5th March, 2020: Vedant Sharma
There were a lot of aspects which came together to contribute to Ancient India. One of them were the Mahajanapadas which were sixteen in number and were one of the early republics in India. India also consisted of a huge number of elephants in the army. The reason for this being that when the enemies would see the huge elephants in war, it would immediately instill fear in them and thereby prove beneficial for the Indians.
Pyrrhic Victory refers to the victory which is not worth because the person has lost a lot in the process of winning it. It was named after a king who fought for Rome. The ‘Wars of Diadochi’ meant the wars of succession. Selukos Nikator, a Greek King, was one of the successors who fought in this war.
The Nanda Empire was established in India. This was the period during which Hinduism had risen and racism had taken place.
Chandragupta lived in one of the forests which came under this empire. He was a Kshatriya. One day, he saw a Brahmin who kept plucking grass which came in his way while walking. After observing for a while when Chandragupta asked him about the reason for it, he said that it was hurting his sole. Chandragupta offered the Brahmin some food and the Brahmin told him about the Greeks who were planning to invade on their land. This was when he came to know that the Brahmin was Chanakya.
Both of them planned the downfall of the Nanda Empire. After roaming around for sometime, Chanakya figured out a plan to do this and with his help, Chandragupta became the king by establishing the Mauryan Empire.
Chandragupta adopted Jainism after this and after he became old, he left for pilgrimage. He was also on a poison regimen where in the dosage of poison was increased gradually and over the years, one developed an immunity for it. Bindusar was the son of Chandragupta who had hundred sons and one of them was Ashoka. He was a naval commander and he killed all of his ninety nine brothers in one night.
The language spoken during this time was Pali. Kalinga was one of the Mahjanapadas, which had direct democracy. Buddhism became popular during this time because it didn’t have any rigid ceremonies or practices to follow. The theory given by Buddha of ‘ The cause of sorrow is Desire’ also became popular. And over the years, Buddhism overshadowed Hinduism.
Two schools of art existed during this time: The Gandhara school of art which focused on elaborate folds and jewellery and the Mathura school of art which developed in India and showed Buddha as someone who sacrificed his life and everything he had.
The domestic rise of Guptas had taken place for bringing back Hinduism. Coins came into existence during this period and even Mahabharata was written. Samudragupta unified the Mauryan Empire and brought it together as the Gupta Empire.
This discussion on Ancient India helped us in understanding the evolution of different dynasties which existed and the practices which prevailed during each one of them. We also got to know a lot about how the kingdoms came into existence and what led to their downfall. This helped in developing our understanding of the Indian Empires and their ways of ruling.
The Idealist 