My Science School

          The Pandyas, Cheras and Cholas, three ancient Tamil dynasties ruled the south of India for a long period of time.

          The Pandyas were one of the longest ruling dynasties in the history of India; they occupied the southernmost part of the peninsula and ruled the Tamil country from pre-historic times until the end of the 15th century.

          The Cholas lived to the north-east of the Pandyas. Positioned between Pennar and Velar rivers, the Chola land was fertile. Though their capital was Uraiyur, it was shifted to Puhar (Kaveripattanam) later.

          The Cheras lived in the south-west of Tamil Nadu, in present-day Kerala. The Chera kingdom was renowned for buffaloes, jack-fruit, pepper and turmeric. The Chera rule belongs to two different time-periods-the Sangam Age and post 9th century AD. These three dynasties were constantly at war with each other.

Picture Credit : Google

 

          The kingdoms that emerged after the decline of the Mauryas were not as mighty as them. The Mauryas were succeeded by the Shungas; Pushyamitra Shunga killed the last Mauryan king Brihadrata around 189 BC to establish his kingdom. Apart from Pushyamitra Shunga, there were nine other Shunga kings who ruled over Magadha and the Gangetic valley.

          The Shunga rule came to an end when Vasudeva of the Kanva dynasty overthrew the last Shunga ruler. He was followed by four other Kanva kings who ruled from Magadha. Kalinga became an independent kingdom after Ashoka’s reign, around the first century BC. Kharavela was the most famous among the Kalinga kings. He made rock-caves for the Jain monks in the hills of Orissa.

Picture Credit : Google

 

 

          Gandhara Art, the Buddhist visual art in which images were carved in a realistic Greco-Roman style with graceful bodies and curly hair, developed during the Kushana reign. Buddhist and Jaina sculptures of a different style were produced in Mathura too. These Buddha, statues were made of red sand-stone and looked fatter and happier. Many stupas too were built in this era.

          Literature flourished during the Kushana reign. Ashvaghosha was an important writer who belongs to this period who wrote Buddhacharita, a biography of Buddha. Mahayana Buddhist texts including the Mahavastu and the Divyavadana were also scripted around the same time. Jatakas or stories about the Buddha’s previous births too were written around this time.

          Astronomy, astrology and medicine were other fields that progressed during the Kushana rule. Charaka and Sushruta, two notable Ayurvedic practitioners wrote on numerous plants and herbs that were used in the treatment of diseases.

Picture Credit : Google

 

          The Kushanas were a branch of the Yueh-Chih tribe who ruled over north India from about AD 50 to 300. They were spread across Afghanistan to the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent at least till Varanasi.

          Kujula, the first known Kushana king defeated the Parthians and occupied Kabul around AD 50. Kadphises II, who called himself Lord of the World, succeeded Kujula and conquered parts of north India.

          Kanishka was the most famous among the Kushana kings. His territory spanned from the north-west over most of the Gangetic valley and had two capitals Purushapura (Peshawar) in present-day Pakistan and Mathura. He even tried to expand his territory to China. Emperor Kanishka was a great patron of Buddhism and was instrumental in the establishment of the Buddhist way of life in the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and China.

          Though their territories slowly grew smaller, the Kushana rule continued for another 150 years until they were finally overpowered by the Sassanians in the north-west and the Guptas in the north.

Picture Credit : Google

          The Shakas or Scythians were nomadic tribes of central Asia who over-threw the Greeks to establish their kingdom in Bactria. They moved to the Indian subcontinent as a result of the attack by the Yueh-Chih tribe of the Gansu province of northwestern China.

          Different parts of India were under the control of Shakas. Maues or Moga was the first Shaka king to establish a kingdom around Taxila, in 80 BC. It was his successor, Azes who attacked Hippostratos, the last of the Greek kings in northern India.

          Rudradaman I, who ruled over Gujarat, the Konkan, the Narmada valley, Malwa and Kathiawar is unarguably the most important Shaka king. He is credited with the repairing of Sudarshana Lake, built by the Mauryas, to irrigate the dry region of Saurashtra.

          The Shaka kingdom was divided into provinces, each headed by a military governor called mahakshatrapa. These provinces were further sub-divided into units that came under the control of lesser governors. The mahakshatrapas were vested with the power to issue their own inscriptions and mint their own coins.

Picture Credit : Google

 

          While the Mauryans perished, many other kingdoms flourished; the north-west was under the control of Indo-Greeks, Scythians and Parthians while Kalinga became an independent kingdom. The Shungas, followed by the Kanvas ruled Magadha and the Gangetic valley and the Shakas ruled Gujarat.

          Around 200 BC, Demetrios, the Bactrian Greek king, moved towards India. Around the same time, the Scythians who were Eurasian nomads, began invading India. North-west India did not have a powerful ruler after the decline of the Mauryan Empire. Therefore, it was easy for the lndo-Greek invaders including Menander and Demetrios to establish their kingdoms, as far as Uttar Pradesh. But these kings did not rule for long.

          Menander was the most famous among the lndo-Greek rulers. A description from the book Milinda Panha or The Questions of Menander indicates that his capital at Sakala -in present-day Pakistan- was full of parks, gardens, tanks, beautiful buildings, well laid out streets and strong walls.

Picture Credit : Google

 

          We know about, life during the Mauryan rule through the accounts Of Chanakya and Megasthenes. People lived in cities and villages. Agriculture was the main source of livelihood. A lot of artisans thrived during this period.

          Also, there were traders and merchants who sold their goods to far-off lands and even overseas. Soldiers defended the kingdom while philosophers and religious practitioners sought the truth of life and death.

          The Mauryans had contact with different regions of the world including Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Egypt, Syria and Macedonia. Ring wells and stupas were common during this period, the most famous stupa being the Sanchi Stupa in Madhya Pradesh.

          Punch-marked coins, silver coins stamped with different symbols like the sun, elephants, snakes, and trees, dogs catching hares, rabbits and mushrooms were also widespread.

          There are hundreds of other symbols. They may have been signs of particular kings, or may have indicated groups of merchants and artisans.

          The Mauryan Empire had set exemplary standards in administration as well.

Picture Credit : Google

 

          After the war with Kalinga, Ashoka found himself busy with the mission of eradicating sorrow from his land. He called himself Devanam priya priyadarsin, or the beloved of the gods, the one dear to be-hold. His policy of Dharma was carved onto rock pillars and the rest of his life was devoted to charity. He had trees planted, wells dug, and hospitals built for humans and animals. He also made sure that parents were honoured and received respectful treatment from their children.

          He made sure that animals were not killed unnecessarily and banned the killing of animals for meat. He also made a long list of animals, birds and fish which were never to be killed; the list included animals with young ones, squirrels, monkeys, boneless fish, and the queen ant. Ashoka appointed officials, known as Dhamma Mahamattas, to see that all this was done.

Picture Credit : Google

 

          Up until the war with Kalinga, Ashoka was quite a bloodthirsty king, with a fierce urge to conquer the world. The battle- fields of Kalinga changed Ashoka’s life; a power-hungry king who believed in the mantra of ‘conquer and rule’ became a follower of Buddha, who firmly believed in the ultimate victory of Dharma.

          Kalinga was an independent kingdom in present-day Orissa and lay in the path of many important trade routes. It was not difficult for a ruler like Ashoka to conquer Kalinga. Once the war ended, Ashoka ventured out to roam around the countryside. Though he expected to see glory around, all he could find were burnt houses and scattered corpses. The inscription on his thirteenth rock edict says, ‘One hundred and fifty thousand people were captured, one hundred thousand were killed and many times that number perished’.

          The war of Kalinga transformed him. The vengeful king became a stable and peaceful emperor. Realizing that the real conquest was the conquest of the heart, he became a patron of Buddhism.

Picture Credit : Google

 

          During Ashoka’s reign, the Mauryan Empire stretched across present-day Afghanistan in the west to Bangladesh in the east. With its capital in Pataliputra, his empire had provincial capitals at Taxila and Ujjain during his rule from 268 to 232 BC. There was not a similarly large empire, so majestic in the Indian subcontinent again until the medieval period. The grandson of the founder of the Maurya dynasty, Ashoka the Great is considered by many to be one of India’s greatest emperors.

          King Ashoka wanted his words to be remembered and known for as long as the sun and the moon existed. Therefore, his words were engraved on rock pillars. We know a lot about Ashoka from these edicts, found across present-day Afghanistan in the north-west, to Karnataka in the south. Ashoka wanted the common man to understand these inscriptions, so they were written in Pali, rather than Sanskrit.

          Ashoka died in 232 BC and just fifty years after his death, the last Maurya ruler, Brihadratha, was assassinated.

Picture Credit : Google

 

          After Chandragupta Maurya’s death, Bindusara ascended the throne of the Mauryan Empire in 297 BC. His fancy name made way to a lot of legends. A popular one is as follows:

          His mother was poisoned before he was born, so the unborn child was placed in the womb of a goat. When he was born, his body was covered with spots and hence the name Bindusara, the spotted one. Among the Greeks, Bindusara was known as Amitrochates. This Greek-sounding name came from the Sanskrit ‘Amitra-ghata’ which meant the slayer of foes’.

          Unlike his father Chandragupta or son Ashoka, Bindusara’s life has not been well documented, and most of what we know about him comes from legends. He is said to have conquered parts of south India. The works of early Tamil poets tell us about Mauryan chariots with white flags racing across their land.

          He preferred the Ajivika philosophy over Jainism; the Ajivikas were considered atheists then.

Picture Credit : Google

 

          Chanakya, a pioneer in politics is known for his work Arthashastra. The Sanskrit word Arthashastra means the science of material gain, but the accepted translations of the title include ‘Science of Politics’ or ‘Science of Political Economy’.

          Composed between the 2nd and 3rd century AD, Arthashastra sums up Chanakya’s political thought and the text had great influence on governance. The book held explanations about various ideas to run an effective government, such as the nature of government, law, civil and criminal court systems, ethics, economics, markets and trade, the methods for screening ministers, diplomacy, theories on war, nature of peace, and the duties and obligations of a king.

          Arthashastra disappeared in the 12th century and was re-discovered in 1905. The re-discovered edition dates back to approximately AD 250, which is many centuries after Chanakya, but the main ideas remain the same.

Picture Credit : Google

          Chanakya, also known as Kautilya, served as the chief advisor to both Emperors Chandragupta and his son Bindusara. Much of what we know about Chanakya comes from semi-legendary accounts. A popular Buddhist version of Chanakya and his revenge towards the Nanda kings goes like this:

          Chanakya, who was well-versed in the three Vedas and politics, had canine teeth as a child. Canine teeth were believed to be a mark of royalty, which he broke off to pacify his mother’s anxiety. She feared that he would neglect her after becoming a king. He already had crooked feet and his broken teeth further marred his appearance. One day, during a ceremony, king Dhanananda ordered him to be thrown out as he was disgusted by Chanakya’s ugly appearance.

          An angered Chanakya then broke his sacred thread and cursed the king. He later spotted Chandragupta among a group of children and trained him to become a powerful king to seek revenge.

Picture Credit : Google

 

 

 

          Dhanananda, the last Nanda ruler was overthrown by Chandragupta Maurya in 321 BC. He did this with the help of Chanakya, his friend and later his minister, and established the Mauryan Empire. Dhanananda’s capital was at Pataliputra then. Chandragupta decided to conquer the outskirts of Dhanananda’s kingdom first. For this, he took over the north-west, abandoned by Alexander and finally occupied Pataliputra with careful planning.

          Spanning over 5 million square kilometres, the Mauryan Empire was the largest political entity to have existed in the Indian subcontinent. Chandragupta was a powerful ruler known for expanding his kingdom. He fought Seleukos Nikator, a general of Alexander. Chandragupta won the battle following which he took over many parts of Afghanistan.

          According to the Buddhist stories, Chandragupta is said to have come from an ordinary family, from a land full of peacocks and hence, the name Maurya. Though it had great rulers like Ashoka, the Mauryan Empire dissolved in 185 BC, with the foundation of the Shunga dynasty in Magadha.

Picture Credit : Google

 

          We all know that an empire is a large kingdom ruled by an emperor, but who first formed an empire in India? From what we know from the recorded histories, the Nandas were the first kings to form an empire in India. They assumed power, replacing the Sisunaga dynasty in Magadha. Magadha was under the powerful rule of the Nandas from 360 BC, prior to the Mauryas.

          According to the Puranas, there were nine Nanda kings- a father and eight sons. The first Nanda king to rule over the large empire was Mahapadma. He had a huge army with 60,000 cavalrymen and 6000 war elephants.

          The Nandas ruled almost all parts of India for a century. They are credited with implementing a more centralized administration; they introduced a new currency and taxation system and that is probably how they amassed great wealth. From the ancient texts, it is also known that the Nandas were unpopular and disliked by their subjects because of their low rank in the caste structure, excessive taxation, and their general misconduct.