Class 7 Social Science Chapter 6: The Age of Reorganisation Notes

What is this chapter about?

Bhavisha and Dhruv, back from their visit to the Maurya empire, travel again with their time machine, Itihasa, and find a collection of artworks so different from one another that they seem to come from many kingdoms at once. They are right. This chapter covers a long stretch, roughly from 200 BCE to 300 CE, and asks three Big Questions: why this time is called an age of reorganisation, what values guided its rulers, and how invaders from outside became part of Indian society.

After the Mauryas

Little is known about Ashoka’s successors, but around 185 BCE the last Maurya emperor was killed by his own commander-in-chief, Pushyamitra Shunga, barely fifty years after Ashoka. The empire split into many kingdoms, often the old tributaries, and the weakened north-west was exposed to invasions. Some scholars call this the age of reorganisation, because regions were regrouped into new kingdoms that constantly competed for power. They gained ground through matrimonial alliances or through war, and border lands were fought over again and again. Alongside the fighting came a burst of art, architecture and literature.

The Shungas

Pushyamitra Shunga founded the Shunga dynasty, which ruled parts of north and central India. To proclaim his power he performed the ashvamedha yajna, the Vedic horse ritual. His kingdom was smaller than the Maurya empire, but he guarded it against invaders and, after some early fighting, stayed on friendly terms with the Greeks; about a century after him the dynasty ended. Vedic rituals revived, other schools of thought kept flourishing, and Sanskrit became a favoured language for philosophy and literature: Patanjali compiled the Yoga Sutras in this period. The Shungas also added carved railings and reliefs to the Bharhut stupa in Madhya Pradesh. Read kingdoms after the Mauryas.

The Satavahanas and the Chedis

South of the Shungas, the Satavahanas, sometimes called the Andhras, ruled much of the Deccan, starting in the 2nd century BCE, with capitals such as Amaravati and Pratishthana (Paithan). Farming in the Krishna–Godavari valley made them stable, and their coins, found from Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh, show ships, a sign of sea trade, which stretched all the way to the Roman Empire. Princes were often named after their mothers: Gautamiputra Satakarni was the son of Queen Gautami Balashri. Inscriptions at Naneghat near Pune describe a queen who performed Vedic rituals, and they contain early Brahmi numerals. In Kalinga, the Chedi king Kharavela, a follower of Jain teachings, recorded his deeds year by year in the Hathigumpha inscription near Bhubaneswar and called himself a respecter of every sect.

Kingdoms of the south

From about the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE, three kingdoms dominated the south: the Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas. Ashoka’s empire had stopped short of them. Poets of this time composed Sangam literature, the oldest in south India, and the poems call these rulers the three crowned kings. The Chola king Karikala built the Grand Anicut on the Kaveri, which still waters the ‘rice bowl of the South’. The Cheras, with their capital at Vanji (Karur), traded spices, timber, ivory and pearls with Rome and West Asia, and the Pandyas of Madurai were famed for pearls and their navy. The epic Silappadikaram, about Kannagi and her anklet, travels through all three kingdoms. Read Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas.

Rulers who came from outside

In the north-west, the satraps Alexander had left behind grew into the Indo-Greek kingdoms. They came as conquerors but took up much of the local culture: some of their coins show Vasudeva-Krishna or Lakshmi, and an Indo-Greek envoy named Heliodorus set up a pillar near Vidisha praising Vasudeva. The Shakas, or Indo-Scythians, ended Indo-Greek rule; the Shaka Samvat calendar, now India’s national calendar, began in their time. The Kushanas came from central Asia, and their greatest king, Kanishka, put both the Buddha and Shiva on his coins. Read Indo-Greeks, Shakas and Kushanas.

Trade and art

The Kushanas controlled key stretches of the Silk Route, so trade tied India to China, central Asia, Persia and the Mediterranean world. Two great schools of art developed. Gandhara art, from the north-west, blended Greco-Roman and Indian features and was carved in grey-black schist, with many fine images of the Buddha. Mathura art used red sandstone, was distinctly Indian and showed deities such as Kubera, Lakshmi and Shiva. Across the whole period, styles met and mixed, Indian themes stayed dominant, and Sanskrit literature flourished.

Before we move on

After the Mauryas, many big and small kingdoms rose, and conflicts at home combined with invasions to reorganise political power. Yet this was also an age of cultural dialogue, new styles in art, architecture and coins, booming trade, and rulers who prided themselves on protecting all schools of thought. Answers to every question are in the NCERT solutions for Chapter 6.