Aim: to what extent did the Mauryan

Empire exemplify the impact of cultural diffusion on Asia?

The Mauryan Empire

Where?

When?

326 –

184 BCE(325 – 185 BCE)

When?

Politics• Monarchy / royal dictatorship

established by Chandragupta Maurya in 326 BCE.

Social Structure

How unusual!

• Ashoka becomes the third Mauryan Emperor in 269 BCE and rules until 232 BCE.

• Empire weakens after the death of Ashoka and collapses in 184 BCE after nomadic tribes from the northwest, including the Kushans, invade.

Belief Systems• Hinduism predominates until …• Ashoka converts to Buddhism however

…• Although Ashoka builds 84,000 stupas

honoring Buddha, and sends Buddhist missionaries to the “West” and Sri Lanka, but protects religious diversity (i.e.: Hinduism).

Economy• Based on agriculture (The state

owned huge farms cultivated by slaves and other laborers) and …

• International trade with the successors to Alexander the Greats Empire in the Middle East

Cultural Diffusion

What European was in India sometime around 326 BCE

and is believed to have indirectly caused the

Mauryan Empire to form?

Do not write this down.

Bactria = Afghanistan

Analysis of Cultural Diffusion

Greek tetradrachm with Alexander the Great on the coin.

Why does Alexander wear a symbolic lion skin on his

head? Does it remind you of anything?

We start with Alexander the

Great.

Mauryan Coin from the time period of Chandragupta Maurya.

What animal is frequently portrayed on Indian coins?Why?

Greek tetradrachm with Alexander the Great on the coin.

Why does Alexander wear a symbolic lion skin on his

head? Does it remind you of anything?

Back to Alex. Still Macedonian.

Why does Alexander

wear a symbolic

______ skin on his head?

Does it remind you of

anything?

Still Macedonian

?

Remember?

Mauryan Coin

Seleukos I (Seleucid coin).

Where is this coin

from?

What animal is being

portrayed?

What is Seleucid trying to say? How?

Why?

Demetrius I Alexander the Greatof Bactria

Why is Demetrius wearing a symbolic elephant skin on his head?

Mauryan Coin

Notice anything

odd about this

Mauryan coin?

Meandros (Menander), King of Bactria

BTW, this guy is famous in his own right. He’ll be in tomorrows lesson.

Ashoka may have been part Greek!

• Was he trying to emulate Alexander the Great?

Cultural Diffusion• "Here in the king's

domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dharma." Rock Edict Nb13 (S. Dhammika).

Do not write

Legal inscriptions by Asoka in Greek and Aramaic.

• But [India] has been treated of by several other Greek writers who resided at the courts of Indian kings, such, for instance, as Megasthenes, and by Dionysius, who was sent thither by Philadelphus, expressly for the purpose: all of whom have enlarged upon the power and vast resources of these nations." Pliny the Elder, "The Natural History", Chap. 21 [5]

Do not write

Greek culture had a major influence on India

Law• Laws of the land were

carved into stone pillars located throughout the Empire (influenced by Alexander? Hmmmm)

Legacy

Fin

Seleucid ruled part of what was left of the empire after the death of Alexander the

Great.

Now we go back in time a few decades to Alexander the Great’s Hellenic Empire?

Don’t write down. Just read.

Aim: to what extent did the ancient Indo –

Greeks have an impact on the growth

of Buddhism?

What is this place?

Meandros (Menander), King of Bactria

BTW, this guys is famous in his own right. He’ll be in tomorrows lesson.

The Indo-Greek King, ruler of Bactria (Afghanistan), known as Meandros (Menander) to the Greeks and Milinda to Indians practiced… Buddhism and helped spread Buddhism to many parts of the world such as China. There is even a Buddhist religious book, The Melindapanha, named after him.

Traditional Chinese Laughing Buddha

statue.

Budai was a Buddhist

monk.

Fin

Seleucid coin.