Golden Age of India#Gupta Empire

{{Main|Ancient India}}

File:India 250 BC.jpg under king Ashoka, c.250 BCE.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924022983567/page/n23/mode/1up|title=Historical atlas of India, for the use of high schools, colleges and private students|last=Joppen|first=Charles|date=|publisher=London; New York: Longmans, Green|others=Cornell University Library|pages=map 2}}]]

The Maurya Empire (321–185 BC) was the largest and one of the most powerful empires to exist in the history of the Indian subcontinent. This era was accompanied by high levels of cultural development and economic prosperity. The empire saw significant advancements in the fields of literature, science, art, and architecture. Important works like the Sushruta Samhita were written and expanded in this period.{{sfn|Olivelle|2013|pp=30-31}} The earlier development of the Brahmi script and Prakrit languages took place during this period, and these later formed the bases of other languages. This era also saw the emergence of scholars like Acharya Pingal and Patanjali, who made great advancements in the fields of mathematics, poetry, and yoga.{{cite book|first=Kim|last=Plofker|author-link=Kim Plofker|title=Mathematics in India|title-link= Mathematics in India (book) |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=DHvThPNp9yMC&pg=PA55 55–56] |year=2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-12067-6}} The Maurya Empire was notable for its efficient administrative system, which included a large network of officials and bureaucrats as well as a sophisticated system of taxation and a well-organized army.{{Cite book |title=The Maurya Empire: The History and Legacy of Ancient India's Greatest Empire |publisher=Charles River Editors |year=2017}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=GtCL2OYsH6wC Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa] p. 29, Andrea L. Stanton, SAGE

According to estimates given by historians, during the Maurya era, the Indian subcontinent generated close to one third of global GDP, which would be the highest the region would ever contribute.{{cite book |author=Angus Maddison |title=Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD. Essays in Macro-Economic History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-19-922721-1 |page=69}}

{{Main|Middle kingdoms of India}}

File:Map of the Gupta Empire.png under Chandragupta II (375–415)]]

The period between the 4th and 6th centuries CE is known as the Golden Age of India because of the considerable achievements that were made in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, science, religion, and philosophy, during the Gupta Empire.[https://books.google.com/books?id=rMAaBgAAQBAJ Building Bridges Among the BRICs], p. 125, Robert Crane, Springer, 2014{{Cite book |last=Keay |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/indiahistory00keay/page/132 |title=India: A history |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-87113-800-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/indiahistory00keay/page/132 132] |quote=The great era of all that is deemed classical in Indian literature, art and science was now dawning. It was this of creativity and scholarship, as much as ... political achievements of the Guptas, which would make their age so golden. |author-link=John Keay}} The decimal numeral system, including the concept of zero, was invented in India during this period.{{cite web|title=THE GUPTA EMPIRE OF INDIA 320-720|url=http://www.historybits.com/gupta.htm}} The peace and prosperity created under the leadership of the Guptas enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors in India.{{cite book|title=Gupta Art: A Study from Aesthetic and Canonical Norms|page=7-17|publisher=Galaxy Publications|author=Padma Sudhi}}{{cite book|title=India in Pictures|author=Lee Engfer|year=2002|publisher=Twenty-First Century Books|isbn=9780822503712|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/indiainpictures0000engf}}{{Citation |title=Patanjali |date=13 April 2023 |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Patanjali&oldid=1149657227 |work=Wikipedia |access-date=14 April 2023}} The Golden Age of India came to an end when the Hunas invaded the Gupta Empire, in the 6th century CE, although this characterisation has been disputed by some other historians.{{#tag:ref|According to D. N. Jha, caste distinctions became more entrenched and rigid during this time, as prosperity and the favour of the law accrued to the top of the social scale, while the lower orders were degraded further.{{Cite book |title=Ancient India in Historical Outline |last=Jha |first=D.N. |publisher=Manohar Publishers and Distributors |year=2002 |isbn=978-81-7304-285-0 |location=Delhi |pages=149–73}}|group=note}}{{#tag:ref|"Historians once regarded the Gupta period (c.320–540) as the classical age of India [...] It was also thought to have been an age of material prosperity, particularly among the urban elite [...] Some of these assumptions have been questioned by more extensive studies of the post-Mauryan, pre-Gupta period. Archaeological evidence from the earlier Kushan levels suggests greater material prosperity, to such a degree that some historians argue for an urban decline in the Gupta period."{{sfn|Pletcher|2011|p=90}}|group=note}} The gross domestic product (GDP) of ancient India was estimated to be 32% and 28% of global GDP in 1 AD and 1000 AD, respectively.{{cite book |author=Angus Maddison |title=Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD. Essays in Macro-Economic History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-19-922721-1 |page=69}} Also, during the first millennium of the Common Era, the Indian population comprised approximately 27.15%–30.3% of the total world population.{{cite book|title= Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD. Essays in Macro-Economic History|publisher= Oxford University Press|author=Angus Maddison|year=2007|isbn= 978-0-19-922721-1|page=69}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=rMAaBgAAQBAJ Building Bridges Among the BRICs], p. 125, Robert Crane, Springer, 2014Raghu Vamsa v 4.60–75

{{Main|Mughal Empire}}

File:Joppen1907India1700a.jpg at its greatest extent, under Aurangzeb C.1707{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924022983567/page/n30/mode/1up|title=Historical atlas of India, for the use of high schools, colleges and private students|last=Joppen|first=Charles|date=|publisher=London; New York: Longmans, Green|others=Cornell University Library|pages=map 13}}]]

The Mughal Empire has often been called the last golden age of India.{{Citation |title=Emperor Shah Jahan and Building Up the Mughal Empire, 1628–58/66 |date=2016 |work=A Short History of the Mughal Empire |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9780755604913.ch-008 |access-date=2024-06-28 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-84885-872-5}}{{Citation |last=Malieckal |first=Bindu |title=As Good as Gold |date=2009 |work=The English Renaissance, Orientalism, and the Idea of Asia |pages=131–159 |editor-last=Johanyak |editor-first=Debra |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230106222_7 |access-date=2024-06-28 |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |doi=10.1057/9780230106222_7 |isbn=978-0-230-10622-2 |editor2-last=Lim |editor2-first=Walter S. H.|url-access=subscription }} It was founded in 1526 by Babur of the Barlas clan, after his victories at the First Battle of Panipat and the Battle of Khanwa, against the Delhi Sultanate and Rajput Confederation, respectively.{{Cite book |last=Hooja |first=Rima |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqd1RAAACAAJ&q=rajasthan%20hooja |title=A History of Rajasthan |publisher=Rupa |year=2006 |isbn=9788129115010 |page=454 |quote=From Baburs memoirs we learn that Sanga's success against the Mughal advance guard commanded by Abdul Aziz and other forces at Bayana, severely demoralised the fighting spirit of Baburs troops encamped near Sikri.}}{{Cite book |last=Berndl |first=Klaus |title=National Geographic Visual History of the World |publisher=National Geographic Society |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7922-3695-5 |pages=318–320}} Over the following centuries, under Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan, the Mughal Empire would grow in area and power and dominate the Indian subcontinent, reaching its maximum extent under Aurangzeb. This imperial structure lasted until 1720, shortly after the death of Aurangzeb,{{citation |last=Stein |first=Burton |title=A History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QY4zdTDwMAQC&pg=PA159 |page=159 |year=2010 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4443-2351-1 |author-link=Burton Stein}} Quote: "The imperial career of the Mughal house is conventionally reckoned to have ended in 1707 when the emperor Aurangzeb, a fifth-generation descendant of Babur, died. His fifty-year reign began in 1658 with the Mughal state seeming as strong as ever or even stronger. But in Aurangzeb's later years the state was brought to the brink of destruction, over which it toppled within a decade and a half after his death; by 1720 imperial Mughal rule was largely finished and an epoch of two imperial centuries had closed."{{citation |last=Richards |first=John F. |title=The Mughal Empire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HHyVh29gy4QC&pg=PAxv |page=xv |year=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-56603-2}} Quote: "By the latter date (1720) the essential structure of the centralized state was disintegrated beyond repair." following which it gradually converted from a centralised autocracy into a collection of autonomous vassal states who accepted the nominal suzerainty of the emperor. The empire was formally dissolved by the British Raj after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

The Mughals adopted and standardised the rupee (rupiya, or silver) and dam (copper) currencies introduced by Sur emperor Sher Shah Suri during his brief rule.{{Cite web |title=Picture of original Mughal rupiya introduced by Sher Shah Suri |url=http://www.rbi.org.in/currency/museum/c-mogul.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021005231609/http://www.rbi.org.in/currency/museum/c-mogul.html |archive-date=5 October 2002 |access-date=4 August 2017}}

A major sector of the Mughal economy was agriculture.{{Cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Karl J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BqdzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 |title=An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-317-47681-8 |pages=100–}} A variety of crops were grown, including food crops such as wheat, rice, and barley, and non-food cash crops such as cotton, indigo, and opium. By the mid-17th century, Indian cultivators began to extensively grow maize and tobacco, imported from the Americas. The Mughal administration emphasised agrarian reform, started by Sher Shah Suri, the work of which Akbar adopted and furthered with more reforms. The civil administration was organised in a hierarchical manner on the basis of merit, with promotions based on performance, exemplified by the common use of the seed drill among Indian peasants,{{cite book |last1=Pagaza |first1=Ignacio |title=Winning the Needed Change: Saving Our Planet Earth |last2=Argyriades |first2=Demetrios |publisher=IOS Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-58603-958-5 |page=129}} and built irrigation systems across the empire, which produced much higher crop yields and increased the net revenue base, leading to increased agricultural production.

Manufacturing was also a significant contributor to the Mughal economy; the empire produced about 25% of the world's industrial output until the end of the 18th century.Jeffrey G. Williamson & David Clingingsmith, [http://www.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/Research/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Conf7_Williamson.pdf India's Deindustrialization in the 18th and 19th Centuries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329075904/http://www.lse.ac.uk/economicHistory/Research/GEHN/GEHNPDF/Conf7_Williamson.pdf|date=29 March 2017}}, Global Economic History Network, London School of Economics Manufactured goods and cash crops were sold throughout the world. Key industries included textiles, shipbuilding, and steel. Processed products included cotton textiles, yarns, thread, silk, jute products, metalware, and foods such as sugar, oils, and butter The Mughal Empire also took advantage of the demand for Indian products in Europe, particularly cotton textiles, as well as goods such as spices, peppers, indigo, silks, and saltpeter (for use in munitions). European fashion, for example, became increasingly dependent on Mughal Indian textiles and silks. From the late 17th century to the early 18th century, India accounted for 95% of British imports from Asia, and Bengal Subah province alone accounted for 40% of Dutch imports from Asia.Om Prakash, "[http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3447600139/WHIC?u=seat24826&xid=6b597320 Empire, Mughal]", History of World Trade Since 1450, edited by John J. McCusker, vol. 1, Macmillan Reference US, 2006, pp. 237–240, World History in Context. Retrieved 3 August 2017

The largest manufacturing industry in the Mughal Empire was textile manufacturing, particularly cotton, which included the production of piece goods, calicos, and muslins.{{Citation |title=Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600–1850 |page=2 |year=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-49889-0 |given=Prasannan |surname=Parthasarathi}} By the early 18th century, Mughal Indian textiles were clothing people across the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East.{{Cite book |last=Jeffrey G. Williamson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QiDslL0o-hUC&pg=PA91 |title=Trade and Poverty: When the Third World Fell Behind |publisher=MIT Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-262-29518-5 |page=91 |author-link=Jeffrey G. Williamson}} The most important centre of cotton production was Bengal province, particularly around its capital city of Dhaka.Richard Maxwell Eaton (1996), [https://books.google.com/books?id=gKhChF3yAOUC&pg=PA202 The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760, p. 202], University of California Press

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• {{citation | last=Olivelle | first = Patrick | author-link=Patrick Olivelle | title = King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra | year=2013 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford UK | isbn = 978-0199891825| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6MlgU0oQb4sC|access-date=2016-02-20}}

• [https://www.thoughtco.com/geography-and-history-of-india-1435046 "Geography and History of India"] on ThoughtCo.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081204045434/http://www.flonnet.com/fl2422/stories/20071116504306400.htm Frontline article on Gupta-period art] (archived)

Category:Ancient India

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