Transcript Ch. 3 India & China Section Two: New Empires in India

Ch. 3 India & China
Section Two: New
Empires in India
I. The Mauryan Dynasty
• 400 B.C. Persia threatened
the Dynasty
• Alexander the Great invaded
in 327 B.C.
A. The Founding of the
Mauryan Dynasty
• Chandragupta Maurya 324 to
301 B.C.
• Highly centralized & impartial
power
• Provinces, ruled by governors
B. The Reign of Asoka
• Asoka, grandson of
Chandragupta Maurya
• *Asoka is considered the
greatest ruler in the history
of India
• Converted to Buddhism
II. The Kushan Kingdom &
the Silk Road
• 100 B.C. founded by nomadic
warriors, in Afghanistan
• Prospered on trade
• Silk Road – a route between the
Roman Empire & China, so called
because silk was China’s most
valuable product (p. 83)
The Kushan Kingdom & the
Silk Road
• Stretched from the city of
Changan in China to Antioch
a port city in Syria on the
Mediterranean Sea
III. The Kingdom of the
Guptas
• Chandragupta & son
Samudragupta
• Dominate political force in
northern India
The Kingdom of the Guptas
• Faxian, a Chinese Buddhist monk
spent years in northern India
• The Gupta Empire actively engaged
in trade with China, Southeast Asia
& the Mediterranean
• Mines of gold, silver
Caves
Prince Gautama
The Kingdom of the Guptas
• Profited from religious trade
• Pilgrim – a person who
travels to a shrine or other
holy place (p.85)
th
• Invaded by the Huns in 5
century A.D.
IV. The World of Indian
Culture
• Literature, architecture and
Science
A. Literature: A Lasting
Legacy
• Vedas, earliest known Indian
literature
• Epic poems: Mahabharata &
Ramayana
• Recount deeds of great
warriors
Literature: A Lasting Legacy
• Most famous poem, Bhagavad
Gita
• The Ramayana was an account
of the fictional ruler Rama
• Kalidasa most famous Indian
author
• The Cloud Messenger
B. Architecture
• The pillar, marked sites
pertinent to the Buddha’s life
• The stupa, burial mounds &
held relics
• The rock chamber, carved out
of mountainsides
stupa
http://www.sudarshanaloka.org/images/stupa2.JPG
http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/000aa/000aab23.jpg
C. Science
• Astronomy
• Aryabhata, the most famous
mathematician
• *Created Algebra
• Devised a decimal system of
counting in tens
• Introduced the concept of zero