GREAT MIGRATIONS
The Aryan Migrations of Indo-Europeans took place between 4000-1000 BC
The Aryans called the indigenous people, DRAVIDIANS
The two groups intermarried, interacted and laid social and cultural foundations that evolved into the complexity of South Asia
Sanskrit into Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and others
HINDUISM
Ritualistic Brahmanism : a rigid structure 1500-1000 BC
THE SECOND PERIOD 1000 - 500 BC
Encyclopedia BRAHMANAS
Epics MAHABARATA and RAMAYANA
800 BC Upanishads : mystical understanding as opposed to caste and ritual : asceticism and personal god
6th century BC- Jainism and Buddhism
SOUTH ASIAN CLASSICAL ERA : MAURYA and GUPTA
326 BC Alexander the Great with his Macedonian army invades the north
This newcomer force pushes for the first dynastic empire: 800 years, One of the RAJ becoming EMPEROR : The first is Maurya Dynasty, Asoka one that recognizes and spreads Buddhism
GUPTA Dynasty 320-540 after which political parcellization again, rise of rajputs as military aristocracies
Jainism and Buddhism
6th century BC - spritual leaders Mahavira and Buddha offered answers
To the rigidity of Brahmanism
To the difficult-to-follow path of asceticism in the Upanishads
To the individualistic nature of devotion to personal gods
Mahavira: everything with a soul, requiring respect
Buddha: Suffering is the essence of life, no afterlife
MEDIEVAL INDIA
6th to 15th centuries, political and religious diversity
Small kingdoms and military aristocracies,
RAJPUTS and autonomous villages
Scholasticism and ritualistic religion
8th century Abbasid invasion from the north
Central Asian Islam penetrates via raids & sufism
1000 afghano-turkic islamic raids
Turks, Afghans, Persians and Mongols entered into India, most prominently from Ghazni (today in Afghanistan)with Mahmud of Ghazni (998-1030) making the Punjabi region a gateway to Islam
North Indians, low-caste Hindus and Buddhists converted
THE DELHI SULTANATE
The first Muslim state 1206 in Delhi by Qutb-ud-din Aybak constantly expanding and contracting
Mixing very well with the indidgenous populaces
Divided into 5 dynasties : the Tughluqs were crushed by Timur from Samarkand (1398-99) desolating the entire sultanate but the last dynasty (Lodis) nonetheless survived until 1526
The Delhi Sultanate : saving South Asia from the Empire of Cengiz Khan but establishing a stronger Mongol legacy together with Islam
After the Mongols
The vast Mongol realm dissolved after Cengiz Han : his imperial venture brought the societies of Eurasia into closer contact
Turkic peoples resumed campaigns with Timur (14th and 15th centuries) who built a central asian empire that collapsed after his death but deeply influenced the coming muslim empires (Mughal, Safavid and Ottoman)
