The Pratiharas were an Indian dynasty that ruled a large kingdom in northern India from the 6th to the 11th centuries. The branch of the Pratiharas who ruled in the Gujarat was the Gurjaras. The Pratihara dynasty began with the ruler Nagabhatta. The greatest Pratihara king was Bhoja, who succeeded in 836. After AD 1036, the dynasty gradually declined.
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The Khajuraho temples were constructed between AD 950 and 1050 by the Chandela Rajputs in what is today Madhya Pradesh. Khajuraho gets its name from the khajur, or date palm tree, which grows abundantly here.
Originally, there were eighty-five temples, of which only twenty-two still exist. The murals testify to the skill of the craftsmen, as well as to the vision of the Chandela Rajputs. A unique feature of the Khajuraho temples is that, contrary to custom, they are not enclosed within walls, but stand on a high terrace of solid masonry, soaring above their surroundings. The Khajuraho group of monuments has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Harsha was the ruler of a northern Indian empire that stretched from Magadha to Kashmir, Gujarat and Sindh. He became king in AD 606 when he was just sixteen, after defeating his enemies. Harsha was a gifted warrior and administrator, a sensitive poet and playwright. He became one of India’s most celebrated heroes. He is known through the works of the writer Bana, and of the Chinese pilgrim Hieun Tsang. Hieun Tsang visited the capital of Harsha’s kingdom, and describes it as a beautiful, well defended city of gardens and tanks. Its citizens appeared happy and prosperous.
However, Hieun Tsang also found that the older cities of Shravasti and Pataliputra were neglected. In AD 641, Harsha sent an envoy to the Chinese emperor, and established the first diplomatic relations between India and China.
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Two great epics in Tamil were written around the sixth century. They were Shilappadikaram and Manimekalai. The Tamil epic poem Shilappadikaram is one of the greatest classics of ancient Indian literature. It was written by Ilango Adigal, and is an enormously detailed book of the people of his time. The story is about a husband and wife, Kovalan and Kannaki, and KovaIan’s lover, Madhavi. It is a tale packed with myth, history, descriptions of city and country life and information about religious rites, the caste system, military lore and much more.
Manimekalai, written by Seethalai Saathanar, is another of the masterpieces of Tamil literature. It is a sequel to Shilappadikaram, and tells the story of the daughter of Kovalan and Madhavi.
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The Pallavas were a powerful tribe that ruled over an area called Thondaimandalam. When their capital Pallavapuri was washed away by the sea, they moved downwards to Kanchipuram. The Pallavas settled there and established a prosperous kingdom. This war-loving race became a powerful dynasty in the sixth century when Mahendravarman ascended the throne. He was a learned man, and he started work on the cave temples at Mahabalipuram. In fact, these famous shore temples and stone chariots are an important Pallava contribution to our architectural heritage. The Pallava kingdom was also called Tondainadu, for ‘Pallava’ is the Prakrit-Sanskrit word for Tondai or creeper. They ruled for five hundred years, and have left a permanent mark in the field of art and architecture.
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The Kadamba dynasty was an ancient royal dynasty of Karnataka that ruled from Banavasi in present day Uttara Kannada district. The dynasty was founded by Mayurasharma in AD 345. It is believed that he went to Kanchipuram to study the Vedas, but fought with a Pallava guard there, and left. In frustration, he went to war with the Pallavas, and conquered some of their territories.
One of his successors, Kakusthavarma, was a powerful ruler, and even the kings of the Gupta dynasty cultivated relationships with his family. One of the later descendants, king Shivakoti adopted Jainism after being tired of endless battles. The Kadambas have won a special place in history for being the first dynasty to use Kannada at the administrative level.
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The iron pillar located at Mehrauli village on the outskirts of Delhi has fascinated scientists and ordinary people for centuries. Scholars consider the pillar to be from the early Gupta period. It is a wonder that such a huge metallic object could be fashioned so many centuries ago.
However, most amazing is the fact that it has not rusted at all, despite being exposed to the sun, rain, and wind through all these ages. Chemical analyses have indicated that the pillar was astonishingly pure or low in carbon compared with modern commercial iron, and historians have termed it ‘The Rustless Wonder’.
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The lkshvakus were one of the earliest dynasties of Andhra Pradesh. They ruled the eastern territory along the Krishna River during the latter half of the second century. Their capital was Vijayapuri. Some scholars have suggested that this dynasty was related to the ancient lkshvakus of Hindu mythology. Lord Rama of the Ramayana, who is considered as the incarnation of Vishnu, belonged to the line of lkshvaku.
There is however no direct evidence to suggest that the Andhra lkshvakus were related to the mythological lkshvakus. Although the lkshvaku rulers practiced the Vedic religion, they were also great sponsors of Buddhism. Buddhism was at its height in the Andhra region during their reign.
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The Vakatakas were a dynasty that ruled parts of today’s Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh from the third century to the fifth century. They came into power after the decline of the Satavahanas, and ruled about the same time as the Guptas. The Vakatakas were Brahmins. The dynasty was founded by Vindhyasakti, who took his name from the goddess Vindhya, after whom the mountains were named.
The next ruler was Pravarasena 1 who called himself a ‘Samrat’ and conducted wars with the Naga kings. Since all the Vakataka kings were Brahmins, they gifted land to the Brahmins too. Their reign was noted for the encouragement they gave to arts and literature.
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Vikramashila University was one of the two most important centres of Buddhist learning in India, along with Nalanda University. King Dharmapala established Vikramashila mainly because there was a decline in the quality of scholarship at Nalanda.
Vikramashila University grew to become the intellectual centre for Tantric Buddhism. In the beginning of the 11th century AD, during the reign of King Ramapala, there were one hundred and sixty teachers and a thousand students in the university.
The entire campus was circular in structure. There were 53 rooms meant for tantric practice, another 54 for general use, and 17 monastic cells opening into the verandahs. The university was established primarily to spread Buddhism.
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Ancient India had some great centres of learning where people across the world came for learning. As we saw earlier, Taxila was one such university. Nalanda is the name of another ancient university in India. The name is a Sanskrit word that means ‘giver of knowledge’. It was founded in the 5th century by the Gupta emperors. The subjects taught at Nalanda University covered every field of learning.
A long succession of kings from the 5th to the 12th century extended their royal patronage to ensure the progress and prosperity of Nalanda. The university received royal patronage of the great emperor Harshvardhana of Kannauj. Foreign students were also attracted to this great centre of learning. During its heydays, it was a flourishing residential university with over ten thousand students, and fifteen hundred teachers. Hiuen Tsang, the Chinese pilgrim spent three years at Nalanda. It has been called one of the first great universities in recorded history.
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Aryabhatta was a great mathematician and astronomer, who lived during the Gupta period. At the age of twenty-three, he wrote his small, but famous work on astronomy, the Aryabhatiya. In it, he organized and combined the existing knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. Aryabhatta was the first astronomer to mention that day and night are caused by the rotation of the earth about its axis. He stated that the moon and planets shine by reflected sunlight, and that eclipses are caused by the shadows cast by the sun and the moon.
The other contributions that Aryabhatta made towards pure mathematics were his approximation of ‘pi’, and his sine tables. Aryabhatta’s name spread rapidly and disciples gathered from all over to see him. Among his most famous disciples were Bhaskara I, Sankaranarayana, Suryadeva, and Nilkantha.
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