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Iran and India Before Islam
The Parthian Dynasty (247 BC 223 AD)
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Rises in the East of Iran
Long, Endless Wars with Rome
Zorastrians
War with Rome eventually allowed their
vassals to overthrow them.
The Sasanid Empire (224-651
AD)
The Sassanid Empire (224-651
AD)
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Persian in Ancestry
Intolerant Nationalists
Endless Wars with Byzantium
Extended Family is Base Unit
Elite Classes: Priests, Warriors, Scribes
Common Folk
Agriculture Based Economy
Sassanid Religion
• Zorastrian Revival
– Chief Priest (Mobar) Tosar, 225-239 AD
– The Avesta canon compiled
– Mobar Kartir (239-293 AD) -- Convertor of
Other Faiths
Manicheanism
Manicheanism
• Mani (216-77 AD)
– Dualistic Religion
• Ahura-Mazda vs. Ahriman
– Claimed to be root of Christianity,
Zorastrianism, and Buddhism
– Called his system “Justice”
– Executed by Mobar Kartir
– Saint Augustine originally a Manichean!
Later Zorastrianism
• Orthodoxy Survives
• The Teachings of Mazdak (5th-6th century)
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Denounced Material Wealth
Asceticism and Social Justice
Wealth Redistribution
Slaughtered by Choroses Anosharvan
The Gupta Dynasty
The Gupta Empire (320-550 AD)
• Classical Age of India = Han China,
Augustan Rome, or Periclean Greece
• Chandragupta (320-30 AD)
• Samudragupta (330-375 AD)
• Chandragupta II (375-415 AD)
• Controls North and Western India
• Vassal Kings
• Huns: 500 AD, Weakens Empire
Gupta Culture
• Cultural Contacts with Eastern / Southeast
Asia
• Architecture, Painting, Literature Flourish
• Age of Kalidasa, the ‘Shakespeare of
Sanskrit’ (Unclear time, must be before 634
AD)
Gupta Inventions
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Chess
The concept of 0
‘Arabic Numerals’ (Our modern numbers)
Medical Science--drugs, bone setting,
caesarian sections, skin grafting.
• The Kama Sutra
The Development of “Classical”
Traditions in Indian Civilization
(300-1000 AD)
• Solidification of the Caste System: The
Dharmashastra of Manu (200 AD)
– Varna (class) system
– Dharma determines duties by class
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Brahmin (Priest)
Kshatriya (Warrior)
Vaishya (Tradesperson)
Shudra (Servant)
Outcastes
The Caste System (II)
• Jatis--Divisions within a Varna
– Hereditary
– commensality (one may only eat with people of
the same or a higher group)
– endogamy (one may only marry members of
the same group)
– trade/craft limitations (one may only practice
one's group's trade).
– Foreigners assimilated by designating Jati for
them.
Hindu Religious Life
• Rise of Single Diety Cults
• Bhakti--Loving Devotion
– Meditation --> Devotion to a God
– Bhakti inside is achieved by practice of Bhakti
outside
– Rise of devotional purity and the Puranas
– Gods manifest at many levels of reality
Buddhism
• Mahayana (Greater Vehicle)--1st century
BC
• Compassion is stressed
• Goal to become a Boddhisatva
• Salvation through dedication to
Boddhisatvas
• Amida Buddha, Master of the Pure Land
Buddhism II
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Therevada (“Way of the Elders”)
Focused on Monasticism
Laity earn merit by supporting monks
Monks contemplate and study Buddhist
scripture and meditate
• Ceylon, Burma, Southeast Asia