Page 57 - Bhutan: Hidden Kingdom of the Himalayas

Around 1500 BC, a group of Aryan peoples invaded India from the North. Over the next 2,000
years, many other groups from both Africa and Asia migrated into the area. Intermarriage
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racial distinctions among the people of India today with any degree of certainty. The Aryans
brought with them a religion called Vedism, which was based on a rigid social hierarchy, or
caste system. Vedism eventually combined with local religions and evolved into Hinduism.

According to Hinduism, the caste into which one is born depends upon one’s karma—the
accumulated good and bad deeds from past lives. Therefore, it is necessary for one to do good
works on Earth in order to reach a higher social status in future lives. Hinduism’s rigid caste
system, with its emphasis on accepting one’s lot in life, has been the most important social
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The Age of Dynasties

In 321 BC, the warrior Chandragupta united most of North India through military conquest
and established the Maurya Dynasty. He instituted a centralized bureaucracy to oversee the
administration of government. Until this time, India had been divided into small monarchies
and aristocratic republics based on tribal groupings. The third Mauryan king, Asoka, conquered
the southern portion of India, uniting the entire continent into one kingdom. Asoka, who was
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Buddhism originated in India around 500 BC. The philosopher Siddhartha Gautama taught
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of blissful Nirvana, or “no-self.” He became known throughout India as the Buddha, or
enlightened one; and his teachings, collectively called “Buddhism,” achieved widespread
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India’s stupas, or shrines, including the Great Stupa at Sanchi.

Maurya kings ruled India for nearly 600 years. However, by the dawn of the fourth century
AD, their kingdom had once again split into many small states. In AD 320, a new dynasty,
the Guptas, rose to power and reunited India, ushering in a golden age of great achievements
in science, literature and the arts. The Gupta Dynasty was a peaceful and prosperous time in
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The Fall of the Indian Kingdom

From approximately 450 AD to 530 AD, a group known as the White Huns periodically
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repeatedly invaded and conquered by Huns. In 1200, Genghis Khan led a series of successful
raids against Punjab, making India the center of the largest land empire in history. Khan let
the Muslims maintain a Sultanate in Delhi and allowed them to rule with relative autonomy.
However, in 1526, Babur, a descendent of Khan, seized the throne from the Sultan and
established the great Mughal Empire, which remained in power until the early 1800s.

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