NCERT 6 HISTORY CHAPTER 7

-

7. ASHOKA, THE EMPEROR WHO GAVE UP WAR


  • Dynasty - members of the same family become rulers one after another
  • Mauryan Rulers - Chandragupta, succeeded by his son Bindusara, then by Ashoka
  • Chandragupta, the founder of Maurya dynasty (> 2300 years ago) supported by a wise man Chanakya / Kautilya who wrote Arthashastra
     EMPIRE

  • included several cities and villages
  • Merchants, officials and crafts persons live in cities, villages of farmers and herders
  • Important cities : Pataliputra, Taxila and Ujjain
  • Empire larger than kingdoms, emperors need more resources and protected by big armies
    RULING THE EMPIRE

  • Pataliputra - under direct control, officials appointed to collect taxes and they punished those who disobeyed the ruler's orders, Emperors supervised them
  • Other areas ruled from provincial capital Taxila or Ujjain, royal princes were sent as governors, local customs and rules followed
  • Some other areas - Mauryans collect available resources as tax and tribute
  • People in forests provide elephants, timber, honey and wax 
  • Arthashastra - tells that North-West (important for blankets) and South India (for gold and precious stones)
  • Megasthenes - ambassador sent by Greek ruler of West Asia Seleucus Nicator, wrote an account about what he saw (and about Pataliputra)
     ASHOKA

  • Unique ruler, only king in the history of the world who gave up conquest after winning a war ( Kalinga - coastal Orissa)
  • he decided to observe dhamma (Prakrit word for Sanskrit term Dharma)
  • he inspired by Buddha's teachings, he appointed officials to teach dhamma (dhamma mahamatta) 
  • His messages inscribed on rocks and pillars
  • he also sent messengers to spread ideas about dhamma to other lands such as Syria, Egypt, Greece and Sri Lanka
  • Sarnath pillar - The Lion capital, carved in stone
  • Ramapurwa bull - part of Mauryan Pillar, Bihar ( now at Rashtrapati Bhavan, example of skill sculptors of the time)
  • Ashoka's inscriptions found - Brahmagiri, Yerragudi, Maski, Sannathi, Sopara, Jaugada, Dhauli, Girnar, Panguraria, Sanchi, Rupnath, Lauriya Araraj, Sarnath, Kaushambi, Allahabad, Gujjara, Rampurwa, Lumbini, Bahapur, Topra, Meerut, Kalsi, Kandahar, Lampaka, Shahbazgarhi, Mansehra 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NCERT 7 HISTORY CHAPTER 2

-
Image
  2. NEW KINGS AND KINGDOMS     THE EMERGENCE OF NEW DYNASTIES New dynasties emerged after 7th century Samantas - big landlords or warrior chiefs, subordinates to the kings, later declared themselves as maha-samanta, maha-mandaleshvara Rashtrakutas - sub ordinate to Chalukyas In mid eighth century, Dantidurga , a Rashtrakuta chief performed a ritual called hiranya-garbha (lead to the rebirth of the sacrificer as kshatriya) From Brahmanas to  Kings - the Kadamba Mayusrasharman and the Gurjara-Pratihara Harichandra     ADMINISTRATION IN THE KINGDOMS Titles - Maharaja- adhiraja (great king, overlord of kings), tribhuvana-chakravartin (lord of the three worlds) taxes collected to finance the king's establishment, construction of temples and forts, used to fight wars close relatives of the king held important positions, positions were often hereditary Inscription of the Cholas - Tamil Nadu, more than 400 terms for different kinds of taxes such as vetti ( in...
Read more

NCERT 9 GEOGRAPHY CHAPTER 6

-
6. POPULATION Population - the pivotal element in social studies  Resources, calamities and disasters are all meaningful only in relation to human beings Census of India - official enumeration of population done periodically (for every 10 years) first census held in 1872 , the first complete census held in 1881       POPULATION SIZE AND DISTRIBUTION India's population - 1210.6 million (as on march 2011) accounts for 17.5 % distributed over area of 3.28 million sq. km( 2.4 % of the world) Uttar Pradesh - the most populous state ( 199 million ) - 16% of country's population  Sikkim has a population of 0.6 million and Lakshadweep has only 64,429 people Rajasthan - the biggest state in terms of area, accounts only 5.5 % Half of India's population in 5 states - Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh Population density - Number of persons per unit area India - 382 persons per sq.km(densities vary from 1,102 per sq.km in Bihar...
Read more

NCERT 7 HISTORY CHAPTER 1

-
  1. TRACING CHANGES THROUGH A THOUSAND YEARS Cartography - the study and practice of making maps science of cartography differed in these two periods, produced with different historical backgrounds and contexts Map 1 -  made in 1154 CE by Arab geographer Al-Idrisi , showing Indian subcontinent from land to sea South India where we would find North India and Sri Lanka at top (upside down map)  marked in Arabic, important places like kanauj in U.P were also marked  Map 2 - 600 years after Map 1, made in 1720s by French cartographer  used by European sailors, had detailed account on coastal areas       NEW AND OLD TERMINOLOGIES  Historical records changed over time - not only grammar and vocabulary; the meanings of words also changed  Term 'Hindustan' used in 13th century by Minhaj-i-siraj , chronicler in Persian (meant the areas of punjab, Haryana and the lands between the Ganga and the Yamuna) Babar used same term 'Hindustan...
Read more