The Mauryan Empire (ca. 324

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The Mauryan Empire (ca. 324 185 BCE)
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• Created by Chandragupta Maurya
• (ruled 324 301 BCE)
• Leads forces to remove Hellenistic influence and
  unifies lands by 321BCE
• Paranoid ruler
• Treason suspects tortured and killed
• Spies, food tasters, never sleeps in same room
  two nights in a row

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Chandraguptas Rule

• Establishes ruling principles based on
• Hindu philosophy
• policy of the scepter
• Establishes Government
• Pataliputra
• Kingdom divided into Provinces each ruled by a
  royal governor appointed by the ruler
• ivided into districts each ruled by an official
  appointed by the royal governor
• Districts contain villages each has a village
  leader

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The Reign of Asoka (269 -232 BCE)

• Initially continues brutal rule as father and
  grandfather had
• 260 BCE Asoka
• converted to Buddhism because he was disturbed by
  his own brutality
• Sends out Buddhist missionaries throughout
  kingdom
• Spreads buddhism
• uses the principles of Buddhism in the rest of
  his reign

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Asokas Rule

• Issues Rock Edicts
• has several stone pillars and tablets placed
  throughout his kingdom
• outlining his new policies and ideas based on
  Buddhist principles
• appoints officials of righteousness who make
  sure that everybody treated fairly
• orders the building of hospitals for people and
  animals
• creates rest stops along roads within the
  Empire
• revises the legal code of the Empire
• encouraged trade and industry
• allowed freedom of religion within the Empire

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End of the Mauryan Empire

• Asoka dies in 232 BCE Maurayan Empire starts to
  decline
• 185 BCE the last Mauryan Emperor is
  assassinated,
• Mauryan empire splits-up
• Intermediate Period (ca. 185 BCE 320 CE)
• India fragments into independent kingdoms (again)

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The Gupta Empire (ca. 320 550 CE) Indias
Golden Age
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Establishment

• Much smaller territory than Mauryan
• Famous Emperors
• Chandra Gupta I
• (r. 320 335 CE) first Gupta Emperor, united
  several kingdoms
• Chandra Gupta II (r. 375-
• 415 CE) Emperor during the height

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Government/Economic Organization

• Emperor ruled from the capital (Pataliputra)
• . Emperors revenues generated from taxes from
  provinces
• monopolistic control over salt and minerals
• Empire divided into
• provinces each ruled by a royal governor
• . governed loosely, as long as they paid

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• Culture
• Hinduism official religion (religious freedom
  allowed)
• Arts (especially Hindu-related) - flourished
• Literature written in Sanskrit
• Architecture and Sculpture (many temples)
  especially in the form of Hindu

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New Technologies/Developments

• Medicine Inoculation, basic surgery
• Mathematics base 10 number system
• Develop concepts of zero and infinity

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Decline in the status of women

• arranged marriages become common
• high respect, but little power for women
• End of the Gupta Empire caused by invasions by
  the Huns