History of Ancient India

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About the Book "Indian Cultural influence deeply permeated the soul of diverse races and enabled them in many cases, to emerge out of -primitive barbarism. India, thus radiated her cultural' influence across the mountains and seas, far. beyond the frontiers that nature set up for her, and played an iarger part in civilizing Asia than perhaps even Greece did in respect of Europe. This is what we mean by Greater India" Dr. R. C. Majumdar. Ancient Hindu religious law givers ordained that a person should not cross the seas; This would imply that India . shunned all relations with the outside world.

But this is not so, for India maintained contacts with its Asian neighbors since Harappan times. Indian traders went to the cities to Mesopotamia where their seals belonging to the period between 2400 B.C. and 1700 B. C. have been found. From the beginning of the Christian era India maintained commercial contacts with China, South East Asia, West Asia and the Roman Empire. We have seen how the Indian-land routes were connected with the Chinese Silk Route.

About the Author Braham Singh, M.A., B.Ed., (Meerut University) is a retired lecturer from Delhi. Having a long experience of teaching, he is deeply involved in promotion of education. His area of interest is mainly History and Political 'Science. He has written many articles in Magazines and journals of repute.

Currently he is fully devoted in the field of Political Science. H.C. Sharma, M.A., B.Ed., (Meerut University) is a lecturer by profession.

He has more than two decades experience in the field of teaching. He has visited many historical places, knowledge of different-different political cultures and attended many seminars. He contributed his ideas to magazines and journals of repute.

Preface "Indian Cultural influence deeply permeated the soul of diverse races and enabled them in many cases, to emerge out of primitive barbarism. India, thus radiated her cultural influence across the mountains and seas, far beyond the frontiers that nature set up for her, and played a larger part in civilizing Asia than perhaps even Greece did in respect of Europe. This is what we mean by Greater India" Dr. R. C. Majumdar. Ancient Hindu religious law givers ordained that a person should not cross the seas. This would imply that India shunned all relations with the outside world. But this is not so, for India maintained contacts with its Asian neighbors since Harappan times. Indian traders went to the cities to Mesopotamia where their seals belonging to the period between 2400 B.C. and 1700 B. C. have been found. From the beginning of the Christian era India maintained commercial contacts with China, South East Asia, West Asia and the Roman Empire. We have seen how the Indian land routes were connected with the Chinese Silk Route. India sent its missionaries, conquerors and traders to the neighboring countries where they founded settlements.

Present book is designed to highlight the Ancient Indian History in brief manner. The major topics dealt in this book are : Introduction of Ancient Culture and History; History of Harappan and Vedic Period; Later Vedic Period; Ancient Indian Republics; History of Mauryan Rule in India; Asoka's Rule in India; History of Post-Mauryan Time; History of Gupta Period; History of Southern Peninsula; History of Rajput Period; Chola's and Kingdoms of South; Invasions of Mahmud Gazni; Political Condition of India (1000-1200 A.D.); etc.

No doubt, these will serve the purpose of trainees and trainers, professionals and policy planners in the field. Since the sources of information are all secondary, we express our gratitude to the scholars whose works are cited or substantially made use of. We are thankful to all those who rendered ready help and cooperation while working on this project.

We express our gratitude to various scholars, teachers and friends for their assistance and guidance. Finally, we thank our publishers for bringing out this book in very limited time.

Introduction Culture and History

THE GEOGRAPHICAL features of every country are almost permanent and therefore, their impact on the history, culture and civilization of a country proves to be more or less abiding. So has been the case with India: The history, culture and civilization of India have been more or less permanently influenced by its geographical features and it would continue to be so unless basic structural changes are made in its economy.

One unique feature of Indian culture has been described as 'unity in diversity'. Its basic causes are the geographical features of India. India has been effectively cordoned off by mountains forests and seas from the other countries while within itself it has a compact territory. This has provided her a distinctive political and cultural unity as compared with the rest of the world. The common natural boundaries have fostered amongst Indians a sense of having common mother land. The Indians have always regarded the diversities of their culture as cultural diversities of the people of their own motherland. Vedic religion, numerous religious preachers, Sanskrit language, holy rivers and places of pilgrimage which are spread all over India and are universally respected by all Indians, and the acceptance of certain fundamental values of life by Indians have helped in providing cultural unity to India. The vision of political unity was also not known to Indians. Emperors like Asoka, Samudra Gupta, Alauddin Khilji, Akbar arid Aurangzeb tried to achieve political unity and succeeded partially. Of course, complete political unity of India could not be achieved till the dawn of the modern era even though this ideal as part of the political theory can be discerned throughout the long course of Indian history.

Besides, it has to be kept in mind that prior to the development of modern means of transport and communications, the idea of political unity was difficult, nay, Impossible to achieve within the vast territory of the Indian sub-continent.

However, the ideal and various attempts to achieve it have helped in providing India with a permanent sense of cultural unity.

But, there are wide diversities also in the fabric of Indian culture. In fact, even in modern times, Indian culture is a composite culture of different regional cultures. India is a vast country and before the advent of the modern means of communications and transport and thereby, lack of contact between the peoples of different regions, differences in patterns of thought and activity were natural. Even in modern times, there is diversity among Indian people with regard to their dresses, languages, customs, food-habits, folk-dances, manners, etc. This diversity of Indian culture is, again, largely because of the geographical factors.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages