Ap world history chap 16

after the fall of the Gupta empire. India followed different political trajectories. During the first half of the seventh century, King Harsha (606-648ce) temporarily restored unified rule in most of northern india and sought to revive imperial authority. He was a Buddhist but he looked kindly to other faiths as well. he built hospitals etc

Harsha fell victim to an assassin and left to heir to maintain his realm. His empire immediatedly disintegrated and local rulers once again turned northern india into a battleground as they sought to enlarge their realms at the expense of their neighbors

In 711, a well organized Ummayad expedition conquered the Indus River calley in northwestern India, Sind. Because Sind stood on the fringe of the Islamic world, most of it's population remained Hindu or Buddhist. Although internal disputes between Arab administrators lead for local political elites to assert Hindu influence over the area, nevertheless it remained under the jurisdiction of the Caliphs until the fall of the Abbasid dynasty in 1258

Muslim merchants took their faith to coastal regions in both northern and southern India, dominated trade and transportation networks between India and western lands from the 7-15 century, formed small communities in all the major cities of coastal India, where they played a prominent role in Indian business and commercial life, married local women, leading to Islam entering India's port cities in a more gradual but no less effective way than was the case in Sind

During the tenth century, several Turkish groups had become acquainted with Islam through their dealing with the Abbasid caliphate and had converted to the faith. Some of these muslim turks entered the Abbasid realm as mercenary soldiers or migrated into Byzantine Anatolia, while others moved into Afghanistan where they established in Islamic state

Leader of the Turks in Afghanistan, and turned his attention to the rich land to the south. In 1001 and 1027 he mounted 17 raiding expedition into india. Taking advantage of infighting between local rulers, he annexed several states in northwestern India and the Punjab. he had less interest in land than in weath of the temples. His forces demolished hundreds of sites associated with hindu or buddhist faiths.

By the early 13th century, most of the Hindu kingdoms of the north had been conquered and established an Islamic state know as the sultanate of Delhi. By placing their capital (Delhi) at a crucial point that controlled access from the Punjab to the Ganges valley, they ruled northern india more than 300 years of Islam rule from 1206 - 1526.

The Kingdom of the Chola was one of the two kingdoms the flourished in Southern India. It controlled the Coromandel four centuries from 850 - 1267 CE. At it's high point it had rulef Ceylon and even parts of South-East Asia. Chola rulers allowed a considerable autonomy for local and village institutions so long as they did not stop paying taxes. The Chola Kingdom began to decline through internal revolts around the 12th century.

The Kingdom of Vijayanagar ( =city of victory) was a branch off state from the Sultanate of Delhi. Based in the northern Deccan, it had originated when two dispatched brothers of the Delhi Sultanate converted back to Hinduism and established themselves as independant rulers. It lasted from mid-fourteenth century until 1565 when it fell to an alliance of Muslim kingdoms.

Because of the Monsoons, irrigation was essential for the maintenance of a large and populated agribultural society. Indian lands required good watering by the southern Monsoon, supplemented by irrigation during the dry months.

In northern India irrigation had been a fixture of the countryside since Harappan times, when cultivators tapped the waters of the Indus RIver.

As a result of this increased productivity. India's population grew steadily throughout the postclassical era.

Cities in southern India grew especially fast because of the increasing agricultural productivity in the region

In India iron, copper, salt, pepper, spices, condiments and specialized crops grew well only in certain regions. So people in india had to trade for this stuff.

India organized their own affairs around the Hindu temples; served as economic and social centers

were ships; Dhows was favored by indians, persian and arab sailors; junks were the chinese ships that also sailed the indian ocean

India being in the middle of the Indian Ocean it was a natural site for this and warehouses, traders exchanged their cargoes at Cambay, Calicut or Quilon for goods to take back west with the winter monsoon

Indian trade surged after the development of dynasties, and as a result this was introduced. They were big on iron and steel production, as well as textiles of cotton

after the kingdom of Kush died, another African kingdom was emerging farther to the south. The kingdom of Axum developed on the highlands of northern ethiopia. Like Kush Axum was a very important center of trade. it became the principle link for egypt to the southern lands. Axumites adopted christianity and established churches and maintained relations between other christian communities.

The caste system closely reflected changes in Indian society. It adapted to the arrival of migrants.

The caste system also accommodated the social changes brought by trade and economic development. The caste system influence the lives of people by helping to order their work and their relationships with other workers.

The caste was already present in north India, but became established in the south due to economic development, the emergence of workers' guilds, & powerful temple/ brahmins influence

Vishnu and Shiva were two of the most important deities of the Hindu faith. Vishnu was the preserver of the world. It was believed that he observed the universe from the heavens and entered the world as a human. He disguised himself as a in order to stop evil and to communicate this teachings. Shiva was the god of fertility and ironically the god of destruction as well. He created life and also destroyed it. Vishnu and Shiva were associated with man gods and goddess. The veneration of Vishnu and Shiva began in northern and southern India.

Hindus embraced this because they promised salvation, popular in southern India where individuals or family groups went to great lengths to honor their selected deities, originated when individuals identified Vishnu or Shiva with a local spirit or deity, offering them food and drink and meditating on the deities and their qualities, Hindus hoped to achieve a mystic union with the gods that would bring grace and salvation

a southern Indian devotee of Shiva who was active during the early ninth century, took it upon himself to digest all sacred consistent system of thought. Closely resembles Plato.

The twelfth-century devotee of Vishnu, who believed that personal devotion and personal union with the deity was more important than an intellectual understanding of ultimate reality. He followed the Bhagavad Gita and challenged Shankara;s incompromising insistence on logic.

Islam did not attract much immediate interest among indias when it arrived, but gradually many coverted. Some indians adopeted islam in hope of improving their positions. In fact Hindus realy improved their social standing by conversion

Sufis encouraged a personal, emotional, devotional approach to Islam.

a cult of love and devotion that ultimately sought to erase the distinction between Hinduism and Islam, emerged in southern India

(1440-1518) a blind weaver, who was one of the most famous bhakti teachers, went so far to teach that Shiva, Vishnu, and Allah were all manifestations of single, universal deity.

Indian traders visited Asia several times and they got accustomed to the exchange for spices and exotic products, Indian merchants brought textiles, beads, gold, silver and manufactured metal goods, these rulers used the profits from this trade to consolidate their political control, their ruling elites became allies with Indian political and traditions, they borrowed Indian forms of political organization and accepted Indian religious faiths, but they did not give up on their own entirely, ruling elites sponsored the introduction of Hinduism or Buddhism, embraced Indian literature such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata which promoted Hindu values however they did not show much enthusiasm for the Indian caste system

The first state know to have reflected Indian influence in this fashion was Funan, which dominated the lower reaches of the Mekong River between first and six century ce. The rulers of Funan built capital at the port Oc Eo. The grew weathy by controlling the trade between China and India.

after the fall of Funan, political leadership in southeast Asia passed to the Kingdom of Srivijava based on the island of Sumatra. They built a powerful navy and controlled commerce in southeast asian waters.

Southeast Asian Khmer kingdom that was centered on the temple cities of Ankor Thom and Angkor Wat.

powerful state in Malaysia. It was founded during the late fourteenth century by Paramesvara, a prince from Sumatra. In its earliest days, it was basically a pirate hang out, but by the mid-fifteenth century, it had made a navy that patrolled the waters of southeast Asia and protected the region's sea-lanes. Melaka became a powerful state through the control of maritime trade. Though it started out as a Hindu state, it soon became predominantly Islamic; welcoming theologians, Sufis, and other Islamic authorities to Melaka. Through Melaka, Islam spread to Java, Sumatra and the Malay peninsula.