Unit V

Unit Summary

The Gupta dynasty (280-550 CE) presided over a rich period of religious, socio-economic, educational, literary, and scientific development, including the base-ten numerical system and the concept of zero. The level of interaction in all aspects of life–commercial, cultural, religious–among peoples across various regions of the Indian subcontintent was intensive and widespread during this time period, much more so than in earlier periods. This helped produce a common Indic culture that unified the people of the subcontinent. Buddhist monasteries and Hindu temples and schools spread. Sanskrit became the principal literary language in many regions of the Indian subcontinent. Enduring contributions from the cultures of what is now modern India and other parts of South Asia to other areas of Afroeurasia include the cotton textile industry, the technology of crystalizing sugar, astronomical treatises, the practice of monasticism, the game of chess, and the art, architecture, and performing arts of the Classical Age. Students analyze maps of the extent of the Gupta Empire and visuals of its achievements in science, math, art (including Music such as Tabla and Dance such as katthak, bharatnatyam), architecture, and Sanskrit literature.

During and after the Gupta Empire, trade connections among India and the rest of South Asia and Southeast Asia facilitated the spread of Hindu and Buddhist ideas to Srivijaya, a large trading empire after 600, Java, and the Khmer Empire. In the Sites of Encounter in the Medieval World Lesson 6: Calicut, the “Indian and Southeast Asian Art” activity has students compare art and architecture from India and Southeast Asia. When students have compiled their evidence, the teacher asks them why they think Southeast Asian rulers would adopt religious ideas and artistic styles from Indian kingdoms. After they share their interpretations, the teacher points out that pre-modern rulers displayed their power through temples and that the architectural similarities among the temples are evidence of a shared culture of rulership in the region. Students are invited to make connections among types of influences they can identify in modern day culture. Students can also be invited to analyze change through compare and contrast—what is the same or different now re: how cultures influence and are influenced by other cultures. In addition to personal religious motives, Southeast Asian kings could build up their prestige and legitimacy by adopting the cultural, religious, and artistic styles of the powerful and prestigious Indian kingdoms and empires.

Buddhist missionaries and travelers carried Buddhism from the Indian subcontinent to Central Asia and then to China, as well as to Southeast Asia, during this period as well. At the same time, Christian and Muslim missionaries were also spreading their religions. As it moved outside of the Indian subcontinent and became a universal religion, Buddhism changed. In 600 BCE, Buddha was sage, a wise man; but by 300 CE, his followers were worshipping the Buddha as a god. Nirvana changed from “nothingness” or “extinction” to a kind of heaven for believers in the afterlife. Mahayana Buddhists also added the idea that there were bodhisattvas, divine souls who delayed entering nirvana to help others on earth. Either here, or in the China unit, students trace the journey of Xuanzang, who departed from China in 627 CE on pilgrimage to Buddhist holy sites in present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. He returned home with 527 boxes of Buddhist texts, which he devoted the rest of his life to translating. The building of monasteries along the Silk Road, at Dunhuang, Yungang and Bamiyan, helped transmit texts, people, and religious ideas through Central to East Asia.

After the fall of the Gupta Empire, the Indian subcontintent was divided into a number of regional states and kingdoms. The Chola Empire ruled over much of southern India and established maritime commercial trading networks throughout much of the Indian Ocean. The Chola are associated with significant artistic achievement that included the building of monumental Hindu temples and the creation of remarkable sculptures and bronzes.

Hinduism continued to evolve with the Bhakti movement, which emphasized personal expression of devotion to God, who had three aspects: Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the protector, and Siva, the transformer. The Bhakti movement placed emphasis on social and religious equality and a personal expression of devotion to God in the popular, vernacular languages. The Bhakti movement also critiqued the power held by priestly elites. People of all social groups now had personal access to their own personal deities, whom they could worship with songs, dances, processions, and temple visits. Bhakti grew more popular, thanks to saints such as Meera Bai and Ramananda. Even though India was not unified into one empire or religion, the entire area was developing a cultural unity.

After 1000 CE , Turks from Central Asia, who were recent converts to Islam, began to conquer new territory and expand their boundaries across the Indus Valley to parts of the northern Indian plains. Sometimes Turkish Muslim leaders forced Hindus to convert, but at other times rulers practiced religious toleration. The most powerful of these states was the Delhi Sultanate. Islam became firmly established politically in the north as well as in some coastal towns and parts of the Deccan Plateau, although the majority of the population of South Asia remained Hindu. There were continuous close trade relations and intellectual connections between the cultures of the Indian subcontinent and the Islamic World. As a concrete example of cultural transmission, the Gupta advances in astronomy and mathematics (particularly the numeral system which included a place value of ten) can be traced to the work of al-Khwarizmi, a Persian mathematician of the ninth century, who applied the base-ten numerical system pioneered in India to the study of algebra, a word derived from the Arabic al-jabr, meaning “restoration.” As trade grew along the sea-routes of the Indian Ocean, India became a major producer of cotton cloth, spices, and other commodities with a volume of exports second only to China.