Download Document

Introduction
Iran
Sasanids – 224-651 C.E.
• Revival of Zoroastrian traditions
• Competition with Byzantines
India
Guptas – ca. 320-450 C.E.
• Extraordinary cultural flowering
Both eventually weakened or defeated by Arabic
expansion
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Parthians 247 B.C.E. – 223 C.E.
Dominated Iranian heartlands of Achaemenids
Extinguished eastern Seleucid power
Continued Achaemenid imperial and cultural
traditions
Tolerance of religious diversity
Upheld Zoroastrian traditions
Increased emphasis on Iranian traditions
Warfare with Romans and Kushans
Christian and Buddhist threats
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Sasanids – 224-651 C.E.
Claimed to be rightful Achaemenid heirs
Shapur I – r. 239-272
Strong internal administration
Territorial expansion
• Defeated Romans 3 times
• Captured Roman emperor Valerian
Could claim to be shahanshah “king of kings”
Centralized and rationalized
• Taxation, civil ministries, military
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Sasanids vs. Byzantines
Conflict of 350 years
Two mightiest thrones in Eurasia
Each championed a different religion
Neither could vanquish the other
Chosroes Anosharvan – r. 531-579
Greatest Sasanid ruler
Contemporary of Byzantine Justinian
Model of greatness for Persians and Arabs
Both sides eventually lose out to Arabs
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Sasanid Society and Economy
Similar to earlier Persian models
Extended family was basic social unit
Recognition of four classes
Priests, warriors, scribes, peasants
Growing divide between top three and peasants
Land concentrated in wealthy minority
• Small farmers driven into serfdom
Oversaw and taxed the caravan trade
Bills of exchange – origin of word “check”
Indian, Roman, Hellenistic Bactrian influences
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Zoroastrian Revival
Zoroastrianism as state orthodoxy
Tosar (Tansar)
First chief priest (mobad) of empire
Instituted a state church
Written canon of the Avesta
Kartir (Kirdir) – chief priest to Shapur I
Firmly grounded Zoroastrian orthodoxy
Conversion of pagans, Christians, Buddhists
Powerful priesthood
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Manichaeism
Mani – 216-277 C.E.
Dualistic and moralistic view of reality
Constant warfare between good and evil
• Spirit and matter
Saw his view as culmination and restoration of
original unity of
Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Buddhism
Called his new system “Justice”
Kirdir had Mani executed in 277
Faith still challenged Christianity and Islam
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Later Sasanid Developments
Radical inequality brought tensions
Mazdakite movement – 5th century
Mazdak
•
•
•
•
Preached asceticism
Vegetarianism
Virtues of tolerance and brotherly love
More equal distribution of society’s goods
Mazdak slaughtered in 528
Inspiration for later revolts
Sasanid kings supported Nestorian Christians
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Golden Age of the Guptas
Gupta age as high point of Indian civilization
Source of “classical” norms of Hindu religion and
Indian culture
Symbolic equivalent of
Periclean Athens
Augustan Rome
Han China
Recognizable patterns of a single civilization
Relative peace and stability
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Gupta Rule
Chandragupta – r. 320-330 C.E.
First Gupta ruler – from Magadha
Chandragupta II – r. 375-415
Turned kingdom into an empire
Presided over “golden age”
Most civilized and peaceful country in the world at that
time
Hun invasion – eventual collapse in 550
Harsha – r. 616-657
Brief reunification
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Gupta Culture
Golden Age
Architecture and sculpture
Wall paintings of Ajanta caves
Kalidasa – drama and verse
• “Shakespeare” of Sanskrit verse
Strong emphasis on education in Jain and
Buddhist monasteries, Brahmanical schools
Rhetoric, prose, poetry, grammar, logic, medicine,
metaphysics, mathematics
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Indian Traditions
Development of hierarchical character of
Hindu/Indian society
Manu
Dharmashastra – oldest manual of legal and ethical
theory – around 200 C.E.
•
•
•
•
•
Dharma appropriate for one’s class
Rules for rites and study of the Veda
Pollution and purification measures
Dietary restrictions
Royal duties and prerogatives
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Manu and Caste System
Classic statement of four class theory
Each person born into a particular station
• Karma from earlier lives
• Station has its particular dharma
Brahman – priest
Kshatriya – noble/warrior
Vaishya – tradesperson
Shudra – servant
• Suppression of shudras and “outcasts”
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Jatis
Smaller and more numerous subgroups
Caste from word casta
Divisions usually represent occupational groups
Jati groups are hereditary
Distinguished on principles of purity/pollution
Three kinds of regulation
Commensality
Endogamy
Trade or craft limitation
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Bhakti
Tradition of ardent theism
Bhakti or “loving devotion”
Seen in Krishna in Bhagavad Gita
Tamil-speaking southern schools of
Bhakhi poetry and worship
Remnant of pre-Aryan religious sensibilities
Puranas – epic, mythological, devotional texts
Ramanuja – d. 1137 – same tradition
• Theologian of devotional Hinduism
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Hindu Religious Life
Growth of devotional cults
Vishnu – especially in form of Krishna
Shiva – originally a fertility god
Goddess in one of her many forms
• Parvati, Shakti, Durga, Kali
Vishnu, Shiva, Parvati have many forms and
names
Identified with other deities and worshipped as one
form of the Supreme Lord or Goddess
Ahimsa
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Hindu Polytheism?
Appropriate to pay homage on proper occasions to
other deities
Hindus view one deity as Supreme Lord
But see others as manifestations of the Ultimate at
lower levels
Hindu polytheism – affirmation of the infinite forms
that transcendence takes
Vedanta – “the end of the Veda”
Shankara – d. 820
Brahman as only reality behind illusion (maya)
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Buddhist Religious Life
Two major developments in relation to
Buddhism in India during these centuries
Solidification of the two main strands of
Buddhism
• Mahayana
 “Great Vehicle”
• Theravada
 “Little Vehicle”
Spread of Buddhism beyond India
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Mahayana Buddhism
Different than older, more conservative Hinayana
Buddhas seen as manifestations of a single principle of
“Ultimate” Reality
Siddharta Gautama one Buddha among many
Highest goal not nirvana
Highest goal was status of Bodhisattva
Self-sacrifice leading to infinite merit
Buddha Amitabha – Pure Land
Personified infinite compassion
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Theravada Buddhism
Theravada – “Way of the Elders”
Individual path to enlightenment
Focused on monastic community
Gaining merit for a better rebirth through
High standards of conduct
Lay devotion to Buddha
Pilgrimage to relics at various stupas
Traditional texts of the Buddha
Rejected Mahayana tie to later texts
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Spread of Buddhism
Theravada Buddhism spread to
Ceylon
Burma
Southeast Asia
Mahayana Buddhism spread to
China
Korea
Japan
Central Asia
Tantric Buddhism - Tibet
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.