How Did India Change Throughout The Classical Era

Changes Throughout the Classical Era in India

There were two major empires that dominated India during the classical era. These empires made enduring contributions to the India and other countries, empires and societies around the world. But what were the characteristics of these empires that were either maintained or changed that made the classical era so memorable? The Mauryan empire was founded around 324 BCE by Chandragupta Maurya. The empire was easily able to gain and maintain the land that they had conquered throughout India. They key to maintaining such large land was to split the empire into different regions and provinces controlled by their own leaders who all had the same values needed to keep the empire together. The Gupta empire

The Mauryan empire stressed its beliefs of having a large military force and included a large contingent of spies to provide rulers with local information, this was especially important as there was not much centralization in India. The Mauryan Empire had a large military, including 600 thousand infantry soldiers, 30 thousand cavalry, 8 thousand chariots, and 9 thousand elephants (Strayer). The Gupta empire was much more modern and progressive in terms of their political ideas and the time they were in. One Chinese Buddhist traveler in India noted the empire as generally peaceful, tolerant, and prosperous land, commenting that the ruler “governs without decapitation or corporal punishment and free hospital he reported were available to the sick and crippled.” (Strayer) It is easy to see how much the political state of India has changed within 500 years the views of these empires have almost completely flipped and a huge cultural mindset change has taken place. Surely this must have affected the economic well being of these empires in India over

These coins were produced in the millions and show the “Prosperity that accompanied this economy” (“Coin). Throughout the classical era the economy of empires in India changed gradually, growing into more elaborate and sophisticated economic societies.

In all, the classical era from 500 BCE to 500 CE the Gupta and Maurya empires ruled in India, both empires alike had social, political, and economic aspects that were preserved and changed throughout the era. The social ideas in Indian society were preserved and logically the reasoning for this was because much of india's social ideals came from hinduism itself therefore making it nearly impossible to change social norms. The political and economic themes in Indian society changed as different emperors ruled and new empires arose. This change occurred from the start of the Mauryan empire being an extremely militaristic and agricultural based society to the end of the Gupta empire making india a flourishing place of art literature, science, mathematics, medicine, and much more that changed the political ideas and economic structure of