History of India: Ancient India · UPPCS (Uttar Pradesh)

What the official syllabus says

UPPCS Preliminary Examination, Paper I: General Studies-I:

History of India and Indian National Movement.
History of India & Indian National Movement: In History emphasis should be on broad understanding social, economic and political aspects of Indian History. In the Indian National Movement, the candidates are expected to have synoptic view of nature and character of the freedom movement, growth of nationalism and attainment of Independence.
Note: Candidates are expected to have general awareness about the above subjects with special reference to Uttar Pradesh.

Topics in detail

The official note asks for a broad understanding of the social, economic and political sides of Indian history. For each period, learn the polity (rulers, administration), the economy (agriculture, trade, coins) and society and religion. Sites and dynasties in present-day Uttar Pradesh are marked, as the region was at the centre of much of ancient Indian history.

Sources and prehistory

Literary sources: Vedic literature, epics and Puranas, Buddhist and Jain texts, secular literature; accounts of foreign travellers (Megasthenes, Faxian, Xuanzang)
Archaeological sources: inscriptions, coins, monuments, excavated sites; dating methods in outline
Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures: tools, way of life, beginnings of farming
Uttar Pradesh sites: the Belan valley (Chopani Mando) and Koldihwa and Mahagara (Prayagraj region) for early rice and Neolithic life; Mesolithic sites of Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha and Damdama (Pratapgarh)
Chalcolithic cultures and the Ochre Coloured Pottery and copper hoard cultures of the Ganga-Yamuna doab

The Harappan (Indus-Saraswati) civilisation

Extent and major sites; town planning, drainage, granaries and the Great Bath
Economy: agriculture, crafts, seals, weights and measures, trade with Mesopotamia
Religion, script and art; theories of decline
Uttar Pradesh: Alamgirpur (Meerut) as an eastern Harappan site; Sinauli (Baghpat), a late Harappan-period burial site with chariots and copper objects

The Vedic age

Early Vedic period: the Rig Veda, tribal polity (sabha, samiti, vidatha), pastoral economy, gods
Later Vedic period: expansion into the Ganga-Yamuna doab, Painted Grey Ware culture, the Kuru and Panchala kingdoms, use of iron
Later Vedic literature: Samaveda, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads
Varna and ashrama, position of women, rituals and sacrifices

Mahajanapadas and new religions

Second urbanisation; Northern Black Polished Ware; punch-marked coins
The sixteen Mahajanapadas; those in present Uttar Pradesh: Kashi (Varanasi), Kosala (Shravasti, Ayodhya/Saket), Vatsa (Kaushambi), Malla (Kushinagar, Pava), Panchala, Surasena (Mathura), and parts of Kuru and Chedi
Republics (ganasanghas) and monarchies
Gautama Buddha: life, Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path; first sermon at Sarnath, mahaparinirvana at Kushinagar; Shravasti and Kaushambi in his life; Buddhist councils, Hinayana and Mahayana
Mahavira and Jainism: teachings, tirthankaras, Jain councils, Digambara and Shvetambara
Rise of Magadha: Haryanka, Shishunaga and Nanda dynasties; Persian and Macedonian invasions

The Mauryan empire

Chandragupta Maurya; Kautilya's Arthashastra; Megasthenes' Indica
Ashoka: Kalinga war, dhamma, rock and pillar edicts; the Sarnath Lion Capital (source of the national emblem) and the Allahabad-Kosam pillar
Mauryan administration, economy, art (pillars, stupas) and decline

After the Mauryas

Shungas and Kanvas; Indo-Greeks, Shakas and Parthians
Kushanas: Kanishka, the Fourth Buddhist Council, Mahayana; Mathura as a political and art centre; Gandhara and Mathura schools of sculpture
Satavahanas in the Deccan; the Sangam age in the far south
Trade with Rome and Central Asia; guilds; the Silk Route

The Gupta age

Chandragupta I, Samudragupta (Prayag Prashasti by Harisena on the Allahabad pillar), Chandragupta II, Skandagupta (Bhitari pillar, Ghazipur) and the Huna invasions
Administration, land grants and the beginnings of feudal tendencies
Literature (Kalidasa), science and mathematics (Aryabhata, Varahamihira), Nalanda
Art and architecture: the Dashavatara temple at Deogarh (Lalitpur), Sarnath school of sculpture
Faxian's account of India

Post-Gupta India to about AD 1200

Maukharis of Kannauj; Pushyabhutis and Harshavardhana: Kannauj as capital, the assemblies at Kannauj and Prayag, Xuanzang, Banabhatta's Harshacharita
The tripartite struggle for Kannauj between the Gurjara-Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas
Rajput dynasties: Gurjara-Pratiharas, Gahadavalas of Kannauj and Varanasi, Chandelas of Bundelkhand (Kalinjar, Mahoba), Chauhans, Paramaras
South India: Pallavas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas and Cholas (administration, temples, maritime activity)
Society and economy of early medieval India: land grants, feudalism debate, rise of new castes, temples as centres

Overlaps

Art and architecture of these periods are on Indian Culture, and the history of the Uttar Pradesh region in one place on Uttar Pradesh: History and Culture. In the Main Examination, ancient cities and archaeology of the state are in General Studies V.