Ancient Indian Empires and Kingdoms

Ancient Indian Empires and Kingdoms From their original settlements in the Punjab region, the Aryans gradually began to penetrate eastward, clearing dense forests and establishing tribal settlements along the Ganga and Yamuna (Jamuna) flood  plains between 1500 and ca. 800 B.C. By around 500 B.C., most of northern India was inhabited and had been brought under cultivation, facilitating the increasing knowledge of the use of iron implements, including ox-drawn plows, and spurred by the growing population that provided voluntary and forced labor. As riverine and inland trade flourished, many towns along the Ganga became centers of trade, culture, and luxurious living. Increasing population and surplus production provided the bases for the emergence of independent states with fluid territorial boundaries over which disputes frequently arose. The rudimentary administrative system headed by tribal chieftains was transformed by a number of regional republics or hereditary monarchies that devised ways to appropriate revenue and to conscript labor for expanding the areas of settlement and agriculture farther east and south, beyond the Narmada River. These emergent states collected revenue through officials, maintained armies, and built new cities and highways. By 600 B.C., sixteen such territorial powers- including the Magadha, Kosala, Kuru, and Gandhara- stretched across the North India plains from modern-day Afghanistan to Bangladesh. The right of a king to his throne, no matter how it was gained, was usually legitimized through elaborate sacrifice rituals and genealogies concocted by priests who ascribed to the king divine or superhuman origins. The victory of good over evil is epitomized in the epic Ramayana (The Travels of Rama, or Ram in the preferred modern form), while another epic, Mahabharata (Great Battle of the Descendants of Bharata), spells out the concept of dharma and duty. More than 2,500 years later, Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi, the father of modern India, used these concepts in the fight for independence. The Mahabharata records the feud between Aryan cousins that culminated in an epic battle in which both gods and mortals from many lands allegedly fought to the death, and the Ramayana recounts the kidnapping of Sita, Ramas wife, by Ravana, a demonic king of Lanka (Sri Lanka), her rescue by her husband (aided by his animal allies), and Ramas coronation, leading to a period of prosperity and justice. In the late twentieth century, these epics remain dear to the hearts of Hindus and are commonly read and enacted in many settings. In the 1980s and 1990s, Rams story has been exploited by Hindu militants and politicians to gain power, and the much disputed Ramjanmabhumi, the birth site of Ram, has become an extremely sensitive communal issue, potentially pitting Hindu majority against a  Muslim minority. By the end of the sixth century B.C., Indias northwest was integrated into the Persian Achaemenid Empire and became one of its satrapies. This integration marked the beginning of administrative contacts between Central Asia and India. Magadha Although Indian accounts to a large extent ignored Alexander the Greats Indus campaign in 326 B.C., Greek writers recorded their impressions of the general conditions prevailing in South Asia during this period. Thus, the year 326 B.C. provides the first clear and historically verifiable date in Indian history. A two-way cultural fusion between several Indo-Greek elements- especially in art, architecture, and coinage- occurred in the next several hundred years. North Indias political landscape was transformed by the emergence of Magadha in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain. In 322 B.C., Magadha, under the rule of Chandragupta Maurya, began to assert its hegemony over neighboring areas. Chandragupta, who ruled from 324 to 301 B.C., was the architect of the first Indian imperial power the Mauryan Empire (326-184 B.C.)- whose capital was Pataliputra, near modern-day Patna, in Bihar. Situated on rich alluvial soil and near mineral deposits, especially iron, Magadha was at the center of bustling commerce and trade. The capital was a city of magnificent palaces, temples, a university, a library, gardens, and parks, as reported by Megasthenes, the third-century B.C. Greek historian and ambassador to the Mauryan court. Legend states that Chandraguptas success was due in large measure to his adviser Kautilya, the Brahman author of the Arthashastra (Science of Material Gain), a textbook that outlined governmental administration and political strategy. There was a highly centralized and hierarchical government with a large staff, which regulated tax collection, trade and commerce, industrial arts, mining, vital statistics, the welfare of foreigners, maintenance of public places including markets and temples, and prostitutes. A large standing army and a well-developed espionage system were maintained. The empire was divided into provinces, districts, and villages governe d by a host of centrally appointed local officials, who replicated the functions of the central administration. Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta, ruled from 269 to 232 B.C. and was one of Indias most illustrious rulers. Ashokas inscriptions chiseled on rocks and stone pillars located at strategic locations throughout his empire- such as Lampaka (Laghman in modern Afghanistan), Mahastan (in modern Bangladesh), and Brahmagiri (in Karnataka)- constitute the second set of datable historical records. According to some of the inscriptions, in the aftermath of the carnage resulting from his campaign against the powerful kingdom of Kalinga (modern Orissa), Ashoka renounced bloodshed and pursued a policy of nonviolence or ahimsa, espousing a theory of rule by righteousness. His toleration for different religious beliefs and languages reflected the realities of Indias regional pluralism although he personally seems to have followed Buddhism (see Buddhism, ch. 3). Early Buddhist stories assert that he convened a Buddhist council at his capital, regularly undertook tours within his realm, and sent Buddhis t missionary ambassadors to Sri Lanka. Contacts established with the Hellenistic world during the reign of Ashokas predecessors served him well. He sent diplomatic-cum-religious missions to the rulers of Syria, Macedonia, and Epirus, who learned about Indias religious traditions, especially Buddhism. Indias northwest retained many Persian cultural elements, which might explain Ashokas rock inscriptions- such inscriptions were commonly associated with Persian rulers. Ashokas Greek and Aramaic inscriptions found in Kandahar in Afghanistan may also reveal his desire to maintain ties with people outside of India. After the disintegration of the Mauryan Empire in the second century B.C., South Asia became a collage of regional powers with overlapping boundaries. Indias unguarded northwestern border again attracted a series of invaders between 200 B.C. and A.D. 300. As the Aryans had done, the invaders became Indianized in the process of their conquest and settlement. Also, this period witnessed remarkable intellectual and artistic achievements inspired by cultural diffusion and syncretism. The Indo-Greeks, or the Bactrians, of the northwest contributed to the development of numismatics; they were followed by another group, the Shakas (or Scythians), from the steppes of Central Asia, who settled in western India. Still other nomadic people, the Yuezhi, who were forced out of the Inner Asian steppes of Mongolia, drove the Shakas out of northwestern India and established the Kushana Kingdom (first-century B.C.-third century A.D.). The Kushana Kingdom controlled parts of Afghanistan and Iran, and in India, the realm stretched from Purushapura (modern Peshawar, Pakistan) in the northwest, to Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) in the east, and to Sanchi (Madhya Pradesh) in the south. For a short period, the kingdom reached still farther east, to Pataliputra. The Kushana Kingdom was the crucible of trade among the Indian, Persian, Chinese, and Roman empires and controlled a critical part of the legendary Silk Road. Kanishka, who reigned for two decades starting around A.D. 78, was the most noteworthy Kushana ruler. He converted to Buddhism and convened a great Buddhist council in Kashmir. The Kushanas were patrons of Gandharan art, a synthesis between Greek and Indian styles, and Sanskrit literature. They initiated a new era called Shaka in A.D. 78, and their calendar, which was formally recognized by India for civil purposes starting on March 22, 1957, is still in use.

Free Essays on Sophocles

Colonus, a village near Athens, was the place of Sophocles' birth, and the date, 495 B.C., thus making him thirty years younger than Aeschylus and fifteen years older than Euripides. His father, Sophilus, a man of wealth and excellent repute, gave him the benefit of all the literary accomplishment of the age. His powers were developed and refined by a careful instruction in the arts of music and poetry, and to the natural graces of his person further attractions were added through the exercises of the palà ¦stra. That he was a comely and agile youth is shown by his selection, at the age of sixteen, to lead with dance and lyre the chorus which celebrated his country's triumph at Salamis. In his younger days he appears to have been somewhat over fond of women and wine, and this he himself admits in one of his sayings recorded by Plato: "I thank old age for delivering me from the tyranny of my appetites." Yet, even in his later years, the charms of the gentler sex were at times too strong for the great dramatist. Aristophanes accused him of avarice, though there is nothing in what is known of Sophocles to substantiate the charge, and this is further disproved by the utter neglect of his affairs, which brought on him the imputation of lunacy, refuted by reading to his judges a passage from a newly-written play. The occasional excesses referred to appear to have been the only blemish on an otherwise blameless and contented life. Dramatic Career The commencement of his dramatic career was marked by a victory in competition with Aeschylus, under exceptional circumstances. The remains of the hero Theseus were being removed by Cimon from the isle of Scyros to Athens, at the time of a tragic contest which had excited unusual interest on account of the fame of the older and the popularity of the younger candidate. Instead of choosing judges by lot, as was the custom, the archon administered the oath to Cimon and his colleagues, asking th... Free Essays on Sophocles Free Essays on Sophocles Colonus, a village near Athens, was the place of Sophocles' birth, and the date, 495 B.C., thus making him thirty years younger than Aeschylus and fifteen years older than Euripides. His father, Sophilus, a man of wealth and excellent repute, gave him the benefit of all the literary accomplishment of the age. His powers were developed and refined by a careful instruction in the arts of music and poetry, and to the natural graces of his person further attractions were added through the exercises of the palà ¦stra. That he was a comely and agile youth is shown by his selection, at the age of sixteen, to lead with dance and lyre the chorus which celebrated his country's triumph at Salamis. In his younger days he appears to have been somewhat over fond of women and wine, and this he himself admits in one of his sayings recorded by Plato: "I thank old age for delivering me from the tyranny of my appetites." Yet, even in his later years, the charms of the gentler sex were at times too strong for the great dramatist. Aristophanes accused him of avarice, though there is nothing in what is known of Sophocles to substantiate the charge, and this is further disproved by the utter neglect of his affairs, which brought on him the imputation of lunacy, refuted by reading to his judges a passage from a newly-written play. The occasional excesses referred to appear to have been the only blemish on an otherwise blameless and contented life. Dramatic Career The commencement of his dramatic career was marked by a victory in competition with Aeschylus, under exceptional circumstances. The remains of the hero Theseus were being removed by Cimon from the isle of Scyros to Athens, at the time of a tragic contest which had excited unusual interest on account of the fame of the older and the popularity of the younger candidate. Instead of choosing judges by lot, as was the custom, the archon administered the oath to Cimon and his colleagues, asking th...

Human resource Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Human resource - Essay Example Introduction Like it or not, the majority of people in the workforce have all gone through the hiring process at some time in their lives. In fact, we go through the HR selection process at an organization every time we apply for a job and are fortunate to meet the selection criteria. However, this is only the beginning of the process as we find that there is still a long road ahead before we can be offered the job. The typical selection process can involve oral and written tests, psychological tests, a series of Interviews and even job simulation scenarios that test the ability of candidates in various ways before the final selection is made and the jobs are offered to the qualifying candidates. The HR Selection Process Unless you are fortunate enough to be the owner’s son or daughter or be related to the top management in a firm, you are likely to go through the same HR selection process as everyone else who applies for a job in that organization. The HR department is entrus ted with filling available positions in an organization with the staff needed to run them. The HR hiring plan is created as an outcome of a management review meeting in the beginning of the year, at which time performance is reviewed and growth plans are decided for the year, to accomplish which additional staff is required. Once the overall and departmental requirements have been budgeted, it is up to the Departmental Heads to liaise with the HR Department to decide the timing of hiring of staff. A hiring requisition is filled with the details desired for candidate profile, qualifications, job responsibilities, reporting line etc. After this HR can post the advertisement in the newspaper, magazines or online to get job applications. In case of high profile jobs requiring secrecy and confidentiality, recruitment agencies or headhunters can be employed. In the HR selection process they have to first weed out the candidates that meet the initial criteria in terms of profile, experienc e etc. Then they have to line up the selected candidates in terms of most promising and proceed to coordinate with the candidates and the departments concerned for initial tests, preliminary and in depth interviews, and whatever else they have developed in order to screen out the best candidates from the rest of the lot. In the case of hiring candidates as Management Trainees, often a one day Evaluation Session is conducted at an Assessment Center in which the candidates are made to take part in business games, job simulation scenarios and other decision making processes that tell about how the candidate is likely to react and whether he would make the right decisions under pressure. Sometimes candidates can be invited to spend a day with the department in which they can observe how things are done and how decisions are made. For the candidates that make it through, final interviews are conducted with top management after which a job offer can be made to selected candidates (Werther & Davis, 2005, p228). Importance of the Interview The interview is perhaps the most important part of the overall process of getting hired. That said, every part of the process is important. One has to get through the selection criteria and pass the written IQ tests that are normally conducted for job applicants. There may be a preliminary interview with HR or the Department Head, in which the profile and qualifications of the candidate are