Rise of Empires in India

By about 500 BC kingdoms had emerged in the Ganges Valley and by 322 BC, Chandragupta Maurya gave birth to the first “true” empire in India. He became the first head of the Mauryan empire that covered the whole of Hindustan and most of the northwest.
[The image on the right shows Chandragupta Maurya being saluted by his women bodyguards]

Pataliputra became capital of the empire from which further consolidation of the Mauryan empire would ensue. When Chandragupta died in 297BC he was succeeded by his son Bindusara who continued with his father’s empire building activities in the Indian sub-continent. However, their accomplishments are often overshadowed by Ashoka (grandson of Chandragupta) who assumed the Mauryan throne in 269BC.

Ashoka embraced Buddhism after realizing the devastation and suffering his empire-building campaigns wrought on his people. Upon conversion he sought to spread Buddhism and advocated the indian ideal of non-violence. Consequently, his reign became known for its humanity and vision.

With Ashoka’s death in 232BC, the Mauryan empire disintegrated into the much more normal regionalistic patterns of the Indian subcontinent. By 180BC the Greeks again began invading the northwest, while other groups forayed into the north. It was one of the outsider groups – the Kushans – who would again unify most of the north into another empire.

The kushans restored much of what the Mauryans had established and even ruled from Pataliputra like the Mauryans. The Kushan dynasty lasted for about three centuries and by 200AD the north reverted to the regionalistic pattern.

The southern part of India had a different story though. With the north-south distinction that began at the time of the aryan invasion and the vedic period, the south went their own way. They had thriving and flourishing kingdoms as rich and sophisticated as the arya-influenced north. The three largest kindgoms in the south were: Chola, Pandya, and Pallava. The south was able to resist the early empire building efforts of the northerners, but by the third and second century BC, they already shared a common indian civilization.

There would be a last revival of the Mauryan model of empire in the north with the Gupta Dynasty (320AD to about 550). Pataliputra became the imperial capital again and cultural center of the empire. Gupta rule became a renaissance for the north as well as the south. Sanskrit literature flourished as well as indian sculpture and monumental building. Interestingly, it is only under the Gupta that Hinduism became a much more coherent and codified religion with the efforts of the Guptan kings at fusing elements of Buddhism with Hinduism.

The Gupta dynasty was destroyed by the White Huns in 550AD but another indigenous effort at unification began with Harsha from 606 to 648. Harsha died in 648 and with him his empire; India again dissolved into its regionalistic pattern.
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