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African societies. In societies that lacked a written tradi-

tion, women represented the glue that held the commu-

nity together. Through the recitation of fables, proverbs,

poems, and songs, mothers conditioned the communal

bonding and moral fiber of succeeding generations in a

way that was rarely encountered in the patriarchal soci-

eties of Europe, eastern and southern Asia, and the

Middle East. Such activities were not only vital aspects of

education in traditional Africa, but they also offered a

welcome respite from the drudgery of everyday life and a

spark to develop the imagination and artistic awareness of

the young. Renowned for its many proverbs, Africa also

offers the following: ‘‘A good story is like a garden carried

in the pocket.’’

COMPARATIVE ILLUSTRATION

The Ste le. A stele is a stone slab or pillar, usually decorated or inscribed and

placed upright. Stelae were often used to commemorate the accomplishments

of a ruler or significant figure. Shown at the left is the tallest of the Axum

stelae still standing, in present-day Ethiopia. The stone stelae in Axum in the fourth

century

B.C.E. marked the location of royal tombs with inscriptions commemorating the

glories of the kings. An earlier famous stele, seen in the center, is the obelisk at Luxor in

southern Egypt. A similar kind of stone pillar, shown at the right, was erected in India

during the reign of Ashoka in the third century

B.C.E. (see Chapter 2) to commemorate

events in the life of the Buddha. Archaeologists have also found stelae from ancient China,

Greece, and Mexico.

Wh y do you think the stele was so widely used during early times as a symbol of ro yal

power?



Werner Forman/Art Resource, NY



William J. Duiker



Borromeo/Art Resource, NY

204 CHAPTER 8 EARLY CIVILIZATIONS IN AFRICA

SUGGESTED READING

In few areas of world history is scholarship advancing as rapidly as in

African history. New information is constantly forcing archaeologists

and historians to revise their assumptions about the early history of

the continent. Standard texts therefore quickly become out-of-date as

their conclusions are supplanted by new evidence.

General Surveys Several general surveys provide a useful

overview of the early period of African history. The dean of African

historians, and certainly one of the most readable, is B. Davidson.

For a sy mpathetic portrayal of the African people, see his African

History (New York, 1968) and Lost Cities in Africa, rev. ed.

(Boston, 1970). Other respected accounts are R. Oliver and

TIMELINE

7000 B.C.E.

5000 B.C.E. 3000 B.C.E. 1 C.E.1000 B.C.E. 1000 C.E.

Kingship appears in Nile Valley

Nok culture in Nigeria

Spread of Islam

across North Africa

Christianity arrives in Ethiopia

First states in

West Africa

Kingdom of

Zimbabwe

Kingdom of Kush

founded in Nubia

Spread of Swahili culture

in East Africa

First agricultural

settlements

Desiccation of

Sahara begins

Beginning of trans-Saharan trade

Iron Age begins in Africa

CONCLUSION

THANKS TO THE DEDICATED WORK of a generation of

archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians, we now have a

much better understanding of the evolution of human societies

in Africa than we did a few decades ago. Intensive efforts by

archaeologists have demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that the

first hominids lived there. Recent evidence suggests that farming

may have been practiced in Africa more than 12,000 years ago,

and the concept of kingship may have originated not in Sumer

or in Egypt but in the upper Nile valley as long ago as the fourth

millennium

B.C.E.

Less is known about more recent African history, partly because

of the paucity of written records. Still, historians have established that

the first civilizations had begun to take shape in sub-Saharan Africa

by the first millennium

C.E., while the continent as a whole was an

active participant in the emerging regional and global trade with the

Mediterranean world and across the Indian Ocean.

Thus, the peoples of Africa were not as isolated from the main

currents of human history as was once assumed. Although the state-

building process in sub-Saharan Africa was still in its early stages

compared with the ancient civilizations of India, China, and

Mesopotamia, in many respects these new states were as impressive

and sophisticated as their counterparts elsewhere in the world.

In the fifteenth century, a new factor was added to the

equation. Urged on by the tireless efforts of Prince Henry the

Navigator, Portuguese fleets began to probe southward along the

coast of West Africa. At first, their sponsors were in search of gold

and slaves, but at the end of the century, Vasco da Gama’s voyage

around the Cape of Good Hope signaled Portugal’s determination

to dominate the commerce of the Indian Ocean in the future. The

new situation posed a challenge to the peoples of Africa, whose

nascent states and technology would be severely tested by the

rapacious demands of the Europeans.

CONCLUSION 205

J. D. Fage, A Short History of Africa (Middlesex, England, 1986),

and V. B. Khapoya, The African Experience: An Introduction

(Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1994). R. O. Collins, ed., Problems in

African History: The Precolonial Centuries (New York, 1993),

provides a useful collection of scholarly articles on key issues in

precolonial Africa.

Specialized Studies Specialized studies are beginning to

appear with frequency on many areas of the continent. For a

popular account of archaeological finds, see B. Fagan, New

Treasures of the Past: Fresh Finds That Deepen Our Understanding

of the Archaeology of Man (Leicester, Eng land, 1987), and D. W.

Phillipson, African Archaeology (Cambridge, 2005). For a more

detailed treatment of the early period, see the multivolume General

History of Africa, sponsored by UNESCO (Berkeley, Calif., 1998).

R. O. Collins has provided a useful service with his African History

in Documents (Princeton, N.J., 1990). C. Ehret, An African

Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History,

1000

B.C.toA.D. 400 (Charlottesville, Va., 1998), applies historical

linguistics to make up for the lack of documentary evidence in the

precolonial era. J. D. Clarke and S. A. Brandt, eds., From Hunters

to Farmers (Berkeley, Calif., 1984), takes an economic approach.

Also see D. A. Welsby, The Kingdom of Kush: The Napataean

Meroitic Empire (London, 1996), and J. Middleton, Swahili: An

African Mercantile Civilization (New Haven, Conn., 1992). For a

fascinating account of trans-Saharan trade, see E. W. Bovill, The

Golden Trade of the Moors: West African Kingdoms in the

Fourteenth Century, 2nd ed. (Princeton, N.J., 1995). On the cultural

background, see R. Olaniyan, ed., African History and Culture

(Lagos, Nigeria, 1982), and J. Vansina, Paths in the Rainforest:

Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa

(Madison, Wis., 1990). Although there are many editions of The

Epic of Son-Jara, based on recitations of different bards, the most

conclusive edition is by F. D. Siso

, translated and annotated by

J. W. Johnson (Bloomington, Ind., 1992).

East Africa On East Africa, see D. Nurse and T. Spear, The

Swahili: Reconstituting the History and Language of an African

Society, 800--1500 (Philadelphia, 1985). The maritime story is

recounted with documents in G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville, The East

African Coast: Select Documents from the First to the Earlier

Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1962). For the larger picture, see

K. N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean: An

Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge,

1985). On the early history of Ethiopia, see S. Burstein, ed., Ancient

African Civilizations: Kush and Axum (Princeton, N.J., 1998).

Southern Africa For useful general surveys of southern

Africa, see N. Parsons, A New History of Southern Africa (New

York, 1983), and K. Shillington, A History of Southern Africa

(Essex, England, 1987), a profusely illustrated account. For an

excellent introduction to African art, see M. B. Visond et al., A

History of Art in Africa (New York, 2001); R. Hackett, Art and

Religion in Africa (London, 1996); and F. Willet, African Art,

rev. ed. (New York, 1993).

Visit the website for The Essential World History to access study

aids such as Flashcards, Critical Thinking Exercises, and

Chapter Quizzes:

www.cengage.com/history/duikspiel/essentialworld6e

206 CHAPTER 8 EARLY CIVILIZATIONS IN AFRICA

207

CHAPTER 9

THE EXPANSION OF CIVILIZATION IN SOUTHERN ASIA

CHAPTER OUTLINE

AND FOCUS QUESTIONS

The Silk Road

What were some of the chief destinations along the Silk

Road, and what kinds of products and ideas traveled

along the route?

India After the Maur yas

How did Buddhism change in the centuries after

Siddhartha Gautama’s death, and why did the religion

ultimately decline in popularity in India?

The Arrival of Islam

How did Islam arrive in the Indian subcontinent, and

why were Muslim peoples able to establish states there?

Society and Culture

What impact did Muslim rule have on Indian society?

To what degree did the indigenous population convert

to the new religion, and why?

What are some of the most important cultural

achievements of Indian civilization in the era between

the Mauryas and the Mughals?

The Golden Region: Early Southeast Asia

What were the main characteristics of Southeast Asian

social and economic life, culture, and religion before

1500

C.E.?

CRITICAL THINKING

New religions had a significant impact on the social and

cultural life of peoples living in southern Asia during the

period covered in this chapter. What factors caused the

spread of these religions in the first place? What changes

occurred as a result of the introduction of these new

faiths? Were the religions themselves affected by their

spread into new regions of Asia?

One of the two massive carved statues of the Buddha formerly at Bamiyan



Thomas J. Abercrombie/National Geographic

Image Collection

208

WHILE TRAVELING from his native China to India along the

Silk Road in the early fifth century

C.E., the Buddhist monk Fa Xian

stopped en route at a town called Bamiyan, a rest stop located deep

in the mountains of what is today known as Afghanistan. At that

time, Bamiyan was a major center of Buddhist studies, with dozens

of temples and monasteries filled with students, all overlooked by

two giant standing statues of the Buddha hewn directly out of the

side of a massive cliff. Fa Xian was thrilled at the sight. ‘‘The law of

Buddha,’’ he remarked with satisfaction in his account of the experi-

ence, ‘‘is progressing and flourishing.’’ He then continued southward

to India, where he spent several years visiting Buddhists throughout

the country. Because little of the literature from that period survives,

Fa Xian’s observations are a valuable resource for our knowledge of

the daily lives of the Indian people.

The India that Fa Xian v isited was no longer the unified land

it had been under the Mauryan dynasty. The overthrow of the

Mauryas in the early second century

B.C.E. had been followed by sev-

eral hundred years of disunity, when the subcontinent was divided

into a number of separate kingdoms and principalities. The domi-

nant force in the north was the Kushan state, established by Indo-

European-speaking peoples who had been driven out of what is

now China’s Xinjiang province by the Xiongnu (see Chapter 3).

The Silk Road

Focus Question: What were some of the chief

destinations along the Silk Road, and what kinds of

products and ideas traveled along the route?

The Kushan kingdom, with its power base beyond the

Khyber Pass in modern Afghanistan, became the domi-

nant political force in northern India in the centuries

immediately after the fall of the Mauryas. Sitting astride

the main trade routes across the northern half of the

subcontinent, the Kushans thrived on the commerce that

passed through the area (see Map 9.1). Much of that trade

was between the Roman Empire and China and was

transported along the route now known as the Silk Road,

one segment of which passed through the mountains

northwest of India (see Chapter 10). From there, goods

were shipped to Rome through the Persian Gulf or the

Red Sea.

Trade between India and Europe ha d begun even

before the rise of the Roman Empire, but it expanded

rapidly in the first century

C.E., when sailors mastered

the pattern of the monsoon winds in the Indian Ocean

(from the southwest in the summer and the northeast in

the winter). Commerce between the Mediterranean and

the I ndian Ocean, as described in the Periplus, afirst-

century

C.E. acco unt by a G reek participant, was ex-

tensive and often profitable, and it resulted in the es-

tablishment of several small trading settlements along

the Indian coast. Rome imported ivory, indigo, textiles,

precious stones, and pepper from India and silk from

China. The Romans sometimes paid cash for these

goods but also exported silver, wine, perfume, slaves,

and glass and cloth from Egypt. Overall, Rome appears

to have imported much more than it sold to the Far

East, leading Emperor Tiberius to grumble that ‘‘the

ladies and their baubles are transferring our money to

foreigners.’’

The Silk Road was a conduit for not only material

goods but also technology and ideas. The first Indian

monks to visit China may have traveled over the road

during the second century

C.E. By the time of Fa Xian,

Buddhist monks from China were beginning to arrive in

increasing numbers to visit holy sites in India. The ex-

change of visits not only enriched the study of Buddhism

in the two countries but also led to a fruitful exchange of

ideas and technological advances in astronomy, mathe-

matics, and linguistics. According to one scholar, the

importation of Buddhist writings from India encouraged

the development of printing in China, and the Chinese

also obtained lessons in health care from monks returned

from the Asian subcontinent.

MAP 9.1 The K ushan K ingdom and the Silk Road. After

the collapse of the Mauryan Empire, a new state formed by

recent migrants from the north arose north of the Indus River

valley. For the next four centuries, the Kushan kingd om played

a major role in regional trade via the Silk Road until it declined

in the third century

C.E.

What were the major products shipped along the Silk

Road? Which countries beyond the borders of this map took

an active part in trade along the Silk R oad?

THE SILK ROAD 209

The Kushans penetrated into the mountains north of the Indus

River, where they eventually formed a kingdom with its capital at

Bactria, not far from modern Kabul. Over the next two centuries,

the Kushans expanded their supremacy along the Indus River and

into the central Ganges valley.

Meanwhile, to the south, a number of kingdoms arose among

the Dravidian-speaking peoples of the Deccan Plateau, which had

been only partly under Mauryan rule. The most famous of these

kingdoms was Chola (sometimes spelled Cola) on the southeastern

coast. Chola developed into a major trading power and sent mer-

chant fleets eastward across the Bay of Bengal, where they introduced

Indian culture as well as Indian goods to the peoples of Southeast

Asia. In the fourth century

C.E., Chola was overthrown by the Palla-

vas, who ruled from their capital at Kanchipuram (known today as

Kanchi), just southwest of modern Chennai (Madras), for the next

four hundred years.

Indeed, the emergence of the Kushan kingdom as a

major commercial power was due not only to its role as

an intermediary in the Rome-China trade but also to the

rising popularity of Buddhism. During the second cen-

tury

C.E., Kanishka, the greatest of the Kushan monarchs,

began to patronize Buddhism. Under Kanishka and his

successors, an intimate and mutually beneficial relation-

ship was established between Buddhist monasteries and

the local merchant community in thriving urban centers

like Taxila and Varanasi. Merchants were eager to build

stupas and donate money to monasteries in return for

social prestige and the implied promise of a better life in

this world or the hereafter.

For their part, the wealthy monasteries ceased to be

simple communities where monks could find a refuge

from the material cares of the world; instead they became

major consumers of luxury goods provided by their af-

fluent patrons. Monasteries and their inhabitants became

increasingly involved in the economic life of society, and

Buddhist architecture began to be richly decorated with

precious stones and glass purchased from local merchants

or imported from abroad. The process was very similar to

the changes that would later occur in the Christian

church in medieval Europe.

It was from the Kushan kingdom that Buddhism

began its long journey across the wastes of Central Asia to

China and other societies in eastern Asia. As trade be-

tween the two regions increased, merchants and mis-

sionaries flowed from Bactria over the trade routes

snaking through the mountains toward the northeast. At

various stopping points on the trail, pilgrims erected

statues and decorated mountain caves with magnificent

frescoes depicting the life of the Buddha and his message

to his followers. One of the most prominent of these

centers was at Bamiyan, not far from modern-day Kabul,

where believers carved two mammoth statues of the

Buddha out of a sheer sandstone cliff. According to the

Chinese pilgrim Fa Xian (see the box above), more than a

thousand monks were attending a religious ceremony at

the site when he visited the area in 400

C.E.

APORTRAIT OF MEDIEVAL INDIA

Much of what we know about life in medieval India

comes from the accounts of Chinese missionaries

who visited the subcontinent in search of docu-

ments recording the teachings of the Buddha.

Here the Buddhist monk Fa Xian, who spent several years there

in the fifth century

C.E., reports on conditions in the kingdom of

Mathura (Mo-tu-lo), a vassal state in western India that was

part of the Gupta Empire. Although he could not have been

pleased that the Gupta monarchs in India had adopted the

Hindu faith, Fa Xian found that the people were contented and

prosperous except for the untouchables, whom he called

Chandalas.

Fa Xian, The Travels of Fa Xian

Going southeast from this somewhat less than 80 joyanas, we passed

very many temples one after another, with some myriad of priests in

them. Having passed these places, we arrived at a certain country.

This country is called Mo-tu-lo. Once more we followed the Pu-na

river. On the sides of the river, both right and left, are twenty san-

gharamas, with perhaps 3,000 priests. The law of Buddha is pro-

gressing and flourishing. Beyond the deserts are the countries of

western India. The kings of these countries are all firm believers in

the law of Buddha. They remove their caps of state when they make

offerings to the priests. The members of the royal household and

the chief ministers personally direct the food giving; when the distri-

bution of food is over, they spread a carpet on the ground opposite

the chief seat (the president’s seat) and sit down before it. They dare

not sit on couches in the presence of the priests. The rules relating

to the almsgiving of kings have been handed down from the time of

Buddha till now. Southward from this is the so-called middle coun-

try (Madhyadesa). The climate of this country is warm and equable,

without frost or snow. The people are very well off, without poll tax

or official restrictions. Only those who till the royal lands return a

portion of profit of the land. If they desire to go, they go; if they

like to stop, they stop. The kings govern without corporal punish-

ment; criminals are fined, according to circumstances, lightly or

heavily. Even in cases of repeated rebellion they only cut off the

right hand. The king’s personal attendants, who guard him on the

right and left, have fixed salaries. Throughout the country the peo-

ple kill no living thing nor drink wine, nor do they eat garlic or

onions, with the exception of Chandalas only. The Chandalas are

named ‘‘evil men’’ and dwell apart from others; if they enter a town

or market, they sound a piece of wood in order to separate them-

selves; then men, knowing who they are, avoid coming in contact

with them. In this country they do not keep swine nor fowls, and

do not deal in cattle; they have no shambles [slaughterhouses] or

wine shops in their marketplaces. In selling they use cowrie shells.

The Chandalas only hunt and sell flesh.

To what degree do the practices described here appear to

conform to the principles established by Siddhartha Gautama in

his own teachings? Would political advisers such as Kautilya

and the Chinese philosopher Mencius have approved of the

governmental policies?

210 CHAPTER 9 THE EXPANSION OF CIVILIZATION IN SOUTHERN ASIA

India After the Mauryas

Focus Question: How did Buddhism change in the

centuries after Siddhartha Gautama’s death, and why

did the religion ultimately decline in popularity in

India?

The Kushan kingdom came to an end under uncertain

conditions sometime in the third century

C.E. In 320,

a new state was established in the central Ganges valley

by a local raja named Chandragupta (no relation to

Chandragupta Maur ya, the founder of the Mauryan

dynasty). Chandragupta (r. 320--c. 335) located his

capital at Pataliputra, the site of the now decaying

palace of the Maur yas. Under his successor Samu-

dragupta (r. c. 335--375), the territor y under Gupta

rule was extended into surrounding areas, and eventu-

ally the new kingdom became the dominant political

force throughout northern India. It also established a

loose suzerainty over the state of Pallava to the south,

thus becoming the greatest state in the subcontinent

since the decline of the Mauryan Empire. Under a

succession of powerful, efficient, and hig hly cultured

monarchs, notably Samudragupta and Chandragupta II

(r. 375--415), India enjoyed a new ‘‘classical age’’ of

civilization (see Map 9.2).

The Gupta Dynasty: A New Golden Age?

Historians of India have traditionally viewed the Gupta

era as a time of prosperity and thriving commerce with

China, Southeast Asia, and the Mediterranean. Great

cities, notable for their temples and Buddhist monasteries

as well as for their economic prosperity, rose along the

main trade routes throughout the subcontinent. The re-

ligious trade also prospered, as pilgrims from across India

and as far away as China came to visit the major religious

centers.

As in the Mauryan Empire, much of the trade in the

Gupta Empire was managed or regulated by the gov-

ernment. The Guptas owned mines and vast crown

lands and earned massive profits from their commercial

dealings. But there was also a large private sector,

dominated by great jati (caste) guilds that monopolized

key sectors of the economy. A money economy h ad

probably been in operation since the second centur y

B.C.E., when copper and gold coins had been int roduced

from the Middle East. This in turn led to the develop-

ment of banking. Nevertheless, there are indications

that the circulation of coins was limited. The Chinese

missionary Xuan Zang, who vi sited India early in the sev-

enth century, r emark ed that most commercial transactions

were c onducted by barter.

But the good fortunes of the Guptas proved to be

relatively short-lived. Beginning in the late fifth century

C.E., incursions by nomadic warriors from the northwest

gradually reduced the power of the empire. Soon north-

ern India was once more divided into myriad small

kingdoms engaged in seemingly constant conflict. In the

south, however, emerging states like Chola and Pallava

prospered from their advantageous position athwart the

regional trade network stretching from the Red Sea

eastward into Southeast Asia.

The Transformation of Buddhism

The Chinese pilgrims who traveled to India during the

Gupta era encountered a Buddhism that had changed in a

Arabian

Sea

Bay

Bengal

Indian

Ocean

Pataliputra

Benares

(Varanasi)

Taxila

BACTRIA

Kanchi

Bodh Gaya

KASHMIR

TIBET

INDIA

NEPAL

CHOLA

SIMHALA

(SRI LANKA)

Malabar

Coast

Rann

of Kutch

Probable boundary

under Chandragupta II

Southern campaign of

Samudragupta

0 250 500 Miles

0 250 500 750 Kilometers

MAP 9.2 The Gupta Empir e. This map shows the extent of

the Gupta Empire, the only major state to arise in the Indian

subcontinent during the first millennium

C.E. The arrow

indicates the military campaign into southern India led by King

Samudragupta.

How did the Gupta Empire differ in territorial extent

from its gr eat predecessor, the Mauryan Empire?

View an animated v ersion of this map or related maps

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INDIA AFTER THE MAURYAS 211

number of ways in the centuries since the time of

Siddhartha Gautama. They also found a doctrine that was

beginning to decline in popularity in the face of the rise of

Hinduism, as the Brahmanic religious beliefs of the Aryan

people would eventually be called.

The transformation in Buddhism had come about in

part because the earliest written sources were transcribed

two centuries after Siddhartha’s death and in part because

his message was reinterpreted as it became part of the

everyday life of the people. Abstract concepts of a Nirvana

that cannot be described began to be replaced, at least in

the popular mind, with more concrete visions of heavenly

salvation, and Siddhartha was increasingly regarded as a

divinity rather than as a sage. The Buddha’s teachings that

all four classes were equal gave way to the familiar

Brahmanic conviction that some people, by reason of

previous reincarnations, were closer to Nirvana than

others.

Theravada These developments led to a split in the

movement. Purists emphasized what they insisted were

the original teachings of the Buddha (describing them-

selves as the school of Theravada, or ‘‘the teachings of the

elders’’). Followers of Theravada considered Buddhism a

way of life, not a salvationist creed. Theravada stressed the

importance of strict adherence to personal behavior and

the quest for understanding as a means of release from

the wheel of life.

Mahayana In the meantime, another interpretation of

Buddhist doctrine was emerging in the northwest. Here

Buddhist believers, perhaps hoping to compete with other

salvationist faiths circulating in the region, began to

promote the view that Nirvana could be achieved through

devotion and not just through painstaking attention to

one’s behavior. According to advocates of this school,

eventually to be known as Mahayana (‘‘greater vehi-

cle’’), Theravada teachings were too demanding or too

strict for ordinary people to follow and therefore fa-

vored the weal thy, who were more apt to have the time

and resources to spend weeks or mon ths away from

th eir everyday occupations. Mahayana Buddhists re-

ferred to their rivals as Hinayana, or ‘‘lesser vehicle,’’

because in Theravada fewer would reach enlightenment.

Mahayana thus attempted to provide hope for the

masses in their efforts to reach Nirvana, but to the

followers of Theravada, it did so at the expense of an

insistence on proper behavior.

To advocates of the Mahayana school, salvation could

also come from the intercession of a bodhisattva (‘‘he

who possesses the essence of Buddhahood’’). According

to Mahayana beliefs, some individuals who had achieved

bodhi and were thus eligible to enter the state of Nirvana

after death chose instead, because of their great com-

passion, to remain on earth in spirit form to help all

human beings achieve release from the life cycle. Fol-

lowers of Theravada, who believed the concept of bo-

dhisattva applied only to Siddhartha Gautama himself,

denounced such ideas as ‘‘the teaching of demons.’’ But to

their proponents, such ideas extended the hope of sal-

vation to the masses. Mahayana Buddhists revered the

saintly individuals who, according to tradition, had be-

come bodhisattvas at death and erected temples in their

honor where the local population could pray and render

offerings.

A final distinguishing characteristic of Mahayana

Buddhism was its reinterpretation of Buddhism as a re-

ligion rather than a philosophy. Although Mahayana had

philosophical aspects, its adherents increasingly regarded

the Buddha as a divine figure, and an elaborate Buddhist

cosmology developed. Nirvana was not a form of ex-

tinction but a true heaven.

Under Kushan rule, Mahayana achieved consider-

able popularity in northern India and for a while even

made inroads in such Theravada strongholds as the is-

land of Sri Lanka. But in the end, neither Mahayana nor

Theravada was able to retain its popularity in Indian

society. By the seventh century

C.E., Theravada had

declined rapidly on the subcontinent, although it re-

tained its foothold in Sri Lanka and across the Bay of

Bengal in Southeast Asia, where it remained an influ-

en tial force to modern times (see Map 9.3). Mahayana

prospered in the northwest for centuries, but eventually

it was supplanted by a revived Hinduism and later by a

new arrival, Islam. But Mahayana too would find better

fortunes abroad, as it was carried over the Silk Road or

CHRONOL OGY

Medieval India

Kushan kingdom c. 150

B.C.E.--c. 200 C.E.

Gupta dynasty 320--600s

Chandragupta I 320--c. 335

Samudragupta c. 335--375

Chandragupta II 375--415

Arrival of Fa Xian in India c. 406

Cave temples at Ajanta Fifth century

Travels of Xuan Zang in India 630--643

Conquest of Sind by Arab armies c. 711

Mahmud of Ghazni 997--1030

Delhi sultanate at peak 1220

Invasion of Tamerlane 1398

212 CHAPTER 9 THE EXPANSION OF CIVILIZATION IN SOUTHERN ASIA

by sea to China and then to Korea and Japan (see

Chapters 10 and 11). In all three countries, Buddhism

has coexisted w ith Confucian doctrine and indigenous

beliefs to the present.

The Decline of Buddhism in India

Why was Buddhism unable to retain its popularity in its

native India, although it became a major force elsewhere

in Asia? Some have speculated that in denying the exis-

tence of the soul, Buddhism ran counter to traditional

Indian belief. Perhaps, too, one of Buddhism’s strengths

was also a weakness. In rejecting the class divisions that

defined the Indian way of life, Buddhism appealed to

those very groups who lacked an accepted place in Indian

society, such as the untouchables. But at the same time,

it represented a threat to those with a higher status.

Moreover, by emphasizing the responsibility of each

person to seek an individual path to Nirvana, Buddhism

undermined the strong social bonds of the Indian class

system.

Perhaps a final factor in the decline of Buddhism was

the rise of Hinduism. In its early development, Brah-

minism had been highly elitist. Not only was observance

of court ritual a monopoly of the brahmin class (see the

box on p. 214), but the major route to individual salva-

tion, asceticism, was hardly realistic for the average In-

dian. In the centuries after the fall of the Mauryas,

however, a growing emphasis on devotion (bhakti)asa

means of religious observance brought the possibility of

improving one’s karma by means of ritual acts within the

reach of Indians of all classes. It seems likely that Hindu

devotionalism rose precisely to combat the inroads of

Buddhism and reduce the latter’s appeal among the

Indian population. The Chinese Buddhist missionary

Fa Xian, who visited India in the mid-Gupta era, reported

that mutual hostility between the Buddhists and the

brahmins was quite strong:

Leaving the southern gate of the capital city, on the east side

of the road is a place where Buddha once dwelt. Whilst here

he bit [a piece from] the willow stick and fixed it in the

earth; immediately it grew up seven feet high, neither more

Indian

Ocean

Bay of

Bengal

Aral

Sea

Caspian Sea

Persian Gulf

ARABIA

INDIA

IRAN

TIBET

AFGHANISTAN

CHINA

CENTRAL ASIA

SUMATRA

BORNEO

PHILIPPINES

SULAWESI

JAVA

BALI

JAPAN

SRI

LANKA

KOREA

Buddhism

Hinduism

Islam

Buddhism

Hinduism

Islam

Direction of spread

of religion

MAP 9.3 The Spread of Rel igions in Southern and Eastern Asi a, 600–1900 C.E.

Between 600 and 1900 C.E., three of the world’s great religions—Buddhism, Hinduism, and

Islam—continued to spread from their original sources to different parts of southern and

eastern Asia.

Which religion had the greatest impact? H ow might the existence of major trade routes

help explain the spread of these religions?

INDIA AFTER THE MAURYAS 213