Chapter Info (Click Here)
Book No. – 11 (History)
Book Name – India: The Ancient Past (Burjor Avari)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. The rise of the state system
1.1. Clan states and kingdoms
1.2. The supremacy of Magadha
2. Persian and Greek intrusions
3. The second urbanisation
3.1. Evidence for urbanisation: literary and archaeological
4. Dissent and heterodoxy
4.1. Two teachers and their faiths
5. Varieties of literature
5.1. A work of grammar
5.2. Epic literature
5.3. Early Jain literature
Note: The first chapter of every book is free.
Access this chapter with any subscription below:
- Half Yearly Plan (All Subject)
- Annual Plan (All Subject)
- History (Single Subject)
- CUET PG + History
LANGUAGE
Post-Vedic Centuries
Chapter – 5
Table of Contents
Timeline/Key Dates
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 700–550 BCE | The proliferation of kingdoms and clan states |
| c. 599–527 BCE | Mahavira’s life |
| c. 563–483 BCE | Buddha’s life |
| 544 BCE | Bimbisara becomes the first king of Magadha |
| c. 500 BCE | Panini’s Ashtadhyayi written |
| 377 BCE | Buddhist Council meets at Vaishali |
| 327–326 BCE | Alexander the Great in north-west India |
| 321 BCE | The end of the Nanda dynasty in Magadha |
| c. 300 BCE | The beginnings of the composition of Mahabharata and Ramayana |
- The post-Vedic era (600 BCE to c. 300 BCE) saw the emergence of a complex state system in north India.
- The complex state system developed from petty polities of the Vedic period, leading to a hierarchy of states through warfare, duplicity, and alliances.
- Magadha emerged as the most powerful state, eventually becoming the heartland of the Mauryan empire.
- The state system was challenged by foreign intrusions from the Achaemenid rulers of Persia and the Macedonians/Greeks, influencing India to some extent.
- The rulers’ systemic power, along with iron technology, created huge agricultural surpluses to support non-agricultural populations in new urban centres.
- This urban development spurred dynamism in socio-economic life in north India.
- Urban people were less receptive to Brahmanic hegemony, being influenced by dissenting traditions like Jainismand Buddhism.
- Despite changes, Indian intellectual life remained vigorous, with new literatures added to the knowledge base compiled by Vedic teachers over the previous thousand years.
The rise of the state system
- By 600 BCE, India’s geography was understood in terms of five large regions.
- Madhyadesha (Middle Country) was the original core land around the Kurukshetra plain, extending to the Ganges–Yamuna doab and lands west of Prayag.
- Madhyadesha extended southwards to the Vindhya and Aravalli ranges and came to be called Aryavarta.
- Praticya (western lands) included territory from eastern Afghanistan to the Aravalli hills, with two main routes: Bolan Pass and the sea coast.
- Warfare existed between the Persians (who viewed the Indus plain as their frontier) and Indians (who saw eastern Afghanistan as part of their sphere).
- Pracya (the east) covered lands from Prayag to the Ganges delta, and it was here that the Magadhan state established its ascendancy, shaping India’s future.
- Uttarapatha (northern route) led towards central Asia, passing through Pamir and the Himalayas, inhabited by ethnic and tribal groups with connections to both Afghanistan and Madhyadesha.
- Dakshinapatha (southern route) had unclear boundaries; it began beyond the Middle Country, but as it expanded southwards, the northern limits were revised.
- The Aryanisation process expanded southwards, influencing Karnataka, Andhra, and Kalinga.
Clan states and kingdoms
- Around the 8th century BCE, janapadas (territories of the janas/peoples) became more clearly marked.
- Sixty-nine polities of various sizes are named in the Ashtadhyayi of Panini.
- These polities eventually amalgamated into sixteen mahajanapadas (greater states), shaping human settlement patterns in northern India up to 600 BCE.
- The focus of settlement moved from the Indus basin (Harappan era) to the Punjab (early Vedic period), and by the end of the Vedic age, the Gangetic basin consisted of 11 of the 16 mahajanapadas.
- Central and peninsular India had only three, and two were in the north-west.
- Common features of the clan states: corporate style of government (documented in Buddhist sources), with assemblies (sanghas) where debates were held, and decisions were made by vote.
- Leadership in clan states was honoured but not hereditary; these states rejected the Brahmanic caste system and the alliance of brahmans and kshatriyas.
- Powerful kshatriya families in clan states did not respect their brahman peers, leading to their portrayal as ‘degenerate’ in Vedic tradition.
- Dissenting traditions like Buddhism and Jainism arose within these clan states.
- Clan states were decentralised and could not expand further, unlike monarchical states with greater resources.
- The concept of monarchy rose alongside clan states in the post-Vedic age, lasting nearly 2,700 years until British ruleended in 1947.
- Jana kingship began around the 8th century BCE with rajanyas (elite kshatriya lineage) dominating military-nobility roles.
- Dharmasutras provided the legal basis for rule, consolidating political control, land ownership, and taxation.
- Sacred heroism stories from epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana legitimised rulers’ authority.
- Indian monarchs were trusted to be strong, wise, decisive, and protective of their people, with the king’s power matched by his obligations.
- However, many monarchs were also violent, cruel, or vain.
- Kings held sacrificial ceremonies, including the rajasuya (royal sacrifice) to gain loyalty.
- Other royal rituals included ashvamedha (horse sacrifice) to expand territory, where a white stallion wandered freely, and land was claimed based on its movement.
- The horse was sacrificed in a ceremony combining sex, magic, religion, and superstition to demonstrate royal mystical authority.