ANCIENT INDIA

INTRODUCTION
Narmada River: People started living along its bank several thousand years
ago. Earliest people who lived here were gatherers .

Sulaiman and Kirthar hills: Northwest - here men and women first began to
grow crops such as wheat, barley etc, about 8000 years ago.

Garo hills (North east) and Vindhyas (central India): Agriculture

developed here. Rice was first grown in the north of vindhyas.

Ganga and its tributaries: In ancient times the area along these rivers to
the south of ganga was known as Magadha.

India or bharat: India is derived from Indus, called Sindhu in Sanskrit. The
Iranians and Greeks who came to the land were familiar with the Indus and called
it the hindos or indos and the land to the east of the river was called India.
Bharata came from a group of people who lived in the north west, mentioned in
the Rigveda (the earliest composition in Sanskrit).

Manuscripts: Hand written scripts on palm leaves or bark of trees found in

Himalayas.

Inscriptions: Carvings on hard surface such as stone or metal.

Archaeologist: Those who study inscriptions, manuscripts and ancient object
to find about early civilizations.

Prakrit: 3rd century Bc it served as the lingua franca of the country. Asoka's
inscriptions too were written in Prakrit. Later Sanskrit acquired the same positon.

Megaliths: South Indian people used to bury along the dead their tools,
weapons, pottery etc. And encircle it by big pieces of stone. Although megaliths
concept is vast which includes an arrangement of large undressed stones which
marks the construction phase of ancient era.

Radiocarbon dating: (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating)

is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by
using the properties of radiocarbon (14C), a radioactive isotope of carbon.

Pollen analysis: or Palynology, is a type of environmental archaeology in

which microscopes are used to analyse the range of plant pollens present in
archaeological layers: these can tell us what crops, vegetation or ground cover
were likely to have been present when a layer was deposited.

Numismatics: The study of coins.

Kushan Period: The first three Christian centuries. They used significant coin
moulds
of burnt clay which are being discovered today. The use of such moulds
almost disappeared in post- Gupta period.

Epigraphy: Study of Inscriptions

Palaeography: Study of old writing and other old records.

Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum: The systematic published collection of

inscriptions of Maurya, post- maurya and Gupta times in various volumes.

Brahmi Script: Asoka's inscription was written in this script which were written
from left to right but some were also written in Kharosthi script (right to left)

James Prinsep: A civil servant under east India company deciphered Ashoka
pillar's inscription
for the first time in 1837

Rig Veda: Oldest religious text in the world, composed around 1700 BC is a
collection of hymns. Were recited at the time of sacrificial rites and other rituals
with utmost devotion. It Contains 1028 hymns (1017+11 valakhilyas) and is
divided into 10 mandalas.

Samveda: Derived from the root Saman i.e. melody. It is a collection of

melodies.
It has 1603 verses but except 99 all the rest have been borrowed from Rig Veda.
Contains Dhrupad Raga which is the oldest of the ragas.

Yajurveda: Deals with the procedure for the performance of sacrifices. There
are two main texts of Yajurveda: White Yajurveda (or Shukla Yajurveda) contains
mantras & Black Yajurveda (or Krishna Yajurveda) has commentary in prose.

Atharvaveda: Entirely different from three other Vedas. Divided into 20

kandas (books) and has 711 hymns mostly dealing with magic (along with
personal problems of people). Atharvaveda refers to king as protector of
Brahmanas and eater of people. From the point of view of Vedic rituals,
Atharvaveda is the most important.

Brahamanas : They explain the hymns of the Vedas in an orthodox manner.

Each Veda has several Brahmans attached to it. The most important is Satpatha
Brahmana attached to Yajurveda which is the most exhaustive and important of
all. It recommends One Hundred Sacred Paths.

Aranyakas: Called forest books, written mainly by the hermits living in the
jungles for their pupils. These are the concluding part of the Brahmanas. Deals

with mysticism and philosophy. Opposed to sacrifice and emphasized meditation.

Form a bridge between Way of Work (Karma Marg) which was the sole concern
of the Upanishads and the Way of Knowledge (Gyan Marg) which the
Brahmanas advocated.

Upanishads: The word means to sit down near someone and denotes a
student sitting near his guru to learn. Also, called Vedanta (the end of the Vedas)
firstly because they denote the last phase of the Vedic period and secondly
because they reveal the final aim of the Vedas. They are the main source of
Indian philosophy. There are 108 Upanishads. They also condemn the ceremonies
and the sacrifices. They discuss the various theories of creation of the universe
and define the doctrine of action (karma).
Mandukya or Mundaka Upanishad is the source of Satyameva Jayate

Smritis: Explains rules and regulations in the Vedic life. Main are Manu smriti,
Naradsmriti, Yagyavalkyasmriti and Parashar smriti. Dharma sutras contain social
laws popularly known as Smriti. Earliest Dharma sutra is the Manu smriti which
is also called Manav Darshan.

Vedangas: Six Vedangas are Shiksha which deals with pronunciation, Kalpa
which deals with rituals, Vyakarana which deals with grammar, Nirukta which
deals with etymology or phonetics, Chhanda which deals with meter and Jyotisha
which deals with astronomy.

Epics: The period that lies between the Rig Vedic period and the rise of
Buddhism in India i.e., 200 to 700 B.C. has been designated by some as the Later
Vedic Period and by some as Epic Age. Though the two epics the Mahabharata
and the Ramayana were compiled later, they reflect the later Vedic Period. The
Mahabharata, attributed to Vyasa is considered older than the Ramayana and
describes the period about 1400 B.C (compiled from the tenth century B.C. to the
fourth century A.D).

It is also called Jai Samhita and Satasahasri Samhita and has one lakh verses
and is divided into eighteen books with the Harivansa attached to it at the end.
The Ramayana attributed to Valmiki has 24,000 verses. Its composition started in
the fifth century B.C. and passes through five stages; the fifth stage ending in
the 12th bc.

Arthashastra: The Arthashastra is the title of a handbook for running an

empire, written by Kautilya (also known as Chanakya, c. 350-275 BCE) an Indian
statesman and philosopher, chief advisor and Prime Minister of the Indian
Emperor Chandragupta, the first ruler of the Mauryan Empire.
Abhijnashkuntala or Abhijnakuntalam : is a well-known Sanskrit play by Klidsa,
dramatizing the story of Shakuntala told in the epic Mahabharata. It is the best of Klidsa's
works. Its date is uncertain, but Klidsa is often placed in the period between the 1st century
BCE and 4th century CE.

Sangam Literature: The Sangam period is the period in the history of ancient
southern India (known as the Tamilakam) spanning from c. 300 BCE to 300 CE
.This collection contains 2381 poems composed by 473 poets, some 102 of
whom remain anonymous. The period during which these poems were composed
is called the Sangam period, referring to the prevalent Sangam legends claiming
literary academies lasting thousands of years, giving the name to the corpus of
literature. Sangam literature is primarily secular, dealing with everyday themes
in a Tamilakam context. Major source of information about political, social and
economic life ancient Tamil Nadu.

Megasthenes : was a Greek ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic

period, author of the work Indika. He was born in Asia Minor and became an
ambassador of Seleucus I Nicator of the Seleucid dynasty possibly
to Chandragupta Maurya in Pataliputra, India. However, the exact date of his
embassy is uncertain. Scholars place it before 298 BCE, the date of
Chandragupta's death.

The Natural History (Latin: Naturalis Historia) : is an

early encyclopaedia in Latin by Pliny the Elder, a Roman author and naval commander who died
in 79 AD. It tells about the trade system between India and Italy.

Fa Hsien and Hsuan Tsang: Chinese travellers who came to visit

Buddhist shrines and study Buddhism. Fa Hsien came in the beginning of

5th century and described social, religious and economic condition of India
during the age of Gupta. Hsuan Tsang came in the second quarter of 7th
century and gave a similar account in the age of Harsha.
Harsha Charita : is the biography of Indian emperor Harsha by Bana Bhatta,
also known as Bana, who was a Sanskrit writer of seventh-century CE India. He
was the Asthana Kavi, meaning Court Poet, of Harsha. The Harsha Charita was
the first composition of Bana and is considered to be the beginning of writing of
historical poetic works in Sanskrit language.

Ramacharitam : is a Sanskrit epic poem written in Arya metre by Sandhyakar

Nandi during Pala Empire, between approximately 1050 and 1150 CE. This work
simultaneously narrates the story of the Ramayana and the Pala king Ramapala.
The work is biased in favour of Ramapala, but remains an important historical
source for the Pala history.

Vikramankadevacharita: Accounts the achievement of Vikramaaditya VI,

the Chalukya King of Kalyan, written by Vidyapati Bilhana.

Raja Tarangini: is a metrical legendary and historical chronicle of the north-western Indian
subcontinent, particularly the kings of Kashmir. It was written in Sanskrit by Kashmiri
Brahman Kalhana in the 12th century CE.