Ancient India

Sources of Mauryan History and Ashoka’s Edicts We have several sources that help us to reconstruct the Mauryan empire. These can be classified as either literary sources or Archaeological sources. Literary Sources These are the texts that describe the Mauryan Empire. These are either contemporary or non-contemporary. Contemporary texts – These are books written during…

Understanding Mauryan society Mauryan Economy Direction Trade routes South-West route Sravasti to Pratishthana South-East route Sravasti to Rajgriha East-West route Taxila to Patliputra following river course of Ganga and Yamuna, known as Uttarpatha (modern-day Grand Trunk road) Society during the Mauryan empire Free labour Karmaharas/Bhritakas Slaves Dasas Mortgaged Slaves Ahitaka Religion during the Mauryan Empire…

Under the Nanda dynasty rule (343BC to 321BC), Magadha was a formidable power during Alexander’s invasion (326BC). But the Magadh reached its peak during the Mauryan empire. First time in the history of India, a large part of the Indian subcontinent, extending up to the far northwest, was under a single paramount power, the Mauryan…

In the post-Vedic period, a significant change occurred in the nature of Religious practices in India. We see the emergence of new religious movements, such as Jainism and Buddhism, which impacted society, the polity and the administration for centuries to come. The Shramana Tradition ‘Shramana’ means striving and working hard by living a life of…

Persian and Greek Invasion of India In the 6th century BCE, India’s northwest was a site of conflict between various principalities. Kambojas, Gandharas and Madras fought with each other. Since there was an absence of a powerful overarching kingdom, the principalities of the northwest could not be organized into one kingdom. This area was also…

Later Vedic Period The later Vedic period or post Vedic age extended roughly from 1000 B.C. to 600 B.C., during which some Vedic tribes had migrated from the ‘Sapta Sindhu’ region to the upper Ganga Valley and other adjacent areas. The history of the later Vedic period is based primarily on Vedic texts, which were…

Vedic Period [1500 BCE-500 BCE] The Vedic Period started with the advent of the Aryans in around 1500 BCE, which coincided with the Late Harappan period (associated with the decline of the Indus valley civilization). Aryans spoke Sanskrit, which is considered the origin of most of the current languages of the Indian subcontinent and is…

What is Chalcolithic age? Chalcolithic is made from two Greek words, khalkos and lithos, meaning copper and stone, respectively. It is a time period dates from 6,500 years ago to around 3000 years ago. This marks the beginning of the use of metalwork technology. For the first time, people started using metals along with stone…

The Stone age refers to the prehistoric period during which stone tools were the most prevalent form of articles used by early man. The use of stone tools started about 2.5 million years ago with the arrival of the early humans (‘Homo Habilis’ and Australopithecus). They were one of the earliest bipedal primates and used…

What is History? The word history is derived from the ancient Greek word ‘Historia’, which translates into “an inquiry”. Thus the knowledge acquired by the investigation of the events of the past is history. In simple terms, it is the enquiry of the ‘human past’. Types of History History is divided mainly into 6 types:…