Indian History forms an
important part of the General
Awareness paper of Civil Ser-vices (Prelims) Examination.
Based on analysis of types of
questions asked in previous
years, we have compiled this
feature to help you to be better
prepared for the examination, as
also to make your preparation
easier. This will be a regular fea-ture in the magazine and in
coming months we will also
provide you with similar notes
on Indian Constitution and
other topics.
Beginning of
Magadhan Ascendancy
and beyond
1. Magadha kingdom’s
most remarkable king was
Srenika or Bimbisara, who
was anointed king by his
father at the young age of 15.
2. The capital of Bimbi-sara’s kingdom was Giriv-raja. It was girded with
stone walls which are among
the oldest extant stone struc-tures in India.
3. The most notable
achievement of Bimbisara
was the annexation of neigh-bouring kingdom of Anga or
East Bihar. He also entered
into matrimonial alliances
with ruling families of
Kosala and Vaishali. The
Vaishali marriage paved the
way for expansion of Maga-dha northword to the bor-ders of Nepal.
4. Gautama Buddha and
Vardhaman Mahavira prea-ched their doctrines during
the reign of Bimbisara.
5. The modern town of
Rajgir in the Patna district
was built by Bimbisara. He
had named it Rajagriha or the
king’s house.
6. Bimbisara was suc-ceeded by his son Ajatsha-tru. Tradition affirms that Bim-bisara was murdered by Ajat-shatru.
7. To repel the attacks of
the Vrijis of Vaishali, Ajat-shatru fortified the village of
Pataligrama, which stood at
the confluence of Ganga and
Sona rivers. This fortress,
within a generation, devel-oped into the stately city of
Pataliputra (modern day
Patna).
8. According to the
Puranas, the immediate suc-cessor of Ajatshatru was
Darsaka, after whom came
his son Udayi.
9. The name of Darsaka
also occurs in a play named
Svapna-Vasavadatta, attri-buted to Bhasa, which repre-sents him as a brother-in-law
and contemporary of Uday-ana, king of Kausambi.
However, Jain and Buddhist
writers assert that Udayi was
son of Ajatshatru.
10. Bimbisara’s dynastic
lineage ended with the Nan-da dynasty taking over the
reigns of Magadha. The first
king of Nanda dynasty was
Mahapadma or Mahapamapati
Nanda. He was succeeded by
his eight sons, of whom the
last was named Dhana-Nanda.
11. Dhana-Nanda was
overthrown by Chan-dragupta Maurya, the
founder of a new and more
illustrious dynasty.
12. Among the State
functionaries, the Purohit
was of special importance in
Kasi-Kosala, as we learn
from Ramayan and several
Jatakas. In Kuru-Panchal and
Matsya countries it was the
Senapati who held the spe-cial place.
13. The armies of the
period usually consisted of
infantry, cavalry, chariots
and elephants. While rulers
of deltaic regions were
known to maintain small
naval fleets, a big naval
department came into being
only during the reign of Chan-dragupta Maurya.
14. The Indian infantry
usually carried long bows
and iron-tipped arrows
made of cane. They used to
wear cotton garments. The
chariots of the cavalry were
drawn by horses or wild
asses and carried six soldiers
apiece—two bowmen, two
shield bearers and two
charioteers.
15. Greek writers bear
testimony to the fact that in
the art of war Indians were
far superior to other peoples
of Asia. Their failure against
foreign invaders was often
due to inferiority in cavalry.
Indian commanders pinned
their faith more in elephants
than horses.
16. The oldest source of
revenues was the bali. Bha-ga, the king’s share of reaped
corn, became the most
important source of State
revenue in course of time.
Among the most important
revenue officials was the
Grama-bhojaka or village
head-man.
17. The early Buddhist
texts refer to six big cities
that flourished during the
days of the Buddha. These
were: Champa (near Bha-galpur), Rajagriha (in Patna
district), Sravasti (Saheth-Maheth), Saketa (Oudh),
Kausambi (near Allahabad)
and Benaras (Varanasi).
18. The usual recrea-tions of women during the
Magadhan era were singing,
dancing and music. Little
princesses used to play with
dolls called panchalikas.
19. The chief pastimes
of knights were gambling,
hunting, listening to tales of
war and tournaments in
amphitheatres. Buddhist
texts refer to acrobatic feats,
combats of animals and a
kind of primitive chess
play.
20. The principal sea-ports of the period were:
Bhrigukachcha (Broach),
Surparaka (Sopara, north of
Mumbai), and Tamralipti
(Tamluk in West Bengal).
21. The chief articles of
trade during the Magadhan
era were: silk, muslin,
embroidery, ivory, jewellery
and gold. The standard unit
of value was the copper
Karshapana, weighing a lit-tle more than 146 grains. Sil-ver coins, called Purana or
Dharana, were also in circu-lation. The weight of a silver
coin was a little more than 58
grains, which is one-tenth of
that of the Nishka known to
the Vedic texts.
22. The first undoubted
historical reference to
image-worship by an Aryan
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Quick Revision Notes™
on Indian History
tribe occurs in passage of
Curtis, who states that an
image of Herakles was car-ried in front of Paurava
army as it advanced against
Alexander.
23. The early Magad-han period saw develop-ment of variant languages
from Sanskrit. In the towns
and the villages a popular
form of Sanskrit, Prakrit,
was spoken. This had local
variations; the chief west-ern variety was called
Shauraseni and the eastern
variety Magadhi. Pali was
another local language. The
Buddha, wishing to reach
wider audience, taught in
Magadhi.
Persian and
Macedonian Invasions
24. Cyrus, the founder
of the Achaemenian empire
of Persia, destroyed the
famous city of Kapisa near
the junction of the Ghorband
and Panjshir rivers north-east of Kabul.
25. The successor of
Cyrus, Darius sent a naval
expedition to the Indus
under the command of Sky-lax. This expedition paved the
way for the annexation of the
Indus valley as far as the
deserts of Rajputana. The area
became the most populous
satrapy of the Persian
empire and paid a tribute pro-portionately larger than all the
rest—360 Eubic talents of
gold dust, equivalent to
more than a million
sterling.
26. Once the Persian
hold over Indian possessions
became weak, the old territo-ry of Gandhara was divided
into two parts. To the west of
Indus river lay the kingdom
of Pushkalavati in the mod-ern district of Peshawar; to
the east was Takshasila in
present district of Rawalpin-di. Tradition affirms that
Mahabharata was first recited
in Takshasila.
27. In 331 B.C., Alexan-der inflicted heavy blows
on the king of Persia and
occupied his realm. In 327
B.C. Alexander crossed the
Hindukush and resolved to
recover the Indian sat-rapies that had once been
under his Persian prede-cessors.
28. To secure his com-munications, Alexander gar-risoned a number of strong-holds near modern Kabul
and passed the winter of
327-326 B.C. in warfare with
fierce tribes of Kunar and
Swat valleys.
29. Alexander finally
crossed Indus river in 326
B.C. using a bridge of boats.
Ambhi, the king of Taxila
gave him valuable help in
this.
30. Alexander’s march
faced a major hurdle when it
reached the banks of
Hydaspes (modern Jhelum)
river, near the town of
Jhelum. Here he faced stiff
resistance from Paurava
king (Porus).
31. After crossing the
Akesines (Chenab) and the
Hydraotes (Ravi), Alexander
stormed Sangala, the strong-hold of the Kathaioi, and
moved on to the Hyphasis
(Beas). He wished to press
forward to the Ganga valley,
but his war-worn troops
refused. Alexander erected 12
towering altars to mark the
utmost limit of his march, and
then retraced his steps to
Jhelum.
32. During the return
journey, Alexander received
a dangerous wound while
storming a citadel of the
powerful tribe of the
Malawas. He returned to
Babylon after a long and
treacherous journey and
died soon after in 323 B.C.
33. The Persian con-quest unveiled India for the
first time to the Western
world and established con-tact between the people of
both regions.
34. The introduction of
new scripts—Aramaic,
Kharoshti and the alphabet
style Yavanani by Panini—
can be traced to Greek
source.
35. The Macedonian
garrisons were swept away
by Chandragupta Maurya.
However, these were not
wiped out completely.
Colonies like Yavana contin-ued to serve the king of
Magadha just as they served
the Macedonians, and
carved out an independent
kingdom only after the sun
set of Magadha.
36. One positive out-come of Alexander’s inva-sion was that Greeks of later
ages got to learn lessons in
philosophy and religion
from Indian Buddhists and
Bhagavatas and Indians
learned use of coins, hon-oured Greek astronomers
and learned to appreciate
Hellenistic art.
37. One of the most
remarkable things in
the foreign policy of
Alexander was his encour-agement of inter-racial
marriages. He was the first
ruler known to history who
contemplated the brother-hood of man and the unity
of mankind. The White
Kafirs of Kafiristan,
classed in Ashoka’s edicts
as definitely Greeks, are
said to be descended
from Alexander’s men.
Of the ruling Frontier
families, eight claim
direct lineage from the son
born to Alexander by
Cleophis queen of the
Assakenoi.
Jainism and
Buddhism
38. The parents of
Mahavira were Siddhartha,
a Janatrika chief of Kunda-pura, and Trishala, a Ksha-triya lady related to the rul-ing families of Vaishali and
Magadha.
39. Mahavira married a
princess named Yashoda.
40. Mahavira forsook
the world at the age of thirty
and roamed as a naked
ascetic in several parts of
eastern India and practiced
severe penance for 12 years.
Half of this time was
spent with a mendicant
(beggar) friar (brother)
named Goshala who subse-quently left him and became
the leader of the Ajivika
sect.
41. In the 13th year of
penance, Mahavira attained
the highest spiritual knowl-edge called Kevala-jnana,
on the northern bank of river
Rijupalika, outside Jrimb-hikagrama, a little known
locality in eastern India. He
was now known as a
Kevalin (omniscient), a Jina
(conqueror) and Mahavira
(the great hero).
42. Mahavira became
the head of a sect called
Nigranthas (free from Fret-ters), known in later times as
Jains or followers of Jina
(conqueror).
43. Mahavira died at
Pava in south Bihar, after
wandering for 35 years as a
religious teacher, at the age
of 72.
44. The Jains believe
that Mahavira was not the
founder of a new religious sys-tem, but the last of a long
succession of 24 Tirthankars
or “ford-makers across the
stream of existence”.
45. The 23rd teacher,
Parsav, the immediate pre-decessor of Mahavira, was a
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prince of Benaras and
enjoined on his disciples the
great four vows of non-injury,
truthfulness, abstention from
stealing and non-attachment.
Mahavira added the vow of
Brahamcharya or continence
to this.
46. Jainism was atheis-tic in nature, the existence of
God being irrelevant to its
doctrine. It believes that uni-verse functions according to
an eternal law and is contin-ually passing through a
series of cosmic waves of
progress and decline. Every-thing in the universe, mate-rial or otherwise, has a soul.
The purification of the soul
is the purpose of living, for
the pure soul is released
from the body and then
resides in bliss.
47. Jains believe that by
following the three-fold
path of right Belief, right
Knowledge and right Con-duct, souls will be released
from transmigration and
reach the pure and blissful
abode or Siddha Sila.
48. Jainism spread
rapidly among the trading
community. The emphasis on
non-violence prevented agricul-turists from being Jainas, since
cultivation involved killing
insects and pests.
49. According to the tra-dition of the Svetambara
Jains, the original doctrine
taught by Mahavira was
contained in fourteen old
texts styled Purvas.
50. Close to 4th century
B.C., due to a famine in
south Bihar, important sec-tions of Jains, headed by
Bhadrabahu, fled to Mysore.
51. To revive the knowl-edge of sacred texts, which
was passing into oblivion
following the famine in
south Bihar and fleeing of
majority of Jains, a council
was convoked by those who
were left behind in Patalipu-tra, which resulted in compi-lation of the 12 Angas which
are regarded as the most impor-tant part of the Jain canon.
Another council was held at
Valabhi in Gujarat in 5th or
6th century A.D. which
made a final collection of the
scriptures and reduced them
to writing.
52. The followers of
Bhadrabahu, on their return
to the north, refused to
acknowledge the Angas and
came to be known as Sve-tambaras (clad in white) as
they wore white garments
notwithstanding the injunc-tions of Mahavira. The origi-nal followers came to be called
Digambaras (sky-clad or
naked).
53. Gautama Buddha
was born as Siddhartha to
Suddhodana, a Raja or noble
of Kapilvastu (in the Nepal
Terai to the north of Basti
district of Uttar Pradesh)
and Maya, a princess of
Devadaha, a small town in
the Sakya territory. Maya died
while giving birth to Sid-dhartha and he was brought up
by his aunt and step-mother
Prajapati Gautami.
54. The site of nativity of
Gautama Buddha is marked
by the celebrated Rummin-dei Pillar of Ashoka.
55. Siddhartha was mar-ried to Yashodara at the age
of 16. Yashodara was also
known as Bhadda Kachc-hana, Subhadraka, Bimba
or Gopa.
56. The Great Renunci-ation took place when Sid-hartha reached the age of 29.
For six years he lived as a
homeless ascetic. At Uruvila
he practiced the most rigid
austerities only to find that
they were of no help to him
to achieve his goal.
57. Sidhartha finally sat
under a pipal or Banyan tree
at modern Bodh Gaya, after
taking a bath in the stream of
river Nairanjana, modern
Lilajan. Here he attained the
supreme knowledge and
insight and became known
as Buddha or the Enlight-ened One, Tathagata (“he
who attained the truth”) and
Sakya-muni or the sage of
the Sakya clan.
58. The first sermon by
Buddha was given in the
Deer Park near Sarnath, in
the neighbourhood of
Benaras. This sermon was
called the Turning of the
Wheel of Law, and was the
nucleus of the Buddhist teach-ings.
59. Among Buddha’s
early converts was his
cousin Devadatta who, sub-sequently broke away and
founded a rival sect that sur-vived in parts of Oudh and
western Bengal till the Gup-ta period.
60. The Buddha is said
to have died at the age of 80
at Kusinagar, modern Kasia
in the Gorakhpur district of
Uttar Pradesh.
61. Buddha taught his
followers the four “Noble
Truths” (Arya Satya) con-cerning suffering, the cause
of suffering, the destruction
of suffering and the way that
leads to the destruction of
sorrow.
62. As per Buddhist
teachings, salvation is pos-sible through the Eight-fold Path, which consisted
of eight principles of
action, leading to a bal-anced, moderate life (right
views, resolves, speech
conduct, livelihood, effort,
recollection and medita-tion, the combination of
which was described as
Middle Way).
63. The doctrine of kar-ma was essential to the Bud-dhist way of salvation.
Unlike the brahmanical idea,
karma was not used to
explain away caste status,
since Buddha rejected caste.
64. Buddhism was athe-istic, in as much as God was
not essential to the Universe,
there being a natural cosmic
rise and decline.
65. The acceptance of
nuns in the Buddhist monas-teries was a revolutionary
step from the point of view
of the status of women.
66. The earliest surviv-ing form of Buddhism,
called Theravada, is still
predominant in Sri Lanka
and South-East Asian coun-tries.
67. Shortly after the
death of Buddha a great
Council (Sangiti) was held
at Rajagriha to compile the
religious doctrine (Dharma)
and the monastic code
(Vinaya). A second council
was convoked a century lat-er at Vaishali which con-demned the rules in respect
of the ten points and revised
the scriptures.
68. A fresh condemna-tion of heresy took place
during the reign of Ashoka,
under whose patronage a
third council was sum-moned at Pataliputra by a
learned monk, Tisaa Mog-galiputta, 236 years after
Buddha’s death.
69. The fourth council
was held under Kanishka
which prepared elaborate
commentaries (Upadesh
Shastras and Vibhasha Shas-tras) on the sacred texts.
70. According to Sri
Lankan tradition, the sacred
texts and commentaries
were written down in books
in first century B.C. during
the reign of King Vattaga-mani Abhaya. Later, the
texts, as distinguished from
the commentaries, came to
be known as Pali.
