Paraphrase

The Aryans migrated to India after 1500 B.C.E and formed small kingdoms throughout the subcontinent. The kingdoms continuously fought each other to expand and absorb the conquered territory. The wars caused consolidation of kingdoms into two major actions, the Mauryan and Gupta dynasties in 600 B.C.E. Neither dynasty survived long enough to establish absolute control and politically unify India. However, in 520 B.C.E Darius I of the Persian Empire conquered northwest India and brought the subcontinent under Achaemenid authority, which introduced the local rulers to Persian administrative techniques. When Alexander of Macedon conquered Persia in 327 B.C.E, he ruled Northern India region of Punjab for a short while but left a political vacuum in northwestern India.

In 500 B.C.E, King of Magadha filled the political vacuum of the northwestern India. The inhabitants of Ganges plains had benefited commercially from trade and agriculture that brought wealth and enabled Magadha to conquer neighboring kingdoms and establish authority in northwestern India. Chandragupta Maurya established the Mauryan Empire in 320 B.C.E in an attempt to spread a centralized and unified authority in India. He conquered the Greek of Bactria and the kingdoms of the Seleucid era.

The Chandragupta government used the Arthashastra form of government that was developed by Kautalya, who was the system advisor for Chandragupta. The government system oversaw trade, taxation, agriculture, order, and foreign relations. Similar to the Chinese and Persian emperors, Chandragupta’s government was bureaucratic. Ashoka Maurya, the grandson of Chandragupta, ruled the empire from 297 B.C.E and expanded the Mauryan Empire to Kalinga that was once an independent region of the subcontinent. The sound policies of Ashoka stabilized and unified India. They led to the establishment of irrigation systems that expanded the Indian agricultural sector. The death of Ashoka in 232 B.C.E and economic challenges due to the large size of the Mauryan administrative structure led to the decline of the Mauryan Empire by 185 B.C.E.

After the fall of the Mauryan Empire, Northern India came under the rule of Greek-speaking rulers that were heirs of the Alexander of Macedonia. The rulers were from Bactria and mingled with Greeks to form a Greco-Bactrian kingdom in 250 B.C.E. Bactria benefited from being the commercial hub of the trade between the Mediterranean and China and conquered northern India in 182 B.C.E. Groups of Nomadic conquerors from central Asia fought the Bactrian empire and collapsed the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Kushans were one of the successful nomad conquerors and formed the Kushan Empire that is modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern Parts of Northern India. The Kushan Empire conquered Persia and China and facilitated the development of the Silk Road network to promote trade. Since Kushan emperors were Buddhists, they commissioned artists to create depictions of Buddha that boosted the spread of Buddhism to East and Central Asia.

The Gupta had also attempted to unify India like the Mauryan Empire. The Gupta dynasty was based in Magadha and created the kingdom in 320 C.E. Unlike the Mauryans whose emperors were actively involved in policy formulation; the Guptas left policy making to the allies of the regions of the empire. The political stability of the Gupta kingdom facilitated advancement in philosophy and science and led to the development of a flexible numerical system that introduced the place value notation. The Indians were also good in astronomy and established 365.3586805 days as the length of a solar year. Attacks from nomad conquerors called White Hun from Central Asia caused the decline of the Gupta Empire.

India grew due to the adoption of iron metallurgy by the Aryans that enabled them to manufacture iron axes that were used to access remote regions and for agriculture. Farming provided food surpluses to the Mauryan and Gupta kingdom and led to the emergence of towns and the caste system. Manufacturing towns developed in India due in 600 B.C.E due to the growth of pottery. The long-distance links that Indians kept introduced India to long distance trade. Indian merchants during the Mauryan era traded in the Indian Ocean basin by sailing with the help of the monsoon winds. Indians embraced a patriarchal family system, and most people lived in nuclear families. The Indian society was divided into a caste that included Brahmins (priests), Vaishyas (peasants and merchants), Kshatriyas (warriors and aristocrats), and Shudras (serfs). Industrialization led to the emergence of guilds that were social unions of artisans and craftspersons that opposed the oppressive caste system in 600 B.C.E.

Brahmins priests practiced the religion of salvation during the caste system to thank gods for harvest. However, in the fifth century, atheistic materialism gained popularity and Brahmanist religions and converted to Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism. These religions opposed the caste system and embraced an ascetic lifestyle that did not recognize governments or social classes. Ashoka, the emperor of the Mauryan Empire, officially supported Buddhism. Hinduism also gained popularity in India and evolved into a religion of salvation. The classical Indians had epic poems such as Ramayan and Mahabharata that documented the Hindu values. Moralist Indians developed Hindu ethics that embraced detachment from the world to escape incarnation. The spread of devotional Hinduism and Islam almost led to the decline of Buddhism in classical India.