Part 7 · 1 chapters · ~8 min

India: Maurya and Gupta

The Indus valley civilisation in brief, the Vedic period and the rise of Buddhism and Jainism, Chandragupta Maurya and the Arthashastra, Ashoka and his edicts, the spread of Buddhism, the Kushan era and trade with Rome, the Gupta empire, Sanskrit literature, mathematics and the decimal system with zero, Nalanda, and the Gupta decline.

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Edicts and numerals

Before the Mauryas, the Indus valley civilisation (about 2600-1900 BCE) built planned cities like Mohenjo-daro and Harappa with drainage systems; its script remains undeciphered. Ashoka's edicts, deciphered by James Prinsep in 1837, are among the earliest surviving written records of Indian kings. Brahmagupta (628 CE) set out rules for arithmetic with zero and negative numbers.

Romila Thapar, Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 (2002) and Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas (1961); Upinder Singh, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India (2008); Kim Plofker, Mathematics in India (2009).

MAURYA AND GUPTA INDIA
two empires that shaped South Asia
Chandragupta MauryaFounded the Maurya empire c. 321BCE at Pataliputra.the ArthashastraA treatise on statecraftattributed to Kautilya (Chanakya).AshokaAfter the bloody Kalinga war,promoted dhamma; edicts carved onrocks and pillars.the Guptasc. 320-550 CE: a classical age ofSanskrit literature and science.mathematicsAryabhata (499 CE); place-valuedecimal numerals with zero.NalandaA great Buddhist university thatdrew students from across Asia.
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the Mauryas
Chandragupta Maurya founded the first empire covering most of the subcontinent around 321 BCE, soon after Alexander reached the Indus; the Arthashastra describes a sophisticated state with spies, taxes and law.
first pan-Indian empirethe Arthashastra