Traders during ancient times:

Trader - A person who buys things from where they are made and sell them elsewhere is called a trader.

• Trade has been taking place since ancient times.
• Traders travelled long distances to buy and sell things.
• Traders also helped in exchange of cultures and ideas.

Trade Relations with Rome: 

• South India was famous for gold and spices.
• Black pepper was the most valued spice and was often termed as ‘Black Gold’.
• Traders from Rome traveled by ships and by caravans.
• They carried black pepper to Rome.
• Many Roman coins have been discovered from south India.
• This shows that there was good amount of trade between India and Rome.

Ancient Sea Routes through India: 

• The traders also explored many sea routes through India.
• Some of the sea routes were along the coastline.
• Some others were through the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
• The sailors took advantage of the southwest monsoon while sailing through these seas.
• Ships were made strong so that they could withstand the rigours of a tough voyage.

New kingdoms along the coast:

• The southern part of the peninsula is marked with a very long coastline.
• This coastline is dotted with hills, plateaus and river valleys.
• There was thriving trade along this coastline.
• Due to this, chiefs and kings who controlled the coastline and river valleys became very powerful and rich.
• About 2300 years ago; three ruling families became very powerful in south India.
• These were; the Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas.
• The term ‘mauvendar’ has been frequently mentioned in the Sangam literature.
• The term ‘mauvendar’ means the three chiefs.

Important Trade Centres of South: 

• Each chief had two centres of power.
• One centre of power was inland and another was on the coast.
• Thus there were six important cities; in terms of power.
• Puharor Kaveripattinam and Madurai were the two highly important cities among them.
• While Kaveripattinam was the port of Cholas, Madurai was the capital of Pandyas.
• These powerful chiefs provided protection to the traders.
• But they did not collect taxes for giving protection to the traders.
• Rather they demanded and received tributes from the traders.
• They usually went on military expeditions too and collected tributes from surrounding areas.
• Some of the collected wealth was kept by the chiefs.
• But most of the wealth was distributed among others; like family members, soldiers and poets.
• Many poets of the Sangam literature have composed poems in the praise of these chiefs.
• The poets usually received precious stones, gold, horses, elephants, chariots, and fine cloth as gifts.

The Satavahanas: 

• The Satavanahanas was a powerful dynasty.
• It rose to prominence in western India around 200 years later. 
• Gautamiputra Sri Satakarni was the most powerful ruler of the Satavahana dynasty.
• His mother, Gautami Balashri had composed an inscription about him.
• We know about him through that inscription.
• The Satavanaha rulers were known as the lords of the dakshinapatha.
• The term ‘dakshinapatha’ literally means the ‘route leading to the south’.
• He also sent his army to the eastern, western and southern coast of India.

The silk route - The ancient routes through which the silk traders traveled is called the Silk Route.

• Silk has very fine quality and luster.
• Due to this, silk has always been taken as premium fabric.
• Silk was first discovered in ancient China about 7000 years ago.
• But the process of making silk was kept as a closely guarded secret by the Chinese.
• However, silk cloths were sent to faraway lands as gift for rich merchants and kings.
• Silk was also carried by traders to be sold in different countries.
• Silk always attracted premium price.
• The silk traders had to cross a difficult route which went through rough mountains and narrow passes.
• There was always the threat of attacks from robbers on these routes.

• This map shows the ancient silk route.
• The land route passed through the Himalayas and the Hindukush.
• The sea route passed through the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
• Some kings tried to gain control of the Silk Route.
• They did so to protect the traders.
• This helped in flourishing the trade.
• A flourishing trade ensured that the kings could collect taxes and tributes from those traders.

The Kushanas: 

• The Kushana dynasty ruled over central Asia and north-west India about 2000 years ago.
• They had the best control over the ancient silk route; compared to any other ruler of that time.
• Their two major centres of power were; Peshawar and Mathura.
• Taxila also came under their kingdom.
• During the Kushana rule, a branch of the silk route extended from central Asia to the sea ports at the mouth of the Indus river.
• Silk was shipped towards west to Rome from these ports.
• The Kushanas were one of the earliest rulers to issue gold coins.
• These gold coins were used by the traders along the silk route.

The spread of Buddhism:

• Along with the flourishing trade; Buddhism also spread during this period.
• Kanishka was the most famous Kushana ruler.
• He made great contributions to spread Buddhism to different parts of the world.
• There was a famous poet in the court of Kanishka.
• His name was Ashwaghosha. Buddhacharita; a biography of Buddha was written by Ashvaghosha.
• Many writers; including Ashvaghosha; of that period began to write in Sanskrit.

Mahayana Buddhism: 

A new form of Buddhism developed during this period. This form of Buddhism is called the Mahayana Buddhism. It had two distinct features; which are as follows:

1. In the earlier form of Buddhism, Buddha was depicted by certain signs and symbols.In the new form, statues of Buddha were also made. Many of those statues were made in Mathura. Such statues were also made in Taxila.
2. There was also a change in belief in Bodhisattvas. A person who attained enlightenment was considered as the Bodhisattva. Earlier; he was supposed to live a life of isolation to meditate in peace. But now, they remained along with the people to teach them. The worship of Bodhisattva became very popular. This trend spread to Central Asia, China and later to Korea and Japan.

Cave Monasteries: 

• During this period; Buddhism also spread to western and southern India.
• Many caves were made in the hills of western India; especially along the Western Ghats.
• These caves were made for the monks.
• Many kings and queens made arrangements for making monasteries in these caves.
• Some monasteries were also made from contributions by rich merchants and farmers.
• Since these caves were en route between mainland and ports, hence they were also used by traders for halt.
• Buddhism also spread to the south-east of India during this period.
• Thus Buddhism spread to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, and other parts of Southeast Asia including Indonesia. 
• Theravada Buddhism was more popular in these areas. It was another form of Buddhism.

The quest of the pilgrims:

A person who undertakes a journey for religious purpose is called pilgrim. Many pilgrims also travelled along with the traders. Traders normally accepted a pilgrim in their caravan.

Chinese Pilgrims:

• Three Chinese pilgrims became quite famous and their names are; Fa Xian (pronounced as Fa Hian), Xuan Zang (pronounced as Huen Sang) and I – Quing.
• All of them were Buddhist pilgrims.
• Fa Xian came to India about 1600 years ago, Xuan Zang came about 1400 years ago and I-Qing came 50 years after Xuan Zang.
• Their main purpose was to visit he places associated with Buddha and Buddhism.
• The accounts of these pilgrims give valuable information about this period.
• We come to know about the tortuous routes, dangers involved in travel, social life in India and many more; from their accounts.

Nalanda University:

• Nalanda University was famous and was in modern day Bihar.
• Xuan Zang had also written about this university.
• Xuan Zang has mentioned that the university was full of learned people.
• The admission process for this university was very tough.
• The success rate of students was less than 20% during the entrance tests for this university.

Bhakti movement:

• The Bhakti movement is associated with visualizing the Hindu deities from a new perspective.
• Most of the images of the Hindu deities being used in modern times are the results of the Bhakti movement.
• This was the period when the priests had a stranglehold on the religion.
• Meaningless rituals were prevalent in the society.
• The Bhakti Movement was the result of struggle to free the religion from those ills.
• The idea of Bhakti says that a person should be free to choose his/her deity.
• A person is free to select a method or an object to worship the god.
• Thus, a person can use an idol, an animal, a tree, a song or a poem; or anything to worship the god.
• The idea of Bhakti says that pure devotion is the most important and means to devotion is secondary.
• If a person worships a deity with pure devotion, he can get the blessings of the god.
• Many artists made pictures and statues of different gods and goddesses.
• Poets wrote beautiful songs to express devotion.
• The form in which we recognize most of the gods even today are the result of Bhakti movement.
• This movement saw the emergence of many great poets; like Meera, Kabir, Surdas, etc.
• People no longer had to rely only on temples as places of worship.
• Many people began making small temples inside their homes as well.
• Even today, we may see small temples in many Hindu homes.