Second Urbanization (600 BCE - 200 BCE )

During 800 & 200 BCE a movement named Shramana movement formed which resulted in rise Jainism & Buddhism and at the same time the Upanishads were written.

After 500 BCE, the so-called "Second urbanization" started, with new urban settlements arising at the Ganges plain, especially in the Central Ganges plain.

The central Ganges plain urbanization started around 500 BCE and it was the same time when Magadha gained eminence and formed the basis of Mauryan Empire.

The Mauryan Empire was very much influenced by the later Vedic Culture and it was the same region where Jainism and Buddhism originated and flourished.

A number of small cities and kingdoms formed in the later vedic period around 500 BCE known as the Mahajanapadas (the sixteen Kingdoms), which covered the latest known Bengal, Afganistan & Maharashtra. This period was the 2^nd most popular urbanization after the Indus Valley Civilization.

Further the sixteen kingdoms unite into the four major ones around 500BCE, the life of Gautam Buddha were mainly associated with these four kingdoms named Vatsa, Avanti, Kosala, and Magadha

Read more on Upanishads

Upanishads known as the conclusion of Vedas emerged around 800 to 400 BCE, the main focus of the Upanishads was the typical Hindu rituals. Later around 6^th and 7^th centuries BCE the later urbanization challenged the orthodox rituals and led to a popular movement known as Shramana.

Jannism & Budhism were the prominent icons of the movement and this movement gave rise to the concept of life and death.

Later Vedic Period Of India

When the Rig Veda taken its final form after 12th BCE, the complete Vedic period shifted to a settled agriculture life. Earlier the western Ganges plains were not in reach of Vedic tribes but after iron age around 1000 B.C.they cleaned all the heavy forests in western plans and settled there.

Further development in Vedic period takes place around 1100 BCE, when the Indo Aryans synchronize with the local native of north India that results into the development of Verna or the caste system.

The first and the latest example of the Vedic state was the Kuru Kingdom & with the development of the new Vedic state some old Vedic hymns were transformed into new orthodox rituals. The period also saw division of the Vedic society into Brahmins, Kshatriya,Vaishya and Shudras.

Brahmins are the priests, which further subdivided into multiple gotras, they learned about vedas from the childhood and respected by the India society for doing worships in there homes and in temples.

Kshatriya according to the Indian society was a role to protect the society in  warfare's and otherwise to rule the society.

Vaishya were the land owners, traders and the money lenders in the society

Shudras the fourth verna according to Hindu Mithology also  known as chaturvarna, shudras were serving for other three vernas.

Kuru Kingdom was later defeated by a non Vedic tribe and this was the time when Vedic culture shifted towards the east of the Ganges

In The Rig Vedic society, the institution of marriage was very important & women got a respected position in the society. The womens were allowed to do marriages by their own choice and the cows were treated holy.

Earlier according to Vedas the society was divided into four Vernas (Brahmins,Kshatriya,Vaishya and Shudra) but in the later Vedic period the roles social boundaries, status, ritual & purity for each of the groups were fixed.

The political organization of the Vedic period consists of many tribes governed by a Rajan and tribes and were protected by the Rajans only.
In the later Vedic period these small tribes consolidated and became kingdoms which had there own capital and administration.

The economy of the latter Vedic period was mainly dependent on the dana given to priests, the gifts given to the kings, at the time coins were not the great attraction but the instruments made up of precious metals such as axes, razors were mentioned in Rig Veda.

Agriculture dominated the latter Vedic period which also increased the trading and competition for resources and the religious faith was more on the main deities of the time. The popular deities were Agni, Indra, Prathvi, Surya, Vayu, Rivers were also considered sacred at the time.

The popular epics of the time like Gita of Mahabharata were preserved and formed the base of the modern India.   

 

Vedic Period Of Ancient India

Vedic Period (1750 -500)BCE comes with the decline of Indus Valley Civilization, the Indo-Aryans that migrated from now known Afghanistan to the northern part of Ancient India bring their own specific tradition and culture.

Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism were composed between 1500 to 800 BCE. Written in Sanskrit and were divided into four major texts - Rig veda, Sam Veda, Yajur veda and the Atharva veda.

The early Vedic period of Indo-Aryans were described in Rigveda, one of the oldest Vedic text. At the end of Rig Vedic period, Indo-Aryans started there expansion from northwest region to the western plains of India and were socially organized into four main Varanas (social classes).

Kuru Kingdom was the first state society of Vedic Period that developed specific traditions and rituals to uphold the social order. 1200 – 800 BCE was the beginning of Iron Age and composition of Atharva Veda (between this era importance of black metal was introduced). The centre of Vedic Culture shifted to the neighbor Panchal after decline of the Kuru Kingdom, Mahabharata, one of the core epic of Sanskrit is said to be originated in the same period.

Upanishads: Know as the conclusion or the last section of Vedas was written after 500 BCE which describes the earliest disclosure of the central religious concepts of Hinduism, Buddhism & Jainism and comes after the Sanskrit Era (people from different levels of society throughout the subcontinent were influenced to practice their social and religious life to Brahmana norms). Increasing urbanisation of India led to the inflation of new move that confronted the orthodoxy of rituals. Buddhism & Jainism were the most known forms of this movement.

Then comes the great empires like Nanda, Maurya, Kushan, Gupta, Chalukya and Chola.

Magadha Region (600-321 BC) was known as the land for its great rulers like Bimbisara and Ajatshatru who ruled most of the parts of present day Bihar, Bengal, Nepal, Bangladesh, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. It also played a major role in the expansion of Buddhism and Jainism and is also described in their texts. It was also the origin of some of the greatest empires (Nanda, Maurya and Gupta) of India. This age was also known as the “Golden Age” in Indian history since these empires saw the advancement in Mathematics, astronomy, ancient India's Science, religion and Philosophy. It is also described in Indian epics Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas.

Magadha Kings:

• Haryanka Dynasty 600-413 BC
  

  
• Shishunaga Dynasty 413-345 BC
• Nanda Dynasty 345-321 BCE

Nanda Dynasty (345-321 BCE) - Originated in 4th Century BC, At the peak of its empire Nanda Dynasty extended from Punjab in the west to Bengal in the east and as far as Vindhya range in the south. Known for their famous and historical capital city of Patliputra, mighty army which forced Alexander the great to return for better and wealth & treasure.

Maurya Dynasty was the only empire that united India into one big state and was established by the great Chandragupta Maurya by defeating Nanda Dynasty. In his reign, Ashoka the great – one of the fearsome and successful emperor extended his empire's territory to new heights. Stretching from natural boundaries of Himalayas in the north to the southern India except Tamilnadu and Kerala (present day) and Hind Kush mountains in Afghanistan (present day) in the west till Assam (present day) in the east. Also known as “Chakravari Samrat Ashoka” (Emperor of Emperors) whereas in Sanskrit Ashoka means without Sorrow, painless.

Kalinga (present day Orissa) was taken by King Ashoka but was also a turning point in the history of India as the bloodiest battle claimed 1,50,000 Kalinga and 1,00,000 Mauryan warriors lives and prompted king Ashoka to convert to Buddhism.

Gupta Empire (320-550 CE), also known as Golden age of India since there were achievements in engeineering, logic, technology, astronomy, science, literature, art, mathematics, philosophy, dialectic and religion and strengthen the elements of Hindu culture.

To be continued....

Indus Valley - One Of The Oldest Civilization Of The World

Ancient India is a long age civilization, better known in the world as Indus Valley Civilization.

Indus valley civilization is one of the oldest civilization in the world, it covered present North West India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. With population over 5 million the civilization is known for their  then build up houses, urban planning, drainage, water supply systems and the technology used for metallurgy & handicraft works.

The civilization age marked between 3300 to 1300 BC and was first explored in 1920's as Indus valley Civilization. Harappa & Mohenjo-Daro civilization are the two most popular excavated sites of Indus valley, 1056 settlements has been found in the civilization among which some of them were main urban hubs of Harappa & Mohenjo-Daro.

Urban plan then developed by the civilization for sanitation is known as the World’s first urban sanitation plan. They had well equipped sources & technology and were proficient in almost all the fields whether it was technology, art & crafts or the authority & governance for a perfect city plan.

The gradual decline of civilization began around 1800 BC and most of the archaeologists suggests the invasion of Indo European tribe or Aryans from the central Asia was one of the reasons.

Indus valley did not disappear completely as the Indus civilization culture was also adopted in the later civilizations and Vedic system followed later is also partially derived from it.

The possible reason behind the great civilization's decline is connected with the climate change but some considers the course of rivers was one of the major cause of Harappa’s decline while some studies also suggests that the irrigation capabilities of Indus valley civilization was not great and the civilization was completely dependent on monsoons for the irrigation facilities. They migrated towards the east in search of better resources and settled near Ganges basin in small groups since the water sources were dried-up.