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com 1
 CONTENT

CHAPTER:-1 - THE IMPORTANCE OF ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY 3

CHAPTER:-2 - MODERN HISTORIANS OF ANCIENT INDIA 4
CHAPTER:-3 – TYPES OF SOURCES AND HISTORICAL CONSTRUCTION 5
CHAPTER:-4 – THE GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING 8
CHAPTER: 5 - THE STONE AGE: THE EARLY MAN 11
CHAPTER: 6 - CHALCOLITHIC FARMING CULTURES 15
CHAPTER: 7 – THE HARAPPAN CULTURE: BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATION 19
CHAPTER: 8 – ADVENT OF THE ARYAN AND THE AGE 0F THE RIG VEDA 26
CHAPTER: 9 - THE LATER VEDIC PHASE: TRANSITION TO STATE AND SOCIAL ORDERS
28
CHAPTER: 10 - JAINISM AND BUDDHISM 30
CHAPTER: 11 - TERRITORIAL STATES AND THE FIRST MAGADHAN EMPIRE 34
CHAPTER: 12 - IRANIAN AND MACEDONIAN INVASIONS 36
CHAPTER: 13 - STATE AND VARNA SOCIETY IN THE AGE OF THE BUDDHA 38
CHAPTER: 14 - THE AGE OF THE MAURYA AGE 41
CHAPTER: 15 - SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MAURYA RULE 45
CHAPTER: 16 - CENTRAL ASIAN CONTACT AND THEIR RESULT 49
CHAPTER: 17 - THE AGE OF SATAVAHANAS 54
CHAPTER: 18 - THE DAWN OF HISTORY IN THE DEEP SOUTH 57
CHAPTER: 19 - CRAFTS, TRADE AND TOWNS IN THE POST-MAURYA AGE 59
CHAPTER: 20 – THE RISE AND GROWTH OF THE GUPTA EMPIRE 62
CHAPTER: 21 - LIFE IN THE GUPTA AGE 65
CHAPTER: 22 - SPREAD OF CIVILIZATION IN EASTERN INDIA 69
CHAPTER: 23 - HARSHA AND HIS TIMES 72
CHAPTER: 24 – FORMATION OF NEW STATES AND RURAL EXPANSION IN THE
PENINSULA 74
CHAPTER: 25 - DEVELOPMENTS IN PHILOSOPHY 78
CHAPTER: 26 – INDIA’S CULTURAL CONTACTS WITH THE ASIAN COUNTRIES 80
CHAPTER: 27 – TRANSFORMATION OF THE ANCIENT PHASE 82
CHAPTER: 28 - SEQUENCE OF SOCIAL CHANGES 85
CHAPTER: 29 - LEGACY IN SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION 87

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 CHAPTER: 1 - THE IMPORTANCE OF ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY
• It tells us how, when, and where people occurs in the inscriptions of fifth–sixth
developed the earliest cultures in India. It centuries BC. It is derived from the Sanskrit
tell us how they began undertaking term Sindhu. Linguistically s becomes h in
agriculture and stock raising which made Iranian. The Iranian inscriptions first
life secure and settled. mention Hindu as a district on the Indus.
• It shows how the ancient Indians the term Hindu means a territorial unit.
discovered and utilized natural resources, • Kings who tried to establish their authority
and how they created the means for their from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin and
livelihood. We get an idea of how the from the valley of the Brahmputra in the
ancient inhabitants made arrangements for east to the land beyond the Indus in the
food, shelter, and transport, and learn how west were universally praised. They were
they took to farming, spinning, weaving, called Chakravartis. This form of political
metalworking, and the like, how they unity was attained at least twice in ancient
cleared forests, founded villages, cities, and times. In the third century BC Ashoka
eventually large kingdoms. extended his empire over the whole of India
UNITY IN DIVERSITY barring the extreme south. His inscriptions
are scattered across a major part of the
• Pre-Aryans, the Indo-Aryans, the Greeks,
Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, and even in
the Scythians, the Hunas, the Turks, and
Afghanistan. Again, in the fourth century
others made India their home. Aryan
AD, Samudragupta carried his victorious
elements are equated with the Vedic and
arms from the Ganga to the borders of the
Puranic culture of the north and the pre
Tamil land.
Aryan with the Dravidian and Tamil culture
of the south. Many Munda, Dravidian and • In the seventh century, the Chalukya king,
other non-Sanskritic terms occur in the Pulakeshin defeated Harshavardhana who
Vedic texts ascribed to 1500–500 BC. was called the lord of the whole of north
India.
• Many Pali and Sanskrit terms, signifying
ideas and institutions, developed in the • Word Hind or Hindu is derived from the
Gangetic plains, appear in the earliest Tamil Sanskrit term Sindhu, and on the same
texts called the Sangam literature which is basis, the country became known as ‘India’
roughly used for the period 300 BC–AD which is very close to the Greek term for it.
600. India came to be called ‘Hind’ in the
Persian and Arabic languages. In post-
• The people of eastern region inhabited by
Kushan times, the Iranian rulers conquered
the pre-Aryan tribals spoke the Munda or
the Sindh area and named it Hindustan.
Kolarian languages. Munda pockets in
Chhotanagpur plateau, the remnants of • In the third century BC Prakrit served as the
Munda culture in the Indo-Aryan culture lingua franca across the major part of India.
are fairly strong. States or territorial units, Ashoka’s inscriptions were inscribed in the
called janapadas, were named after Prakrit language mainly in Brahmi script.
different tribes. THE RELEVANCE OF THE PAST TO THE
• Aryavarta came to be named after the PRESENT
dominant cultural community called the • There is no doubt that Indians of old made
Aryans. Aryavarta denoted northern and remarkable progress in a variety of fields,
central India and extended from the eastern but these advances alone cannot enable us
to the western sea coasts. The other name to compete with the achievements of
by which India was better known was modern science and technology. One
Bharatavarsha or the land of the Bharatas. cannot ignore the fact that ancient Indian
Bharata, in the sense of tribe or family, society was marked by gross social
figures in the Rig Veda and Mahabharata, injustice.
but the name Bharatavarsha occurs in the • India cannot develop rapidly unless such
Mahabharata and post-Gupta Sanskrit texts. vestiges of the past are eradicated from its
The term Bharati or an inhabitant of India society.
occurs in post-Gupta texts.
• Iranian inscriptions are important for the
origin of the term Hindu. The term Hindu

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 CHAPTER: 4 – THE GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING
EMERGENCE OF INDIA • In winter, the western disturbances bring
• Peninsular India, together with Antarctica, rains to northern India. The coastal areas of
Africa, Arabia, and South America, is Tamil Nadu, gets its major rainfall from the
considered to have been a part of the north-east monsoon from mid-October to
southern super-continent called mid-December.
Gondwanaland. THE NORTHERN BOUNDARIES
• Earlier, Gondwanaland, together with the • India is bounded by the Himalayas on the
northern super-continent Laurisia, north and seas on the other three sides.
comprising North America, Greenland, • Himalayas protect the country against the
Europe, and most of Asia north of the cold arctic winds blowing from Siberia
Himalayas, formed a single land mass through Central Asia.
called Pangaea.
• Then Gondawanaland and laurisia became ODSTU.COM
separate units. Due to tectonic movement
different parts began to break away from
Gondwanaland, giving rise to separate
geographical units including peninsular
India.
• The uplift of the Himalayas took place in
four phases. The last and the final uplift
took place in the Pleistocene epoch, that is,
in c. 2 million–12000 BC.
• Indian subcontinent is as large in area as
Europe without Russia, The subcontinent is
divided into five countries: India,
Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Pakistan. WWW.ODSTU.COM

ODSTU.COM

• On the north-west, the Sulaiman mountain

WWW.ODSTU.COM ranges, which are a southward continuation
of the Himalayas, could be crossed through
the Khyber, Bolan, and Gomal passes.
• Sulaiman ranges are joined southward in
Baluchistan by the Kiarthar ranges which
could be crossed through the Bolan pass.
The Hindu Kush, the westward extension of
the Himalayan system.
RIVERS
• These consist of the plains of the Indus
system, the Indo-Gangetic divide, the
Gangetic basin, and the Brahmaputra basin.
• Indus and the western Gangetic plains
principally produced wheat and barley,
THE ROLE OF THE MONSOON while the middle and lower Gangetic plains
largely produced rice, which also became
• South-west monsoon lasts between June the staple diet in Gujarat and south of the
and October. The kharif crop in north India Vindhyas.
depended on the south-west monsoon.

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 • The large-scale use of iron made Avanti,
with its capital at
Ujjain, an
important
kingdom in the
sixth and fifth
ODSTU.COM
centuries BC.
Andhra possesses
large lead
resources, which
explains the large
numbers of lead
coins in the
kingdom of the
Satavahanas, who ODSTU.COM
ruled over Andhra
and Maharashtra
in the first two
centuries of the
Christian era.
• Lead may have
also been obtained
from towns in
Rajasthan. The
earliest coins,
called punch
marked coins,
were made largely
of silver, although
this metal is rarely
found in India.
• Silver mines
existed in early
times in the
Kharagpur hills in
Monghyr district,
Large quantities of gold dust. These
deposits are called placers. Gold is found in
the Kolar goldfields of Karnataka.
• India also produced a variety of precious
stones, including pearls, especially in
central India, Orissa, and south India.

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 CHAPTER: 5 - THE STONE AGE: THE EARLY MAN
THE PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD: HUNTERS in Africa around two million years ago, but
AND FOOD GATHERERS in India it is not older than 600,000 years.
• THE EARTH is over 4000 million years • This date is given to Bori in Maharashtra,
old. The evolution of its crust shows four and this site is considered to be the earliest
stages. The fourth stage is called the Lower Palaeolithic site. People use hand
Quaternary, which is divided into axes, cleavers, and choppers.
Pleistocene (most recent) and Holocene • Axes found in India are more or less similar
(present); the former lasted between to those of western Asia, Europe, and
2,000,000 and 10,000 years before the Africa. Stone tools were used largely for
present and the latter began about 10,000 chopping, digging, and skinning.
years ago. Man is said to have appeared on • Early Old Stone Age sites have been found
the earth in the early Pleistocene, when true in the valley of river Son or Sohan in
ox, true elephant and true horse also Punjab, now in Pakistan. Several sites have
originated. But now this event seems to been found in Kashmir and the Thar desert.
have occurred in Africa about three million • Lower Palaeolithic tools have also been
years back. found in the Belan valley in UP and in the
• The fossils of the early men have not been desert area of Didwana in Rajasthan.
found in India. A hint of the earliest human Didwana yielded not only Lower
presence is indicated by stone tools Palaeolithic stone tools but also those of the
obtained from the de- posits ascribable to Middle and Upper Palaeolithic ages.
the Second Glaciation, which could be Chirki-Nevasa in Maharashtra has yielded
dated around 250,000 B.C. as many as 2000 tools, and those have also
• Palaeolithic tools, which could be as old as been found at several places in the south.
100,000 B.C., have been found in the • Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh is an
Chotanagpur plateau. Such tools belonging important site, and the caves and rock
to 20,000 B.C. 10,000B.C. have been found shelters of Bhimbetka near Bhopal also
in Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh about show features of the Lower Palaeolithic
55 km from Kurnool. In association with age.
them bone implements and animal remains • Bhimbetka (in present day Madhya
have also been discovered. Animal remains Pradesh)- This site is called habitation cum-
found in the Belan Valley in Mirzapur factory sites. Each marks of the site from
district in Uttar Pradesh show that goats where archaeologists have found evidence
sheep and cattle were exploited. However, of early farmers and herders. Some of the
in the earliest Palaeolithic phase man lived most important ones are in the north-west,
on hunting and food gathering. in present-day Kashmir, and in east and
PHASES IN THE PALAEOLITHIC AGE south India.
• Palaeolithic Age in India is divided into • The earliest people were skilled gatherers
three phases in accordance with the type of who lived along the banks of river
stone tools used by the people and also Narmada. The Sulaiman and Kirthar hills to
according to the nature of climatic change. the Northwest are the areas where women
and men first began to grow crops such as
• First phase is called Early or Lower
wheat and barley about 8000 years ago are
Palaeolithic, the second Middle located here. The Garo hills to the north-
Palaeolithic, and the third Upper east and the Vindhyas in central India. The
Palaeolithic. places where rice was first grown are to the
• Bori artefacts-the first phase may be placed north of the Vindhyas.
broadly between 600,000 and 150,000 BC,
the second between 150,000 and 35,000 • Hand axes have been found in a deposit of
BC, and the third between 35,000 and the time of the second Himalayan inter-
10,000 BC. glaciation, when the climate became less
humid. The people of the Lower Stone Age
• Lower Palaeolithic or the Early Old Stone
seem to have principally been food
Age covers the greater part of the ice age.
gatherers.
The Early Old Stone Age may have begun

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 • The Middle Palaeolithic industries were • Mesolithic people lived on hunting, fishing,
largely based upon flakes or small pieces of and food gathering; at a later stage they also
stone which have been found in different domesticated animals. The first three
parts of India with regional variations. occupations continued the Palaeolithic
• Principal tools comprise blades, points, practice, whereas the last developed in the
borers, and scrapers, all made of flakes. The Neolithic culture.
geographical horizon of the Middle • Thus the Mesolithic age marked a
Palaeolithic sites coincides roughly with transitional phase in the mode of
that of the Lower Palaeolithic sites. subsistence leading to animal husbandry.
• Artefacts of this age are found at several The characteristic tools of the Mesolithic
places on the river Narmada, and also at age are microliths or tiny tools.
several places, south of the Tungabhadra • Mesolithic sites abound in Rajasthan,
river. The Belan valley (UP), which lies at southern UP, central and eastern India, and
the foothills of the Vindhyas, is rich in also south of the river Krishna.
stone tools and animal fossils including • Bagor in Rajasthan is very well excavated.
cattle and deer. It had a distinctive microlithic industry, and
• These remains relate to both the Lower and its inhabitants subsisted on hunting and
Middle Stone ages. pastoralism. The site remained occupied for
5000 years from the fifth millennium BC
onwards.
• Adamgarh in MP and Bagor in Rajasthan
provide the earliest evidence for the
domestication of animals in the Indian part
ODSTU.COM of the subcontinent; this could be around
5000 BC. The cultivation of plants around
7000–6000 BC is suggested in Rajasthan.

Fig. Palaeolithic Tool

THE MESOLITHIC AGE: HUNTERS AND
HERDERS
• In the Upper Palaeolithic phase, we find
566 sites in India. The climate was less
humid, coinciding with the last phase of the
ice age when the climate became
comparatively warm.
• In India, we notice the use of blades and
ODSTU.COM
burins, which have been found in AP,
Karnataka, Maharashtra, central MP,
southern UP, Jharkhand and adjoining Fig. Mesolithic Tool
areas. PREHISTORIC ART
• Caves and rock shelters for use by human • People of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic
beings in the Upper Palaeolithic phase have ages practised painting. Prehistoric art
been discovered at Bhimbetka, 45 km south appears at several places, but Bhimbetka in
of Bhopal. An Upper Palaeolithic MP is a striking site. Situated in the
assemblage, characterized by comparatively Vindhyan range, 45 km south of Bhopal, it
large flakes, blades, burins, and scrapers has over 500 painted rock shelters
has also been found the upper levels of the distributed in an area of 10 sq. km. At
Gujarat sand dunes. Bhimbetka, the rock paintings extend from
• In 9000 BC began an intermediate stage in the Upper Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic age
Stone-Age culture, which is called the • Bands were formed for hunting, there could
Mesolithic age. It intervened as a have been a form of alliance between
transitional phase between the Palaeolithic various bands for mutual aid, Rituals could
and the Neolithic or New Stone ages. have been conducted to ratify such an
alliance. Eventually the band turned into an

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 CHAPTER: 6 - CHALCOLITHIC FARMING CULTURES
CHALCOLITHIC SETTLEMENTS • Several Chalcolithic sites have been found
• End of the Neolithic period saw the use of in the Vindhyan region of Allahabad
metals. The metal first used was copper, district. In eastern
and several cultures were based on the use • India, Chirand on the Ganges, Pandu Rajar
of copper and stone implements. Such a Dhibi in Burdwan district and Mahishdal in
culture is called Chalcolithic, which means Birbhum district in West Bengal.
the copper– stone phase. Additional sites have been excavated are
• Chalcolithic stage is applied to the pre- Senuar, Sonpur, and Taradih in Bihar; and
Harappan phase. In India, settlements Khairadih and Narhan in eastern UP.
relating to the Chalcolithic phase are found
in south-eastern Rajasthan, the western part
of MP, western Maharashtra, and in
southern and eastern India. ODSTU.COM
• In south-eastern Rajasthan, two sites, one at
Ahar and the other at Gilund, have been
excavated. They lie in the dry zones of the
Banas valley. In western MP or Malwa,
Kayatha and Eran have been excavated.
Malwa-ware characteristic of the Malwa
Chalcolithic culture of central and western ODSTU.COM
India is considered the richest among
Chalcolithic ceramics, and some of this
pottery and other related cultural elements
also appear in Maharashtra.
• The most extensive excavations have taken
place in western Maharashtra. Several
Chalcolithic sites, such as Jorwe, Nevasa,
Daimabad in Ahmadanagar district;
Chandoli, Songaon, and Inamgaon in Pune
district; and also, Prakash and Nasik have
been excavated. They all relate to the Jorwe • Chalcolithic people used tiny tools and
culture named after Jorwe, the type-site weapons made of stone in which the stone
situated on the left bank of the Pravara blades and bladelets were an important
river, a tributary of the Godavari, in element. Certain settlements show a large
Ahmadnagar district. The Jorwe culture number of copper objects as the case with
owed much to the Malwa culture, but it also Ahar and Gilund, which were situated more
shared elements of the Neolithic culture of or less in the dry zones of the Banas valley
the south. in Rajasthan.
• The Jorwe culture, c. 1400 to 700 BC • Other contemporary Chalcolithic farming
covered modern Maharashtra except parts cultures, Ahar used no microlithic tools;
of Vidarbha and the coastal region of stone axes or blades are absent here.
Konkan. The Jorwe culture was rural, some Objects relating to it include several flat
of its settlements, such as Daimabad and axes, bangles, several sheets, all made of
Inamgaon, had almost reached the urban copper, there is also a bronze sheet.
stage. • People of Ahar practised smelting and
• All the Maharashtra sites were located in metallurgy from the very outset, and the
semi-arid areas mostly on brown–black soil original name of Ahar is Tambavati or a
which had ber and babul vegetation fell in place that has copper. The Ahar culture is
the riverine tracts. In addition to these, dated to between c. 2100 and 1500 BC, and
Navdatoli situated on the Narmada. Most Gilund is considered a regional centre of it.
Chalcolithic ingredients intruded into the Gilund shows only fragments of copper it
Neolithic sites in south India. had a stone blade industry.
• Flat, rectangular copper axes have been
found in Jorwe and Chandoli in

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 CHAPTER: 7 – THE HARAPPAN CULTURE: BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATION
GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT • A third city lay at Chanhu-daro about 130
• In 1853, A. Cunningham, the British km south of Mohenjo-daro in Sindh, and a
engineer who became a great excavator and fourth at Lothal in Gujarat at the head of the
explorer, noticed a Harappan seal. The seal Gulf of Cambay. A fifth city lay at
showed a bull and six written letters. Kalibangan, which means black bangles, in
• In 1921, the potentiality of the site of northern Rajasthan. A sixth, called
Harappa was appreciated when an Indian Banawali, is situated in Hissar district in
archeologist, Daya Ram Sahni, started Haryana.
excavating it. At about the same time, R.D. • It saw two cultural phases, pre-Harappan
Banerjee, a historian, excavated the site of and Harappan, similar to that of
Mohenjo-daro in Sindh. Kalibangan.
• Large-scale excavations were carried out at • The Harappan culture is traceable in its
Mohenjo-daro under the general mature and flourishing stage to all these six
supervision of Marshall in 1931. Mackay places, as also to the coastal cities of
excavated the same site in 1938. Vats Sutkagendor and Surkotada, each of which
excavated at Harappa in 1940. is marked by a citadel.
• In 1946 Mortimer Wheeler excavated • The later Harappan phase is traceable to
Harappa. Rangpur and Rojdi in the Kathiawar
• In Pakistan, Kot Diji in the central Indus peninsula in Gujarat. In addition, Dholavira,
Valley was excavated by F.A. Khan, and lying in the Kutch area of Gujarat, has
great attention was paid to the Hakra and Harappan fortification and all the three
pre-Hakra cultures by M.R. Mughal. A.H. phases of the Harappan culture.
Dani excavated the Gandhara graves in the • These phases are also manifested in
North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Rakhigarhi which is situated on the
• Harappan culture-It developed in the north- Ghaggar in Haryana and is much larger than
western part of the Indian subcontinent. It is Dholavira.
called Harappan because this civilization • In comparative terms, Dholavira covers 50
was discovered first in 1921 at the modern ha but Harappa 150 ha and Rakhigarhi 250
site of Harappa situated in the province of ha. The largest site is Mohenjo-daro, which
Punjab in Pakistan. Many sites in Sindh covers 500 ha.
formed the central zone of pre-Harappan • The Indus valley civilisation is also called
culture. This culture developed and matured the Harappan culture. Archaeologists use
into an urban civilization that developed in the term “culture” for a group of objects,
Sindh and Punjab. distinctive in style, that are usually found
• The central zone of this mature Harappan together within a specific geographical area
culture lay in Sindh and Punjab, principally and period of time. In the case of the
in the Indus Valley. The Harappan culture Harappan culture, these distinctive objects
covered parts of Punjab, Haryana, Sindh, include seals, beads, weights, stone blades
Baluchistan, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and the and even baked bricks. These objects were
fringes of western UP. It extended from the found from areas as far apart as
Siwaliks in the north to the Arabian Sea in Afghanistan, Jammu, Baluchistan (Pakistan)
the south, and from the Makran coast of and Gujarat. Named after Harappa, the first
Baluchistan in the west to Meerut in the site where this unique culture was
north-east. discovered the civilisation is dated between
• Nearly 2800 Harappan sites have so far c. 2600 and 1900 BCE.
been identified in the subcontinent. They
relate to the early, mature, and late phases
of Harappan culture.
• Of the mature phase sites, two most
important cities were Harappa in Punjab
and Mohenjo-daro (literally, the mound of
the dead) in Sindh, both forming parts of
Pakistan. Situated at a distance of 483 km,
they were linked by the Indus.

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 7.01 m and 2.43 m deep. Flights of steps at
either end lead to the surface, and there are
side rooms for changing clothes. The floor
of the bath was made of burnt bricks. Water
was drawn from a large well in an adjacent
room, and an outlet from the corner of the
bath led to a drain. The great bath was
primarily intended for ritual bathing. The
large tank found in Dholavira may be
compared to the great bath.
• In Mohenjo-daro, the largest building is a
ODSTU.COM granary, 45.71 m long and 15.23 m wide. In
the citadel of Harappa, however, we find as
Fig. Kalibangan: General view
many as six granaries. A series of brick
TOWN PLANNING AND STRUCTURES platforms formed the basis for two rows of
• Both Harappa and Mohenjo-daro had a six granaries. Each granary measured 15.23
citadel or acropolis, occupied by members × 6.09 m and lay within a few metres of the
of the ruling class. Below the citadel in river bank. The combined floor space of the
each city lay a lower town with brick twelve units would be about 838 sq. m.
houses, that were inhabited by the common • To the south of the granaries at Harappa lay
people. working floors consisting of the rows of
• The arrangement of the houses in the cities circular brick platforms. Wheat and barley
is that they followed a grid system, with were found in the crevices of the floors.
roads cutting across one another virtually at Harappa also had two-roomed barracks
right angles. Mohenjo-daro scored over which possibly accommodated labourers. In
Harappa in terms of structures. the southern part of Kalibangan too, there
are brick platforms, which may have been
used for granaries.
• The drainage system of Mohenjo-daro was
very impressive. In almost all the cities,
every house, large or small, had its own
courtyard and bathroom. In Kalibangan
ODSTU.COM many houses had their own wells. Water
flowed from the house to the streets which
had drains. Sometimes these drains were
covered with bricks and sometimes with
stone slabs. The remains of streets and
drains have also been found at Banawali.

ODSTU.COM
Fig. Harapa – Plan of the city Fig. Great Bath, Mohenjo-daro
Harappa – Plan of the City • Kalibangan and Lothal had fire altars,
• The most important public place of where sacrifices may have been performed.
Mohenjo-daro seems to have been the great • It is on the Citadel that the evidence of
bath, comprising the tank which is situated structures that were probably used for
in the citadel mound, and is a fine example special public purposes were found- This
of beautiful brickwork. It measures 11.88 × include the warehouse – a massive structure

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 CHAPTER: 11 - TERRITORIAL STATES AND THE FIRST MAGADHAN EMPIRE
• The rise of large states with towns as their grew to be the leading state of the time. Its
base of operations strengthened the earlier capital was Rajgir, and later
territorial idea. People owed strong Pataliputra.
allegiance to the janapada or the territory to • The most powerful dynasty was that of the
which they belonged rather than to their Lichchhavis with their capital at Vaishali
jana or tribe. which is coterminous with the village of
• The word janapada literally means the land Basarh in Vaishali district.
where the jana set its foot, and settled • Further west the kingdom of Kashi with its
down. capital at Varanasi. Excavations at Rajghat
THE MAHAJANAPADAS show that the earliest habitations started
• Around 450 BC, over forty janapadas around 500 BC,
covering even Afghanistan and south-
• Koshala embraced the area occupied by
eastern Central Asia are mentioned by
eastern UP and had its capital at Shravasti,
Panini.
which is coterminous with Sahet–Mahet on
• The Pali texts show that the janapadas grew the borders of Gonda and Bahraich districts
into mahajanapadas, that is large states or of UP.
countries.
• Koshala also included the tribal republican
• In the age of the Buddha we find sixteen territory of the Shakyas of Kapilavastu. The
large states called mahajanapadas. Most of capital of Kapilavastu is identified with
these states arose in the upper and mid- Piprahwa in Basti district.
Gangetic plains, including the doab area
• Lumbini, which is situated at a distance of
covered by the Ganges, Yamuna, and their
15 km from Piprahwa in Nepal, served as
tributaries.
another capital of the Shakyas. In an
Ashokan inscription, it is called the
birthplace of Gautama Buddha.
ODSTU.COM • In the neighbourhood of Koshala lay the
republican clan of the Mallas, whose
territory touched the northern border of
Vajji state. One of the capitals of the Mallas
was at Kushinara where Gautama Buddha
passed away. Kushinara is coterminous
with Kasia in Deoria district.
• Further west was the kingdom of the
Vatsas, along the bank of the Yamuna, with
ODSTU.COM its capital at Kaushambi near Allahabad.
The Vatsas were a Kuru clan who had
shifted from Hastinapur and settled at
Kaushambi.
• In central Malwa and the adjoining parts of
MP lay the state of Avanti. It was divided
into two parts, the northern part with its
capital at Ujjain, and the southern part at
Mahishamati.
• In the north-west, Gandhara and Kamboja
were important mahajanapadas. Kamboja is
called a janapada in Panini and a
mahajanapada in the Pali texts. It was
• They were mostly situated north of the located in Central Asia in the Pamir area
Vindhyas and extended from the north-west which largely covered modern Tajikistan.
frontier to Bihar. In Tajikistan, the remains of a horse,
• Magadha embraced the former districts of chariots and spoked wheels, cremation, and
Patna, Gaya, and parts of Shahabad, and svastika, which are associated with the
Indo-Aryan speakers dating to between

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 CHAPTER: 16 - CENTRAL ASIAN CONTACT AND THEIR RESULT
• In the eastern and central parts of India and Nagasena’s answers were recorded in the
in the Deccan, the Mauryas were succeeded form of a book known as Milinda Panho or
by several native rulers such as the the Questions of Milinda.
Shungas, the Kanvas, and the Satavahanas. • Indo-Greek rule is important in the history
• In north-western India they were succeeded of India because of the large number of
by a number of ruling dynasties from coins that the Greeks issued. The Indo-
Central Asia. Greeks were the first rulers in India to issue
THE INDO-GREEKS coins.
• The first to cross the Hindu Kush were the • The Indo-Greeks were also the first to issue
gold coins in India, and these increased in
Greeks, who ruled Bactria, or Bahlika,
number under the Kushans. Greek rule
situated south of the Oxus river in the area introduced features of Hellenistic art in the
covered by north Afghanistan. north-west frontier of India, The best
• One important cause of the invasions was example of this was Gandhara art.
the weakness of the Seleucid empire that
had been established in Bactria and the
adjoining areas of Iran called Parthia.
• Pushed by the Scythian tribes, the Bactrian
Greeks were forced to invade India. The
successors of Ashoka were too weak to
stem the tide of foreign invasions that
ODSTU.COM
began during this period.
• The first to invade India were the Greeks,
who are called the Indo-Greeks or Indo-
Bactrians. In the beginning of the second
century BC, the Indo-Greeks occupied a
large part of north-western India.

Fig. Copper Plate Inscription

THE SHAKAS
• The Greeks were followed by the Shakas.
The Shakas or the Scythians destroyed
Greek power in both Bactria and India, and
controlled a much larger part of India than
had the Greeks.
• There were five branches of the Shakas
with their seats of power in different parts
of India and Afghanistan. One branch of the
Shakas settled in Afghanistan; the second in
ODSTU.COM
the Punjab with Taxila as their capital; the
third in Mathura where they ruled for about
two centuries; the fourth branch established
• Two Greek dynasties simultaneously ruled its hold over western India, where the
north western India on parallel lines. The Shakas continued to rule until the fourth
most famous Indo-Greek ruler was century; the fifth branch established its
Menander (165–45 BC), also known as power in the upper Deccan.
Milinda. He had his capital at Sakala • The king of Ujjain who effectively fought
(modern Sialkot) in the Punjab; and against the Shakas and succeeded in driving
invaded the Ganga–Yamuna doab. He had a them out during his reign. He called himself
great many cities in his dominions Vikramaditya, and an era called Vikrama
including Sakala and Mathura. Samvat is reckoned from his victory over
• Menander asked Nagasena many questions the Shakas in 57 BC.
relating to Buddhism. These questions and

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 CHAPTER: 17 - THE AGE OF SATAVAHANAS
POLITICAL HISTORY not only in Andhra but also in Maharashtra,
• The most important of the native successors MP, and Gujarat.
of the Mauryas in the north were the • The successors of Yajna Sri Satakarni were
Shungas followed by the Kanvas. In the unable to retain the Satavahana kingdom
Deccan and in central India, the which was destroyed by AD 220.
Satavahanas succeeded the Mauryas, ASPECTS OF MATERIAL CULTURE
although after a gap of about 100 years. • The material culture of the Deccan under
• The Satavahanas are considered to be the the Satavahanas was a fusion of local
same as the Andhras mentioned in the elements and northern ingredients. The
Puranas. Gradually the Satavahanas megalith builders of the Deccan were fairly
extended their power over Karnataka and well acquainted with the use of iron and
Andhra. agriculture.
• Their greatest competitors were the Shakas, • At a site in Karimnagar district, even a
who had established power in the upper blacksmith’s shop is found. The
Deccan and western India. The fortunes of Satavahanas may have exploited the iron
the family were restored by Gautamiputra ores of Karimnagar and Warangal, for these
Satakarni (AD 106–30) who called himself districts show signs of iron working that
the only brahmana. dates to the megalithic phase in the first
• He defeated the Shakas and destroyed many millennium BC.
kshatriya rulers. He claimed to have ended • Evidence of ancient gold workings has been
the Kshaharata lineage to which his found in the Kolar fields in the pre-
adversary Nahapana belonged. This claim Christian centuries and later. The
is true because over 8000 silver coins of Satavahanas may have used gold as bullion,
Nahapana, found near Nasik, bear the for they did not issue gold coins as did the
marks of having been restruck by the Kushans.
Satavahana king.
• In Peddabankur (200 BC–AD 200) in
• He also occupied Malwa and Kathiawar Karimnagar district, we find regular use of
which were controlled by the Shakas. It fire-baked bricks, and that of flat,
seems that the empire of Gautamiputra perforated roof tiles. Although roof tiles
Satakarni extended from Malwa in the were found in Kushan constructions, they
north to Karnataka in the south, and he were more widely used in the Deccan and
possibly also exercised general authority western India under the Satavahanas.
over Andhra.
• It is remarkable that as many as twenty-two
• The successors of Gautamiputra ruled till brick wells belonging to the second century
AD 220. The coins and inscriptions of his have been discovered at Peddabankur.
immediate successor Vashishthiputra
Pulumayi (AD 130– 54) have been found in
Andhra, and show that by the middle of the
second century this area had become a part
of the Satavahana kingdom. He set up his ODSTU.COM
capital at Paithan or Pratishthan on the
Godavari in Aurangabad district.
• The Shakas resumed their conflict with the
Satavahanas for the possession of the
Konkan coast and Malwa. Rudradaman I ODSTU.COM
(AD 130–50), the Shaka ruler of Saurashtra
(Kathiawar), defeated the Satavahanas
twice, but did not destroy them because of
shared matrimonial relations.
• Yajna Sri Satakarni (AD 165–94) was the
last great king of the Satavahana dynasty,
and recovered north Konkan and Malwa
from the Shaka rulers. He was a patron of
trade and navigation, and his coins appear SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
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 CHAPTER: 19 - CRAFTS, TRADE AND TOWNS IN THE POST-MAURYA AGE
CRAFTS AND CRAFTSMEN the term apana in the description of the city
• The Digha Nikaya, which relates to pre- of Sakala.
Maurya times, mentions nearly two dozen • Its shops appear as filled with various types
occupations, but the Mahavastu, which of cloth made in Kashi, Kotumbara, and
relates to this period, catalogues thirty-six elsewhere. Many artisans and merchants
kinds of workers living in the town of were organized into guilds called sreni and
Rajgir, and the list is not exhaustive. ayatana, but how these organizations
• The Milinda Panho or the Questions of functioned is indicated neither in the
Milinda enumerates as many as seventy- Mahavastu nor in the Milinda-Panho.
five occupations, sixty of which are • The Buddhist texts mention the sresthi, who
connected with various crafts. A Tamil text was the chief merchant of the nigama, and
known in English as The Garland of the sarthavaha, the caravan leader who was
Madurai supplements the information the head of the corporation of merchants
supplied by the two Buddhist texts on crafts (vanijgramo). It also speaks of nearly half a
and craftsmen. dozen petty merchants called vanija.
• The Telangana region of Andhra seems to • The term agrivanija seems to be obscure,
have been the richest in this respect, and in but these merchants may have been the
addition to weapons, balance rods, socketed predecessors of the agrawalas.
axes and hoes, sickles, ploughshares,
razors, and ladles have been discovered in
the Karimnagar and Nalgonda districts of
this region.
• Indian iron and steel, including cutlery,
were exported to the Abyssinian ports, and
they enjoyed great prestige in western Asia.
• Mathura was a great centre for the
manufacture of a special type of cloth
which was called shataka. Dyeing was a
thriving craft in some south Indian towns.
• A brick-built dyeing vat has been unearthed
at Uraiyur, a suburb of Tiruchirapalli town ODSTU.COM
in Tamil Nadu, and similar dyeing vats
were excavated at Arikamedu. These
structures relate to the first– third centuries
when the handloom textile industry in these
towns flourished.
• Many products of crafts have been found as
a result of digging in the Kushan Fig. Ancient Trade Route
complexes. Indian ivories have been found TRADE ROUTES AND CENTRES
in Afghanistan and Rome. They are likened • Although the Parthians of Iran imported
to ivory objects found in excavations at iron and steel from India, they presented
Satavahana sites in the Deccan. great obstacles to India’s trade with the
• Roman glass objects are found in Taxila lands further west of Iran. It seems that
and in Afghanistan, but it was around the around the beginning of the Christian era,
beginning of the Christian era that the the monsoon was understood, and this
knowledge of glass-blowing reached India enabled sailors to sail in much less time
and attained its peak. directly from the eastern coast of the
TYPES OF MERCHANTS Arabian Sea to the western coast, and
• The Garland of Madurai calls the streets easily call at the various ports along the
broad rivers of people who buy and sell in route such as Broach and Sopara situated
the market place. The importance of on the western coast of India, and
shopkeepers is indicated by the repetition of Arikamedu and Tamralipti situated on the
eastern coast.

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 CHAPTER: 24 – FORMATION OF NEW STATES AND RURAL EXPANSION IN THE
PENINSULA
THE NEW PHASE and the third century AD were largely
• The period c. AD 300–750 marks the written in Prakrit.
second historical phase in the regions south • The Brahmi inscriptions that have been
of the Vindhyas. It continued some of the found in Tamil Nadu also contain Prakrit
processes that had begun in the first words, but from about AD 400 onwards
historical phase (c. 200 BC–AD 300) of the Sanskrit became the official language in the
peninsula. peninsula and most charters were composed
• The first phase shows the ascendancy of the in it.
Satavahanas over the Deccan, and that of STATES OF THE DECCAN AND SOUTH
the Tamil kingdoms over the southern INDIA
districts of Tamil Nadu. In that period, • In northern Maharashtra and Vidarbha
northern Tamil Nadu, southern Karnataka, (Berar), the Satavahanas were succeeded by
a part of southern Maharashtra, and the land the Vakatakas, a local power. The
between the Godavari and the Mahanadi Vakatakas, who were brahmanas
broadly owed allegiance to the seats of themselves, are known from a large number
political authority established outside their of copperplate land grants issued by them.
areas. They were great champions of the
• Eventually, by the beginning of the seventh brahmanical religion and performed
century, the Pallavas of Kanchi, the numerous Vedic sacrifices.
Chalukyas of Badami, and the Pandyas of • Culturally however the Vakataka kingdom
Madurai emerged as the rulers of the three served as a channel for the transmission of
major states. The first historical phase is brahmanical ideas and social institutions to
marked by numerous crafts, internal and the south. The Vakataka power was
external trade, widespread use of coins, and followed by that of the Chalukyas of
a large number of towns. Badami who played an important role in the
• Trade, towns, and coinage seem to have history of the Deccan and south India for
been in a state of decline in the second about two centuries until AD 757, when
phase, but in that phase numerous land they were overthrown by their feudatories,
grants free of taxes were made to the the Rashtrakutas. The Chalukyas claimed
temples and brahmanas. their descent from Brahma or Manu or the
• Cave inscriptions probably indicate the Moon.
influence of Jainism and also of Buddhism
in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu.
This phase also marked the beginning of
the construction of stone temples for Shiva
and Vishnu in Tamil Nadu under the
Pallavas, and in Karnataka under the
Chalukyas of Badami.
• By the beginning of the second phase, south ODSTU.COM
India had ceased to be the land of
megaliths, and towards its end began the
process that made it a land of temples.
• Culturally, the Dravidian element seems to Fig. Cave Tempe at Badani
have dominated the scene in the first phase, • The Chalukyas set up their kingdom
but during the second phase Aryanization towards the beginning of the sixth century
and brahmanization came to the fore. This in the western Deccan. They established
happened because of land grants made by their capital at Vatapi, modern Badami, in
the rulers who were either brahmanas or the district of Bijapur, which forms a part
firm supporters of them. of Karnataka.
• The Ashokan inscriptions found in Andhra • On the ruins of the Satavahana power in the
and Karnataka show that the people knew eastern part of the peninsula, there arose the
Prakrit in the third century BC. Also, Ikshvakus in the Krishna–Guntur region.
epigraphs between the second century BC They seem to have been a local tribe who
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