Archaeologically the sixth century B.C. marks the beginning of the NBPW phase.
The abbreviation NBPW stands for Northern Black Polished Ware, which was a very glossy, shining type of pottery.
This pottery was made of very fine fabric and apparently served as the tableware of rich.
The use of burnt bricks and ringwells appeard in the middle of the third century B.C.
The NBPW phase marked the beginning of the second urbanization in India.
With the appearance of towns in the middle Gangetic basin in the fifth century B.C., a second urbanization began in India. Many towns mentioned in the Pali and Sanskrit texts.
Saddalaputta at Vaishali had 500 potters shops. Both artisans and merchants were organized into guilds under their respective headmen.
Specializations in crafts developed on account of the guild system as well as localization.
Generally crafts were hereditary, and the son learned his family trade from the father.
Trade was facilitated by the use of money. The terms nishka and satamana in the Vedic texts are taken to be names of coins.
Coins actually found are not earlier than the sixth-fifth century B.C.
It seems that in Vedic times exchange was carried on through means of barter, and sometimes cattle served the purpose of currency.
Coins made of metal appear first in the age of Gautama Buddha.
The earliest are made largely of silver though a few coppers also appear.
They are called punch-marked coins because pieces of these metals were punched with certain marks such as hill, tree, fish, bull, elephant, crescent, etc.
After the end of the Harappa culture, writing probably started a couple of centuries before Ashoka. The earliest records have perished probably because they were not written on stone and metal.
The period produced texts dealing with sophisticated measurement (Sulvasutras), which presuppose writing and which may have helped the demarcation of fields and houses.
Rich peasants were called gahapatis (Pali terms).
Iron played a crucial role in opening the rainfed forested, hard-soil area of the middle Ganga basin to clearance, cultivation and settlement.
It was an economy which provided subsistence not only to direct producers but also to many others who were not farmers or artisans.
This made possible collection of taxes and maintenance of armies on a long term bais. and created conditions in which large territorial states could be formed and sustained.
Administrative System
Koshala and Magadha emerged as powerful states in this period.
The Maurya dynasty was founded by Chandragupta Maurya.
An earlier Buddhist tradition speaks of the existence of a kshatriya clan called Mauryas living in the region of Gorakhpur adjoining the Nepalese terai.
With the help of Chanakya, who is known as Kautilya, Chandragupta overthrew the Nandas and established the rule of the Maurya dynasty.
The machinations of Chanakya against Chandragupta's enemies are described in detail in the Mudrarakshasa, a drama written by Vishakhadatta in the ninth century.
Justin, a Greek writer, says that Chandragupta overran the whole of India with an army of 6,00,000.
Chandragupta liberated north-western India from the thralldom of Seleucus.
In the war with the Greek viceroy, Chandragupta seems to have come out victorious.
Eventually peace was concluded between the two, and in return for 500 elephants Seleucus gave him eastern Afghanistan, Baluchistan and the area west of the Indus.
Imperial Organization
We know about it from the account of Megasthenes and the Arthashastra of Kautilya. Megasthenes was a Greek ambassador.
He was sent by Seleucus to the court of Chandragupta Maurya.
He lived in the Maurya capital of Pataliputra and wrote an account not only of the administration of the city of Pataliputra but also of the Maurya empire as a whole.
The account of Megasthenes does not survive in full, but quotations occur in the works of several subsequent Greek writers.
These fragments have been collected and published in the form of a book called Indika throws valuable light on the administration, society and economy of Maurya times.
Chandragupta Maurya was an autocrat who concentrated all power in his hands.
If we believe in a statement of the Arthashastra, the king had set a high ideal.
He stated that in the happiness of his subjects lay his happiness and in their troubles lay his troubles.
According to Megasthenes the king was assisted by a council whose members were noted for wisdom.
The empire was divided into a number of provinces, and each province was placed under a prince who was a scion of the royal dynasty.
The administration of Pataliputra was carried on by six committees each committee consisting of five members.
The central government maintained about two dozen departments of the state, the most striking feature of Chandragupta's administration is the maintenance of a huge army.
The administration of the armed forces, according to Megasthenes, was carried on by a board of 30 officers divided into six committees, each committee consisting of five members.
The first to invade India were the Greeks, who are called the Indo-Greeks or Bactrian Greeks. In the beginning of the second century B.C. the Indo-Greeks occupied a large part of north-western India.
The most famous Indo-Greek ruler was Menander or Milinda (165-145 B.C.).
He had his capital at Sakala in Punjab; and he invaded the Ganga-Yamuna doab.
He was converted to Buddhism by Nagasena, who is also known as Nagarjuna.
Menander asked Nagasena many questions relating to Buddhism.
These questions and Nagasena's answers were recorded in the form of a book known as Milinda Panho or the Question of Milinda.
The Indo-Greek rule is important in the history of India because of the large number coins which the Greeks issued. The Indo-Greeks were the first rulers in India to issue coins which can be definitely attributed to the kings.
The Indo-Greeks were the first to issue gold coins in India. The Greek rule introduce features of Hellenistic art in the north-west frontier of India.
This art was not purely Greek. It was the outcome of the Greek contact with non-Greek conquered peoples after Alexanders death. Gandhara art was its best exampi in India.
The Shakas
The Greek were followed by the Shakas. There were five branches of the Shakas with their seats of power in different parts of India and Afghanistan.
First Branch - Afghanistan, Second Branch - Punjab (Capital - Taxila), Third Brand Mathura, Fourth Branch - Western India and Fifth Branch - Upper Deccan.
In about 57-58 B.C. a king of Ujjain fought against the Shakes and succeeded in drivi) them out in his time. He called himself
An era called the vikrama Samvat is reckoned from the event of his victory over Shakas in 57 B.C. From this time onwards, Vikramaditya became a coveted title. Whoever achieved anything great adopted this title just as the Roman emperors adop the title of Caesar in order to emphasize their great power
As a result of this practice we have as many as 14 Vikramadityas in Indian history.Chandragupta-n was the most famous Vikramaditya,
The Shaka benefited from the seaborne trade in Gujarat and issued large number of silver coins. The most famous Shaka ruler in India was Rudradaman-1 (A.D. 130-150)1 he is famous in history because of the repairs he undertook to improve the Sudarshana in the semi-arid zone of Kathiawar.
The Sudarshana (beautiful) lake in Gujarat
The Sudarshana lake was an artificial reservoir. We know about it from a rock inscription in Sanskrit, composed to record the achievements of Rudradaman.
The inscription mentions that the lake, with more...
The most important of the native successors of the Mauryas in the north were the Shungas followed by the Kanvas. In Deccan and in central India, the Satavahanas succeeded the Mauryas although after a gap of about 100 years.
The Satavahanas are considered to be identical with the Andhras who are mentioned in the Puranas. The Puranas speak only of the Andhra rule and not of the Satavahana rule. On the other hand the name Andhra does not occur in Satavahana inscriptions.
According to some Puranas, altogether the Andhras ruled for 300 years and this period is assigned to the rule of the Satavahana dynasty.
The earliest inscriptions of the Satavahanas belong to the first century B.C., when they defeated the Kanvas and established their power in parts of central India.
The early Satavahana kings appeared not in Andhra, but in north Maharashtra where their earliest coins and inscriptions have been found.
They set up their power in the upper Godavari valley.
Gradually the Satavahanas extended their power over Kamataka and Andhra,
Gautamiputra Satakarni (A.D. 106-130) called himself the only brahmana.
He defeated the Shakas and destroyed many Kshatriya rulers. He claims to have destroyed the Kshaharata lineage to which his adversary Nahapana belonged.
This claim is true because more than 8000 silver coins of Nahapana, found near Nasik, bear marks of being restmck by the Satavahana king.
The coins and inscriptions of Gautamiputra's immediate successor Vashishthiputra Pulumayi (A.D. 130-154) are found in Andhra.
He set up his capital at Paithan on the Godavari in Aurangabad district.
Rudradaman I (A.D. 130-150), the Shaka ruler of Saurashtra (Kathiawar), defeated the Satavahanas twice, but did not destroy them on account of matrimonial relations.
Yajna Sri Satakarni recovered north Konkan and Malwa from the Shaka rulers.
He was a lover of trade and navigation. His coins have been found not only in Andhra but also in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. His love for navigation and overseas trade is shown by the representation of a ship on his coins.
Aspects of Material Culture
The material culture of the Deccan under the Satavahanas was a fusion of local elements and northern ingredients. The megalith builders of the Deccan were fairly acquainted with the use of iron and agriculture.
At a site in ICarimnagar district even a blacksmith^ shop has been discovered.
The Satavahanas may have exploited the iron workings as early as the megalithic phases have been found.
Evidence of ancient gold workings has been found in the Kolar fields in the pre-Christian centuries and later.
Kaveri delta was inhabited by people who are called megalith builders. They are known not from their actual settlements which are rare, but from their graves.
These graves are called megaliths because they were encircled by big pieces of stone.
They contain skeletons, pottery and iron objects of people who were buried there.
The practice of burying goods in the graves with the dead bodies was based on the belief that the dead would need all these in the next world.
Tridents have also been found in the megaliths.
However, compared to the number of agricultural tools that were buried, those meant for fighting and hunting are large in number.
The megaliths are found in all upland areas of the peninsula, but their concentration seems to be in eastern Andhra and in Tamil Nadu.
The beginnings of the megahthic culture can be traced to circa 1000 B.C.
The Cholas, Pandyas and Keralaputras (Cheras) mentioned in Ashokan inscriptions were probably in the late megalithic phase of material culture.
State Formation and Rise of Civilization
The cultural and economic contacts between the north and the deep South is known as Tamizhakam. The route to the south was called the Dakshinapatha.
The Pandya country was known to Megasthenes who lived in Pataliputra.
The earlier Sangam texts are familiar with the rivers Ganga and Son and also with Pataliputra which was the capital of the Magadhan empire.
The Ashokan inscriptions mention the Cholas, Pandyas, Keralaputras and Satyaputras living on the borders of the empire; of these only the Satyaputras are not clearly identified. Tamrapamis or the people of Sri Lanka are also mentioned.
These southern kingdom would not have developed without the spread of iron technology which promoted forest clearing and plough cultivation.
Flourishing trade with the Roman Empire contributed to the formation of thethree states respectively under the Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas.
From the first century A.D. onwards the rulers of these peoples derived benefit from the exports and imports that went on between the coastal parts of south India on the one hand and the eastern dominions of the Roman empire, especially Egypt, on the other.
Three Early Kingdoms
The southern end of the Indian peninsula situated south of the Krishna R0iver was divided into three kingdoms - Chola, Pandya and Chera.
The Pandyas are first mentioned by Megasthenes, who says that their kingdom celebrated for pearls.
The Age of the Shakas, Kushans, Satavahanas (200 B.C.-A.D. 300) and the first Tamil states was the most flourishing period in the history of crafts and commerce in ancient India. Arts and crafts witnessed a remarkable growth.
The Digha Nikaya, which belongs to pre-Maurya times, mentions nearly two dozen occupations, but the Mahavastu, which belongs to this period, catalogues 36 kinds of workers living in the town of Rajgir.
The Milinda Panho or the Questions of Milinda enumerates as many as 75 occupations, 60 of which are connected with various kinds of crafts.
In a village settlement in Karimnagar in Telangana, carpenters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, potters, etc. lived in separate quarters. Cloth-making, silk-weaving and the making of arms and luxury articles also made progress.
Mathura was a great centre for the manufacture of a special type of cloth which was called shataka. Dyeing was a thriving craft in some south Indian towns.
It was about the beginning of the Christian era that the knowledge of glass-blowing reached India and attained its peak. Coin-minting was an important craft, and the period is noted for numerous types of coins made of gold, silver, copper, bronze, lead and potin.
Yetleshwaram in Nalgonda district, where we find the largest number of terracottas and the moulds in which they were manufactured.
Artisans were organised into guilds which were called shrenis.
Artisans of this period were organized into at least two dozen guilds. Most artisans known from inscriptions were confined to the Mathura region.
The most important economic development of the period was the thriving trade between India and the eastern Roman empire.
Since the first century A.D. trade was carried on mainly by sea,therefore, it seems that around the beginning of the Christian era the monsoon was discovered.
So the sailors now could sail in much less time directly from the eastern coast of the Arabian Sea to the western coast
They could call easily at the various ports such as Broach and Sopara situated on the western coast of India, and Arikamedu and Tamralipti situated on its eastern coast
Of all these ports. Broach seems to have been the most important and flourishing.
Foreign Trade
Although the volume of trade between India and Rome seems to have been large, it was not carried on it articles of daily use for the commerce people there was a brick commerce in in luxury goods.
The Romans mainly imported spices for which south India was famous.
They imported muslin, pearls, jewels, and precious stones from central and south India.
Iron goods, especially cutlery, formed an important more...
On the ruins of the Kushan empire arose a new empire. This was the empire of the Guptas, who may have been of vaishya origin.
Although the Gupta empire was not as large as the Maurya empire, it kept north India politically united for more than a century from A.D. 335 to 455.
The original kingdom of the Guptas comprised Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The Guptas were possibly the feudatories of the Kushans in Uttar Pradesh.
The centre of their operations lay in the fertile land ofMadhyadesha covering Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Chandragupta I (A.D. 319-334)
The first important king of the Gupta dynasty was Chandragupta I.
He married a Lichchhavi princess which strengthened his position.
The Guptas were possibly vaishyas, and hence marriage in a kshatriya family gave them prestige. He started the Gupta era in A.D. 319-20, which marked the date of his accession. Later many inscriptions came to be dated in the Gupta era.
Samudragupta (A.D. 335-380)
The Gupta kingdom was enlarged enormously by Chandragupta-Fs son and successor Samudragupta (A.D. 335-380).
He was the opposite of Ashoka. Ashoka believed in a policy of peace and non-aggression, but Samudragupta delighted in violence and conquest.
His court poet Harishena wrote a glowing account of the military exploits of his patron.
In a long inscription the poet enumerates the peoples and countries that were conquered of Samudragupta. The inscription is engraved at Allahabad on the same pillar which carries the inscriptions of the peace-loving Ashoka.
The places and the countries conquered by Samudragupta can be divided into five groups.
Group one includes princes of the Ganga-Yamuna doab who were defeated and whose kingdoms were incorporated into the Gupta Empire.
Group two includes the rulers of the eastern Himalayan states and some frontier states such as princes of Nepal, Assam, Bengal etc., who were made to feel the weight of Samudragupta's arms. It also covers some republics of Punjab.
The republics, which flickered on the ruins of the Maurya empire, were finally destroyed by Samudragupta.
Group three includes the forest kingdoms situated in the Vindhya region and known as Atavika rajyas; they were brought under the control of Samudragupta.
Group four includes twelve rulers of the eastern Deccan and south India, who were conquered and iberated.
Samudragupta's arms reached as far as Kanchi in Tamil were compelled to recognize his suzerainty.
Group five includes the names of the Shakes and Kushans, some of them more...
In contrast to the Maurya rulers, the Gupta kings adopted pompous titles such as Parameshvara, Maharajadhiraja and Paramabhattaraka which signify that they ruled over lesser king in their empire.
Kingship was hereditary. The throne did not always go to the eldest son.
The Guptas made munificent gifts to the brahmanas, who expressed their gratitude by comparing the king to different gods.
King was looked upon as Vishnu, the protector and preserver. The goddess Lakshmi is represented invariably on the Gupta coins as the wife of Vishnu.
The king maintained a standing army, which was supplemented by the forces occasionally supplied by the feudatories.
Horse chariots receded into the background, and cavalry came to the forefront. Horse archery became prominent in military tactics.
Land taxes increased in number, and those on trade and commerce decreased.
Probably the king collected taxes varying from one-fourth to one-sixth of the produce.
In central and western India the villagers were also subjected to forced labour called vishti for serving the royal army and officials.
The judicial system was far more developed under the Guptas than in earlier times.
Several law books were compiled in this period.
For the first time civil and criminal law were clearly demarcated.
Theft and adultery came under criminal laws.
Disputes regarding various types of property came under civil law.
Elaborate laws were laid down about inheritance.
Like earlier times, many laws continued to be based on differences in vamas.
The guilds of artisans, merchants and others were governed by their own laws.
Seals from Vaishali and from Bhita near Allahabad indicate that these guilds flourished exceedingly well in Gupta times.
The Gupta bureaucracy was not as elaborate as that of the Mauryas.
The most important officers in the Gupta empire were the Kumaramatyas.
The Guptas organized a system of provincial and local administration.
The empire was divided into divisions (bhuktis), and each bhukti was placed under the charge of an uparika. The bhuktis were divided into vishayas which were placed under the charge of vishayapati.
The village headman became more important in Gupta times.
The seals from Vaishali show that artisans, merchants and scribe served on the same corporate body.
The administrative board of the district of Kotivarsha in north Bengal (Bangladesh) included his chief merchant, the chief trader and the chief artisan. Their consent to land transactions was considered necessary.
Artisans and bankers were organized into their own separate guilds. We hear of numerous guilds of artisans, traders, etc. at Bhita and Vaishali.
At Mandasor in Malwa and at Indore silk-weavers maintained their more...
Harshavardhana (A.D.606-647) was the king of Thanesar in Haryana.
He made Kanauj (in UP) the seat of his power.
By the seventh century Pataliputra fell on bad days and Kanauj came in the frontline.
Pataliputra owed its power and importance to trade and commerce.
But once trade declined, money became scarce and officers and soldiers began to be paid through land grants, the city lost its importance.
Power shifted to military camps (skandhavaras), and places of strategic importance, which dominated long stretches of land, acquired prominence.
To this class belonged Kanauj, situated in Farrukhabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
Its emergence as a centre of political power from Harsha onwards typifies the advent of the feudal age in north India.
Kanauj was situated on an elevated area which was easily fortifiable. Located right in the middle of the doab, it was well-fortified in the seventh century.
The early history of Harsha's reign is reconstructed from a study of Banabhatta, who was his court poet and who wrote a book called
This can be supplemented by the account of the Chinese pilgrim Hsuan Tsang, who visited India in the seventh century A.D. and stayed in the country for about 15 years.
Harsha's inscriptions speak of various types of taxes and officials.
Harsha is called the last great Hindu emperor of India.
In eastern India he faced opposition from the Shaivite king Shashanka of Gauda.
Shashanka had cut off the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya.
Harsha's southward march was stopped on the Narmada river by the Chalukyan king pulakeshin who ruled over a great part of modem Kanataka and Maharashtra with his capital at Badami in the modem Bijapur district of Kamataka.
Administration
Harsha governed his empire on the same lines as the Guptas did, except that his administration had become more feudal and decentralised.
Land grants continued to be made to priests for special services rendered to the state. In addition Harsha is credited with the grant of land to the officers by charters.
Hsuan Tsang inform us that the revenues of Harsha were divided into four parts.
One part was earmarked for the expenditure of the king, a second for scholars, a third for the endowment of officials and public servants, and a fourth for religious purposes.
He also tells us that ministers and high officers of the state were endowed with land.
In northern Maharashtra and Vidarbha (Berar) the satavahanas were succeeded by the Vakatakas, a local power.
The Vakatakas, who were brahmanas themselves are know from a large number copper-plate land grants issued to the branmanas.
They were great champions of the brahmarica1 religion and performed numerous vedic sacrifices.
Culturally the Vakataka kingdom became a channel for transmitting brahmanical ideas and social institutions to the south.
The Vakataka power was followed by that of the chalukyas of badami.
They were overthrown by their feudatories, the rashtrakutas.
The Chalukyas set up their kingdom towards the beginning of the sixth century A.D. in the western Deccan
They established their capital at Vatapi modern badami, in the district of bijapur, which forms a part of amataka.
On the ruins of the Satavahana power in the eastern part of the peninsula there arose the Ikshvakus in the Krishna-guntur region.
They started the practice of land grants in the Krishna Guntur region where several of their copper-plate inscriptions have been discovered.
The Ikshvakus were supplanted by the Pallavas.
The term pallava means creeper, and is a Sanskrit version of the Tamil word tondai, which also carries the same meaning.
In Tamil the word pallava is also a synonym of robber.
The authority of the Pallavas extended over both southern Andhra and northern tamil Nadu. They set up their apital at Kanchi identical with modern kanchipuram .
Kanchi became a town of temples and vedic learning under them.
The Kadambas had founded their rule in northern o Karnataka and Konkan in the fourth century. The Kadamba kingdom was founded by mayurasharman.
It is said that he came to receive education at Kanchi' but he was driven out unceremoniously.smarting under this insult the kadamba chief set up his camp in a forest, and defeated the Pallavas possibly with the help of the forest tribes.
Eventually the Pallavas avenged the defeat but recognized the Kadamba authority by formally investing mayurasharman with the royal insignia.
Mayurasharman is said to have performed eighteen ashvamedhas or horse sacrifices and granted numerous villages to brahmanas.
The kadamba established there capital at vaijayanti or banavasi in north kanara district in Karnataka.
The gangas were another important contemporary of the pallavas.
They set up there rule in southern Karnataka around the fourth century.
Their kingdom lay between that of the pallavas in the east and of the kadambas in the west. They are called western gangas or gangas of mysore in order to demarcate them from the eastern gangas who ruled in kalinga from the fifth century onwords.
