Download Chapter 8 Notes - Net Start Class

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Chp 8 Title: India – State Society and the Quest for Salvation
Terms/Questions
Magadha Kingdom
Section Title: The Mauryan Dynasty and the Temporary Unification of India
1. Intrusions of Cyrus (520 B.C.E.) and Alexander (327 B.C.E.)
2. A political vacuum left by Alexander's withdrawal
3. Magadha kingdom filled the vacuum
Chandragupta Maurya
4. The founder of the Mauryan empire
5. Overthrew the Magadha kingdom in 321 B.C.E.
6. Conquered the Greek state in Bactria
7. Chandragupta's empire embraced all of northern India
Chandragupta's government
8. Government procedures devised by Kautalya, the advisor of the empire
9. The political handbook, Arthashastra, outlined administrative methods
Ashoka Maurya
10. (reigned 268-232 B.C.E.)
a. Chandragupta's grandson, the high point of the Mauryan empire
b. Conquered the kingdom of Kalinga, 260 B.C.E.
c.
Ruled through tightly organized bureaucracy
d. Established capital at Pataliputra
e. Policies of encouraging agriculture and trade
Decline of the Mauryan
Empire
11, Ashoka died in 232 B.C.E.
12. Suffered from acute financial and economic difficulties
a. High cost for maintaining army and bureaucrats
b. Debasing the currency, not a effective resolution
13. The empire collapsed by 185 B.C.E.
SUMMARY SENTENCE:
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Chp 8 Title: India – State Society and the Quest for Salvation
Terms/Questions
Gupta Dynasty
Section Title: Revival of Empire under the Guptas
1. After the Mauryan empire, India was controlled by regional kingdoms
2. The Gupta state rose to power in Magadha
3. Chandra Gupta (not related to Chandragupta) founded the new dynasty
4. Gupta dynasty was relatively decentralized
Gupta decline
5. Invasion of White Huns weakened the empire
6. After the 5th century C.E., Gupta dynasty continued in name only
7. Large regional kingdoms dominated political life in India
SUMMARY SENTENCE:
Terms/Questions
Towns and manufacturing
Section Title: Towns and Trade
1. Towns dotted the India countryside after 600 B.C.E.
2. Towns provided manufactured products and luxury goods
3. Large scale business: the example of Saddalaputta
Long-distance trade
4. Invasions by Persian empires helped to build extensive trade networks
5. Trade with China through the silk roads of central Asia
Trade in the Indian Ocean
6. Trade in the Indian Ocean basin boomed
7. Trade with Indonesia, southeast Asia, Mediterranean basin
SUMMARY SENTENCE:
Terms/Questions
Social & gender relations
Section Title: Family Life and the Caste System
1. Strong patriarchal families
2. Subordination of women to men as seen in literary works
3. Child marriage placed women under control of old men
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Chp 8 Title: India – State Society and the Quest for Salvation
Terms/Questions
Castes and Guilds
Section Title: Family Life and the Caste System Continued
4. Development of caste system
a. New social groups of artisans, craftsmen, and merchants appeared
b. Individuals of same trade or craft formed a guild
c.
Functions of guilds: social security and welfare systems
d. Guilds functioned as subcastes, or jati
Wealth and social order
5. Trade and industry brought prosperity to many vaishyas and shudras
6. Old beliefs and values of early Aryan society became increasingly irrelevant
SUMMARY SENTENCE:
Terms/Questions
Vardhamana Mahavira
Section Title: Jainism and the Challenge to the Established Cultural Order
1. Born in north India, 540 B.C.E.
2. Left family, searching for salvation from cycle of incarnation
3. Gained enlightenment, taught an ascetic doctrine
4. His disciples began to lead a monastic life
5. Mahavira became Jina, the "conqueror," and followers, Jains
Jainist doctrine and ethics
6. Inspired by the Upanishads
7. Everything in the universe possessed a soul
8. Striving to purify one's selfish behavior to attain a state of bliss
9. The principle of ahimsa, nonviolence toward all living things
10. Believed that almost all occupations entailed violence of some kind
11. Too demanding, not a practical alternative to the cult of the brahmins
Appeal of Jainism
12. Social implication: Individual souls equally participated in ultimate reality
13. The Jains did not recognize social hierarchies of caste and jati
14. Became attractive to members of lower castes
15. The ascetic tradition continues to today
SUMMARY SENTENCE:
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Chp 8 Title: India – State Society and the Quest for Salvation
Terms/Questions
Siddhartha Gautama
Section Title: Early Buddhism
1. (563-483 B.C.E.)
a. Born in 563 B.C.E. in a small tribal state governed by his father
b. Witnessed miseries of the human condition
Gautama’s Search for
Enlightenment
c.
Gave up his comfortable life and began searching for enlightenment
d. Intense meditation and extreme asceticism
e. Received enlightenment under the bo tree and became Buddha
Buddha and his followers
2. "Turning of the Wheel of the Law," 528 B.C.E.
3. Organized followers into a community of monks
4. Traveled throughout north India, bringing enlightenment to others
Buddhist doctrine:
The dharma
5. The Four Noble Truths
a. All life involves suffering
b. Desire is the cause of suffering
c.
Elimination of desire brings an end to suffering
d. The Noble Eightfold Path brings the elimination of desire
6. The Noble Eightfold path: Right belief, right resolve, right speech, right behavior,
right occupation, right effort, right contemplation, and right meditation
7. Religious goal: personal salvation, or nirvana, a state of perfect spiritual independence
Appeal of Buddhism
8. Appealed strongly to members of lower castes
a. Salvation without services of the brahmins
b. Did not recognize social hierarchies of castes and jati
9. Less demanding than Jainism, more popular
10. used vernacular tongues, not Sanskrit
11. Holy sites and pilgrims
12. The monastic organizations - extremely efficient at spreading the Buddhist message
and winning converts to the faith
Ashoka's support
13. Emperor Ashoka became a devout Buddhist, 206 B.C.E.
14. Banned animal sacrifices in honor of ahimsa
15. Granted lands to monasteries
16. Sent missionaries to Bactria and Ceylon
SUMMARY SENTENCE:
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Chp 8 Title: India – State Society and the Quest for Salvation
Terms/Questions
Section Title: Mahayana Buddhism
1. Early Buddhism made heavy demands on individuals
a. Giving up personal property
b. Forsaking the search for social standing
c.
Development of Buddhism
Detaching oneself from worldly pleasures
2. Buddha became a god
3. The notion of boddhisatva - "an enlightened being"
4. Monasteries began to accept gifts from wealthy individuals
5. Buddhism became more attractive
Spread of Mahayana
Buddhism
5. Mahayana - "the greater vehicle"
7. Spread to central and east Asia
8. Buddhist monasteries were also educational institutions
Nalanda
9. the best known monastery and school
SUMMARY SENTENCE:
Terms/Questions
Section Title: The Emergence of Popular Hinduism
The epics
Mahabharata
1. a secular poem revised by brahmin scholars to honor the god Vishnu, the preserver of the world
Ramayana
2. a secular story of Rama and Sita was changed into a Hindu story
Bhagavad Gita
3. A short poetic work
4. A dialogue between the god Vishnu and a warrior
5. Illustrated expectations of Hinduism and promise of salvation
Hindu ethics
6. Lower demands for achieving salvation
7. Individuals should meet their responsibilities in detached fashion
8. Balance of dharma, artha, kama would help an individual to attain moksha
Popularity of Hinduism
9. Became more popular than Buddhism
10. The Guptas and their successors helped Hinduism become the dominant religion in India
SUMMARY SENTENCE:
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Chp 8 Title: India – State Society and the Quest for Salvation
Questions
to answer
What were the main characteristics of the Mauryan and Gupta empires?
Trace the development of the caste system from the early Aryan period to classical India,
explaining how the caste system evolved as both a religious and social institution.
How did economic development and social change stimulate the emergence of
new religions in classical India?
In what sense were Jainism and Buddhism a challenge to the established cultural and social order?
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Chp 8 Title: India – State Society and the Quest for Salvation
Questions
to answer
Both new religions accepted some and rejected other concepts of the Upanishads' teachings.
What elements were accepted and rejected?
In the competition between Buddhism and Hinduism, what changes occurred that made both
religions popular during the classical period in India?
Why did Buddhism eventually lose its popularity to Hinduism?