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Egypt

Ancient Egypt at its Height

In ancient times Egypt consisted of two parts: the Nile Valley north of the First Cataract, a narrow deep trench only a few miles wide and 600 miles long; and the Nile Delta, an inverted triangle 150 miles across. The combined inhabited area of the valley and the delta was about 10,000 square miles.

As the ancient writer Diodorus pointed out, Egypt was "fortified by nature," with the cataracts in the south, the desert on the east and west, and the sea to the north — but it was also isolated by these natural barriers, with the result that there developed in Egypt a civilisation that was quite different from the other cultures of the Near East. Moreover, dominating almost every phase of Egyptian culture was the Nile River, the most striking topographic feature of the country, which provided Egypt with its fertility and its principal means of communication.

The Nile Valley was not occupied by man until after the last Ice Age, when the Sahara Desert began to increase in size and drove the men and animals from northern Africa toward the Mediterranean coast or eastward to the banks of the Nile. The men of the Paleolithic Age lived on the high cliffs above the valley, but their successors, the agriculturalists of the Neolithic Age descended to the valley floor to plant their crops.

In prehistoric times, (8000-3200 B.C.), there were perhaps forty agricultural communities, or states, strung like beads along the ribbon of the Nile north of the First Cataract. By about 5000 B.C. Egypt had been unified to the extent that there were two kingdoms: one in the Delta (Lower Egypt) and one in the Valley (Upper Egypt). After many centuries of warfare the two kingdoms were combined, traditionally by King Menes of Upper Egypt, into a single realm about the beginning of the Dynastic Period (3200 B.C.).

For convenience in chronology, the rulers of Egypt are identified by dynasties, each dynasty being made up of a succession of rulers belonging to a single family or tracing descent to a common ancestor. Reigning dynasties came to an end as a result of the accession to the throne of rulers from another line or family. In the early Dynastic Period (3200-1900 B.C.), three main subperiods are of special interest and importance: the Old Kingdom (Dynasties III – VI, 2780-2270 B.C.); the Middle Kingdom (Dynasties XI – XII, 2143-1790 B.C.); and the New Kingdom, or Empire (Dynasties XVIII – XX, 1555-1090 B.C.). In these subperiods, Egypt was most completely unified and prosperous, and the most outstanding cultural advances were made.

The Pyramids at Gizeh

The Old Kingdom

The Pharoahs of the Old Kingdom were the famous pyramid builders: Zoser (Djoser) of the 3rd Dynasty, whose step pyramid was constructed at Saqqara, and Cheops (Khufu), Chephren (Kha-ef-Re) and Mycerinos (Men-kau-Re) of the 4th Dynasty, whose pyramids still stand at Gizeh. During this period the capital of Egypt was located at Memphis, in the northern part of the Nile Valley. While agriculture flourished in Egypt itself, trade relations were established with Phoenicia, the islands of the eastern Mediterranean, and Nubia to the south. Sinai, important as a source of copper, was brought under Egyptian control. The great pyramids are not only symbolic; they are also indicative of the power and wealth of the 4th Dynasty rulers. It has been conjectured that the huge funds lavished upon these royal burial chambers were responsible for the gradual weakness and decline of the Old Kingdom, which became more and more apparent in the time of the 5th and 6th Dynasties, and culminated in political and economic collapse after 2300 B.C. At any rate, the central power waned while local authorities gained strength, with the result that Egypt fell into a disorganized feudalism which lasted for almost four centuries.

The Middle Kingdom

Karnak, begun during the reign of Senusret I (1920-1875 B.C.) during the Middle Kingdom

This subperiod opened with the rise of a strong power at Thebes in the south. By the time of the 12th Dynasty (2000 B.C.), Egypt had progressed a long way on the road to reunification. Under Amenemhet (2000-1980 B.C.) and Sesotris I (Se’n-Wosret I) (1980-1950 B.C.), the feudal nobility were disciplined, and Egypt began to penetrate south of the First Cataract. Sesotris III (1887-1849 B.C.) even carried the Egyptian standards into Syria in the first military display of Egypt in that direction. The Middle Kingdom is the classic period of Egyptian art and literature, when the canons of Egyptian taste were established. Once more agriculture prospered, and trade with Syria and Nubia increased in volume. Egyptian merchants also began to appear along the Red Sea. The period ended in confusion and was followed by the invasion of the delta by the Hyksos from Syria, and the collapse of the central authority in the valley.

The New Kingdom

The interval between the invasion by the Hyksos and the rise of the New Kingdom is rather shorter than the period which divides the Old Kingdom from the Middle Kingdom. By 1600 B.C., the presence of the Hyksos in the Delta had led to the development of a strong Egyptian nationalist movement aimed at the explusion of the invaders. Led by Sekhem-Re, a good soldier who became the first Pharoah of the XVII Dynasty, the Egyptians drove out the Hyksos (1600 B.C.). The new ruler then uprooted the last of the feudal lords and confiscated their lands. With unity and order re-established in Egypt, the government was centralized and administered by an extensive bureaucracy.

Height of Power & Collapse

Under the Pharoahs of the XVIII Dynasty (1555-1350 B.C.), Egypt acquired an empire in Syria and became the most powerful state in the Near East. Amenhotep I (1555-1540 B.C.) was the first of the Egyptian rulers to reach the Euphrates, but it was a later ruler, Hatshepsut, sister and wife of Thutmosis II, and later of Thutmosis III (1501-1448 B.C.) who conquered Syria in the course of almost two decades of annual campaigning. Thutmose was the victor at Megiddo (Armageddon) and Kadesh, and the scourge of the Mitannians; his favor was sought even by the then remote Hittites of Asia Minor. His gains were consolidated by his successors, Amenhotep II (1448-1420 B.C.) and Thutmose IV (1420-1411 B.C.). The latter allied himself with the Mitannians against the Hittites and married the daughter of the Mitannian king. Under Amenhotep III (Memnon) (1411-1375 B.C.), the political influence of Egypt reached its highest point. Amenhotep’s reign was noted for its peace and prosperity; all other nations feared Egypt and courted the favor of her rulers.

Colossal Statues of Rameses II at Abu Simbel

After Amenhotep’s death, however, and with the accession of his son, Amenhotep IV, decline was rapid. While Amenhotep IV, who for religious reasons changed his name to Ikhnaton, ignored the empire and devoted himself to religious reforms, the Hittites won over the Mitannians and the Syrian princes, and began to penetrate the northern boundaries of the Egyptian empire. The boy-king Tutankhamen fared no better. The process of disintigration was temporarily stayed by the general, Horemheb, and his successors of the XIX Dynasty, who ascended the throne in the latter part of the 14th century B.C. Seti I temporarily halted the advance of the Hittites, and his son, Rameses II (1292-1225 B.C.), met them in a great battle at Kadesh in 1288 B.C. Unable to push the Hittites from Syria, Rameses signed a treaty with them in 1266 which recognized their claim to the northern area and retained southern Syria for Egypt.

The end of the 13th century B.C. found Egypt threatened by new perils. The sea raiders (Philistines and others from the north) were plundering the Delta as the Libyans pressed in from the west. The Hittites, who might now have become valuable Egyptian allies, were even more harried than the Egyptians by peoples from the north. The great Pharaoh of the XX Dynasty, Rameses III (1198-1167 B.C.), repelled the worst of the invasions, but the empire was lost, and the drain on Egyptian finance and manpower occasioned by continuous wars at last brought complete collapse at the end of the 12th century B.C. For the next four hundred years, Egypt was weak and disorganized under a succession of Egyptian, Libyan and even Nubian kings.

Mesopotamia

Ziggurat at Ur, as it appeared c. 3500 B.C.

The Land between the Rivers is the name often applied to the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. Broadly speaking, Mesopotamia is the habitable area bounded by the Persian Gulf on the southeast, by the mountains of Iran and Asia Minor on the east and north, and by the deserts of the Levant and Arabia on the west and south. The major axis runs from northwest to southeast, and the two main topographical divisions are the highlands of the nouth and the plain of the south. In ancient times, it included the territory of later Babylonia and Assyria.

Human habitation of the highland area of Mesopotamia began at least as early as the Neolithic Age, but did not invade the plain, which was then swampy, until 5000 or possibly 4000 B.C. It was on the plain, however, that the first great civilisations arose. Later peoples, following the first penetration into the valley, swept onto the plain from the deserts and highlands to destroy and absorb, or create new periods of cultural endeavor. Thus the history of Mesopotamia may be subdivided according to the empires, dynasties and periods of eclipse that successively flourished and waned there.

Sumeria & Akkad

The first civilised inhabitants descended from the mountains of Elam to the swampy plain at the head of the Persian Gulf, which became ancient Sumer. They drained the swamps, instituted flood control and established agriculture on a permanent basis. With the development of trade with the surrounding areas — Persia, Elam, Assyria, India and the Mediterranean coast — the Sumerian settlements grew into prosperous city states, which by 3500 B.C. possessed a mature civilisation characterised by urban life, metal working, textile manufacture, monumental architecture and an efficient system of cuneiform writing. Cultural traits included sculpture, astronomy for calendrical purposes and slavery.

the southern plain at the head of the Persian Gulf was dotted with Sumerian city states, which were theocratic. Each state was considered the property of a particular local god, who was represented on earth by a high priest (patesi) who was the religious and governmental head of his community and its surrounding territory. Geographic areas of great importance in this early period were the cities of Ur, Erech, Umma, Eridu, Lagash, Nippur, Sippar and Akkad, a Semitic state in the north. These states traded with one another. Interstate wars were common, and sometimes brief local empires were established when one state would conquer a few of its neighbours. About the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C., however, Semitic tribes from the Arabian Peninsula, who had settled in the northern Fertile Crescent and adopted Sumerian culture, became strong enough to endanger Sumerian independence.

Akkadians slaying their Enemies

Sargon of Akkad, 2637-2582 B.C., conquered the Sumerians and carved out an empire which stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. After perhaps 2500 B.C., however, the Akkadian power declined, and a new period of independence and prosperity began for the Sumerians; this is the era of the 3rd Dynasty of Ur and the greatness of Lagash under Gudea. Other important states included Isin and Larsa. At times the influence of the plain extended into the Assyrian highlands, which benefitted from the northward diffusion of Sumerian civilisation. The end came about 2000 B.C. with the rise of the Amorite kingdom, a new Semitic state. The Sumerians lost their independence forever, and the old areas of Sumer and Akkad were swallowed up by the empire of Old Babylonia.

Sumerian epics on the Creation and the Flood reflect considerable literary ability and appreciation.

Old Babylonia

The Amorite invasion came principally from the west. The Amorites established themselves at Babylon, uniting the plain once more, resulting in the establishment of what came to be known as the Old Babylonian Kingdom (distinct from later Babylon states). Hammurabi, the sixth Amorite king (1792-1750 B.C.), completed the process of Babylonian expansion by the establishment of an empire which included Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and parts of Syria. The city of Babylon was the capital of this wide realm.

Although the civilisation of the Babylonians was based upon that of the early Sumerians, due to Semitic influences the Sumerian elements in the population lost their identity. There were three main social classes: (1) an upper class composed of a feudal landed nobility, with the civil and military officials of the bureaucracy and the priests; (2) a middle class of merchants, craftsmen, scribes and professional men; and (3) a lower class of small landholders, urban and rural workers, and a horde of slaves. Under Hammurabi, the Babylonian government was a well-organized bureaucracy headed by the king and his ministers. The government concerned itself with national defense, administration of justic, the direction of agricultural production and the collection of taxes. The clay tablets which were the business documents of the Babylonians show an economic life amazing in its complexity; among the classs of business records represented are receipts, loans, contracts, leases, transfers, inventories and ledgers. Although private persons held large tracts of land, other land belonged to the crown or the priests. The land was worked by free persons, slaves and serfs. There were also tenant farmers, who might be either renters or sharecroppers.

Hammurabi receiving his royal insignia

Many Babylonian craftsmen owned their shops, but others worked in the palaces and temples for board and wages. The apprentice system was universal, and the craftsmen were enrolled in guilds with others who plied the same trades. There was trade with Egypt, Syria, the northern hills and India. In this trade the media of exchange were gold, silver and copper, and the Babylonian system of weights and measures became standard throughout the Near East. The Code of Hammurabi demonstrates the complicated institutional system and the rather advanced economic and business life of the country.

From this early Sumerian-Babylonian civilization have come many cultural traits in our own modern civilization. These ancient people were the first to employ the seven-day week and the 24-hour day (with twelve hours used twice). Great advances were made (for calendrical purposes) in the study of astronomy; astrology was also of great importance. The Babylonians mastered the various arithmetical processes and the simpler geometric manipulations concerned with land measurement. Babylonian algebra was more advanced than that of the Greeks.

During the reign of Samsu-iluna (1750-1712 B.C.), the empire began to fragment. During the endless battles against rebellions that occurred during his reign, the cities of Ur and Uruk were largely or completely abandoned, followed by Larsa, Nippur and Isin. Drought, war and pestilence spread by moving armies ravaged the countryside for the next century, until Babylon was sacked by the Hittites of Asia Minor in 1595 B.C., leading to a collapse of the empire.

The Kassites and Mitanni

Kassites from Elam descended upon the plain to destroy the last of the Amorite dynasty and replace it with kings drawn from their own ranks. Constituting a minority of nobles, holding their position by right of conquest, the Kassites were able to control the plain but could not maintain their authority in the highlands. These were controlled by warlike, predominantly Semitic peoples called the Assyrians, who began to lay the foundations for an empire larger than any of their predecessors. On the plain, however, the Kassites would rule until 1175 B.C.. Their culture relates them to the Aryan anvaders of India, but the cultural contribution of the Kassites was negligible. The major features of Babylonian civilisation remained unchanged.

Hurrians from the northern mountains would also rush in to exploit the power vacuum, overrunning the lands of Syria and the upper Euphrates, establishing the Mitanni Kingdom. By 1450 B.C., they had established their capital at Washukanni (location unknown), made the Assyrians into a vassal state and had driven the Hittites into the Anatolian highland. After successful clashes with the Egyptians, the Mitanni sought peace with them, forming an alliance against the Hittites.

By 1366 B.C., Mitanni influence over Assyria would wane. Dynastic wars of succession would weaken the kingdom, increasing both the Hittite and Assyrian threats. With the withdrawal of Egyptian diplomacy, the Hittites invaded Mitanni vassal territories in northern Syria. A Hittite army installed a puppet, Shattiwaza, on the throne in the late 14th century B.C. Washukanni was sacked again in 1290 B.C. by Assyrians, and in the 13th century, Shalmaneser I (1265-1235 B.C.) of Assyria annexed the remaining Mitanni territory.

Palestine

At the beginning of the 3rd millenium B.C. the kings of the early dynasties of Egypt were sending expeditions northward to conquer the Asiatic coastland in order to control its commerce and obtain timber, metals, and other raw materials. It was in this area that the goods of Egypt and Babylonia were exchanged. By the middle of the 2nd millenium B.C. the admixture of these two civilizations, with some Minoan additions, had produced a rich, complex society along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Fortified towns were built and the best harbors on the coast were utilized; inland, along caravan routes, walled cities such as Jerusalem appeared. Inhabiting the area were nomadic and semi-nomadic Semites such as Amorites, Canaanites, Aramaeans, and Hebrews whose mode of life is best portrayed in the Old Testament.

Toward the end of the 2nd millenium B.C. the Egyptian, Hittite, and Mesopotamian governments became disorganized and weak, thus enabling the smaller geographic regions between them to enjoy more liberty of action and some independence. It was in this era that Moses led the Hebrew people out of Egypt into Sinai and, finally, toward the Dead Sea and the Jordan River. At about the same time, however, the non-Semitic Philistines, coming from Crete or Asia Minor, invaded the Asiatic coastland, founded a powerful kingdom, and gave the country their name — Palestine.

Hittite Empire

The Hittites were a feudal state of Asia Minor established about the middle of the 3rd millenium B.C. The Hittites were invaders, probably not a large group, who conquered the natives and established themselves as the ruling caste. The Empire had at its head a hereditary ruler, the Great King. He was a war leader and a high priest, who was assisted by a council of the Hittite nobles. Outlying territories were ruled by vassals who were closely supervised by the Great King. The nobility was mainly confined to those of Hittite descent, while the native population formed a middle class of traders, artisans and soldiers. There was also a labour class. Despite the existence of trade and manufacture, the principle economic activities were agriculture and grazing. An important source of Hittite wealth and power was iron; the Hittites controlled the only extensive deposits of iron in the Near East.

Culturally, the Hittites were greatly indebted to the Babylonians. They borrowed from the Babylonians the cuneiform system of writing, and Hittite law codes clearly have Babylonian origin. The art of the Hittites, though basically Babylonian, shows considerable independence. Sculpture in stone and metal was common, and the Hittite artists produced both relief sculpture and figures in the round. Hittite palaces and fortifications were massive in character; they were constructed of stone and brick. Knowledge of Hittite religion is sketchy. In Asia Minor there was a sky god, and the worship of the Earth Mother, a fertility goddess, was very important. In the pantheon of the Hittites themselves, the sun and moon were deities of great significance.

By 1800 B.C. they controlled most of Asia Minor and were soon strong enough to raid Babylonia. With the decline of the Egyptian Empire in the 14th century B.C., they began to penetrate northern Syria, and a hundred years later the Egyptians under Ramses II were forced to acknowledge their claims to the area around Kadesh. Of the Hittite kings the names and deeds of those who reigned between 1400 and 1200 B.C. are best known. The first of these was Shubbiluliuma (1400-1360 B.C.) who made the initial advances into northern Syria. His successor was Murshil, who died about 1330 B.C. Next came Mutallu and Hattushil; the latter was a signatory to the famous non-aggression treaty with the Egyptians in 1266 B.C.

Persia

The Iranian plateau extends from the mountains east of the Tigris to the Indus Valley, and from the Persian Sea and Indian Ocean to the Caspian Sea and Jaxartes River. It is subdivided into the western parts of Elam and Persia, and the eastern parts of Sogdiana, Bactria, Aria, Drangiana and Arachosia. During the 3rd millenium, the Elamites occupied the lowlands adjoining the Persian Gulf, east of Sumer. The Kassites originated in the Zagros Mountains. The Aryans came to occupy the Iranian plain from the northeast around 1800 B.C., who would supplant earlier populations, with some of these tribes later becoming known as Persian.

Sumerians and Akkadians frequently defeated and subjected the Elamites, whose civilisation became fundamentally Sumerian. The Awan Dynasty (2350-2150 B.C.) collapsed when the Gutian people overran southern Mesopotamia from the east. The Elamites were reunited under the Shimashki Dynasty (2100-1970 B.C.). During this period, the Elamites, allied with Susiana, sacked the city of Ur, ending the 3rd Dynasty of that Empire (2004 B.C.). Ur was rebuilt and the Elamites expelled.

A 3rd Elamite dynasty, the Sukkalmah (1970-1770 B.C.), would grow rich with maritime trade along the shores of Africa and Asia, as well as the Indus Valley Civilisation. However, the influence of the Amorites of Babylonia would cause a steady decline, with the region falling into chaos and wars of succession until 1500. Thereafter, the region would be ruled over by Kassite kings with close ties to the Tigris-Euphrates plain.

India

Prehistoric Age

The earliest inhabitants of the country probably were the Munda or Kolarians, who once covered a very wide territory—place names scattered throughout northern India show traces of their presence. Later, a darker people, the Dravidians, appeared in India and soon spread over the entire country. The drove the original inhabitants before them into lands farther east, or pressed them back into the mountains and jungles of central and eastern India, where they still linger. The origin and affiliations of these newcomers are not clearly established, although recent studies point to Asia Minor and the highlands of Iran as their earlier habitations.

An ancient civilization, dating back to 2750-1800 B.C., dwelt in the valley of the Indus, particularly at Mohenjo-Daro, in Sind, and Harappa, in the Punjab. This resembled the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Remarkable brick buildings, statuettes in stone and metal, jewels, knives, and numbers of seals covered with undeciphered pictorial writing has been found. The metals used were gold, silver, copper, tin and lead; iron was unknown. Spinning and the weaving of cotton and wool were practiced by this civilization, barley and wheat were grown, and there was a fairly advanced urban culture. The relationship of these peoples to the Dravidians has not been established.

The appearance in the early 2nd millenium B.C. of the Aryan peoples marked a turning point in the history of India, as in other lands such as Persia, Greece and Italy. They entered India from the northwest, apparently in several waves of immigration, pushed the Dravidians to the east and south, and gathered in some strength between the Indus and the Jumna rivers. From this region, they spread themselves more thinly over the rest of India, and then, about the beginning of the Christian Era, undertook the colonization of lands across the sea in Indonesia and Indochina.

Vedic Times

The Rig-Veda, compiled in about 1500 B.C. by collecting much older hymns composed at different times and places, is an important literary monument to the Aryan settlers in the Punjab. It shows them organized in various tribes under elected kings who acted as guardians, priests and war leaders. The kings united at times against the black-skinned indigenes, but were by no means free from differences among themselves. Aryan society retained tradces of its ancient pastoral character; women occupied a high position in the family and even composed some of the beautiful hymns. The Aryans knew the uses of most metals, lived in villages and towns, fortified wherever necessary against enemies, ate beef and drank the intoxicating juice of the soma, which they offered sacrificially to their gods. At first they migrated in whole communities from one river valley to another, keeping their tribal and family organization free from any large admixture of the pre-Aryan inhabitants. As the area of Aryanization extended, a really mixed society and culture developed. In the south, the bulk of the population remained unchanged except for their acceptance of the new culture brought to them by Aryan adventurers and sages who came to trade and found asramas, or hermitages. While all the culture of North India and Maratha in the western Deccan are derived from the Aryans, the Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam peoples retain their Dravidian character, even though largely influenced in various ways by Sanskrit literature and tradition.

Later Vedic Period

The progress of the fusion of the Aryan and pre-Aryan peoples and the emergence of an Indian or Hindu culture are seen clearly in the literature, still religious in its nature, of the epoch after the Rig-Veda. Relatively large kingdoms took the place of tribal states, and city life developed. Royal power grew and the importance of the popular assembly waned. Villages organizaed themselves, each under its own headman, and the rudiments of a local administration appeared. Women’s position was slightly lowered, and sons came to be preferred to daughters. There was progress in agriculture and handicrafts, with iron and silver coming into more common use. The division of the people into hereditary castes had begun, although as yet there were only four main groups or varna, and not the numberless subgroups that developed in the course of succeeding centuries. The color bar undoubtedly had something to do with the origin of this caste system, but for the most part it was a deliberate attempt to secure social integration among different sections of the population without prejudice to their varying habits, customs and outlook.

In religion, the cult of sacrifice became much more elaborate and costly, and the priests who were the custodians of its complex technique, the Brahmins, gained in importance. A reaction followed, however, and reflection and philosophy gained the upper hand; meditation was exalted above ritual, and emphasis was laid on the quest for the ‘ultimate reality’ in preference to securing the pleasures of life in this or the other world. It was the wake of this reaction, in the 6th century B.C., that the new faiths of Jainism and Buddhism arose, both in Magadha (modern Bihar).

Another notable development was in the sphere of popular religion, where a synthesis was effected between some Vedic deities and those that appeared to resemble them in the popular pantheon of the pre-Aryans. This process led to the emergence of Shiva and Vishnu, with Brahma as a distant third deity. The three gods, Trimurti, began to fill a large place in the affections of the people, and the many legends of their lives and deeds that fill the epics and the puranas undoubtedly embody much pre-Aryan lore. These legends became localized in different parts of India, and famous temples and shrines were erected everywhere. Pilgrimages to such centers and the rehearsal of the sacred legends connected with them have served through the ages as one of the most powerful bonds for uniting India. Temple worship and the doctrines of karma and transmigration came into vogue. The Ramayana of Valmiki, treating of the most popular story of Rama and his wife Sita; the kernel of the other great epic, Mahabharata, the story of the great war between the Kurus and the Pandus; and the core of the puranas (legendary history) must have been composed in this period also. Their continuous influence on the life and art of India can hardly be exaggerated.

Continued in The Early Iron Age

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 Another notable development was in the sphere of popular religion, where a synthesis was effected between some Vedic deities and those that appeared to resemble them in the popular pantheon of the pre-Aryans.  This process led to the emergence of Shiva and Vishnu, with Brahma as a distant third deity.  The three gods, Trimurti, began to fill a large place in the affections of the people, and the many legends of their lives and deeds that fill the epics and the puranas undoubtedly embody much pre-Aryan lore.  These legends became localized in different parts of India, and famous temples and shrines were erected everywhere.  Pilgrimages to such centers and the rehearsal of the sacred legends connected with them have served through the ages as one of the most powerful bonds for uniting India.  Temple worship and the doctrines of karma and transmigration came into vogue.  The Ramayana of Valmiki, treating of the most popular story of Rama and his wife Sita; the kernel of the other great epic, Mahabharata, the story of the great war between the Kurus and the Pandus; and the core of the puranas (legendary history) must have been composed in this period also.  Their continuous influence on the life and art of India can hardly be exaggerated.
-== India ==
-==== Effects of Greek Conquest ====
-The valley of the Indus was a Persian satrapy in about 578 B.C., but became independent again before Alexander’s entry into India in 326 B.C.  The Buddhist books mention sixteen independent states, some monarchies and some republics, between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas.  The monarchy of Kosala (modern Oudh) had been the premier state in about 600 B.C., but Magadha (Bihar) had gradually won ascendancy and its kings had ruled over an extensive empire, the power and fame of which had reached the ears of Alexander in the Punjab.  Mahavira and Buddha, the founders of Jainism and Buddhism, both members of the warrior caste of Kshatriyas, had flourished in the reign of King Bimbisara of Magadha.  Seagoing merchants from South India had availed themselves of the monsoons and traded with Babylon from the 7th century B.C., if not earlier, and possibly also with Indonesia and the Philippines.
-Alexander’s conquest of northwestern India had little lasting effect.  The battle on the banks of the Jhelum was a Pyrrhic victory, after which Alexander’s soldiers opposed his plunging further into India, and he himself soon died after his return to Babylon.  But it led to the establishment of Greek kingdoms to the west of India and strengthened the intercourse between India and the West, which had begun under the Persian empire of the Achaemenidae.
-==== Mauryan Empire ====
-As a youth, Chandragupta, the founder of the first all-India empire, met the Greek invader in the Punjab, and this meeting undoubtedly had a part in shaping his career.  During his reign (322-298 B.C.), Chandragupta also owed much to his Brahmin chancellor, Kautilya, the author of a comprehensive manual of Indian polity, the Arthasastra.  For about a century, from 325 B.C., the rulers of the Maura dynasty brought all India except the extreme south under one rule, marked by exceptional efficiency and prosperity.
-Asoka, Chandragupta’s grandson, who was emperor from 273 to 232 B.C., towers as a world historic figure.  After waging one war of conquest against Kalinga, he was struck by remorse at the horrors of war, gave up conquest by force, and steadily followed the path of peace.  He adopted Buddhism as his faith and actively propagated its principles by proclamations engraved on rocks and pillars in India, and by embassies to foreign lands, particularly the Greek kingdoms of the West.  He was mindful of the material and spiritual interests of backward peoples and organized medical aid for men and animals not only within his empire but in the territory of adjoining rulers.  He recognized conversion by persuasion, Dhammavijaya, as the duty of the state, and held a council of monks in his capital, Pataliputra (Patna), to clarify the Buddhist’s faith and provide and authoritative version of its canon.  He laid stress on ethical conduct generally, and in particular on tolerance of other faiths.  Asoka raised Buddhism from a struggling local faith to one of the great religions of the world.  His reign also was marked by great developments in art and architecture, partly inspired by Persian and Greek models.
-==== Later Invasions ====
-After the death of Asoka, the Maurya empire disintigrated, and there was no paramount power in northern India for some centuries.  The peace of the smaller kingdoms which succeeded the Maurya empire was often disturbed by the incoming of Greeks, Sakas, Pahlavas and lastly Kushans, in one of those mysterious movements of peoples in high and central Asia which often disturbed the course of history in Europe and in southern and western Asia.  The foreigners entering India established kingdoms of their own in the northwest, issued coins and waged wars, but in the course of a few generations they merged with the surrounding population.  A Greek ambassador, Heliodorus from Taxila, declared himself a follower of Vishnu, and in 100 B.C. set up a stone column in honor of the deity at Besnagar, in Central India.  Menander, the Greek king of Punjab, appears as Milinda in a Buddhist catechism known as Questions of Milinda.  The Kushana coins bear effigies of Hindu gods, and some rulers bore Indian names; eg., Vasudeva.  Kanishka (circa A.D. 110), the greatest of the Kushan emperors, held the last of the Buddhist councils and patronized the famous Buddhist author Asvaghosha, as well as Charaka, author of the most celebrated treatise on Hindu medicine.  About the same time, or a little earlier, began the transformation of Buddhism into a colorful popular religion, with the worship of many divinities, male and female, and festivals in their honor.  The period also produced new developments in Buddhist sculpture under Greco-Roman influences, as indicated by the rise of the Gandhara school of sculpture.
-==== Southern Kingdoms ====
-In the south, shortly after Asoka’s reign, the Deccan became a powerful and independent state under one of the longest lived dynasties of India, known as the Satavahanas or Andhras (circa 230 B.C. to A.D. 230).  These kings carried their arms into the north and captured Ujjain, thus sharing the Malwa Plateau with the Sungas, the successors of the Mauryas.  Later they waged long wars with the varying fortunes with the Saka satraps of Gujarat and Malwa, and the legends about the famous Vikramadityasakari, valorous enemy of the Sakas, probably refers to an early phase in this struggle with the intruders.  Undoubtedly, the Vikrama era, starting from 57 B.C., and the Saka era, from A.D. 78, were also connected with these struggles.  The Andhra rulers performed Vedic sacrifices and patronized letters and the arts.  Buddhism flourished under their rule, and great artistic monuments—stupas, temples and monasteries—were carved out of the live rock in the Western Ghats and constructed from brick and stone in the deltaic regions of the lower Godavari and Kistna rivers.  The kings were known as “lords of the three oceans.”  They maintained a navy, and their subjects not only carried on trade with lands beyond the seas on both sides of India, but also settled in considerable numbers in foreign lands, particularly in the East.
-In the extreme south, the country was divided among the three kingdoms of Chera, Chola and Pandya.  These kingdoms enjoyed an active share in the trade and colonial movements, and the ports on the western and eastern littoral were kept busy by the concourse of merchants, inland and foreign.  Fine textiles and pepper from South India and spices from the eastern lands were exchanged for wines, gold and silver from the early Roman empire, until the drain of specie and the growth of luxury caused serious concern to the financiers and moralists of the West.  Tamil literature, which dates from the beginning of the Christian era if not earlier, portrays vividly the mixed culture of the country; its towns, villages and ports; its kings, nobles and common folk; and its industry and trade.  Vedic religion modified by contact with pre-Aryan cults was ascendant; Buddhism and Jainism, though not unknown, were in the background.
-==== Gupta Northern Empire ====
-The empire of the Guptas, extending over practically the whole of North India in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., wass the next great epoch of India’s history.  This period has been truly called the “Golden Age of India.”  Samudragupta (c. 330-375) was famous as a conqueror, poet and musician.  His son Chandragupta II, whom he chose for the succession, completed his work and assumed the famous title of Vikramaditya.
-These two reigns spanned nearly a century, from 330 to 415.  The Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hsien, who traveled widely in the empire, left testimony to the prosperity and good government.  Vasubandhu, celebrated in Buddhist though and letters, and Kalidasa, the greatest of India’s poets, lived and wrote in this age, which also gave the major puranas definitive shape.  Aryabhata and Varahamihira carried mathematics and astronomy to heights unknown to the rest of the world in their age.  Nalanda, in Bihar, was rising as a great center of learning that was to make its influence felt throughout Asia.  Time, neglect and the vandalism of the later ages have contrived to create a singular dearth of the monuments of this splendid epoch, but enough remains to emphasize the gap left in the artistic heritage of India.  The seated stone Buddha at Sarnath, the iron pillar of Delhi, the copper Buddha from Sultanganj, finely wrought gold coins (one of which was found as far afield as Java) and the paintings of Ajanta are examples of the cultural attainments of the period.  The influence of Gupta art forms in Indochina and Indonesia attests the continuation of colonial contacts.
-==== Penetration by Huns ====
-Under Skandagupta, the fifth ruler of the line, from 455 to 480, the empire first began to feel the pressure of invading Huns from the northwest.  These barbarians established their predatory rule in the Punjab before the end of the 5th century, and their wars and raids reduced the Gupta empire to the level of a local kingdom.  The power of the Huns was broken before the middle of the 6th century by the cooperation of Yasodharman, of Malwa, and Narasimhagupta Baladitya, a scion of the imperial Gupta line.  But more potent than the heroism of soldiers in the field was the silent absorbing power of Hinduism, which in a few generations made Hindus of the race which had carried fire and sword into Europe, and whose name had become proverbial there for wanton cruelty and destruction.  Not all of the Rajput clans of medieval Indian history were descendants of the Huns, but there can be little doubt that some had a large admixture of that element.
-==== Reign of Harsha in the North ====
-In the late 6th and early 7th centuries North India was divided among three powers: the later Guptas in the east, the Maukharis in the central region, and the Vardhanas in the west.  All carried on wars with the remnants of the Hun power.  By a series of unexpected turns in the course of events, Harshavardhana (c. 590-647) found himself called to rule the combined kingdoms of his ancestors and of the Maukharis.  He had great talents as a warrior, administrator and author, and was the patron of the famous Sanskrit prose writer Bana, and the friend and admirer of Yuan Chwang, the Chinese master of the law who visited India, and wrote a full account of his travels.  By about 612 Harsha had become the paramount ruler of North India and held that position until his death, although his attempt to extend his sway into the Deccan was repulsed by the powerful Chalukya king, Pulakesin II.  Harsha’s able and benevolent rule healed the wounds inflicted by the Huns, but he left no heir to continue his work.
-==== Developments in the South ====
-Meanwhile, in the Deccan, the Satavahana power had given way to several dynasties, of whom the Vakatakas in the north, the Kadambas in the southwest, the succession of the Ikshvakus, Salankayanas and Vishnukundins in the eastern Deccan, and the Pallavas to the south and west of them were the most notable.  Buddhist art had flourished under the Ikshvakus in the 3rd century, and there had been active intercourse between Ceylon and the Deccan, and between these and the eastern colonies.  Jainism had made progress in the western Deccan and the Tamil country, and had attained great strength there by the 6th century.
-The Chalukyas of Badami, the Pallavas of Kanchipuram, and the Pandhyas of Madura became the chief southern powers in the 6th century.  The Chalukyas brought all of the Deccan under their power, and Pulakesin II (608-642), the greatest warrior of the time, exchanged embassies with Khosrau II of Persia.  The Cauvery River was the line between the territories of the Pallavas and the Pandyas and, with minor variations brought about by mutual wars, this political setup continued until the middle of the 9th century.  Only the Chalukya viceroyalties in the Gujarat (Lata) and eastern Deccan (Vengi) developed into independent kingdoms under collateral branches; the main line of Badami was overthrown in the middle of the 8th century by Dantidurga, the founder of the new line of Rashtrakutras, which occupied their predecessors’ place in the political map for about two centuries.  The kings of the new line were known as Balhara (from Vallabharaja) to Moslem merchants from Arabia, who settled in the ports and cities of the kingdom, as well as farther south on the Malabar Coast, where they became the progenitors of the modern Moplahs.
-Trade, literature and art flourished in the Deccan during that period.  Sanskrit held an honored place everywhere, enlivening and strengthening the progress of the popular tongues.  King Durvinita of the subordinate dynasty of the Gangas of Mysore wrote both in Sanskrit and Kannada; Mahendravarman I Pallava was equally accomplished as author, architect, musician and painter.  The temples, rock-cut and structural, and the sculptures of the period reached the highest perfection.  Badami, Pattadakal, Ellora and Ajanta, Mamallapuram (Seven Pagodas) and Kanchipuram were the most representative centers of this art.  In the Tamil country, a strong reaction against Jainism and Buddhism found expression in a widespread popular devotional movement, bhakti, led by saints, or nayanars and alvars, as the devotees of Shiva and Vishnu were respectively called.  The exuberant songs of this movement still form a priceless treasure in Tamil literature.  Kumarila and Sankara, great Indian philosophers, taught in this age.
-The same type of polity and culture continued to flourish in the south from the 9th to the 13th century; only the ruling dynasties of kings changed.  The Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta (Malkhed in the west of Hyderabad) gave way to Chalukyas, who regained their ascendancy in 973 after more than two centuries of subjection, shifting the capital from Manyakheta to Kalyani, about 50 mi. to the north.
-Vikramaditya VI (1075-1125) was one of the greatest of the line.  The jurist Vijnanesvara, author of the Mitakshara, the Hindu code which is still accepted in many parts of India, adorned his court, as well as the poet Bilhana, who wrote a long poem in Sanskrit on the life of his patron ruler.  In the Tamil country, the Cholas of Tanjore rose from the middle of the 9th century and built an empire on the ruins of the Pallava and Pandya kingdoms.  Their sway extended over the whole country south of the Tungabhadra and included Ceylon and the Maldive Islands; the eastern Chalukya kingdom of Vengi, in the eastern Deccan, was a protectorate under them from 1000.
-Rajaraja I (985-1014) and his son Rajendra I (1014-1035) enjoyed the greatest reigns of this line, giving political unity to all of South India for the first time and waging successful wars with the Chalukyas of Kalyani, across the Tungabhadra.  Their empire became a respected sea power, controlling the Indian Ocean and effectively regulating the affairs of the Sumatran empire of Sri Vijaya by invasion and diplomacy.  They perfected a highly organized system of central control, fostering at the same time the autonomy of rural village assemblies.  The father constructed the Great Temple of Tanjore, the finest example of South Indian architecture.  The son created its replica in the wilds of the Trichinopoly district, where he built a new city, Gangaikonda-Chola-puram, to commemorate his expedition to the banks of the Ganges.  The Chola rulers established hospitals and colleges and made lavish expenditures for irrigation projects and public utilities.  The greatest works of Tamil literature were produced under their rule, as well as some of the oldest extant commentaries on the Vedas.
-==== The North After Harsha ====
-In North India, the death of Harsha in 647 had been followed by complications which had enabled Tibet to interfere in the northeastern region for a time.  This, in turn, had paved the way for the reception of Buddhism into Tibet.  In the early part of the 8th century, Kashmir was drawn into central Asian politics and closer contact with China, while expanding her power into India as well.  The age of Kanishka seemed to have come back, although with the difference that the Kashmir kings accepted investiture from the Chinese emperor.  But this situation did not last, and Kashmir again shrank to its normal position of a border state in the Indian system.  Sind and some adjacent territory in the Punjab passed under the Arabs from 712, first as a province of the caliphate of Baghdad, and soon after as two virtually independent principalities owing only nominal allegiance to the caliph.  Again, however, this was an episode without consequences, political or cultural, and the attempt of the Arabs to spread farther into India was effectively checked by the Chalukyas of Gujarat and other powers.  For the rest, a number of Rajput kingdoms divided the country among themselves, and the annals of the period are filled with their wars.
-The Gurjaras of Kanauj came near establishing a large empire from 820 to 1020, and the Paramaras of Malwa were next in importance.  The Rashtrakutas and Chalukyas from the Deccan occasionally raided the north and meddled in the affairs of these kingdoms.  The Chandelas of Bundelkhand, the Gahadvals who succeeded the Gurjaras in Kanauj, and the Chauhans of Sambhar and Ajmer in Rajputana rose to prominence later, bearing the brunt of futile opposition to definitive conquest of Hindustan by the Moslems at the close of the 12th century.  The number of separate kingdoms and disputes among them apparently was no serious obstacle to the maintenance of the cultural arts.  The temple of Martand in Kashmir and the group of temples in Khajraho, Central India, are excellent specimens of the architecture of the time.  In sculpture and painting, the simple naturalism of the former times yielded to an effort to give visual form to spiritual ideas, the result of new developments in the religious field; modern critics do not agree on the aesthetic results of this intrusion of mysticism into the sphere of art.
-Nepal, another important border state in the Indian system, did notable work as a relaying point for the spread of Hindu influences over the rest of Asia.  Bengal and Bihar virtually formed a world apart during the rise of the Pala dynasty in the 8th century.  Pala art is famous and suffused with mystic influences.  The Palas had intimate connection with the new developments of Tantric Buddhism characteristic of the age, and with the great monastery of Nalanda; their overseas contacts with Hinduized states of Indonesia are well attested.
-==== Characteristics of Hindu Society ====
-The main traits of Hindu society may be briefly sketched before describing the conquests of India by Turks, Mongols and Europeans.  In ancient India, hereditary monarchy was the rule after the kingless states had disappeared in the early centuries A.D.  Succession disputes were often averted by the instution of Yuvaraja, or crown prince, an office to which the reigning monarch appointed the most competent among his sons or other relatives.  The king was no autocrat, having been brought up in a tradition which respected Dharma, ie., law and custom as established and interpreted by the elite.  There were ministers who met in council to advise the king, who listened to all points of view before acting.  However, the sphere of the state was limited, and the king’s primary duty was to uphold the existing social order, which was believed to be a divine insitution, and was, in fact, self-regulating.  The people seldom acted as individuals, but found expression in some group outside the family, such as caste, trade, craft-guild, temple committee or village assembly.  The autonomy of these groups extended to determining their own constitutions, the king and his courts intervening only in disputes.  There were settled methods of procedure and also a fairly well-developed law of evidence.
-Even taxation was ruled by custom and was not greatly affected by change.  The land tax, taxes on professions and houses, octroi, market and port dues, and judicial fines were the chief items of the royal fisc; the palace, the army, religion and the arts were the main heads of expenditure.  The voluntary groups taxed themselves and received contributions from the state and from other groups to carry on their work.  Social life was harmonious because the concept of unity and interdependence ran through the whole organization, inequalities being freely recognized and accommodated, but seldom exploited to the detriment of the weaker party.  Caste had not yet become rigid in its restrictions, and shiploads of Brahmins felt free to carry their Vedic sacrifices to strange lands in a manner that later ages would not tolerate.  It was a “self-contained, self-dependent, symmetrical and perfectly harmonious industrial economy” which had reached a balance between unity and diversity, and between stability and change.
-	A serious threat to this society developed with the appearance of the Turks in India in the 11th century.  Fierce warriors by nature, after their acceptance of Islam they felt it their duty to wage war on the infidel.  The strict rule of the Moslem law gave the vanquished peoples no choice but to embrace Islam or prepare for death or slavery.  This was relaxed early, and non-Moslem subjects came to be tolerated on the payment of a poll tax, the Jizya, yet the initial clash between Islam and Hinduism probably was terrible in its effects.  The first mosque at Delhi was finished in 1198.  It was erected on the site of a Hindu temple, and an Arabic inscription on the walls states that the materials of twenty-seven “idolatrous” temples were used in the construction.  After the sack of Nalanda by the Moslems, there was not a monk alive to tell the raiders of the nature of the books in its great library.
-	The Turkish kingdom of Ghazni, which had started as a small principality in about 962, made its power felt in India under its third ruler, Mahmud, who took the title of sultan.  Mahmud led several expeditions beyond the Indus, sacking Kanauj in 1019 and Somanath, in Gujarat, five years later; he annexed the Punjab to his kingdom before his death in 1030.  A century and a half elapsed, and then both Ghazni and the Punjab passed under the rule of the Persian house of Ghor.  Mohammed Ghori began the real conquest of India.  He was defeated in 1191, but was victorious in 1193 on the same field; he made all of northern India as far as Bengal acknowledge his sway, and established his new capital at Delhi.
-	After Mohammed Ghori’s death in 1206, the kingdom of Delhi retained its paramountcy in the north through the 13th century and for a time in the 14th century extended its power over considerable portions of southern India.  There was a succession of different dynasties, Slaves, Khiljis and Tughlaks.  Few of the twenty-six Turks that sat on the throne of Delhi left notable records.  Kutb-ud-din, who ruled from 1206 to 1210 as the first of the Slave kings, was successful as a general and administrator, and his minar, or pillar of victory, still rised above the ruins of old Delhi.  Ala-ud-din Khilji (1295-1315) warred with the Rajputs and sent his favorite eunuch, Malik Kafur, on a vast plundering raid which penetrated the extreme south of the peninsula.  The eccentric ways of the restless and versatile Mohammed Tughlak (1325-1351) led to revolts through his extensive empire, and independent Moslem kingdoms began separate careers in Bengal (1336) and Deccan (1347).  The devastating raid of the Mongol Timur (Tamerlane) in 1398 completed the ruin of the sultanate of Delhi.  The 15th century was an age of confusion from which the Afghan dynasty of the Lodis emerged for a brief period.
-	Turkish rule was harsh and would have caused even more suffering if it had been efficient.  The coutnry was never fully subdued and pockets of successful resistance continued in Rajputana and elsewhere.  After the first shocks, however, in spite of mutual dislike, a modus vivendi was established between the conquerors and their subjects.  Mixed marriages obliterated differences of race; only the barrier of religion remained.  Persian influenced the speech of the people—a considerable number of Persian words and turns of speech were added to Hindu.  Indian Islam recognized caste, and in music and the dance there were fruitful exchanges.  New modes developed in architecture and religion.  Ramanand and Mira Bai, Nanak, Chaitanya and Kabir became important names in the religious movements in different parts of the country, but except in the case of Kabir, the influence of Islam was not appreciable.
-	In the 13th century the Chalukya and Chola empires in the south gave way to four lesser states: those of the Yadavas of Devagiri and Kakatiyas of Warangal in the Deccan, and the Hoysalas of Dvarasamudra (Mysore) and the Pandyas of Madura farther south.  These states could offer no effective resistance to the aggressions of Islam from the north in the 14th century, and their territories passed to the more powerful Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, founded in 1336 on the banks of the Tungabhadra, and its northern neightbor, the Moslem state of the Bahmani rulers.  Vijayanagar fought the Bahmani kingdom from its inception, and their wars, which continued for two centuries, were marked by unusual ferocity.  The greatest ruler of Vijayanagar was Krishna-devaraya (1509-1529), a soldier, statesmen and poet.  Necessity forced Vijayanagar to organize its polity on a quasi-military basis and this helped it to resist Islam for many generations and save South India for Hinduism.  The latter, when faced by a relentlessly hostile creed, developed a new code of rigid, narrow and suspicious orthodoxy.
-	In 1525, Baber, a direct descendant of Timur and one of the most romantic figures of history, invaded India.  He won a victory at Panipat in 1526 against the Afghan sultan of Delhi, and before his death in 1530 brought a large part of North India under his sway.  But the Afghans under Sher Shah won back their supremacy from Humayun, Baber’s son, and it remained for Akbar (1542-1605), the conqueror’s grandson, to establish the Mogul empire.  Becoming king in 1556 at the age of fourteen, Akbar gave early proof of his extraordinary ability as soldier, administrator and statesman.  He effected the conquest of the whole of north India in less than twenty years and, while still extending his dominions, built a stable and sound administrative system with the aid of carefully chosen ministers.  He sought the support of the Hindus, and towards this end abolished all political distinctions between rulers and ruled, and promoted mutual intercourse and understanding between them.  He overstepped this purpose when he started a new religion to serve as the instrument of a new order, but the rest of his work endured under his son Jahangir.  His policy was reversed in part by Jahangir’s son, Shah Jahan.
-	Akbar united the ideas of ancient India with others from outside, and he founded a system of public finance which continued to inspire the land-revenue policy of the Indian governments until recent times.  In architecture, all Akbar’s buildings, particularly in Fatehpur-Sikri, near Agra, are characterized by a structural blending of Hindu and Moslem motifs.  His policy toward the Rajputs persuaded them to value their friendship with him, and on occasions to marry their daughters into the Mogul royal family.  The revenue minister Todar Mall, the musician Tansen and the poet Tulasidas, author of the Ramayana, are names that recall aspects of the great synthesis that was in progress.
-	In the south, the Bahmani and Vijayanagar kingdoms continued their wars even after the former kingdom gave way to five succession states early in the 16th century.  The Moslem states united for a great effort and Vijayanagar in ruins after the battle of Talikota in 1565.  Reduced in power, the Hindu empire continued its existence from new capitals at Penukonda and Vellore for a century longer, while out of the intrigues and wars among the Moslem states, Bijapur and Golconda emerged.
-	Among European nations, the Portuguese were the first to enter India in comparatively modern times for trade, conquest and conversion.  After a long voyage from Lisbon, Vasco da Gama anchored off Calicut in May 1498.  Establishing themselves on the Malabar Coast, the Portuguese spread their power east and west, fought the Moslem traders and enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the Indian waters for a century.  They maintained close trade relations with Vijayanagar, and their power began to decline with the fall of that kingdom.  Chili peppers, potatoes and tobacco were introduced by them into India.  Goa, Diu and Daman, the only possessions still maintained by Portugal in India, are relics of the power once held by that country.
-	The Dutch, French and British followed early in the 17th century.  The Dutch continued to the Spice Islands, expelled the Portuguese, and frustrated English attempts to settle there.  The French were the most important rivals of the English, although at first the English East India Company had to overcome Portuguese opposition before effecting its initial settlement at Surat in 1612.  This led to the founding of Madras in 1639-1640.  Cotton goods, muslin, indigo, saltpeter, sugar and silk were the main items of export from the Coromandel Coast.