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World History 1

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	From the fourth to the seventh centuries, an empire founded by the <OpenstaxTerm>Gupta</OpenstaxTerm> dynasty (320–600 CE) ruled over northern India. As revealed by the name he took, Chandragupta, the founder, emulated the Mauryans and its famous founder, Chandragupta <OpenstaxTerm>Maurya</OpenstaxTerm>. He hired scribes working in Sanskrit to promote learning and the arts, and during this age, Sanskrit became the basis for a classical literature that influenced generations of Indians and the world. Texts such as the <OpenstaxTerm><OpenstaxEm>Mahabharata</OpenstaxEm></OpenstaxTerm> and <OpenstaxEm>Ramayana</OpenstaxEm> glorified ideas about duty, valor, and performing a proper role in society (<a href="#fig-00005">Figure 5.24</a>). The first was a collection of thrilling poems featuring feuding rulers and powerful families, the other an epic tale of a warrior prince’s journey to recover his honor.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00005" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/3a96c15c04140229a6c4ebe23694e8e749dfca0e" alt="A painting is shown in rich colors and a black border. Some of the edges are worn and creases show throughout the image. A red wall with black vertical stripes is shown in the lower half of the image. In front of the wall on the left, a woman in a black skirt with gold stripes, red half shirt and gold cloth on her head is seen standing, her left arm out in front of her and her right hand holding the cloth on her head as she looks down to the left. A pile of clothes in various colors lays all around her. A figure to the right in a pink and dark pink long coat stands in gold boots atop some of the clothes on the floor. He wears a gold crown, has a moustache that extends to his ears and is pulling at the gold cloth on the lady’s head. In the right forefront of the image, five people of various skin colors sit on the ground in black, blue, pink, yellow, and white with black dots robes, all wearing gold crowns and sporting moustaches. In the top half of the image, three arched openings are seen with red and black curtains rolled up and tied with a black string above them. In the left opening, six figures wearing crowns can be seen facing to the right with moustaches and beards in black and white and varying colors of clothing. In the middle opening at the left, a figure sits on a pink carpet with black trim. He wears a long black robe, wears a gold crown, and has a long white moustache. His eyes are closed and his hands rest in front of him. On the right side of this opening, a figure in a red shirt with gold adornment, gold crown, and long black moustache extends his right hand out toward the figure of the woman in the gold cloth on her head in the left forefront of the image. The right opening shows five figures with gold crowns and varying colors of clothes facing to the left. A figure in red and blue stands on the left and a figure in pink and white stands on the right. Behind all of the openings, a yellow wall can be seen in the lower half and a gray wall with arched recesses shows across the top." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1350" height="984" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1350">
	<strong>Figure 5.24</strong> The Mahabharata is possibly the longest poem even written, with over 200,000 verse lines describing the lives and conflicts of several noble families. One of the main women featured in the stories is Draupadi, known for her beauty and morality. This eighteenth-century watercolor painting depicts a story in the epic when Draupadi’s enemies attempt to humiliate her by stripping her naked. However, she’s saved by the Hindu god Krishna who miraculously clothes her anew each time her dress is removed. (credit: “The disrobing of Draupadi” by Howard Hodgkin Collection, Purchase, Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, by exchange, 2022/Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	In <OpenstaxTerm><OpenstaxEm>Ramayana</OpenstaxEm></OpenstaxTerm>, Rama, an avatar for the Hindu deity Vishnu, triumphs over the demon Ravana on the island of Sri Lanka and rescues his wife Sita before going on to found a perfect Indian society from his capital of Ayudha. His noble virtues and ideal society became models for Hindus to aspire to as rulers and aristocrats, while his exploits were retold for centuries in countless paintings, sculptures, carnivals, plays, and shadow theatres.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The Sanskrit classics <OpenstaxEm>Mahabharata</OpenstaxEm> and <OpenstaxEm>Ramayana</OpenstaxEm> soon spread far and wide in Southeast Asia, where they became part of the cultural fabric for a multitude of non-Indians as well. Other intellectuals of the Gupta era proved themselves in the field of mathematics by using decimals and a mark to denote the <OpenstaxTerm>concept of zero</OpenstaxTerm> for precise measurements and recordkeeping. Among the more notable was the astronomer <OpenstaxTerm>Brahmagupta</OpenstaxTerm>, who in the seventh century CE pioneered the use of multiplication and division and the idea of <OpenstaxTerm>negative numbers</OpenstaxTerm>.
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<OpenstaxNote>
	<OpenstaxNoteTitle> Link to Learning </OpenstaxNoteTitle> 
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		You can read a <a href="https://openstax.org/l/77RamayanaSyn">brief synopsis of the <OpenstaxEm>Ramayana</OpenstaxEm> and a description of the epic’s major characters</a> at the British Library website.
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		An <a href="https://openstax.org/l/77RamayanaVid">animated English-language version of the epic</a> is also available.
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
</OpenstaxNote>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	In politics the Guptas were innovators as well. In return for their loyalty, rulers granted tracts of land as gifts to powerful families, Brahmans, and temple complexes, guaranteeing these followers a share of the harvest and consolidating their own control. In return, the Brahmans elevated the <OpenstaxTerm>Gupta</OpenstaxTerm> rulers to new heights in rituals honoring Vishnu and Shiva. Yet as these deities became more important, worship among the commoners turned more personal and private; singing as a form of prayer and ritualism inside the home became essential to daily lives. Many Indians began to believe in the sanctity of <OpenstaxEm>bhakti</OpenstaxEm>, a direct personal relationship between a follower and the deity. This idea bypassed the role of Brahmans as intermediaries, displeasing the Brahmans but gaining popularity in southern India, where poems written in the <OpenstaxTerm>Tamil</OpenstaxTerm> language became foundational to the new practice of personalized worship among Hindus.
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<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The Gupta’s dynasty marked a flourishing of art and religion and the heyday of Buddhism in India. Painted caves with beautiful sculptures found in the Ajanta caves illustrate the sophistication of the artists patronized by the dynasty. While <OpenstaxTerm>Hinduism</OpenstaxTerm> remained the official religion of the state and the Guptas, Buddhist universities such as <OpenstaxTerm>Nalanda</OpenstaxTerm> were among the first of their kind in the ancient world and attracted throngs of students and pilgrims from <OpenstaxTerm>China</OpenstaxTerm>. <OpenstaxTerm>India</OpenstaxTerm>’s educated classes ranked among the most learned and knowledgeable of the ancient world, and at times they turned their attention from math and morality to explore the depths of passion, love, and eroticism. During this period, the <OpenstaxEm>Kama Sutra</OpenstaxEm>, a treatise on courtship and sexuality, became a seminal piece of Indian literature, inspiring and titillating generations worldwide ever since.
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<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The opulence and stability provided by the Guptas dissipated under the threat of invaders from the north known as the <OpenstaxTerm>Huns</OpenstaxTerm>. While northern India fractured into smaller states after this point, southern India’s ties and trade with South Asia deepened and matured. By the eleventh century, the region’s profitable exports of goods such as ivory, pepper, spices, Roman coins, and even animals like the peacock had led to the formation of notable southern kingdoms, such as the <OpenstaxTerm>Tamil Chola</OpenstaxTerm> dynasty. But the most influential exports from India to the rest of South Asia—Hinduism, Buddhism, and the art and learning each inspired—long outlived these states.
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5.4.5 The Gupta Dynasty

1 Understanding the Past

1.1 Developing a Global Perspective

1.1.1 World History as Preparation for Life after College

1.1.2 World History and Global Citizenship

1.1.3 Features of This Textbook

1.2 Primary Sources

1.2.1 Learning to Evaluate Documents and Images

1.2.2 Documentary Sources: Competing Narratives

1.2.3 Textual Sources: The Importance of Language

1.2.4 Hidden in History

1.3 Causation and Interpretation in History

1.3.1 Levels of Causation

1.3.2 Interpretation in History

2 Early Humans

2.1 Early Human Evolution and Migration

2.1.1 Human Evolution

2.1.2 Why Did Humans Move and Where Did They Go?

2.1.3 Early Human Technologies

2.2 People in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.1 Ice, Ice, and More Ice

2.2.2 Life in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.3 Diverse Paleolithic Peoples

2.3 The Neolithic Revolution

2.3.1 The Development of Agriculture

2.3.2 How Farming Changed the Human Experience

2.3.3 Neolithic Peoples

3 Early Civilizations and Urban Societies

3.1 Early Civilizations

3.1.1 Attributes of Early Civilizations

3.1.2 The First Urban Societies

3.2 Ancient Mesopotamia

3.2.1 The Rise and Eclipse of Sumer

3.2.2 The Rise of the World’s First Empire

3.2.3 Later Empires in Mesopotamia

3.2.4 Society and Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

3.3 Ancient Egypt

3.3.1 The Origins of Ancient Egypt

3.3.2 The Age of Pyramid Building

3.3.3 A Second Age of Egyptian Greatness

3.4 The Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.1 The Origins of the Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.2 Trade, Writing, and Religion

3.4.3 The Era of Decline

4 The Near East

4.1 From Old Babylon to the Medes

4.1.1 Power Politics in the Near East

4.1.2 Foreign Affairs and Trade

4.1.3 Daily Life and the Family in the Near East

4.2 Egypt’s New Kingdom

4.2.1 The Hyksos in Egypt

4.2.2 The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom

4.2.3 Egypt’s Foreign Policy

4.3 The Persian Empire

4.3.1 The Rise of Persia

4.3.2 Darius I and the Reorganization of the Empire

4.3.3 Persian Culture and Daily Life

4.4 The Hebrews

4.4.1 The History of the Hebrews

4.4.2 The Culture of the Hebrews

5 Asia in Ancient Times

5.1 Ancient China

5.1.1 Prehistoric China

5.1.2 Early Dynastic China

5.1.3 The Zhou Dynasty

5.1.4 The Warring States Era and Qin Unification

5.2 The Steppes

5.2.1 The Nomadic Culture of the Steppes

5.2.2 Tribes, Confederations, and Settled Neighbors

5.3 Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia

5.3.1 Ancient Korea

5.3.2 Ancient Japan

5.4 Vedic India to the Fall of the Maurya Empire

5.4.1 Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

5.4.2 The Aryans and Brahmanism

5.4.3 Buddhism

5.4.4 The Mauryan Empire

6 Mediterranean Peoples

6.1 Early Mediterranean Peoples

6.1.1 The Late Bronze Age World

6.1.2 Phoenicians, Greeks, and Etruscans

6.2 Ancient Greece

6.2.1 Archaic Greece

6.2.2 Sparta and Athens

6.2.3 Classical Greece

6.3 The Hellenistic Era

6.3.1 The Kingdom of Macedon

6.3.2 Hellenistic Culture

6.4 The Roman Republic

6.4.1 The Foundation and Function of the Roman Republic

6.4.2 The Expansion of the Roman Republic

6.5 The Age of Augustus

6.5.1 The First Triumvirate

6.5.2 From Republic to Principate

7 Experiencing the Roman Empire

7.1 The Daily Life of a Roman Family

7.1.1 The Structure of Roman Families

7.1.2 A Day in the Life of a Roman Family

7.1.3 What Family Meant in Rome

7.2 Slavery in the Roman Empire