for about a millennium before it gave rise to the Early Bronze Age. The transition from the European Copper Age to Bronze Age Europe occurs about the same time, an archaeological site in Serbia contains the oldest securely dated evidence of coppermaking from 7,500 years ago. In Serbia, an axe was found at Prokuplje, which indicates that humans were using metals in Europe by 7,500 years ago. Knowledge of the use of copper was far more widespread than the metal itself, the European Battle Axe culture used stone axes modeled on copper axes, even with imitation mold marks carved in the stone. Ötzi the Iceman, who was found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991, examples of Chalcolithic cultures in Europe include Vila Nova de São Pedro and Los Millares on the Iberian Peninsula. Pottery of the Beaker people has found at both sites, dating to several centuries after copper-working began there. The Beaker culture appears to have copper and bronze technologies in Europe. The term Chalcolithic is not generally used by British prehistorians, who disagree whether it applies in the British context, in Bhirrana, the earliest Indus civilization site, copper bangles and arrowheads were found
7.
Indus Valley Civilisation
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The Indus Valley Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation mainly in the northwestern regions of South Asia, extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Along with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilisations of the Old World, and of the three, the most widespread, at its peak, the Indus Civilisation may have had a population of over five million. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft, the Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings. The discovery of Harappa, and soon afterwards, Mohenjo-Daro, was the culmination of work beginning in 1861 with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj, excavation of Harappan sites has been ongoing since 1920, with important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999. This Harappan civilisation is called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from the cultures immediately preceding and following it. The early Harappan cultures were preceded by local Neolithic agricultural villages, as of 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlements had been found, of which 96 have been excavated, mainly in the general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries. Among the settlements were the urban centres of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, Ganeriwala in Cholistan. The Harappan language is not directly attested and its affiliation is uncertain since the Indus script is still undeciphered, a relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favoured by a section of scholars. Recently, Indus sites have been discovered in Pakistans northwestern Frontier Province as well, other IVC colonies can be found in Afghanistan while smaller isolated colonies can be found as far away as Turkmenistan and in Maharashtra. The largest number of colonies are in the Punjab, Sindh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on the ancient seacoast, for example, Balakot, and on islands, for example, Dholavira. There is evidence of dry river beds overlapping with the Hakra channel in Pakistan, many Indus Valley sites have been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds. Among them are, Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan, Harappan Civilisation remains the correct one, according to the common archaeological usage of naming a civilisation after its first findspot. John wrote, I was much exercised in my mind how we were to get ballast for the line of the railway and they were told of an ancient ruined city near the lines, called Brahminabad. Visiting the city, he found it full of hard well-burnt bricks, and, convinced there was a grand quarry for the ballast I wanted. These bricks now provided ballast along 93 miles of the track running from Karachi to Lahore. In 1872–75, Alexander Cunningham published the first Harappan seal and it was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals were discovered by J. J. H. MacKay, and Marshall. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-Daro had been excavated, but excavations continued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944. Among other archaeologists who worked on IVC sites before the independence in 1947 were Ahmad Hasan Dani, Brij Basi Lal, Nani Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein
8.
Cemetery H culture
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The Cemetery H culture was a Bronze Age culture in the Punjab, north-western India, from about 1900 BCE until about 1300 BCE. It has been related to both the phase of the Harappan civilisation, and the Indo-Aryan migrations. The Cemetery H culture was located in and around the Punjab region in present-day India and it was named after a cemetery found in area H at Harappa. Remains of the culture have been dated from about 1900 BCE until about 1300 BCE, according to Kennedy and Mallory & Adams, the Cemetery H culture also shows clear biological affinities with the earlier population of Harappa. Some traits of the Cemetery H culture have been associated with the Swat culture, according to Parpola, the Cemetery H culture represents a first wave of Indo-Aryan migration from as early as 1900 BCE, which was followed by a migration to the Punjab c. Together with the Gandhara grave culture and the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture, the distinguishing features of this culture include, The use of cremation of human remains. The bones were stored in painted pottery burial urns and this is completely different from the Indus civilization where bodies were buried in wooden coffins. The urn burials and the skeletons were nearly contemporaneous. Reddish pottery, painted in black with antelopes, peacocks etc. sun or star motifs, expansion of settlements into the east. Apparent breakdown of the trade of the Indus civilization, with materials such as marine shells no longer used. Continued use of mud brick for building, cremation in India is first attested in the Cemetery H culture, a practice previously described in the Vedas. The Rigveda contains a reference to the practice, in RV10.15.14. Indus Valley Tradition Painted Grey Ware Copper Hoard Culture http, //www. harappa. com harappa. com http, //pubweb. cc. u-tokai. ac. jp/indus/english/3_1_01. html journal
9.
Vedic period
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The Vedic period was the period in Indian history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed. During the early part of the Vedic period, the Indo-Aryans settled into northern India, scholars consider Vedic civilisation to have been a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures. The end of the Vedic period witnessed the rise of large, around the beginning of the Common Era, the Vedic tradition formed one of the main constituents of the so-called Hindu synthesis. The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to 2nd millennium BCE, after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which ended c.1900 BCE, groups of Indo-Aryan peoples migrated into north-western India and started to inhabit the northern Indus Valley. The knowledge about the Aryans comes mostly from the Rigveda-samhita, which was composed between c and they brought with them their distinctive religious traditions and practices. The Vedic beliefs and practices of the era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion. According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the zone between the Zeravshan River and Iran. It was a mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements. At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra, Indra was the subject of 250 hymns, a quarter of the Rig Veda. He was associated more than any other deity with Soma, a stimulant drug probably borrowed from the BMAC religion and his rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers. These migrations may have been accompanied with violent clashes with the people who inhabited this region. The Rig Veda contains accounts of conflicts between the Aryas and the Dasas and Dasyus, the Rig Veda describes Dasas and Dasyus as people who do not perform sacrifices or obey the commandments of gods. Their speech is described as mridhra which could variously mean soft, uncouth, hostile, other adjectives which describe their physical appearance are subject to many interpretations. Internecine military conflicts between the tribes of Vedic Aryans are also described in the Rig Veda. Most notable of such conflicts was the Battle of Ten Kings, which took place on the banks of the river Parushni. The battle was fought between the tribe Bharatas, led by their chief Sudas, against a confederation of ten tribes— Puru, Yadu, Turvasha, Anu, Druhyu, Alina, Bhalanas, Paktha, Siva, Vishanin. Bharatas lived around the regions of the river Saraswati, while Purus, their western neighbours. The other tribes dwelt north-west of the Bharatas in the region of Punjab, division of the waters of Ravi could have been a reason for the war
10.
Ochre Coloured Pottery culture
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The Ochre Coloured Pottery culture is a 2nd millennium BC Bronze Age culture of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It is a contemporary of and successor to the Indus Valley Civilization, the OCP marked the last stage of the North Indian Bronze Age and was succeeded by the Iron Age black and red ware culture and the painted gray ware culture. Early specimens of the ceramics found near Jodhpura, Rajasthan date from the 3rd millennium. The culture reached the Gangetic plain in the early 2nd millennium, recently Archaeological Survey of India discovered copper axes and some piece of pottery in its exacavation at Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Ochre Coloured Pottery culture has potential to be called as a proper civilisation something like Harrapan civilisation, the term copper hoards refers to different assemblages of copper-based artefacts in the northern areas of the Indian Subcontinent that are believed to date from the 2nd millennium BC. Initially, the copper hoards were known mostly from the Ganges-Yamuna doab, characteristic hoard artefacts from southern Haryana/northern Rajasthan include flat axes, harpoons, double axes, and antenna-hilted swords. The doab has a related repertory, artefacts from the Chota Nagpur area are very different, they seem to resemble ingots and are votive in character. The raw material may have derived from a variety of sources in Rajasthan, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha. Some scholars regard the OCP culture as late or impoverished Harappan culture, V. N. Misra regards the OCP as only a final and impoverished stage of the Late Harappan culture and designates this phase as Degenerate Harappan. Together with the Cemetery H culture and the Gandhara Grave culture, kallur archaeological site Yule, P. Metalwork of the Bronze Age in India, Munich, C. H. Beck, ISBN 3-406-30440-0 Yule, P. Hauptmann, A. Hughes, the Copper Hoards of the Indian Subcontinent, Preliminaries for an Interpretation, Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz, pp.36, 193–275, ISSN 0076-2741 Gupta, S. P
11.
Gandhara grave culture
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The Gandhara grave culture, also called Swat culture, emerged c.1600 BC, and flourished c.1500 BC to 500 BC in Gandhara, which lies in modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan. It has been regarded as a token of the Indo-Aryan migrations, relevant finds, artifacts found primarily in graves, were distributed along the banks of the Swat and Dir rivers in the north, Taxila in the southeast, along the Gomal River to the south. Simply made terracotta figurines were buried with the pottery, and other items are decorated with simple dot designs, horse remains were found in at least one burial. The Gandhara grave culture may be an artifact of the Indo-Aryan migrations, according to Kochhar, the Indo-Aryan culture fused with indigenous elements of the remnants of the Indus Valley Civilization and gave rise to the Vedic Civilization. Asko Parpola argues that the Gandhara grave culture is by no means identical with the Bronze Age Culture of Bactria, according to Tusa, the Gandhara grave culture and its new contributions are in line with the cultural traditions of the previous period. According to Kennedy, who argues for a cultural continuity. This suggests a continuum between the ancient populations of Timargarha and Mehrgarh. This is contested by Elena E. Kuzmina, who notes remains that are similar to some from Central Asian populations, antonini, Stacul and other scholars argue that this culture is also not related with the Beshkent culture of Kyrgyzstan and Vakhsh culture of Tajikistan. However, E. Kuzmina argues the opposite on the basis of archaeology and the human remains from the separate cultures
12.
Janapada
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The Janapadas were the realms, republics and kingdoms of the Indian Vedic period late Bronze Age into the from about 1200 BCE to the 6th century BCE. Concluding with the rise of sixteen Mahajanapadas, most of the states were annexed by more powerful neighbours. The Sanskrit term janapada is a compound term, composed of two words, janas and pada. The word pada means foot, from its earliest attestation, the word has had a meaning of realm, territory. Linguist George Dunkel compares the Greek andrapodon slave, to PIE *pédom fetters, Sanskrit padám, usually taken to mean footprint, trail, diverges in accent from the PIE reconstruction. For the sense of population of the land, padasya janas, a primary meaning of place of the people, janasya padam, would not explain why the compound is of masculine gender. An original dvandva land and people is conceivable, but a dual inflection would be expected, literary evidence suggests that the janapadas flourished between 1500 BCE and 500 BCE. The earliest mention of the term occurs in the Aitareya. In the Vedic samhitas, the term denotes a tribe. The janas were headed by a king, the samiti was a common assembly of the jana members, and had the power to elect or dethrone the king. The sabha was an assembly of wise elders, who advised the king. The janas were originally semi-nomadic pastoral communities, but gradually came to be associated with specific territories as they became less mobile, various kulas developed within the jana, each with its own chief. Gradually, the necessities of defence and warfare prompted the janas to form military groupings headed by janapadins and this model ultimately evolved into the establishment of political units known as the janapadas. While some of the janas evolved into their own janapadas, others appear to have mixed together to form a common Janapada, according to the political scientist Sudama Misra, the name of the Panchala janapada suggests that it was a fusion of five janas. Some janas mentioned in the earliest texts do not find a mention in the later texts, Misra theorizes that these smaller janas were conquered by and assimilated into the larger janas. Janapadas were gradually dissolved around 500 BCE and their disestablishment can be attributed to the rise of imperial powers within India, as well as in the Northwest of South Asia by foreign invaders. The Janapada were highest political unit in Ancient India during this period these polities were usually monarchical, the head of a kingdom was called a or king. A chief or priest and a or commander of administrating the army who would assist the king, there were also two other political bodies, the thought to be a council of elders and the a general assembly of the entire people
13.
Black and red ware culture
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The black and red ware culture is an early Iron Age archaeological culture of the northern Indian subcontinent. It is dated to roughly the 12th – 9th century BCE, BRW pottery is unknown west of the Indus Valley. Recent findings in Northern India show Iron working since 1800 BCE, according to Shaffer, the nature and context of the iron objects involved are very different from early iron objects found in Southwest Asia. It is succeeded by the Painted Grey Ware culture, Mathura, A protohistoric Perspective in D. M. Srinivasan, Mathura, the Cultural Heritage,1989, pp. 171–180, the origins of iron-working in India, new evidence from the Central Ganga Plain and the Eastern Vindhyas by Rakesh Tewari India Heritage - Earthenware and Pottery
14.
Painted Grey Ware culture
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The Painted Grey Ware culture is an Iron Age culture of the Gangetic plain and the Ghaggar-Hakra valley, lasting from roughly 1200 BCE to 600 BCE. It is contemporary to, and a successor of the Black, but this point of view may change as fresh surveys by archaeologist Vinay Kumar Gupta suggest Mathura was the largest PGW site around 375 hectares in area. Two periods of PGW were identified recently at Ahichhatra, the earliest from 1500 to 800 BCE, total number of PGW sites discovered so far is more than 1100. It probably corresponds to the middle and late Vedic period, i. e. the Kuru-Panchala kingdom and it is succeeded by Northern Black Polished Ware from c. 700-500 BCE, associated with the rise of the great mahajanapada states, the PGW culture cultivated rice, wheat, and barley, and domesticated cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses. Houses were built of wattle-and-daub, mud, or bricks, ranging in size from small huts to large houses with many rooms, there is a clear settlement hierarchy, with a few central towns that stand out amongst numerous small villages. In the 1950s, archaeologist B. B. Lal associated Hastinapura, Mathura, Ahichatra, Kampilya, Barnava, Kurukshetra and other sites of PGW culture with the Mahabharata period and the Aryans. Furthermore, he pointed out that the Mahabharata mentions a flood, however, B. B. Lal considered his theories to be provisional and based upon a limited body of evidence, and he later reconsidered his statements on the nature of this culture. The pottery style of culture is different from the pottery of the Iranian Plateau. In some sites, PGW pottery and Late Harappan pottery are contemporaneous, the archaeologist Jim Shaffer has noted that at present, the archaeological record indicates no cultural discontinuities separating Painted Grey Ware from the indigenous protohistoric culture. However, the continuity of pottery styles may be explained by the fact that pottery was made by indigenous craftsmen even after the Indo-Aryan migration. According to Chakrabarti and other scholars, the origins of the subsistence patterns, towards the end of the period, many of the PGW settlements grew into the large towns and cities of the Northern Black Polished Ware period. Confirmation of this early PGW came when a team of the Archaeological Survey of India led by B. R, kuru Kingdom Panchala Mahajanapadas Bryant, Edwin. The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture, the Aryan hypothesis in Indian archaeology. Indian Studies Past and Present 4, 333-358, the Indo-Aryan Invasions, Cultural Myth and Archaeological Reality. “Have Aryans been identified in the prehistoric record from South Asia. ”, in George Erdosy. The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia, p. 49-54
15.
Northern Black Polished Ware
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The Northern Black Polished Ware culture is an urban Iron Age culture of the Indian Subcontinent, lasting c. 700–200 BCE, succeeding the Painted Grey Ware culture and Black and it developed beginning around 700 BC, or in the late Vedic period, and peaked from c. 500–300 BC, coinciding with the emergence of 16 great states or mahajanapadas in Northern India, after recent excavations at Gotihwa in Nepal, archaeologist Giovanni Verardi by radiocarbon datings says that proto-NBPW is at least from 900 BC. Excavations in India at Ayodhya, Juafardih near Nalanda, and Kolhua near Vaisali, based on this, historian Carlos Aramayo proposes the following chronology, Proto-NBPW, Early NBPW, and Late NBPW. Scholars have noted similarities between NBP and the much earlier Harappan cultures, among them the ivory dice and combs, there are also, however, important differences between these two cultures, for example, rice, millet and sorghum became more important in the NBP culture. The NBP culture may reflect the first state-level organization in the Indian Subcontinent, some sites where Northern Black Polished Ware have been found are Mahasthangarh, Chandraketugarh, Wari-Bateshwar, Bangarh and Mangalkot. Http, //lakdiva. org/coins/ruhuna/ruhuna_elephant_srivasta_disk. html India Heritage - Earthenware and Pottery
16.
Haryanka dynasty
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The Haryanka dynasty was the second ruling dynasty of Magadha, an ancient kingdom in India, which succeeded the Barhadratha dynasty. The reign of this dynasty probably began in the middle of 6th century BCE, later, it was shifted to Pataliputra, near the present day Patna in India. The founder of dynasty was either Bimbisara himself or his father Bhattiya. According to the Buddhist text, the Mahavamsa, Bimbisara was anointed king by his father at the age of fifteen and this dynasty was succeeded by the Shishunaga dynasty. The Haryanka king Bimbisara was responsible for expanding the boundaries of his kingdom through matrimonial alliances, the land of Kosala fell to Magadha in this way. He is referred to as King Shrenik in Jain scriptures, estimates place the territory ruled by this early dynasty at 300 leagues in diameter, and encompassing 80,000 small settlements. In some sources, Bimbisara was imprisoned and killed by his son and successor, Ajatashatru, Ajatashatru was contemporary with Mahavira and Gautama Buddha. Ajatashatru fought a war against Vajji, ruled by the Lichhavis, Ajatashatru followed policies of conquest and expansion. He defeated his neighbors including the king of Kosala, his brothers, when at odds with him, went to Kashi and this led to a war between Magadha and Kosala. Ajatashatru occupied Kashi and captured the smaller kingdoms, Magadha under Ajatashatru became the most powerful kingdom in North India. He is believed to have ruled for sixteen years, the kingdom had a particularly bloody succession. Anuruddha eventually succeeded Udaybhadra through assassination, and his son Munda succeeded him in the same fashion, due in part to this bloody dynastic feuding, it is thought that a civil revolt led to the emergence of the Shishunaga dynasty. Legendary kings of Magadha Pradyota dynasty Raychaudhuri, H. C, political History of Ancient India, Calcutta, University of Calcutta Bhargava, P. L
17.
Mahajanapada
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A Mahājanapada is one of the sixteen kingdoms or oligarchic republics that existed in ancient India from the sixth centuries BCE to fourth centuries BCE. Two of them were most probably ganas i. e. republics, the 6th century BCE is often regarded as a major turning point in early Indian history. Archaeologically, this corresponds in part to the Northern Black Polished Ware culture. The term Janapada literally means the foothold of a tribe, the fact that Janapada is derived from Jana points to an early stage of land-taking by the Jana tribe for a settled way of life. This process of first settlement on land had completed its final stage prior to the times of the Buddha, the Pre-Buddhist north-west region of the Indian sub-continent was divided into several Janapadas demarcated from each other by boundaries. In Pāṇinis Ashtadhyayi, Janapada stands for country and Janapadin for its citizenry, each of these Janapadas was named after the Kshatriya tribe who had settled therein. Buddhist and other texts only incidentally refer to sixteen great nations which were in existence before the time of the Buddha and they do not give any connected history except in the case of Magadha. He omits the nations from Uttarapatha like the Kamboja and Gandhara, the more extended horizon of the Bhagvati and the omission of all countries from Uttarapatha clearly shows that the Bhagvati list is of later origin and therefore less reliable. The first reference to the Angas is found in the Atharva-Veda where they find mention along with the Magadhas, Gandharis, the Jaina Prajnapana ranks Angas and Vangas in the first group of Aryan people. It mentions the cities of ancient India. It was also a center of trade and commerce and its merchants regularly sailed to distant Suvarnabhumi. Anga was annexed by Magadha in the time of Bimbisara and this was the one and only conquest of Bimbisara. The Country of Assaka or the Ashmaka tribe was located in Dakshinapatha or southern India, in Buddhas time, the Assakas were located on the banks of the river Godavari. The capital of the Assakas was Potana or Potali, which corresponds to Paudanya of Mahabharata, the Ashmakas are also mentioned by Pāṇini. They are placed in the north-west in the Markendeya Purana and the Brhat Samhita, the river Godavari separated the country of the Assakas from that of the Mulakas. The commentator of Kautiliyas Arthashastra identifies Ashmaka with Maharashtra, the country of Assaka lay outside the pale of Madhyadesa. It was located on a high road, the Dakshinapatha. At one time, Assaka included Mulaka and abutted Avanti, the country of the Avantis was an important kingdom of western India and was one of the four great monarchies in India in the post era of Mahavira and Buddha
18.
Achaemenid Empire
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The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
19.
Nanda Empire
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The Nanda dynasty originated from the region of Magadha in ancient India during the 4th century BCE and lasted between 345–321 BCE. At its greatest extent, the empire ruled by the Nanda Dynasty extended from Bengal in the east, to the Punjab region in the west, the rulers of this dynasty were famed for the great wealth which they accumulated. The Nanda Empire was later conquered by Chandragupta Maurya, who founded the Maurya Empire and he expanded his territory south of the Vindhya Range into the Deccan Plateau. The Nandas, who usurped the throne of the Shishunaga dynasty c.345 BCE, were thought to be of low origin and he was the son of Mahanandin, and a Shudra mother. The Nanda kings built on the foundations laid by their Haryanka, to achieve this objective they built a vast army, consisting of 200,000 infantry,20,000 cavalry,2,000 war chariots and 3,000 war elephants. According to the Greek historian Plutarch, the size of the Nanda army was larger, numbering 200,000 infantry,80,000 cavalry,8,000 war chariots. A possible indication of Nanda military victories in Kalinga is suggested by the later Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela, the existence of a place called Nau Nand Dehra on the Godavari is taken by some scholars as reflecting Nanda rule over the Deccan. The evidence for the extension of Nanda rule into trans-Vindhyan India is not, however, the Nandas were also renowned for their immense wealth. They undertook irrigation projects and invented standardized measures for trade across their empire, the Nanda Dynasty was also mentioned in the ancient Sangam literature of the Tamil people. The famous Tamil poet Mamulanar of the Sangam literature described the capital city Pataliputra of the Nanda Dynasty and their unpopularity, possibly due to their financial extortion, facilitated a revolution, leading to their overthrow by Chandragupta Maurya and Kautilya. Nevertheless, the greatness attained in the Maurya Age would hardly have been possible but for the achievements of their predecessors, the advisors of the king were fewer in number but were most respected on account of their high character and wisdom. They are mentioned by the Greek observers who wrote about conditions in the fourth century BCE, next to the advisors were the generals of the army. Bhadrasala, one of such generals, is mentioned in the Milinda-Panho, a passage of the Kathasaritsagara refers to the kataka of Nanda in Ayodhya. Mookerji, Radha Kumud, Chandragupta Maurya and his times, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0433-3 Panda, Harihar, Raychaudhuri, as a Historian, Northern Book Centre, ISBN 81-7211-210-6 Raychaudhuri, H. C. Political History of Ancient India, From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty, Oxford University Press Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta, the Early History of India, Atlantic Publishers and distributors, ISBN 978-81-7156-618-1
20.
Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
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Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and at first ruled by the royal Argead dynasty, the reign of Philip II saw the rise of Macedonia, during which the kingdom rose to control the entire Greek world. With a reformed army containing phalanxes wielding the sarissa pike, Philip II defeated the old powers of Athens and Thebes in the decisive Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, Sparta was kept isolated and was occupied a century later by Antigonus III Doson. Alexander then led a roughly decade-long campaign of conquest against the Achaemenid Empire, in the ensuing wars of Alexander the Great, he overthrew the Achaemenid Empire and conquered a territory that stretched as far as the Indus River. For a brief period, his Macedonian empire was the most powerful in the world – the definitive Hellenistic state, Greek arts and literature flourished in the new conquered lands and advances in philosophy, engineering, and science were spread throughout much of the ancient world. Of particular importance were the contributions of Aristotle, who had been imported as tutor to Alexander, important cities such as Pella, Pydna, and Amphipolis were involved in power struggles for control of the territory. New cities were founded, such as Thessalonica by the usurper Cassander, Macedonias decline began with the Macedonian Wars and the rise of Rome as the leading Mediterranean power. At the end of the Second Macedonian War in 168 BC, a short-lived revival of the monarchy during the Third Macedonian War in 150–148 BC ended with the establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia. The name Macedonia comes from the ethnonym Μακεδόνες, which itself is derived from the ancient Greek adjective μακεδνός, meaning tall and it also shares the same root as the noun μάκρος, meaning length in both ancient and modern Greek. The name is believed to have meant either highlanders, the tall ones. Robert S. P. Beekes supports that both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology. Contradictory legends state that either Perdiccas I of Macedon or Caranus of Macedon were the founders of the Argead dynasty, the kingdom of Macedonia was situated along the Haliacmon and Axius rivers in Lower Macedonia, north of Mount Olympus. Historian Malcolm Errington posits the theory one of the earliest Argead kings must have established Aigai as their capital in the mid-7th century BC. Prior to the 4th century BC, the kingdom covered a region corresponding to the western. Achaemenid Persian hegemony over Macedonia was briefly interrupted by the Ionian Revolt, although Macedonia enjoyed a large degree of autonomy and was never made a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, it was expected to provide troops for the Achaemenid army. Following the Greek victory at Salamis in 480 BC, Alexander I was employed as an Achaemenid diplomat to strike a treaty and alliance with Athens. Soon afterwards the Achaemenid forces were forced to withdraw from mainland Europe, although initially a Persian vassal, Alexander I of Macedon fostered friendly diplomatic relations with his former Greek enemies, the Athenian and Spartan-led coalition of Greek city-states. Two separate wars were fought against Athens between 433 and 431 BC, spurred by an Athenian alliance with a brother and cousin of Perdiccas II who had rebelled against him
21.
Seleucid Empire
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Seleucus received Babylonia and, from there, expanded his dominions to include much of Alexanders near eastern territories. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, Persia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and what is now Kuwait, Afghanistan, and parts of Pakistan and Turkmenistan. The Seleucid Empire was a center of Hellenistic culture that maintained the preeminence of Greek customs where a Greek political elite dominated. The Greek population of the cities who formed the dominant elite were reinforced by immigration from Greece, Seleucid expansion into Anatolia and Greece was abruptly halted after decisive defeats at the hands of the Roman army. Their attempts to defeat their old enemy Ptolemaic Egypt were frustrated by Roman demands, contemporary sources, such as a loyalist degree from Ilium, in Greek language define the Seleucid state both as an empire and as a kingdom. Similarly, Seleucid rulers were described as kings in Babylonia and he refers to either Alexander Balas or Alexander II Zabinas as a ruler. Alexander, who conquered the Persian Empire under its last Achaemenid dynast, Darius III, died young in 323 BC. Alexanders generals jostled for supremacy over parts of his empire, Ptolemy, a former general and the satrap of Egypt, was the first to challenge the new system, this led to the demise of Perdiccas. Ptolemys revolt led to a new subdivision of the empire with the Partition of Triparadisus in 320 BC, Seleucus, who had been Commander-in-Chief of the Companion cavalry and appointed first or court chiliarch received Babylonia and, from that point, continued to expand his dominions ruthlessly. Seleucus established himself in Babylon in 312 BC, the used as the foundation date of the Seleucid Empire. The whole region from Phrygia to the Indus was subject to Seleucus, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants. Following his and Lysimachus victory over Antigonus Monophthalmus at the decisive Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, Seleucus took control over eastern Anatolia, in the latter area, he founded a new capital at Antioch on the Orontes, a city he named after his father. An alternative capital was established at Seleucia on the Tigris, north of Babylon, Seleucuss empire reached its greatest extent following his defeat of his erstwhile ally, Lysimachus, at Corupedion in 281 BC, after which Seleucus expanded his control to encompass western Anatolia. He hoped further to take control of Lysimachuss lands in Europe – primarily Thrace and even Macedonia itself, nevertheless, even before Seleucus death, it was difficult to assert control over the vast eastern domains of the Seleucids. Seleucus invaded the Punjab region of India in 305 BC, confronting Chandragupta Maurya and it is said that Chandragupta fielded an army of 600,000 men and 9,000 war elephants. Archaeologically, concrete indications of Mauryan rule, such as the inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka, are known as far as Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and it is generally thought that Chandragupta married Seleucuss daughter, or a Macedonian princess, a gift from Seleucus to formalize an alliance. In a return gesture, Chandragupta sent 500 war elephants, an asset which would play a decisive role at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, Megasthenes, to Chandragupta, Megasthenes wrote detailed descriptions of India and Chandraguptas reign, which have been partly preserved to us through Diodorus Siculus
22.
Pandyan dynasty
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The Pandyan or Pandiyan or Pandian dynasty was an ancient Tamil dynasty, one of the three Tamil dynasties, the other two being the Chola and the Chera. The Pandya King, along with Chera King and Chola King, were referred to as the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, the dynasty ruled parts of South India from around 600 BCE to first half of 17th century CE. They initially ruled their country Pandya Nadu from Korkai, a seaport on the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula, fish being their flag, Pandyas were experts in water management, agriculture and fisheries and they were eminent sailors and sea traders too. Pandyan was well known since ancient times, with contacts, even diplomatic, the Pandyan empire was home to temples including Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, and Nellaiappar Temple built on the bank of the river Thamirabarani in Tirunelveli. The Pandya kings were called either Jatavarman or Maravarman Pandyan, from being Jains in their early ages, they became Shaivaites after some centuries of rule. Strabo states that an Indian king called Pandion sent Augustus Caesar presents and gifts of honour, the country of the Pandyas, Pandi Mandala, was described as Pandyan Mediterranea in the Periplus and Modura Regia Pandyan by Ptolemy. The early Pandyan Dynasty of the Sangam Literature faded into obscurity upon the invasion of the Kalabhras, the dynasty revived under Kadungon in the early 6th century, pushed the Kalabhras out of the Tamil country and ruled from Madurai. They again went into decline with the rise of the Cholas in the 9th century and were in constant conflict with them. The Pandyas allied themselves with the Sinhalese and the Cheras in harassing the Chola empire until they found an opportunity for reviving their fortunes during the late 13th century and they also had extensive trade links with the Southeast Asian maritime empires of Srivijaya and their successors. The Pandyas excelled in trade and literature. They controlled the fisheries along the South Indian coast, between Sri Lanka and India, which produced some of the finest pearls in the known ancient world. Traditionally, the legendary Sangams were held in Madurai under their patronage, during their history, the Pandyas were repeatedly in conflict with the Pallavas, Cholas, Hoysalas and finally the Muslim invaders from the Delhi Sultanate. The Islamic invasion led to the end of Pandyan supremacy in South India,1323, Jaffna Kingdom in Sri Lanka declared its independence from the crumbling Pandyan Empire. The Pandyans lost their capital city Madurai to Madurai Sultanate in 1335, however they shifted their capital to Tenkasi and continued to rule the Tirulnelveli, Tuticorin, Ramanad, Sivagangai regions. Meanwhile, Madurai sultanate was replaced by Nayaka governors of Vijayanagara in 1378, in 1529 Nayaka governors declared independence and established Madurai Nayak dynasty. The word Pandya is derived from the Tamil word Pandu meaning very old, another theory is that the word Pandya is derived from the Tamil word Pandi meaning bull. Ancient Tamils, considered the bull as a sign of masculinity, the earliest Pandyans, probably used the bull as its emblem. Another theory suggests that in Sangam Tamil lexicon the word Pandya means old country in contrast with Chola meaning new country, Chera meaning hill country, the Chera, Chola and Pandya are the traditional Tamil siblings and together with the Pallavas are the major Kings that ruled ancient Tamilakam
23.
Chera dynasty
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The Cheras were the principal ruling dynasty of the present-day state of Kerala and to a lesser extent, parts of Tamil Nadu in South India. Along with the Ay kingdom and the Ezhimala kingdom, they formed the kingdoms of Kerala in the early years of the Christian Era. The origins of the dynasty are unclear and it is understood that they were speakers of Proto-Tamil-Malayalam while some being practitioners of literary writing in Old Tamil. In fact, most of their history is reconstructed from the body of known as the Sangam literature written in Old Tamil around the 3rd century CE. While Pliny and Ptolemy refer to the Cheras as Calobotras, the Periplus refers to them as the Keprobotras, the earliest Sanskrit works which refer to the Cheras and Kerala is probably the Aitreya Aranyaka. It refers to the land as Chera-pada - and as one of the three peoples who did not follow some ancient injunctions, there are also brief references by Katyanana, Patanjali and Kautilya, however Panini does not mention of the land. The Tamil works collectively known as the Sangam literature form one of the most important sources for a detailed history of the Cheras. These works roughly span the period 300 BCE to 300 CE, among them, the most important sources for the Cheras are the Pattittupattu, the Agananuru, the Purananuru and the Silappatikaram. By the early centuries of the Common Era, civil society, the location of the Chera capital is generally assumed to be at modern Karur. The Cheras were in conflict with the neighbouring Cholas and Pandyas. The Cheras are said to have defeated the armies of the Pandyas. They also made battles with the Kadambās of Banavasi and the Yavanas on the Indian coast, after the 2nd century CE, the Cheras power decayed rapidly with the decline of the lucrative trade with the Romans. Sangam literature describes a line of Chera rulers dated to the first few centuries CE. It records the names of the kings, the princes, the internal chronology of this literature is still far from settled, and at present a connected account of the history of the period cannot be derived. Uthiyan Cheralathan, Nedum Cheralathan and Senguttuvan Chera are some of the referred to in the Sangam poems. Senguttuvan Chera, the most celebrated Chera king, is famous for the legends surrounding Kannagi, the Chera kingdom owed its importance to trade with West Asia, Greece and Rome. The Later Cheras ruled from the 9th century, little is known about the Cheras between the two dynasties. The second dynasty, Kulasekharas ruled from a city on the banks of River Periyar called Mahodayapuram, the Chera rulers of Venad, based at the port Quilon in southern Kerala, trace their relations back to the later/second Cheras
24.
Chola dynasty
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The Chola dynasty was one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of southern India. The earliest datable references to this Tamil dynasty are in inscriptions from the 3rd century BCE left by Ashoka, as one of the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, the dynasty continued to govern over varying territory until the 13th century CE. The whole country south of the Tungabhadra was united and held as one state for a period of two centuries and more, the Chola fleet represented the zenith of ancient Indian sea power. During the period 1010–1200, the Chola territories stretched from the islands of the Maldives in the south to as far north as the banks of the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh. Rajaraja Chola conquered peninsular South India, annexed parts of which is now Sri Lanka, Rajendra Chola sent a victorious expedition to North India that touched the river Ganges and defeated the Pala ruler of Pataliputra, Mahipala. He also successfully invaded cities of Srivijaya of Malaysia and Indonesia, the Chola dynasty went into decline at the beginning of the 13th century with the rise of the Pandyan Dynasty, which ultimately caused their downfall. The Cholas left a lasting legacy and their patronage of Tamil literature and their zeal in the building of temples has resulted in some great works of Tamil literature and architecture. The Chola kings were avid builders and envisioned the temples in their kingdoms not only as places of worship and they pioneered a centralised form of government and established a disciplined bureaucracy. The Chola school of art spread to Southeast Asia and influenced the architecture, the Cholas are also known as the Choda. There is very little available in regarding their origin. Its antiquity is evident from the mentions in ancient Tamil literature, Later medieval Cholas also claimed a long and ancient lineage. Mentions in the early Sangam literature indicate that the earliest kings of the dynasty antedated 100 CE, Cholas were mentioned in Ashokan Edicts of 3rd Century BCE as one of the neighboring countries existing in the South. A commonly held view is that Chola is, like Chera and Pandya, the annotator Parimelazhagar said, The charity of people with ancient lineage are forever generous in spite of their reduced means. Other names in use for the Cholas are Killi, Valavan and Sembiyan. Killi perhaps comes from the Tamil kil meaning dig or cleave and this word often forms an integral part of early Chola names like Nedunkilli, Nalankilli and so on, but almost drops out of use in later times. Valavan is most probably connected with valam – fertility and means owner or ruler of a fertile country, in Tamil lexicon Chola means Soazhi or Saei denoting a newly formed kingdom, in the lines of Pandya or the old country. There is very little evidence available of the Cholas prior to the 7th century. Historic records exist thereafter, including inscriptions on temples, the main source for the available information of the early Cholas is the early Tamil literature of the Sangam Period
25.
Pallava dynasty
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The Pallava dynasty was a South Indian dynasty that existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a portion of what is today southern India. They gained prominence after the eclipse of the Satavahana dynasty, whom the Pallavas served as feudatories, Pallavas are most noted for their patronage of architecture, the finest example being the Shore Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mahabalipuram. The Pallavas, who left behind magnificent sculptures and temples, established the foundations of medieval South Indian architecture and they developed the Pallava script from which Grantha ultimately descended. The Pallava script gave rise to other southeast Asian scripts. Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang visited Kanchipuram during Pallava rule and extolled their benign rule, the Pallavas themselves claimed to descend from Brahma and Ashvatthama. Though Manimekalai posits Ilam Tiriyan as a Chola, not a Pallava, thence, came into existence the race of Pallavas. Vīrakūrcha, of celebrated name, who simultaneously with the daughter of the chief of serpents grasped also the insignia of royalty. The Proceedings of the First Annual Conference of South Indian History Congress also notes, The word Tondai means a creeper, historian K. R. Subramanian says the Pallavas were originally a Telugu power rather than a Tamil one. Telugu sources know of a Trilochana Pallava as the earliest Telugu king, the first Chalukya king is said to have been met, repulsed and killed by the same Trilochana near Mudivemu. A Buddhist story describes Kala the Nagaraja, resembling the Pallava Kalabhartar as a king of the region near Krishna district, the Pallava Bogga may be identified with the kingdom of Kala in Andhra which had close and early maritime and cultural relations with Ceylon. K. A. K. P. Jayaswal also proposed a North Indian origin, the Pallavas captured Kanchi from the Cholas as recorded in the Velurpalaiyam Plates, around the reign of the fifth king of the Pallava line Kumaravishnu I. Thereafter Kanchi figures in inscriptions as the capital of the Pallavas, the Cholas drove the Pallavas away from Kanchi in the mid-4th century, in the reign of Vishugopa, the tenth king of the Pallava line. The Pallavas re-captured Kanchi in the century, possibly in the reign of Simhavishnu, the fourteenth king of the Pallava line. Thereafter the Pallavas held on to Kanchi until the 9th century, until the reign of their last king, the Pallavas were in conflict with major kingdoms at various periods of time. A contest for political supremacy existed between the early Pallavas and the Kadambas, numerous Kadamba inscriptions provide details of Pallava-Kadamba hostlities. During the reign of Vishnugopavarman II, political convulsion engulfed the Pallavas due to the Kalabhra invasion of the Tamil country, towards the close of the 6th century, the Pallava Simhavishnu stuck a blow against the Kalabhras. Thereafter the Tamil country was divided between the Pallavas in the north with Kanchipuram as their capital, and Pandyas in the south with Madurai as their capital, the royal custom of using a series of descriptive honorific titles, Birudas, was particularly prevalent among the Pallavas. The birudas of Mahendravarman I are in Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu, the Telugu birudas show Mahendravarmans involvement with the Andhra region continued to be strong at the time he was creating his cave-temples in the Tamil region
26.
Parthian Empire
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The Parthian Empire, also known as the Arsacid Empire, was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran and Iraq. Mithridates I of Parthia greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids, at its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to eastern Iran. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Empire of China, became a center of trade and commerce. The Parthians largely adopted the art, architecture, religious beliefs, and royal insignia of their culturally heterogeneous empire, which encompassed Persian, Hellenistic, and regional cultures. For about the first half of its existence, the Arsacid court adopted elements of Greek culture, the court did appoint a small number of satraps, largely outside Iran, but these satrapies were smaller and less powerful than the Achaemenid potentates. With the expansion of Arsacid power, the seat of government shifted from Nisa to Ctesiphon along the Tigris. The earliest enemies of the Parthians were the Seleucids in the west, however, as Parthia expanded westward, they came into conflict with the Kingdom of Armenia, and eventually the late Roman Republic. Rome and Parthia competed with other to establish the kings of Armenia as their subordinate clients. The Parthians soundly defeated Marcus Licinius Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, however, Mark Antony led a counterattack against Parthia, although his successes were generally achieved in his absence, under the leadership of his lieutenant Ventidius. Also, various Roman emperors or their appointed generals invaded Mesopotamia in the course of the several Roman-Parthian Wars which ensued during the few centuries. The Romans captured the cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon on multiple occasions during these conflicts, native Parthian sources, written in Parthian, Greek and other languages, are scarce when compared to Sassanid and even earlier Achaemenid sources. These include mainly Greek and Roman histories, but also Chinese histories, Parthian artwork is viewed by historians as a valid source for understanding aspects of society and culture that are otherwise absent in textual sources. The Parni most likely spoke an eastern Iranian language, in contrast to the northwestern Iranian language spoken at the time in Parthia, the latter was a northeastern province, first under the Achaemenid, and then the Seleucid empires. Why the Arsacid court retroactively chose 247 BC as the first year of the Arsacid era is uncertain, Bivar concludes that this was the year the Seleucids lost control of Parthia to Andragoras, the appointed satrap who rebelled against them. Hence, Arsaces I backdated his regnal years to the moment when Seleucid control over Parthia ceased, however, Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis asserts that this was simply the year Arsaces was made chief of the Parni tribe. It is unclear who immediately succeeded Arsaces I, Bivar and Katouzian affirm that it was his brother Tiridates I of Parthia, who in turn was succeeded by his son Arsaces II of Parthia in 211 BC. Yet Curtis and Brosius state that Arsaces II was the successor of Arsaces I, with Curtis claiming the succession took place in 211 BC. Bivar insists that 138 BC, the last regnal year of Mithridates I, is the first precisely established regnal date of Parthian history, due to these and other discrepancies, Bivar outlines two distinct royal chronologies accepted by historians
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Middle kingdoms of India
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Middle kingdoms of India refers to the political entities in India from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. This period begins after the decline of the Maurya Empire, the Middle period lasts for some 1500 years, and ends in the 13th century with the rise of the Delhi Sultanate and the end of the Later Cholas. The period is known as the period of India, during which India is estimated to have had the largest economy of the world controlling between one third and one fourth of the worlds wealth. During the 2nd century BCE, the Maurya Empire became a collage of regional powers with overlapping boundaries, the whole northwest attracted a series of invaders between 200 BCE and 300 CE. The Puranas speak of many of these tribes as foreigners and impure barbarians, over time, the invaders became Indianized as they influenced society and philosophy across the Gangetic plains and were conversely influenced by it. This period is marked by intellectual and artistic achievements inspired by cultural diffusion and syncretism as the new kingdoms straddle the Silk Road. The first Saka king in India was Maues or Moga who established Saka power in Gandhara, Indo-Scythian rule in India ended with the last of the Western Satraps, Rudrasimha III, in 395 CE. The invasion of India by Scythian tribes from Central Asia, often referred to as the Indo-Scythian invasion, played a significant part in the history of India as well as nearby countries. The Indo-Greek Kingdom covered various parts of the Northwestern South Asia during the last two centuries BCE, and was ruled by more than 30 Hellenistic kings, often in conflict with each other. The kingdom was founded when Demetrius I of Bactria invaded the Hindu Kush early in the 2nd century BCE, the Greeks in India were eventually divided from the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom centered in Bactria. The expression Indo-Greek Kingdom loosely describes a number of various dynastic polities, there were numerous cities, such as Taxila Pakistans Punjab, or Pushkalavati and Sagala. Euthydemus I was, according to Polybius a Magnesian Greek and his son, Demetrius, founder of the Indo-Greek kingdom, was therefore of Greek descent from his father at minimum. A marriage treaty was arranged for Demetrius with a daughter of Antiochus III the Great, the ethnicity of later Indo-Greek rulers is less clear. For example, Artemidoros Aniketos may have been of Indo-Scythian descent, intermarriage also occurred, as exemplified by Alexander the Great, who married Roxana of Bactria, or Seleucus I Nicator, who married Apama of Sogdia. The diffusion of Indo-Greek culture had consequences which are still felt today, the Yavana or Yona people, literally Ionian and meaning Western foreigner, were described as living beyond Gandhara. Yavanas, Sakas, the Pahlavas and Hunas were sometimes described as mlecchas, kambojas and the inhabitants of Madra, the Kekeya Kingdom, the Indus River region and Gandhara were sometimes also classified as mlecchas. This name was used to indicate their cultural differences with the culture of the Kuru Kingdom, the Indo-Parthian Kingdom was founded by Gondophares around 20 BCE. The kingdom lasted only briefly until its conquest by the Kushan Empire in the late 1st century CE and was a framework where many smaller dynasts maintained their independence
28.
Satavahana dynasty
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The Satavahanas were an ancient Indian dynasty based in the Deccan region. The Satavahana kingdom mainly comprised the present-day Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, at different times, their rule extended to parts of modern Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka. The dynasty had different capital cities at different times, including Pratishthana, the origin of the dynasty is uncertain, but according to the Puranas, their first king overthrew the Kanva dynasty. In the post-Maurya era, the Satavahanas established peace in the Deccan region, in particular their struggles with the Saka Western Satraps went on for a long time. The dynasty reached its zenith under the rule of Gautamiputra Satakarni, the kingdom fragmented into smaller states by the early 3rd century CE. The Satavahanas were early issuers of Indian state coinage struck with images of their rulers and they formed a cultural bridge and played a vital role in trade and the transfer of ideas and culture to and from the Indo-Gangetic Plain to the southern tip of India. They supported Brahmanism as well as Buddhism, and patronised Prakrit language instead of Sanskrit, the date and place of origin of the Satavahanas, as well as the meaning of the dynastys name, are a matter of debate among the historians. According to one theory, the word Satavahana is a Prakrit form of the Sanskrit Sapta-Vahana and this would indicate that the Satavahanas originally claimed association with the legendary solar dynasty, as was common in ancient India. According to Inguva Kartikeya Sarma, the name is derived from the words sata and vahana. Another theory connects their name to the earlier Satiyaputa dynasty, yet another theory derives their name from the Munda words Sadam and Harpan, implying son of the performer of a horse sacrifice. Several rulers of the dynasty bear the name or title Satakarni, Satavahana, Satakarni, Satakani and Shalivahana appear to be variations of the same word. Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi theorized that the word Satakarni is derived from the Munda words sada, the Puranas use the name Andhra or Andhra-Bhritya for the Satavahanas. The term Andhra may refer to ethnicity or territory of the dynasty and it does not appear in the dynastys own records. The use of the name Andhra in the Puranas has led scholars to believe that the dynasty originated in the eastern Deccan region. At Kotilingala in Telangana, coins bearing the legend Rano Siri Chimuka Satavahanasa were found, coins attributed to Simukas successors Kanha and Satakarni I were also discovered at Kotilingla. Based on these discoveries, historians such as D. R. Reddy, S. Reddy, however, the coin samples from Kotlingala are small, and it is not certain if these coins were minted there or reached there from somewhere else. Sastry also later changed his view, and stated that the two kings were different, as for the Puranas, these texts were compiled much later, during the Gupta period, and it is not certain if the Satavahanas were referred to as Andhras during their time. Another section of scholars believe that the Satavahanas originated in western Deccan, all of the four extant inscriptions from the early Satavahana period have been found in and around this region
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Kuninda Kingdom
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The history of the kingdom is documented from around the 2nd century BCE. They are mentioned in Indian epics and Puranas, the Mahabharata relates they were defeated by Arjuna. One of the first kings of the Kuninda was Amoghbhuti, who ruled in the valley of the Yamuna. The Greek historian Ptolemy linked the origin of the Kuninda to the country where the rivers Ganges, Yamuna, the Kuninda kingdom disappeared around the 3rd century, and from the 4th century, it seems the region shifted to Shaivite beliefs. According to Hari Krishan Mittoo author of books on Himachal. There are two types of Kuninda coinage, the first one issued around the 1st century BCE, the first coins of the Kuninda were influenced by the numismatic model of their predecessor Indo-Greek kingdoms, and incorporated Buddhist symbolism such as the triratna. These coins typically follow the Indo-Greek weight and size standards, and their coins are found together with Indo-Greek coins in hoards, such as those of the Yaudheyas. They represent the first effort by a native Indian king to produce coins that could compare with those of the Indo-Greeks, the finds of Kuninda coins have often been associated with finds of Indo-Greek coins, particularly those of Appolodotus. A very large portion of the Kuninda coins are in the name of king Amoghabhuti, some later coins of the 2nd century CE bear the symbol of the Hindu god Shiva. Amoghabhuti Indo-Greek Kingdom Kuninda Coins, Himvan Blog, www. himvan. com Scripts in Kuninda coinage
30.
Shunga Empire
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The Shunga Empire was an ancient Indian dynasty from Magadha that controlled vast areas of the Indian subcontinent from around 187 to 78 BCE. The dynasty was established by Pushyamitra Shunga, after the fall of the Maurya Empire and its capital was Pataliputra, but later emperors such as Bhagabhadra also held court at Besnagar in eastern Malwa. Pushyamitra Shunga ruled for 36 years and was succeeded by his son Agnimitra, the empire is noted for its numerous wars with both foreign and indigenous powers. They fought the Kalinga, the Satavahana dynasty, the Indo-Greek Kingdom, Shunga rulers helped to establish the tradition of royal sponsorship of learning and art. The script used by the empire was a variant of Brahmi script and was used to write Sanskrit, the Shunga Empire played an imperative role in patronizing culture at a time when some of the most important developments in Hindu thought were taking place. Patanjalis Mahābhāṣya was composed in this period, artistry also progressed with the rise of the Mathura art style. The Kanva dynasty succeeded the Shungas around 73 BCE, Pushyamitra Shunga then ascended the throne. Pushyamitra Shunga became the ruler of Magadha and neighbouring territories, the empire of Pushyamitra was extended to the Narmada River in the south, controlled Jalandhar and Sialkot in the Punjab region in the northwest and the city of Ujjain in Central India. Kabul and much of the Punjab passed into the hands of the Indo-Greeks, Pushyamitra died after ruling for 36 years. He was succeeded by son Agnimitra and this prince is the hero of a famous drama by one of Indias greatest playwrights, Kālidāsa. Agnimitra was viceroy of Vidisha when the story takes place, the power of the Shungas gradually weakened. It is said there were ten Shunga emperors. The Shungas were succeeded by the Kanva dynasty around 73 BCE, buddhist scripture Divyavdan and ancient Tibbatan historian Taranath have written about persecution of Buddhists, However, there is doubt as to whether he did persecute Buddhists actively. Later Shunga emperors were seen as amenable to Buddhism and as having contributed to the building of the stupa at Bharhut, some writers believe that Brahmanism competed in political and spiritual realm with Buddhism in the Gangetic plains. Buddhism flourished in the realms of the Bactrian kings, some Indian scholars are of the opinion that the orthodox Shunga emperors were not intolerant towards Buddhism and that Buddhism prospered during the time of the Shunga emperors. The existence of Buddhism in Bengal in the Shunga period can also be inferred from a tablet that was found at Tamralipti and is on exhibit at the Asutosh Museum in Kolkata. An inscription at Bodh Gaya at the Mahabodhi Temple records the construction of the temple as follows, another inscription reads, The gift of Kurangi, the mother of living sons and the wife of Emperor Indragnimitra, son of Kosiki. The gift also of Srima of the palace shrine
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Indo-Greek Kingdom
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The kingdom was founded when the Graeco-Bactrian king Demetrius invaded the subcontinent early in the 2nd century BC. The Greeks in South Asia were eventually divided from the Graeco-Bactrians centered in Bactria, but the Greeks failed to establish united rule in present-day north-western South Asia. The most famous Indo-Greek ruler was Menander and he had his capital at Sakala in the Punjab. The expression Indo-Greek Kingdom loosely describes a number of various polities, traditionally associated with a number of regional capitals like Taxila, Pushkalavati. Euthydemus I was, according to Polybius a Magnesian Greek and his son, Demetrius, founder of the Indo-Greek kingdom, was therefore of Greek descent from his father at minimum. A marriage treaty was arranged for Demetrius with a daughter of Antiochus III the Great, the ethnicity of later Indo-Greek rulers is less clear. The diffusion of Indo-Greek culture had consequences which are still felt today, after 321 BC Eudemus toppled Taxiles, until he left India in 316 BC. To the south, another general also ruled over the Greek colonies of the Indus, Peithon, son of Agenor, in 305 BC, Seleucus I led an army to the Indus, where he encountered Chandragupta. The confrontation ended with a treaty, and an intermarriage agreement. But Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, also several Greeks, such as the historian Megasthenes, followed by Deimachus and Dionysius, were sent to reside at the Mauryan court. Presents continued to be exchanged between the two rulers, on these occasions, Greek populations apparently remained in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent under Mauryan rule. It is also thought that Greeks contributed to the work of the Pillars of Ashoka. 1 That is the Caucasus Indicus or Paropamisus, mod, Alexander had also established several colonies in neighbouring Bactria, such as Alexandria on the Oxus and Alexandria of the Caucasus. After Alexanders death in 323 BC, Bactria came under the control of Seleucus I Nicator, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was founded when Diodotus I, the satrap of Bactria seceded from the Seleucid Empire around 250 BC. The preserved ancient sources are contradictory and the exact date of Bactrian independence has not been settled. Somewhat simplified, there is a chronology and a low chronology for Diodotos’ secession. The high chronology has the advantage of explaining why the Seleucid king Antiochus II issued very few coins in Bactria, as Diodotos would have become independent there early in Antiochus reign. On the other hand, the low chronology, from the mid-240s BC, has the advantage of connecting the secession of Diodotus I with the Third Syrian War, a catastrophic conflict for the Seleucid Empire
32.
Kanva dynasty
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The Kanva dynasty or Kanvayana was a Brahmin dynasty that replaced the Shunga dynasty in Magadha, and ruled in the Eastern part of India from 75 BCE to 30 BCE. The last ruler of the Shunga dynasty, Devabhuti, was overthrown by Vasudeva of the Kanva dynasty in 75 BC, the Kanva ruler allowed the kings of the Shunga dynasty to continue to rule in obscurity in a corner of their former dominions. Magadha was ruled by four Kanva rulers, according to the Puranas, their dynasty was brought to an end by the Satavahanas. The first ruler of Kanva dynasty was Vasudeva and he was succeeded by his son Bhumimitra. Coins bearing the legend Bhumimitra have been discovered from Panchala realm, Bhumimitra ruled for fourteen years and was later succeeded by his son Narayana. He was succeeded by his son Susharman who was the last king of Kanva dynasty, Vasudeva Bhumimitra Narayana Susharman List of Brahmin dynasties and states Raychaudhuri, Hemchandra Political History of Ancient India, University of Calcutta,1972
33.
Indo-Scythians
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Indo-Scythians is a term used to refer to Scythians, who migrated into parts of central, northern and western South Asia from the middle of the 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD. The first Saka king in south Asia was Maues who established Saka power in Gandhara, Indo-Scythian rule in northwestern India ended with the last Western Satrap Rudrasimha III in 395 CE who was defeated by the Indian Emperor Chandragupta II of the Gupta Empire. The power of the Saka rulers started to decline in the 2nd century CE after the Indo-Scythians were defeated by the south Indian Emperor Gautamiputra Satakarni of the Satavahana dynasty, later the Saka kingdom was completely destroyed by Chandragupta II of the Gupta Empire in the 4th century. The invasion of India by Scythian tribes from Central Asia, often referred to as the Indo-Scythian invasion, ancient Roman historians including Arrian and Claudius Ptolemy have mentioned that the ancient Sakas were basically nomads. However, Italo Ronca, in his study of Ptolemys chapter vi, marks the statement, The land of the Sakai belongs to nomads, they have no towns but dwell in forests. The ancestors of the Indo-Scythians are thought to be Sakas tribes, one group of Indo-European speakers that makes an early appearance on the Xinjiang stage is the Saka. According to these ancient sources Modu Shanyu of the Xiongnu tribe of Mongolia attacked the Yuezhi, leaving behind a remnant of their number, most of the population moved westwards. Around 175 BC, the Yuezhi tribes, were defeated by the Xiongnu tribes, there, they displaced the Sakas, who migrated south into Ferghana and Sogdiana. According to the Chinese historical chronicles, The Yuezhi attacked the king of the Sai who moved a distance to the south. The Sakas seem to have entered the territory of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom around 145 BC, the Sakas called home, an area of Southern Afghanistan, called after them Sistan. From there, they expanded into present day Iran as well as northern India, where they established various kingdoms. The region is known as Seistan. The presence of the Sakas in Sakastan in the 1st century BC is mentioned by Isidore of Charax in his Parthian stations, the first Indo-Scythian kingdom in south western Asia was located in Pakistan in the areas from Abiria to Surastrene, from around 110 to 80 BC. They progressively further moved north into Indo-Greek territory until the conquests of Maues, before it there lies a small island, and inland behind it is the metropolis of Scythia, Minnagara. The Indo-Scythians ultimately established a kingdom in the northwest, based in Taxila, in the southeast, the Indo-Scythians invaded the area of Ujjain, but were subsequently repelled in 57 BC by the Malwa king Vikramaditya. To commemorate the event Vikramaditya established the Vikrama era, a specific Indian calendar starting in 57 BC, more than a century later, in AD78 the Sakas would again invade Ujjain and establish the Saka era, marking the beginning of the long-lived Saka Western Satraps kingdom. Maues first conquered Gandhara and Taxila around 80 BCE, but his kingdom disintegrated after his death, in the east, the Indian king Vikrama retook Ujjain from the Indo-Scythians, celebrating his victory by the creation of the Vikrama Era. Indo-Greek kings again ruled after Maues, and prospered, as indicated by the profusion of coins from Kings Apollodotus II, not until Azes I, in 55 BC, did the Indo-Scythians take final control of northwestern India, with his victory over Hippostratos
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Indo-Parthian Kingdom
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For most of their history, the leading Gondopharid kings held Taxila as their residence, but during their last few years of existence the capital shifted between Kabul and Peshawar. Gondophares I originally seems to have been a ruler of Seistan in what is today eastern Iran, around 20–10 BCE, he made conquests in the former Indo-Scythian kingdom, perhaps after the death of the important ruler Azes. Gondophares became the ruler of areas comprising Arachosia, Seistan, Sindh, Punjab, and the Kabul valley and these smaller dynasts included the Apracarajas themselves, and Indo-Scythian satraps such as Zeionises and Rajuvula, as well as anonymous Scythians who struck imitations of Azes coins. The Ksaharatas also held sway in Gujarat, perhaps just outside Gondophares dominions, after the death of Gondophares I, the empire started to fragment. The name or title Gondophares was adapted by Sarpedones, who become Gondophares II and was son of the first Gondophares. Even though he claimed to be the ruler, Sarpedones’ rule was shaky and he issued a fragmented coinage in Sind, eastern Punjab. The most important successor was Abdagases, Gondophares’ nephew, who ruled in Punjab, after a short reign, Sarpedones seems to have been succeeded by Orthagnes, who became Gondophares III Gadana. Orthagnes ruled mostly in Seistan and Arachosia, with Abdagases further east, during the first decades AD, after 20 AD, a king named Sases, a nephew of the Apracaraja ruler Aspavarma, took over Abdagases’ territories and became Gondophares IV Sases. According to Senior, this is the Gondophares referred to in the Takht-i-Bahi inscription, the last king Pacores only ruled in Seistan and Kandahar. The city of Taxila is thought to have been a capital of the Indo-Parthians, large strata were excavated by Sir John Marshall with a quantity of Parthian-style artifacts. The nearby temple of Jandial is usually interpreted as a Zoroastrian fire temple from the period of the Indo-Parthians, if the account is even historical, Saint Thomas may have encountered one of the later kings who bore the same title. The Greek philosopher Apollonius of Tyana is related by Philostratus in Life of Apollonius Tyana to have visited India, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a surviving 1st century guide to the routes commonly being used for navigating the Arabian Sea. Before it there lies a small island, and inland behind it is the metropolis of Scythia, Minnagara, it is subject to Parthian princes who are constantly driving each other out. Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Chap 38 An inscription from Takht-i-Bahi bears two dates, one in the regnal year 26 of the Maharaja Guduvhara, and the year 103 of an unknown era and they are thought to have retained Zoroastrianism, being of Iranian extraction themselves. This Iranian mythological system was inherited from them by the later Kushans who ruled from the Peshawar-Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan, on their coins and in the art of Gandhara, Indo-Parthians are depicted with short crossover jackets and large baggy trousers, possibly supplemented by chap-like over-trousers. Their jackets are adorned with rows of decorative rings or medals and their hair is usually bushy and contained with a headband, a practise largely adopted by the Parthians from the 1st century CE. Individuals in Indo-Parthian attire are sometimes shown as actors in Buddhist devotional scenes and these archaeological researches provided a quantity of Hellenistic artifacts combined with elements of Buddhist worship. Some other temples, such as nearby Jandial may have used as a Zoroastrian fire temple
35.
Western Satraps
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The Western Satraps, Western Kshatrapas, or Kshaharatas were Indo-Scythian rulers of the western and central part of India. They are so named in contrast to the Northern Satraps who ruled around East Punjab, the Western Satraps were contemporaneous with the Kushans who ruled the northern part of the Indian subcontinent and were possibly their overlords, and the Satavahana who ruled in Central India. Although they called themselves Satraps on their coins, leading to their designation of Western Satraps. The power of the Saka rulers started to decline in the 2nd century CE after the Saka rulers were defeated by the south Indian Emperor Gautamiputra Satakarni of the Satavahana dynasty, later the Saka kingdom was completely destroyed by Chandragupta II of the Gupta Empire in the 4th century CE. Altogether, there were 27 independent Western Satrap rulers during a period of about 350 years, the word Kshatrapa stands for satrap, itself descended from Old Persian and which means viceroy or governor of a province. The Western Satraps are thought to have started with the rather short-lived Kshaharata dynasty, the term Kshaharata is also known from the 6 CE Taxila copper plate inscription, in which it qualifies the Indo-Scythian ruler Liaka Kusulaka. The Nasik inscription of the 19th year of Sri Pulamavi also mentions the Khakharatavasa, the earliest Kshaharata for whom there is evidence is Abhiraka, whose rare coins are known. He was succeeded by Bhumaka, father of Nahapana, who used on his coins the title of Satrap. Bhumaka was the father of the great ruler Nahapana, according to one of the latters coins and his coins bear Buddhist symbols, such as the eight-spoked wheel, or the lion seated on a capital, a representation of a pillar of Ashoka. Nahapana succeeded to him, and became a powerful ruler. He occupied portions of the Satavahana empire in western and central India, Nahapana held sway over Malwa, Southern Gujarat, and Northern Konkan, from Bharuch to Sopara and the Nasik and Poona districts. His son-in-law, the Saka Ushavadata, is known from inscriptions in Nasik and Karle to have been viceroy of Nahapana, Nahapana is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea under the name Nambanus, as ruler of the area around Barigaza,41. Beyond the gulf of Baraca is that of Barygaza and the coast of the country of Ariaca and that part of it lying inland and adjoining Scythia is called Abiria, but the coast is called Syrastrene. It is a country, yielding wheat and rice and sesame oil and clarified butter, cotton. Very many cattle are pastured there, and the men are of great stature, the metropolis of this country is Minnagara, from which much cotton cloth is brought down to Barygaza. Under the Western Satraps, Barigaza was one of the centers of Roman trade with India. The Periplus describes the many goods exchanged,49 and those bound for this market-town from Egypt make the voyage favorably about the month of July, that is Epiphi. Goods were also brought down in quantity from Ujjain, the capital of the Western Satraps,48, some make the voyage especially to these market-towns, and others exchange their cargoes while sailing along the coast
