Chapter 9 The Expansion of Civilization in Southern Asia

1. Chapter 9The Expansion of Civilization in Southern Asia

2. 1. The Gupta state had its origin in the petty state of Mughada in the eastern Ganges valley under the guidance of a local raja (prince) named Chandragupta (not related to Chandragupta Maurya) who married the daughter of a powerful northern Ganges tribal leader. Founded about 320, the Gupta Empire was centered at its capital of Pataliputra (Putna). Expansion was achieved by his son Samudragupta (330-375) and grandson ChandraguptaII (375-415) who carried the borders north to the Himalaya Mountains, south to the Narbada River on the western Deccan Plateau where Samudragupta defeated many of the rulers and then restored them as his subjects. Likewise, he established a loose control over Pallava and Simhala (Sri Lanka). In the west the empire stretched to the borders of the Punjab and Kashmir, and east to the mouth of the Ganges. Gupta authority also came to be exercised over states along the Indus River to the Arabian Sea. 2. Under the Guptas there was not only peace but also prosperity. The state controlled gold, silver, and salt mines, as well as water for irrigation. Clearly, huge profits could be made. Moreover, such products as spices, jewels, ivory, tortoise shells, and fine cloths were exported in the regional trade of Asia. India's location also made it a center of exchange between China and the West by both sea and land routes (the Silk Road). All was under Gupta protection. Significantly, the trade with the Middle East resulted in the introduction of the use of gold and copper coins for a money economy about the second century. 3. Beginning about 450, the Gupta Empire fell under the attack of a group called the "White Huns" driving from the northwest out of Afghanistan. By 480 they controlled northern India. Gupta authority collapsed about 550. When the Hun's power disintegrated in the late sixth century, King Harsha (606-648) sought to reunite the Gupta state as militarily conquered most of northern India and bring it under loosed control. When he died without heirs, the empire broke up. Questions: 1. How was the Gupta Empire established and expanded? 2. What was the economic strength of the Guptas? The Gupta Empire

3. The Kushan Kingdom, c. 150 B.C.E.-c. 200 C.E. • Silk Road • China to Rome • Kanishka • The Gupta Dynasty • Chandragupta I (320-c. 330) • Samudragupta (c. 330-375) • Chandragupta II (375-415) • Hindu • Trade • Feudalism • Inner and outer vassals • Greater and lesser vassals

4. 1. Arab armies began penetrating east to India in the seventh century. By 636 under the leadership of Muhammad ibn-Qasim, Arabs had reached the Arabian Sea. When Indian pirates from the Hindu state of Sind near the Indus River continued to attack Arab shipping, Muslim forces attacked, conquering the lower Sind and Indus valley in 711. From this location the Arabs pressed north into the Punjab at the frontier of India. 2.North India was brought into Islam not by the Arabs but the recently converted Turks. In 962 one group of Turks established a small kingdomin northeastern Iran in the area of the old Kushan kingdom with its capital at Ghazni. In 986 the Turks began raiding in the Punjab. Under Mahmud (997-1030) the attacks were increased until he won the Punjab and then pressed to the Ganges. By the time of Mahmud's death in 1030 he controlled the Indus valley, the Punjab, and northwestern India. In religious fervor, Mahmud looted and destroyed Hindu shrines throughout the areas conquered under the guise of wiping out idolatry. 3. Resistance to Mahmud and his successors came from the Rajputs, a Hindu clan in northwest India. Their infantry, supported by elephants, was no match for the Muslim cavalry. The onslaught of the Muslims continued. 4. Mahmud's death was followed by a period of relative peace characterized by local conflicts. This was interrupted by a new line of Turkish rulers from their capital of Ghur (west of Ghazni) in Afghanistan. By 1193 the new attack on India reached and captured Delhi. By the end of the century the Muslims had extended their control throughout most of northern India. Again Hindu and Buddhist statues were destroyed. Most Buddhists took refuge in Tibet. Meanwhile, the sultanate of Delhi was established, reaching across northern India from the Indus to the Bay of Bengal from 1206 to 1526. 5. South of the valley of the Ganges Muslim power spread more slowly. Muslims did make attacks but had little success. One of the groups with which the Muslims had to contend were the Chalukyas and in the south the Cholas and Pandyas. These Hindu kingdoms flourished as a consequence of trade with Southeast Asia, China, and the Middle East. Questions: 1. How was Islam brought to India? 2. What was the impact of the Muslim presence in India? India at the Death of Mahmud of Ghanzi

5. Buddhism • Nirvana • Theravada • Mahayana • Bodhisattva • Avalokitesvara • Decline in India • Islam • Conquest of Sind by Arab armies, c. 711 • Mahmud of Ghazni (997-1030) • Rajputs • Tughluq dynasty (1320-1413) • Tamerlane (Timur-i-lang, Timur the Lame, (b. 1330s -1405)

6. 1. Tamerlane (Timur, "Earth Shaker," the Lame) was a chieftain of a small tribal state in Turkestan where he formed a powerful cavalry. In 1369 he seized Samarkand which became his capital. In successive campaigns, Tamerlane swept into Iran in 1379 and soon controlled the entire region east of the Caspian Sea. By 1385 he was in Mesopotamia and had captured Baghdad. Continued conquests took Tamerlane's forces as far north as Moscow by 1395. After a brief foray into India in 1398, Tamerlane turned his attention to Anatolia in 1400 where he crushed the Ottoman Turks in 1402 at the battle of Ankara. This turned out to be no more than a raid as that same year Tamerlane's forces withdrew. As elsewhere, this army left in its wake death, destruction, and chaos. For Europe, the devastating defeat of the Turks gave the Europeans breathing space since the Turks had begun to pressure them from the east. 2. Tamerlane was in northern India less than a year, 1398-1399. The purpose apparently was to convert infidels and gain booty. Delhi was sacked over a three-day period and left a ghost town. The Sultanate of Delhi never recovered. 3. While preparing for an invasion of China, Tamerlane died in 1405. His sons and heirs shared Tamerlane's conquests and rule Transoxiana and much of Iran in the fifteenth century. These were the last Sunni Muslims to rule Iran. At the end of the fifteenth century they were eclipsed by the militant Sh'ite dynasty of the Safavids. 4. In 1240 the Mongols overran Kiev and two years later created their own state of the Khanate of the Golden Horde on the lower Volga River. For the next two centuries they exerted suzerainty over almost of Russia. Questions: 1. What were the consequences of the empire created by Tamerlane? 2. How did the forces of Tamerlane indirectly help the Europeans? The Empire of Tamerlane

7. Tomb of Tamerlane in Samarkand

8. Importation of Islam • Islamic society • Success • Opposition from Hindus • Sikhism • Economy and daily life • Agriculture • Trade

9. Indian Culture • Art and Architecture • Buddhist cave temples and monasteries • Bronze statues • Literature • Rasa • Kalidasa • Dandin • Music • Chanting Vedic hymns • Raga

10. Close-up of temple gopuram, at temple at Madras

11. Temple complex at Mahabalipuram

12. 1. Although northern Vietnam was brought under Chinese control in 111 B.C.E., its trade and religion came primarily from India. Trade from Rome to India was extended east across the Indian Ocean to Malaya where the goods were transhipped throughout Southeast Asia and became part of the trading network including Srivijaya, Sailendra, and Champa. Srivijaya, with its capital at the deep water port of Palembang, promoted commercial relations between China and the Indian Ocean due to the control of the trade route through the Strait of Malacca. In 1025 Srivijaya was attacked and defeated by the Indian kingdom of Chola. Although Srivijaya recovered, it could not regain its dominance of the area in part because commerce increasingly flowed through the Strait of Sunda into the Indian Ocean. This benefited the Javanese kingdom of Sailendra. In the late thirteenth century Srivijaya was destroyed by the kingdom of Singhassari, the successor to Sailendra. By the mid-fourteenth century, most of the archipelago and parts of the mainland had been brought under the single control of Majapahit. 2. The Vietnamese came from the coastal plains of southern China and occupied the delta of the Red River. A strong sense of national identity had developed in North Vietnam by the time of the collapse of the Tang dynasty in 907. By 939, Vietnam, calling itself Dai Viet, achieved its independence though Chinese influence remained in Confucian institutions and political structure. As Dai Viet expanded south it came into conflict with Champa. In part, their struggle was rooted in Cham raids into the Red River delta. At times, Champa was victorious but by 1471 the region was under Dai Viet control. The Vietnamese continued their push south until reaching the Gulf of Siam in the eighteenth century. The Die Viet march south nevertheless continued until the Gulf of Siam was reached by the seventeenth century. China, however, never lost its desire to bring the Red River delta of north Vietnam into the empire. Chinese rule was established by the Ming in 1408 but by 1428 the Vietnamese had expelled them. 3. The kingdom of Champa was made up of a seafaring people with linguistic and cultural ties to Indianized Indonesia. It consisted of decentralized coastal villages that specialized in piracy as well as maritime trade with ties to the Islamic commercial network. Over the centuries, Champa became embroiled with Vietnam. 4. Located on the lower Mekong River was the kingdom of Funan. It is the first historically confirmed state in Southeast Asia, existing at least prior to the third century C.E. It was an agricultural and trading society possessing contacts with India and China. Funan dominated regional trade as the major land route between the Gulf of Thailand and the Bay of Bengal passed through the Funan controlled Isthmus of Kra. The discovery of Roman coins at Oc Eo would suggest at least an indirect contact with Rome. Moreover, there were clearly Indian influences in society. In the early ninth century, Funan gave way to the emerging kingdom of Anghor that dominated what is today northwestern Cambodia (Kampuchia) from the early ninth to fifteenth centuries. The Cambodian kings built a number of cities including their capital Anghor Thom. It covered about four square miles and may have had a population of one million. A walled city, it contained temples including the central one dedicated to Buddha and the king. Others were built to honor the Hindu gods. The Angkor civilization reached its peak in the twelfth century. 5. In the eighth century the Thais united into a confederacy which lasted until the attack of the Mongols in 1253. By the eleventh or twelfth century the Thai, originating in southwestern China, had pushed south eventually leading to conflict with Anghor. In 1432 they conquered the capital Angkor Thom but soon abandoned it for a new capital at Ayuthaya to the west. Significantly, the Thai absorbed Indian religious and political institutions, especially Theravada Buddhism. 6. The Burmese began migrating south from the highlands of Tibet into Nan Chao about the seventh century C.E. By the eleventh century they had found the kingdom of Pagan. It expanded south down the Malay peninsula and became active in the maritime trade. Question: 1. What was the relationship between China, India and Southeast Asia? Southeast Asia 500 C.E-1200 C.E.

13. Early Southeast Asia • Geography • Early migration • Beginnings of civilization • Malayo-Polynesian migration, c. 2500-1500 B.C.E. • Contacts with India • Merchants • Kingdom of Funan • Formation of states • Angkor • Thai • Burmans • Malay states

14. Angkor Wat

15. Ruins of Angkor Wat

16. Indian Model in Southeast Asia • Devaraja • Linga • Kshatriya • Economy • Agriculture • Vietnam • Angkor • Pagan • Trade • Srivijaya • Sumatra • Java • Malay peninsula

17. Daily life • Hierarchical society • Peasants • Women • Religion • Hinduism • Buddhism • Theravada Buddhism • Islam • Culture • Temples • Wayang berber • Wayang kulit • Gamelan

18. Interior of Shwedagon pagoda complex with numerous shrines

19. Temple of thousand Buddhas in Bangkok