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Chapter 9: State, Society, and the Quest for Salvation in India

Terms in this set (29)

Chandragupta Maurya
an ambitious explorer who laid the foundation for the Mauryan empire; by the end of the fourth century BCE, his empire embraced all of N India from the Indus to the Ganges
Kautalya
a careful and systematic advisor who devised procedures for the governance of Chandragupta's realm; some of his advice survives in the Arthashastra
Ashoka
r. 268-232 BCE; Chandragupta Maurya's grandson; his first major undertaking as emperor was to conquer Kalinga, a kingdom actively hostile to Mauryan expansion; better known as a governor than a conqueror
Kanishka
r. 78-103 CE; the most prominent of the Kushan emperors; under his rule, the Kushan empire embraced modern-day Pakistan, Afghanistan, and N India to Gujarat and the central part of the Ganges valley
Chandra Gupta
laid foundations for the Gupta empire; forged alliances with pwoerful families in the Ganges region and established a dynamic kingdom about th year 320 CE
Vardhamana Mahavira
a great teacher who turned to Jainism in the late century BCE, making the religion popular
Siddhartha Guatama
Indian kshatriya who achieved enlightenment and became known as the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism
Kingdom of Magadha
filled the void left by Alexander of Macedon when he left Punjab without a government
Mauryan Empire
321-185 BCE; empire founded by Chandragupta Maurya in India
Kautalya
a careful and systematic advisor who devised procedures for the governance of Chandragupta's realm; some of his advice survives in the Arthashastra
Arthashastra
Ancient Indian political treatise from the time of Chandragupta Maurya; its authorship was traditionally ascribed to Kautalya, and it stresses that war was inevitable
Bactria
a thriving commercial center linking lands from China in the E to the Mediterranean basin in the W; its rule had the effect of promoting cross-cultural interaction and exchange in N India
Kushan empire
empire founded by the most successful of the central Asian conquerors who attacked Bactria and put an end to the Indo-Greek kingdom there; embraced much of N India and central Asia from about 1 to 300 CE
Gupta dynasty
dynasty founded by Chandra Gupta; based in Magadha
White Huns
a nomadic people from central Asia who occupied Bactria during the fourth century CE, and then prepared to cross the Hindu Kush mountains into India; by the end of the fifth century, they had moved across the Hindu Kush almost at will, after half a century of being repelled by the Gupta, and established several kingdoms in N and W India
Caste
term comes from the Portuguese "casta"; it refers to a social class of heredity and usually unchangeable status
Jainism
Indian religion associated with the teacher Vardhamana Mahavira (ca. 540-468 BCE) in which every physical object possessed a soul; Jains believe in complete nonviolence to all living beings
Buddhism
religion, based on Four Noble Truths, associated with Siddhartha Guatama (563-483 BCE), or the Buddha; its adherents desired to eliminate all distracting passion and reach nirvana
Nalanda
Buddhist monastery founded during the Gupta dynasty in the Ganges River valley near Pataliputra
Hinduism
Main religion of India, a combination of Dravidian and Aryan concepts; its goal is to reach spiritual purity and union with the great world spirit; its important concepts include dharma, karma, and samsara
Dharma
Hindu concept of obedience to religious and moral laws and order
Karma
Hindu concept that the sum of good and bad in a person's life will determine his or her status in the next life
Hinayana
branch of Buddhism known as the "lesser vehicle," also known as the Theravada Buddhism; its beliefs include strict, individual path to enlightenment, and it is popular in S ans SE Asia
Mahayana
the "greater vehicle," a more metaphysical and more popular N branch of Buddhism
Boddhisatvas
Buddhist concept regarding individuals who had reached enlightenment but who stayed in the world to help people
Noble Eightfold Path
final truth of the Buddhist Four Noble Truths that called for leading a life of balance and constant contemplation
Samara
Hindu term for the concept of transmigration, that is, the soul passing into a new incarnation
Mahabharata
massive ancient Indian epic that was developed orally for centuries; it tells of an epic civil was between two family branches
Bhagavad Gita
"Song of the Lord," an Indian short poetic work drawn from the legendary Mahabharata that was finished around 400 CE and that expressed basic Hindu concepts such as karma and dharma
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