Modern India and the Indians: Volume 66 (Trubners Oriental Series)

History of the rupee

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They had to compete with the Shunga Empire and then the Kanva dynasty of Magadha to establish their rule. Later, they played a crucial role to protect large part of India against foreign invaders like the Sakas , Yavanas and Pahlavas.

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In particular, their struggles with the Western Kshatrapas went on for a long time. In the 3rd century CE the empire was split into smaller states. Silk Road and Spice trade , ancient trade routes that linked India with the Old World ; carried goods and ideas between the ancient civilisations of the Old World and India. The land routes are red, and the water routes are blue.

The Pompeii Lakshmi ivory statuette was found in the ruin of Pompeii. It is thought to have come from Bhokardan in the Satavahana realm in the first half of the 1st century CE. Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian at the ruins of Ashoka the Great 's palace. Tharisapalli plates granted to Saint Thomas Christians by South Indian Chera ruler Sthanu Ravi Varma testify that merchant guilds and trade corporations played a very significant role in the economy and social life during the Kulasekhara period of Kerala, India.

Kushan territories full line and maximum extent of Kushan dominions under Kanishka dotted line , according to the Rabatak inscription. The Kushan Empire expanded out of what is now Afghanistan into the northwest of the Indian subcontinent under the leadership of their first emperor, Kujula Kadphises , about the middle of the 1st century CE. The Kushans were possibly of Tocharian speaking tribe; [] one of five branches of the Yuezhi confederation. Emperor Kanishka was a great patron of Buddhism ; however, as Kushans expanded southward, the deities of their later coinage came to reflect its new Hindu majority.

Historian Vincent Smith said about Kanishka:. He played the part of a second Ashoka in the history of Buddhism. The empire linked the Indian Ocean maritime trade with the commerce of the Silk Road through the Indus valley, encouraging long-distance trade, particularly between China and Rome. The Kushans brought new trends to the budding and blossoming Gandhara art and Mathura art , which reached its peak during Kushan rule.

The Kushan period is a fitting prelude to the Age of the Guptas. By the 3rd century, their empire in India was disintegrating and their last known great emperor was Vasudeva I. Marking the location where the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment. Classical India refers to the period when much of the Indian subcontinent was united under the Gupta Empire c.

The high points of this cultural creativity are magnificent architecture, sculpture, and painting. The Gupta period marked a watershed of Indian culture: The military exploits of the first three rulers — Chandragupta I , Samudragupta , and Chandragupta II — brought much of India under their leadership.

Strong trade ties also made the region an important cultural centre and established it as a base that would influence nearby kingdoms and regions in Burma, Sri Lanka, Maritime Southeast Asia , and Indochina. The latter Guptas successfully resisted the northwestern kingdoms until the arrival of the Alchon Huns , who established themselves in Afghanistan by the first half of the 5th century, with their capital at Bamiyan. Their state is believed to have extended from the southern edges of Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra River in the south as well as from the Arabian Sea in the western to the edges of Chhattisgarh in the east.

They were the most important successors of the Satavahanas in the Deccan , contemporaneous with the Guptas in northern India and succeeded by the Vishnukundina dynasty. The Vakatakas are noted for having been patrons of the arts, architecture and literature. They led public works and their monuments are a visible legacy. Davaka was later absorbed by Kamarupa, which grew into a large kingdom that spanned from Karatoya river to near present Sadiya and covered the entire Brahmaputra valley, North Bengal , parts of Bangladesh and, at times Purnea and parts of West Bengal.

Ruled by three dynasties Varmanas c. All three dynasties claimed their descent from Narakasura , an immigrant from Aryavarta. Later, after weakening and disintegration after the Kamarupa-Palas , the Kamarupa tradition was somewhat extended until c. The Pallavas , during the 4th to 9th centuries were, alongside the Guptas of the North , great patronisers of Sanskrit development in the South of the Indian subcontinent.

The Pallava reign saw the first Sanskrit inscriptions in a script called Grantha. The Pallavas used Dravidian architecture to build some very important Hindu temples and academies in Mamallapuram , Kanchipuram and other places; their rule saw the rise of great poets. The practice of dedicating temples to different deities came into vogue followed by fine artistic temple architecture and sculpture style of Vastu Shastra.

Pallavas reached the height of power during the reign of Mahendravarman I — CE and Narasimhavarman I — CE and dominated the Telugu and northern parts of the Tamil region for about six hundred years until the end of the 9th century. King Mayurasharma defeated the armies of Pallavas of Kanchi possibly with help of some native tribes. The Kadamba fame reached its peak during the rule of Kakusthavarma , a notable ruler with whom even the kings of Gupta Dynasty of northern India cultivated marital alliances.

The Kadambas were contemporaries of the Western Ganga Dynasty and together they formed the earliest native kingdoms to rule the land with absolute autonomy. The dynasty later continued to rule as a feudatory of larger Kannada empires, the Chalukya and the Rashtrakuta empires, for over five hundred years during which time they branched into minor dynasties known as the Kadambas of Goa , Kadambas of Halasi and Kadambas of Hangal. The inscription in cursive Bactrian reads: The Alchon Huns established themselves in modern-day Afghanistan by the first half of the 5th century.

Led by the Hun military leader Toramana , they overran Northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. Hiuen Tsiang narrates Mihirakula's merciless persecution of Buddhists and destruction of monasteries, though the description is disputed as far as the authenticity is concerned. Some of them were driven out of India and others were assimilated in the Indian society. Harsha ruled northern India from to CE.

He was the son of Prabhakarvardhana and the younger brother of Rajyavardhana , who were members of the Vardhana dynasty and ruled Thanesar , in present-day Haryana. After the downfall of the prior Gupta Empire in the middle of the 6th century, North India reverted to smaller republics and monarchical states. The power vacuum resulted in the rise of the Vardhanas of Thanesar, who began uniting the republics and monarchies from the Punjab to central India.

After the death of Harsha's father and brother, representatives of the empire crowned Harsha emperor at an assembly in April CE, giving him the title of Maharaja when he was merely 16 years old. The peace and prosperity that prevailed made his court a centre of cosmopolitanism, attracting scholars, artists and religious visitors from far and wide. North-Western Indian Buddhism weakened in the 6th century after the Alchon Huns invasion, who followed their own religions at the beginning such as Tengri , but later Indian religions.

The Chach Nama records many instances of conversion of stupas to mosques such as at Nerun. In the 8th century, Adi Shankara travelled across the Indian subcontinent to propagate and spread the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta , which he consolidated; and is credited with unifying the main characteristics of the current thoughts in Hinduism. Ronald Inden writes that by the 8th century CE symbols of Hindu gods "replaced the Buddha at the imperial centre and pinnacle of the cosmo-political system, the image or symbol of the Hindu god comes to be housed in a monumental temple and given increasingly elaborate imperial-style puja worship".

Emperor Harsha of Kannauj succeeded in reuniting northern India during his reign in the 7th century, after the collapse of the Gupta dynasty. His empire collapsed after his death. From the 8th to the 10th century, three dynasties contested for control of northern India: The Sena dynasty would later assume control of the Pala Empire; the Gurjara Pratiharas fragmented into various states, notably the Paramaras of Malwa, the Chandelas of Bundelkhand , the Kalachuris of Mahakoshal , the Tomaras of Haryana , and the Chauhans of Rajputana , these states were some of the earliest Rajput kingdoms ; [] while the Rashtrakutas were annexed by the Western Chalukyas.

Kalhana in his Rajatarangini credits king Lalitaditya with leading an aggressive military campaign in Northern India and Central Asia. The Hindu Shahi dynasty ruled portions of eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, and Kashmir from the mid-7th century to the early 11th century. While in Odisha , the Eastern Ganga Empire rose to power; noted for the advancement of Hindu architecture , most notable being Jagannath Temple and Konark Sun Temple , as well as being patrons of art and literature. The Chalukya Empire ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries.

During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynasty, known as the "Badami Chalukyas", ruled from Vatapi modern Badami from the middle of the 6th century. The rule of the Chalukyas marks an important milestone in the history of South India and a golden age in the history of Karnataka. The political atmosphere in South India shifted from smaller kingdoms to large empires with the ascendancy of Badami Chalukyas. A Southern India-based kingdom took control and consolidated the entire region between the Kaveri and the Narmada rivers.

The rise of this empire saw the birth of efficient administration, overseas trade and commerce and the development of new style of architecture called "Chalukyan architecture". The Chalukya dynasty ruled parts of southern and central India from Badami in Karnataka between and , and then again from Kalyani between and The Chaulukya dynasty of Gujarat were a branch of the Chalukyas. Founded by Dantidurga around , [] the Rashtrakuta Empire ruled from its capital at Manyakheta for almost two centuries.

The early rulers of this dynasty were Hindu, but the later rulers were strongly influenced by Jainism. Amoghavarsha, who ruled for 64 years, was also an author and wrote Kavirajamarga , the earliest known Kannada work on poetics. Other important contributions are the Kashivishvanatha temple and the Jain Narayana temple at Pattadakal in Karnataka. The Arab traveller Suleiman described the Rashtrakuta Empire as one of the four great Empires of the world. Kandariya Mahadeva Temple in the Khajuraho complex was built by the Chandelas , who were feudatories of the Gurjara-Pratiharas. The complex is the greatest development of Gurjara-Pratihara style of temple building and famous for nagara -style architectural symbolism and erotic sculptures.

One of the four entrances of the Teli ka Mandir. This Hindu temple was built by the Pratihara emperor Mihira Bhoja. Sculptures near Teli ka Mandir, Gwalior Fort. Jainism-related cave monuments and statues carved into the rock face inside Siddhachal Caves , Gwalior Fort. He was succeeded by his son Ramabhadra , who ruled briefly before being succeeded by his son, Mihira Bhoja. Under Bhoja and his successor Mahendrapala I , the Pratihara Empire reached its peak of prosperity and power. By the time of Mahendrapala, the extent of its territory rivalled that of the Gupta Empire stretching from the border of Sindh in the west to Bengal in the east and from the Himalayas in the north to areas past the Narmada in the south.

By the 10th century, several feudatories of the empire took advantage of the temporary weakness of the Gurjara-Pratiharas to declare their independence, notably the Paramaras of Malwa, the Chandelas of Bundelkhand , the Kalachuris of Mahakoshal , the Tomaras of Haryana , and the Chauhans of Rajputana. The Pala Empire was founded by Gopala I.

The Palas were followers of the Mahayana and Tantric schools of Buddhism, [] they also patronised Shaivism and Vaishnavism. The empire reached its peak under Dharmapala and Devapala. Dharmapala is believed to have conquered Kanauj and extended his sway up to the farthest limits of India in the northwest.

The Pala Empire can be considered as the golden era of Bengal in many ways. Nalanda reached its height under the patronage of the Pala Empire. They maintained close cultural and commercial ties with countries of Southeast Asia and Tibet. Sea trade added greatly to the prosperity of the Pala Empire. The Arab merchant Suleiman notes the enormity of the Pala army in his memoirs. The granite gopuram tower of Brihadeeswarar Temple , CE. The pyramidal structure above the sanctum at Brihadisvara Temple. Brihadeeswara Temple Entrance Gopurams at Thanjavur.

Medieval Cholas rose to prominence during the middle of the 9th century C. The power of the new empire was proclaimed to the eastern world by the expedition to the Ganges which Rajendra Chola I undertook and by the occupation of cities of the maritime empire of Srivijaya in Southeast Asia, as well as by the repeated embassies to China. They dominated the political affairs of Sri Lanka for over two centuries through repeated invasions and occupation.

They also had continuing trade contacts with the Arabs in the west and with the Chinese empire in the east. In all of these spheres, the Chola period marked the culmination of movements that had begun in an earlier age under the Pallavas. Monumental architecture in the form of majestic temples and sculpture in stone and bronze reached a finesse never before achieved in India. The Western Chalukyas developed an architectural style known today as a transitional style, an architectural link between the style of the early Chalukya dynasty and that of the later Hoysala empire.

Most of its monuments are in the districts bordering the Tungabhadra River in central Karnataka. The early Islamic literature indicates that the conquest of the Indian subcontinent was one of the very early ambitions of the Muslims, though it was recognised as a particularly difficult one. After several incursions, the Hindu kings east of Indus defeated the Arabs during the Umayyad campaigns in India , halting their expansion and containing them at Sindh in Pakistan. Several Islamic kingdoms sultanates under both foreign and, newly converted, Rajput rulers were established across the Northwestern Indian subcontinent Afghanistan and Pakistan over a period of a few centuries.

From the 10th century, Sindh was ruled by the Rajput Soomra dynasty , and later, in the midth century by the Rajput Samma dynasty. Additionally, Muslim trading communities flourished throughout coastal south India, particularly on the western coast where Muslim traders arrived in small numbers, mainly from the Arabian peninsula.

This marked the introduction of a third Abrahamic Middle Eastern religion, following Judaism and Christianity, often in puritanical form. Mahmud of Ghazni in the early 11th century raided mainly the north-western parts of the Indian sub-continent 17 times, but he did not seek to establish "permanent dominion" in those areas. The kingdom was known as the Kabul Shahan or Ratbelshahan from CE to CE, when the capitals were located in Kapisa and Kabul, and later Udabhandapura , also known as Hund, [] for its new capital. The Hindu Shahis under Jayapala , is known for his struggles in defending his kingdom against the Ghaznavids in the modern-day eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan region.

Jayapala saw a danger in the consolidation of the Ghaznavids and invaded their capital city of Ghazni both in the reign of Sebuktigin and in that of his son Mahmud , which initiated the Muslim Ghaznavid and Hindu Shahi struggles. Before Jayapala's struggle began, he had raised a large army of Punjabi Hindus. When Jayapala went to the Punjab region , his army was raised to , horsemen and an innumerable host of foot soldiers. The two armies having met on the confines of Lumghan , Subooktugeen ascended a hill to view the forces of Jayapala, which appeared in extent like the boundless ocean, and in number like the ants or the locusts of the wilderness.

But Subooktugeen considered himself as a wolf about to attack a flock of sheep: His soldiers, though few in number, were divided into squadrons of five hundred men each, which were directed to attack successively, one particular point of the Hindoo line, so that it might continually have to encounter fresh troops.

However, the army was hopeless in battle against the western forces, particularly against the young Mahmud of Ghazni. After the Battle of Peshawar , he committed suicide because his subjects thought he had brought disaster and disgrace to the Shahis. Jayapala was succeeded by his son Anandapala , [] who along with other succeeding generations of the Shahis took part in various unsuccessful campaigns against the advancing Ghaznavids but were unsuccessful.

The Hindu rulers eventually exiled themselves to the Kashmir Siwalik Hills. The late medieval period is defined by the disruption to native Indian elites by Muslim Central Asian nomadic clans; [] [] leading to the Rajput resistance to Muslim conquests. The growth of Hindu and Muslim dynasties and empires, built upon new military technology and techniques. Like other settled, agrarian societies in history, those in the Indian subcontinent have been attacked by nomadic tribes throughout its long history.

In evaluating the impact of Islam on the sub-continent, one must note that the northwestern Indian subcontinent was a frequent target of tribes raiding from Central Asia. In that sense, the Muslim intrusions and later Muslim invasions were not dissimilar to those of the earlier invasions during the 1st millennium. This led to the rise of a new Indian culture which was mixed in nature, though different from both the ancient Indian culture and later westernised modern Indian culture.

At the same time it must be noted that overwhelming majority of Muslims in India are Indian natives converted to Islam. This factor also played an important role in the synthesis of cultures. The growth of Muslim dominion resulted in the destruction and desecration of politically important temples of enemy states, [] cases of forced conversions to Islam, [] payment of jizya tax, [] and loss of life for the non-Muslim population.

From the time Muslims started arriving, around AD, the history of India becomes a long, monotonous series of murders, massacres, spoliations, and destructions. It is, as usual, in the name of 'a holy war' of their faith, of their sole God, that the barbarians have destroyed civilizations, wiped out entire races. Before the Muslim expeditions into the Indian subcontinent, much of North and West India was ruled by Rajput dynasties.

The Rajputs and the south Indian Chalukya dynasty were successful in containing Arab Muslim expansion during the Umayyad campaigns in India ; but later, Central Asian Muslim Turks were able to break through the Rajput defence into the Northern Indian heartland. However, the Rajputs held out against the Muslim Turkic empires for several centuries. They earned a reputation of fighting battles obeying a code of chivalrous conduct rooted in a strong adherence to tradition and Chi.

The Rajput Chauhan dynasty established its control over Delhi and Ajmer in the 10th century. The most famous ruler of this dynasty was Prithviraj Chauhan. His reign marked one of the most significant moments in Indian history; his battles with Muslim Sultan, Muhammad Ghori. In the First Battle of Tarain , Ghori was defeated with heavy losses. However, the Second Battle of Tarain saw the Rajput army eventually defeated, laying the foundation of Muslim rule in mainland India. Tughlaq had to pay a huge ransom and relinquish all of Mewar's lands. After this event, the Delhi Sultanate did not attack Chittor for a few hundred years.

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The Rajputs re-established their independence, and Rajput states were established as far east as Bengal and north into the Punjab. His objectives grew in scope — he planned to conquer the much sought after prize of the Muslim rulers of the time, Delhi. But, his defeat in the Battle of Khanwa , consolidated the new Mughal dynasty in India. His son, Maharana Pratap of Mewar, firmly resisted the Mughals. Akbar sent many missions against him. He survived to ultimately gain control of all of Mewar, excluding the Chittor Fort. The Chittor Fort is the largest fort in the Indian subcontinent.

The fort became a symbol for Rajput resistance due to it being sacked three times during the 15th and 16th centuries by Muslim armies. Each time the men fought bravely rushing out of the fort walls charging the enemy, but lost. Following these defeats, Jauhar was committed thrice by many of the wives and children of the Rajput soldiers who died in battles at Chittorgarh Fort. The first time, this was led by Rani Padmini wife of Rana Rattan Singh who was killed in the battle in , and later by Rani Karnavati in Amer Fort and Jaigarh Fort are connected by subterranean passages, and are known for their artistic Hindu Rajput style elements.

Chaturbhuj Temple built by the Bundela Rajputs, is one of the tallest pre-modern structure in the Indian subcontinent. The history of Muslim sovereignty in India begins properly speaking with Iltutmish. This can be traced back to the 9th century, when the Islamic Caliphate began fragmenting in the Middle East , where Muslim rulers in rival states began enslaving non-Muslim nomadic Turks from the Central Asian steppes, and raising many of them to become loyal military slaves called Mamluks.

Soon, Turks were migrating to Muslim lands and becoming Islamicized. Many of the Turkic Mamluk slaves eventually rose up to become rulers, and conquered large parts of the Muslim world , establishing Mamluk Sultanates from Egypt to Afghanistan , before turning their attention to the Indian subcontinent. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Central Asian Turks invaded parts of northern India and established the Delhi Sultanate in the former Hindu holdings.

The Sultanate ushered in a period of Indian cultural renaissance. The resulting "Indo-Muslim" fusion of cultures left lasting syncretic monuments in architecture, music, literature, religion, and clothing. It is surmised that the language of Urdu literally meaning "horde" or "camp" in various Turkic dialects was born during the Delhi Sultanate period as a result of the intermingling of the local speakers of Sanskritic Prakrits with immigrants speaking Persian , Turkic , and Arabic under the Muslim rulers. However, the Delhi Sultanate also caused large-scale destruction and desecration of temples in the Indian subcontinent.

During the Delhi Sultanate, there was a synthesis between Indian civilization and Islamic civilization. The latter was a cosmopolitan civilization, with a multicultural and pluralistic society, and wide-ranging international networks, including social and economic networks, spanning large parts of Afro-Eurasia , leading to escalating circulation of goods, peoples, technologies and ideas.

While initially disruptive due to the passing of power from native Indian elites to Turkic Muslim elites, the Delhi Sultanate was responsible for integrating the Indian subcontinent into a growing world system, drawing India into a wider international network, which had a significant impact on Indian culture and society.

However, the Mongol invasions of India were successfully repelled by the Delhi Sultanate. A major factor in their success was their Turkic Mamluk slave army, who were highly skilled in the same style of nomadic cavalry warfare as the Mongols , as a result of having similar nomadic Central Asian roots. It is possible that the Mongol Empire may have expanded into India were it not for the Delhi Sultanate's role in repelling them. Timur entered Delhi and the city was sacked, destroyed, and left in ruins after Timur's army had killed and plundered for three days and nights.

He ordered the whole city to be sacked except for the sayyids , scholars, and the "other Muslims" artists ; , war prisoners were put to death in one day. Kakatiya Kala Thoranam Warangal Gate built by the Kakatiya dynasty in ruins; one of the many temple complexes destroyed by the Delhi Sultanate. Rani ki vav is a stepwell , built by the Chaulukya dynasty , located in Patan ; the city was sacked by Sultan of Delhi Qutb-ud-din Aybak between and , and it was destroyed by the Allauddin Khilji in Artistic rendition of the Kirtistambh at Rudra Mahalaya Temple.

The temple was destroyed by Alauddin Khalji. Exterior wall reliefs at Hoysaleswara Temple. The temple was twice sacked and plundered by the Delhi Sultanate. The Bhakti movement refers to the theistic devotional trend that emerged in medieval Hinduism [] and later revolutionised in Sikhism. Thikse Monastery is the largest gompa in Ladakh , built in the s. Tawang Monastery in Arunachal Pradesh , was built in the s, is the largest monastery in India and second largest in the world after the Potala Palace in Lhasa , Tibet. Gajashaala or elephant's stable, built by the Vijayanagar rulers for their war elephants.

Vijayanagara marketplace at Hampi , along with the sacred tank located on the side of Krishna temple. It lasted until , although its power declined after a major military defeat in by the combined armies of the Deccan sultanates. The empire is named after its capital city of Vijayanagara , whose ruins surround present day Hampi , now a World Heritage Site in Karnataka , India. In the first two decades after the founding of the empire, Harihara I gained control over most of the area south of the Tungabhadra river and earned the title of Purvapaschima Samudradhishavara "master of the eastern and western seas".

The empire's legacy includes many monuments spread over South India, the best known of which is the group at Hampi. The previous temple building traditions in South India came together in the Vijayanagara Architecture style. The mingling of all faiths and vernaculars inspired architectural innovation of Hindu temple construction, first in the Deccan and later in the Dravidian idioms using the local granite. South Indian mathematics flourished under the protection of the Vijayanagara Empire in Kerala.

The Vijayanagara Empire created an epoch in South Indian history that transcended regionalism by promoting Hinduism as a unifying factor. The empire reached its peak during the rule of Sri Krishnadevaraya when Vijayanagara armies were consistently victorious.

The empire annexed areas formerly under the Sultanates in the northern Deccan and the territories in the eastern Deccan, including Kalinga, while simultaneously maintaining control over all its subordinates in the south. Vijayanagara went into decline after the defeat in the Battle of Talikota After the death of Aliya Rama Raya in the Battle of Talikota, Tirumala Deva Raya started the Aravidu dynasty , moved and founded a new capital of Penukonda to replace the destroyed Hampi, and attempted to reconstitute the remains of Vijayanagara Empire.

The Aravidu dynasty successors ruled the region but the empire collapsed in , and the final remains ended in , from continued wars with the Bijapur sultanate and others. For two and a half centuries from the mid 13th century, politics in Northern India was dominated by the Delhi Sultanate , and in Southern India by the Vijayanagar Empire. However, there were other regional powers present as well.

The Reddy dynasty successfully defeated the Delhi Sultanate; and extended their rule from Cuttack in the north to Kanchi in the south, eventually being absorbed into the expanding Vijayanagara Empire. Their power reached its zenith under Rana Sanga , who was the Rana of Mewar and head of a powerful Hindu Rajput confederacy in Rajputana ; during whose time Rajput armies were constantly victorious against the Sultanate armies.

In the south, the Bahmani Sultanate , which was established either by a Brahman convert or patronised by a Brahman and from that source it was given the name Bahmani , [] was the chief rival of the Vijayanagara, and frequently created difficulties for the Vijayanagara. After which, the Bahmani Sultanate collapsed, [] resulting it being split into five small Deccan sultanates.

In the East, the Gajapati Kingdom remained a strong regional power to reckon with, associated with a high point in the growth of regional culture and architecture. Under Kapilendradeva , Gajapatis became an empire stretching from the lower Ganga in the north to the Kaveri in the south. Rang Ghar , built by Pramatta Singha in Ahom Kingdom 's capital Rongpur , is one of the earliest pavilions of outdoor stadia in the Indian subcontinent.

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Kareng Ghar is a seven-storied royal palace built by Rajeswar Singha of the Ahom dynasty. Talatal Ghar is a royal palace built by Rudra Singha. The early modern period of Indian history is dated from — CE, corresponding to the rise and fall of the Mughal dynasty. This period witnessed the cultural synthesis of Hindu and Muslim elements reflected in Indo-Islamic architecture ; [] [] the growth of Maratha and Sikh imperial powers over vast regions of the Indian subcontinent with the decline of the Mughals; and came to an end when the British Raj was founded.

The famous emperor Akbar the Great , who was the grandson of Babar, tried to establish a good relationship with the Hindus. Akbar declared "Amari" or non-killing of animals in the holy days of Jainism. He rolled back the jizya tax for non-Muslims. The Mughal emperors married local royalty, allied themselves with local maharajas , and attempted to fuse their Turko-Persian culture with ancient Indian styles, creating a unique Indo-Persian culture and Indo-Saracenic architecture. Akbar married a Rajput princess, Mariam-uz-Zamani , and they had a son, Jahangir , who was part-Mughal and part-Rajput, as were future Mughal emperors.

The Mughal dynasty ruled most of the Indian subcontinent by The reign of Shah Jahan was the golden age of Mughal architecture. The Mughal era is considered to be "India's last golden age". The Mughal Empire reached the zenith of its territorial expanse during the reign of Aurangzeb and also started its terminal decline in his reign due to Maratha military resurgence under Shivaji. Sarkar wrote "All seemed to have been gained by Aurangzeb now, but in reality all was lost. The empire went into decline thereafter.

The Mughals suffered several blows due to invasions from Marathas , Jats and Afghans. During the decline of the Mughal Empire, several smaller states rose to fill the power vacuum and themselves were contributing factors to the decline. Baji Rao, however, easily routed the novice Mughal general and the rest of the imperial Mughal army fled. In , in the final defeat of Mughal Empire, the commander-in-chief of the Mughal Army, Nizam-ul-mulk, was routed at Bhopal by the Maratha army.

This essentially brought an end to the Mughal Empire. While Bharatpur State under Jat ruler Suraj Mal , overran the Mughal garrison at Agra and plundered the city taking with them the two great silver doors of the entrance of the famous Taj Mahal; which were then melted down by Suraj Mal in Sikh holocaust of took place under the Muslim provincial government based at Lahore to wipe out the Sikhs , with 30, Sikhs being killed, an offensive that had begun with the Mughals, with the Sikh holocaust of , [] and lasted several decades under its Muslim successor states.

Maratha Empire at its zenith in yellow area , covering much of the Indian subcontinent, stretching from South India to present-day Pakistan. Shaniwarwada palace fort in Pune , the seat of the Peshwa rulers of the Maratha Empire until In the early 18th century the Maratha Empire extended suzerainty over the Indian subcontinent. Under the Peshwas, the Marathas consolidated and ruled over much of South Asia. The Marathas are credited to a large extent for ending Mughal rule in India. The Maratha kingdom was founded and consolidated by Chatrapati Shivaji , a Maratha aristocrat of the Bhonsle clan who was determined to establish Hindavi Swarajya.

Sarkar described Shivaji as "the last great constructive genius and nation builder that the Hindu race has produced". Datta wrote that Bajirao I "may very well be regarded as the second founder of the Maratha Empire".

History of India

By the early 18th century, the Maratha Kingdom had transformed itself into the Maratha Empire under the rule of the Peshwas prime ministers. In , the Marathas defeated a Mughal army in their capital, in the Battle of Delhi. The Marathas continued their military campaigns against the Mughals , Nizam , Nawab of Bengal and the Durrani Empire to further extend their boundaries. By , the domain of the Marathas stretched across practically the entire Indian subcontinent.

The empire at its peak stretched from Tamil Nadu [] in the south, to Peshawar modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Pakistan [] [note 5] in the north, and Bengal in the east. However, the Maratha authority in the north was re-established within a decade under Peshwa Madhavrao I. Under Madhavrao I, semi-autonomy was given to the strongest of the knights, which created a confederacy of Maratha states.

India contains no more than two great powers, British and Mahratta, and every other state acknowledges the influence of one or the other. Every inch that we recede will be occupied by them. The Marathas also developed a potent navy circa the s, which at its peak dominated the territorial waters of the western coast of India from Mumbai to Savantwadi. The Maratha Navy dominated until around the s, was in a state of decline by the s, and ceased to exist by The Sikh Empire , ruled by members of the Sikh religion , was a political entity that governed the Northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent.

The empire, based around the Punjab region , existed from to It was forged, on the foundations of the Khalsa , under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh — from an array of autonomous Punjabi Misls. Maharaja Ranjit Singh consolidated many parts of northern India into an empire.

He primarily used his Sikh Khalsa Army that he trained in European military techniques and equipped with modern military technologies. Ranjit Singh proved himself to be a master strategist and selected well-qualified generals for his army. He continuously defeated the Afghan armies and successfully ended the Afghan-Sikh Wars. In stages, he added central Punjab, the provinces of Multan and Kashmir, and the Peshawar Valley to his empire.

At its peak, in the 19th century, the empire extended from the Khyber Pass in the west, to Kashmir in the north, to Sindh in the south, running along Sutlej river to Himachal in the east.

The hard-fought first Anglo-Sikh war and second Anglo-Sikh war marked the downfall of the Sikh Empire, making it among the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to be conquered by the British. There were several other kingdoms that ruled over parts of India in the later medieval period prior to the British occupation. However, most of them were bound to pay regular tribute to the Marathas. Under their rule, Mysore fought series of wars against the Marathas and British or their combined forces.

The Maratha—Mysore War ended in April , following the finalizing of treaty of Gajendragad , in which, Tipu Sultan was obligated to pay tribute to the Marathas. Mysore's alliance with the French was seen as a threat to the British East India Company, and Mysore was attacked from all four sides. The Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas launched an invasion from the north.

The British won a decisive victory at the Siege of Seringapatam Tipu was killed during the defence of the city. Much of the remaining Mysorean territory was annexed by the British, the Nizam and the Marathas. The remaining core, around Mysore and Seringapatam , was restored to the Indian prince belonging to the Wodeyar dynasty, whose forefathers had been the actual rulers before Hyder Ali became the de facto ruler.

The Kingdom of Mysore became a princely state of British India in Hyderabad was founded by the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda in The Nizams lost considerable territory and paid tribute to the Maratha Empire after being routed in multiple battles, such as the Battle of Palkhed. Hyderabad State became princely state in British India The Nawabs of Bengal had become the de facto rulers of Bengal following the decline of Mughal Empire. However, their rule was interrupted by Marathas who carried out six expeditions in Bengal from to , as a result of which Bengal became a tributary state of Marathas.

He lost to the British, who took over the charge of Bengal in , installed Mir Jafar on the Masnad throne and established itself to a political power in Bengal. In the system was abolished and Bengal was brought under direct control of the British. In , when the Nizamat governorship of the Nawab was also taken away from them, they remained as the mere pensioners of the British East India Company. In the 18th century the whole of Rajputana was virtually subdued by the Marathas. In , the British went to war with the Pindaris , raiders who were based in Maratha territory, which quickly became the Third Anglo-Maratha War , and the British government offered its protection to the Rajput rulers from the Pindaris and the Marathas.

By the end of similar treaties had been executed between the other Rajput states and Britain. After the fall of the Maratha Empire , many Maratha dynasties and states became vassals in a subsidiary alliance with the British, to form the largest bloc of princely states in the British Raj , in terms of territory and population. After the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire , Polygar states emerged in Southern India; and managed to weather invasions and flourished until the Polygar Wars , where they were defeated by the British East India Company forces. Early modern Indian traders to West Asia and Eastern Europe were active between the 14th and 18th centuries.

These traders built a Hindu temple , which suggests commerce was active and prosperous for Indians by the 17th century. Further north, the Saurashtra and Bengal coasts played an important role in maritime trade, and the Gangetic plains and the Indus valley housed several centres of river-borne commerce. Villages paid a portion of their agricultural produce as revenue to the rulers, while their craftsmen received a part of the crops at harvest time for their services.

In , a Portuguese fleet under Vasco da Gama successfully discovered a new sea route from Europe to India, which paved the way for direct Indo-European commerce. Goa became the main Portuguese base until it was annexed by India in The next to arrive were the Dutch , with their main base in Ceylon. They established ports in Malabar. However, their expansion into India was halted, after their defeat in the Battle of Colachel by the Kingdom of Travancore , during the Travancore-Dutch War.

The Dutch never recovered from the defeat and no longer posed a large colonial threat to India. In the words of the noted historian, Professor A. A disaster of the first magnitude for the Dutch, the battle of Colachel shattered for all time their dream of the conquest of Kerala. The internal conflicts among Indian kingdoms gave opportunities to the European traders to gradually establish political influence and appropriate lands. Following the Dutch, the British —who set up in the west coast port of Surat in —and the French both established trading outposts in India. Opium storehouse in Patna.

Gulab Singh , the founder and the first Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. The two Kangla-Sa Pakhangba dragons standing at the gate were destroyed by the British. This was the first real political foothold with territorial implications that the British acquired in India. Clive was appointed by the company as its first 'Governor of Bengal' in After the Battle of Buxar in , the company acquired the rights of administration in Bengal from de jure Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II ; this marked the beginning of its formal rule, which within the next century engulfed most of India.

They introduced a land taxation system called the Permanent Settlement which introduced a feudal -like structure in Bengal, often with taluqdars and zamindars set in place. Ahom Kingdom of North-east India first fell to Burmese invasion and then to the British after the Treaty of Yandabo in ; concurrently, the Burmese invasions also lead the Kingdom of Manipur to seek British protectorate in , however, it was after the Anglo-Manipur War of did it become part of the British Empire. The border dispute between Nepal and British India, which sharpened after , had caused the Anglo-Nepalese War of —16 and brought the defeated Gurkhas under British influence.

In , Berar was annexed, and the state of Oudh was added two years later. At the turn of the 19th century, Governor-General Richard Wellesley began what became two decades of accelerated expansion of Company territories. The subsidiary alliances created the princely states or native states of the Hindu maharajas and the Muslim nawabs. Their policy was sometimes summed up as Divide and Rule , taking advantage of the enmity festering between various princely states and social and religious groups. The Indian indenture system was an ongoing system of indenture, a form of debt bondage, by which 3.

It started from the end of slavery in and continued until This resulted in the development of large Indian diaspora , which spread from the Indian Ocean i. Fiji , as well as the growth of Indo-Caribbean and Indo-African population. Lakshmibai, the Rani of Maratha-ruled Jhansi , one of the principal leaders of the rebellion who earlier had lost her kingdom as a result of the Doctrine of Lapse. Suppression of the Indian Revolt by the English , which depicts the execution of mutineers by blowing from a gun by the British. Albumen silver print by Felice Beato , The Indian rebellion of was a large-scale rebellion by soldiers employed by the British East India Company in northern and central India against the Company's rule.

The spark that led to the mutiny was the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle , which was insensitive to local religious prohibition; key mutineer being Mangal Pandey. Within weeks after Pandey's mutiny, dozens of units of the Indian army joined peasant armies in widespread rebellion. The rebel soldiers were later joined by Indian nobility, many of whom had lost titles and domains under the Doctrine of Lapse , and felt that the Company had interfered with a traditional system of inheritance. Rebel leaders such as Nana Sahib and the Rani of Jhansi belonged to this group.

After the outbreak of the mutiny in Meerut , the rebels very quickly reached Delhi. Most notably in Awadh, the rebellion took on the attributes of a patriotic revolt against British presence. But, it took the British remainder of and the better part of to suppress the rebellion. Due to the rebels being poorly equipped and no outside support or funding, they were brutally subdued by the British. In the aftermath, all power was transferred from the British East India Company to the British Crown , which began to administer most of India as a number of provinces.

The Crown controlled the Company's lands directly and had considerable indirect influence over the rest of India, which consisted of the Princely states ruled by local royal families. There were officially princely states in , but only 21 had actual state governments, and only three were large Mysore, Hyderabad, and Kashmir. They were absorbed into the independent nation in — The British Indian Empire at its greatest extent in a map of The princely states under British suzerainty are in yellow.

Victoria Memorial was dedicated to the memory of the Empress of India Victoria in Calcutta , which served as the capital of British-held territories in India until After , the colonial government strengthened and expanded its infrastructure via the court system, legal procedures, and statutes. The Indian Penal Code came into being. By some 60, Indians had matriculated. However, from s Indian private industry began to grow significantly.

India built a modern railway system in the late 19th century which was the fourth largest in the world. In , Lord Curzon split the large province of Bengal into a largely Hindu western half and "Eastern Bengal and Assam", a largely Muslim eastern half. The British goal was said to be for efficient administration but the people of Bengal were outraged at the apparent "divide and rule" strategy.

It also marked the beginning of the organised anti-colonial movement. When the Liberal party in Britain came to power in , he was removed. Bengal was reunified in The Morley-Minto reforms of provided for Indian membership of the provincial executive councils as well as the Viceroy's executive council.

The Imperial Legislative Council was enlarged from 25 to 60 members and separate communal representation for Muslims was established in a dramatic step towards representative and responsible government. Muslims set up the All India Muslim League in It was not a mass party but was designed to protect the interests of the aristocratic Muslims. It was internally divided by conflicting loyalties to Islam, the British, and India, and by distrust of Hindus. Rabindranath Tagore is Asia's first Nobel laureate , composer of India's national anthem and Bangladesh's national anthem , while inspired Sri Lankan national anthem.

Swami Vivekananda was a key figure in introducing Vedanta and Yoga in the Western world , [] raising interfaith awareness and making Hinduism a world religion. Jagadish Chandra Bose was a physicist , biologist , botanist , archaeologist , and writer of science fiction. Satyendra Nath Bose was a physicist , specialising in mathematical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early s, providing the foundation for Bose—Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose—Einstein condensate.

He is honoured as the namesake of the boson. The Hindu Renaissance [] [] [] refers to a social reform movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent during the period of British rule dominated by Bengali Hindus. The Hindu Renaissance can be said to have started with Raja Ram Mohan Roy — and ended with Rabindranath Tagore — , although many stalwarts thereafter continued to embody particular aspects of the unique intellectual and creative output of the region.

During this period, Bengal witnessed an intellectual awakening that is in some way similar to the Renaissance. This movement questioned existing orthodoxies, particularly with respect to women, marriage, the dowry system, the caste system , and religion. One of the earliest social movements that emerged during this time was the Young Bengal movement, which espoused rationalism and atheism as the common denominators of civil conduct among upper caste educated Hindus. During Company rule in India and the British Raj , famines in India , due to the failed policies of British colonial government, were some of the worst ever recorded, including the Great Famine of —78 in which 6.

Khudiram Bose at the time of his hanging was 18 years old, making him one of the youngest revolutionaries in India. They are considered among the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement. Jawaharlal Nehru left became India's first prime minister and Mahatma Gandhi right led the Indian independence movement.

One of the most important events of the 19th century was the rise of Indian nationalism, [] leading Indians to seek first "self-rule" and later "complete independence". However, historians are divided over the causes of its rise. Probable reasons include a "clash of interests of the Indian people with British interests", [] "racial discriminations", [] and "the revelation of India's past". The first step toward Indian self-rule was the appointment of councillors to advise the British viceroy in and the first Indian was appointed in Provincial Councils with Indian members were also set up.

The councillors' participation was subsequently widened into legislative councils. The British built a large British Indian Army , with the senior officers all British and many of the troops from small minority groups such as Gurkhas from Nepal and Sikhs. Bal Gangadhar Tilak , an Indian nationalist leader, declared Swaraj as the destiny of the nation. His popular sentence "Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it" [] became the source of inspiration for Indians. Tilak was backed by rising public leaders like Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai , who held the same point of view, notably they advocated the Swadeshi movement involving the boycott of all imported items and the use of Indian-made goods; the triumvirate were popularly known as Lal Bal Pal.

Under them, India's three big provinces — Maharashtra , Bengal and Punjab shaped the demand of the people and India's nationalism. In , the Congress was split into two factions: The radicals, led by Tilak, advocated civil agitation and direct revolution to overthrow the British Empire and the abandonment of all things British. The moderates, led by leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji and Gopal Krishna Gokhale , on the other hand, wanted reform within the framework of British rule.

The partition of Bengal in further increased the revolutionary movement for Indian independence. The disenfranchisement lead some to take violent action. One such revolutionary, Khudiram Bose , planted bombs near British government officials, but was arrested and executed at the age of The British themselves adopted a "carrot and stick" approach in recognition of India's support during the First World War and in response to renewed nationalist demands. The means of achieving the proposed measure were later enshrined in the Government of India Act , which introduced the principle of a dual mode of administration, or diarchy, in which elected Indian legislators and appointed British officials shared power.

The massacre was a decisive episode towards the end of British rule in India. From leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi began highly popular mass movements to campaign against the British Raj using largely peaceful methods. The Gandhi-led independence movement opposed the British rule using non-violent methods like non-co-operation , civil disobedience and economic resistance.

However, revolutionary activities against the British rule took place throughout the Indian subcontinent and some others adopted a militant approach like the Hindustan Republican Association , founded by Chandrasekhar Azad , Bhagat Singh , Sukhdev Thapar and others, that sought to overthrow British rule by armed struggle. The Government of India Act was a major success in this regard. Indian Army gunners probably 39th Battery with 3. During World War I , over , volunteered for the army, and more than , volunteered for non-combat roles, compared with the pre-war annual recruitment of about 15, men.

After a year of front-line duty, sickness and casualties had reduced the Indian Corps to the point where it had to be withdrawn. Nearly , Indians fought the Turks in the Mesopotamian campaign. Indian formations were also sent to East Africa, Egypt, and Gallipoli. Other divisions remained in India guarding the North-West Frontier and fulfilling internal security obligations. One million Indian troops served abroad during the war.

In total, 74, died, [] and another 67, were wounded. Indian infantrymen of the 7th Rajput Regiment about to go on patrol on the Arakan front in Burma, Photo circa May Subhas Chandra Bose initiated the legion's formation, intended to serve as a liberation force from the British occupation of India. Additionally, several Indian Princely States provided large donations to support the Allied campaign during the War. Indians also aided in liberating British colonies such as Singapore and Hong Kong after the Japanese surrender in August Congress launched the Quit India Movement in August , refusing to co-operate in any way with the government until independence was granted.

The government was ready for this move. It immediately arrested over 60, national and local Congress leaders, and then moved to suppress the violent reaction of Congress supporters. Key leaders were kept in prison until June , although Gandhi was released in May because of his health. Congress, with its leaders incommunicado, played little role on the home front. Subhas Chandra Bose also called Netaji broke with Congress and tried to form a military alliance with Germany or Japan to gain independence.

The government of Azad Hind had its own currency, court, and civil code; and in the eyes of some Indians its existence gave a greater legitimacy to the independence struggle against the British. By , neighbouring Burma was invaded by Japan, which by then had already captured the Indian territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Japan gave nominal control of the islands to the Provisional Government of Free India on 21 October , and in the following March, the Indian National Army with the help of Japan crossed into India and advanced as far as Kohima in Nagaland. This advance on the mainland of the Indian subcontinent reached its farthest point on Indian territory, retreating from the Battle of Kohima in June and from that of Imphal on 3 July The region of Bengal in India suffered a devastating famine during — In January , a number of mutinies broke out in the armed services, starting with that of RAF servicemen frustrated with their slow repatriation to Britain.

The mutinies were rapidly suppressed. Also in early , new elections were called and Congress candidates won in eight of the eleven provinces. Late in , the Labour government decided to end British rule of India, and in early Britain announced its intention of transferring power no later than June and participating in the formation of an interim government.

Along with the desire for independence, tensions between Hindus and Muslims had also been developing over the years. The Muslims had always been a minority within the Indian subcontinent, and the prospect of an exclusively Hindu government made them wary of independence; they were as inclined to mistrust Hindu rule as they were to resist the foreign Raj, although Gandhi called for unity between the two groups in an astonishing display of leadership.

Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah proclaimed 16 August as Direct Action Day , with the stated goal of highlighting, peacefully, the demand for a Muslim homeland in British India, which resulted in the outbreak of the cycle of violence that would be later called the " Great Calcutta Killing of August ". The communal violence spread to Bihar where Muslims were attacked by Hindus , to Noakhali in Bengal where Hindus were targeted by Muslims , in Garhmukteshwar in the United Provinces where Muslims were attacked by Hindus , and on to Rawalpindi in March in which Hindus were attacked or driven out by Muslims.

The British Indian territories gained independence in , after being partitioned into the Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. Following the controversial division of pre-partition Punjab and Bengal , rioting broke out between Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims in these provinces and spread to several other parts of India, leaving some , dead. In recent decades there have been four main schools of historiography in how historians study India: Cambridge, Nationalist, Marxist, and subaltern.

The once common "Orientalist" approach, with its image of a sensuous, inscrutable, and wholly spiritual India, has died out in serious scholarship. Washbrook, [] downplays ideology. The Nationalist school has focused on Congress, Gandhi, Nehru and high level politics. It highlighted the Mutiny of as a war of liberation, and Gandhi's 'Quit India' begun in , as defining historical events.

This school of historiography has received criticism for Elitism. The Marxists have focused on studies of economic development, landownership, and class conflict in precolonial India and of deindustrialisation during the colonial period. The Marxists portrayed Gandhi's movement as a device of the bourgeois elite to harness popular, potentially revolutionary forces for its own ends. Again, the Marxists are accused of being "too much" ideologically influenced. The "subaltern school", was begun in the s by Ranajit Guha and Gyan Prakash.

It focuses on the colonial era before and typically emphasises caste and downplays class, to the annoyance of the Marxist school. More recently, Hindu nationalists have created a version of history to support their demands for "Hindutva" "Hinduness" in Indian society. This school of thought is still in the process of development. A Sacred Geography", that idea of India dates to a much earlier time than the British or the Mughals and it wasn't just a cluster of regional identities and it wasn't ethnic or racial.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is the latest accepted revision , reviewed on 11 December This article is about the history of the Indian subcontinent with India in focus prior to the partition of India in Part of a series on the. Madrasian Culture Soanian , c. Maurya Dynasty , c. Chalukya Dynasty , c. Delhi Sultanate , c. Mughal Dynasty , c. The Great Rebellion , c. Madrasian Culture Soanian Culture. Bronze Age — BC. Iron Age — BC. Late medieval period — Early modern period — Periods of Sri Lanka. Outline of South Asian history.

South Asian Stone Age. Bhimbetka rock painting , Madhya Pradesh , India c. A dolmen erected by Neolithic people in Marayur , Kerala, India. List of Indus Valley Civilisation sites. Swastika seals of Indus Valley Civilisation. List of Rigvedic tribes. Ahichchhatra or Ahi-Kshetra was the ancient capital of Northern Panchala.

The remains of this city has been discovered in Bareilly. A Kuru punch-marked coin , one of the earliest example of coinage in India c. Conjectural reconstruction of the main gate of Kusinagara circa BCE adapted from a relief at Sanchi. A page of Isha Upanishad manuscript. Mahavira , the 24th and last Tirthankara of Jainism. Gautama Buddha 's cremation stupa, Kushinagar Kushinara. The Mahajanapadas were the sixteen most powerful and vast kingdoms and republics of the era, located mainly across the fertile Indo-Gangetic plains , there were also a number of smaller kingdoms stretching the length and breadth of Ancient India.

Silver coins of Kosala Mahajanapada, c. Silver coin of Avanti Mahajanapada, c. Haryanka dynasty and Shishunaga dynasty. The Magadha state c. The Maurya Empire under Ashoka the Great. Ashokan pillar at Vaishali , 3rd century BCE. Three Crowned Kings and Tamilakam. Tamilakam , located in the tip of South India during the Sangam Period, ruled by Chera dynasty , Chola dynasty and the Pandyan dynasty. Ilango Adigal is the author of Silappatikaram , one of the five great epics of Tamil literature.

Classical India and Medieval India. The Heliodorus pillar , commissioned by Indo-Greek ambassador Heliodorus , who was one of the earliest recorded Indo-Greek converts to Hinduism ; the pillar is the first known inscription related to Vaishnavism in India. The Mathura lion capital , 1st century CE.

The capital describes, among other donations, the gift of a stupa with a relic of the Buddha , by Queen Ayasia , the "chief queen of the Indo-Scythian ruler of Mathura , satrap Rajuvula ". Silk Road transmission of Buddhism. Harsha and Vardhana dynasty. Surya Sun temples of Early Medieval India. Martand Sun Temple Central shrine, dedicated to the deity Surya. The temple complex was built by the third ruler of the Karkota dynasty , Emperor Lalitaditya Muktapida , in the 8th century CE. Here's how restrictions apply. Trubner's Oriental Series Hardcover: Routledge July 26, Language: Be the first to review this item Would you like to tell us about a lower price?

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