The expansion of Civilization in South ans Southeast Asia - Essay Example

Summary: Chapter 9: The Expansion of Civilization in South and Southeast Asia The Kushan Kingdom became the prominent leader in northern India after the Mauryas lost power. The Silk Road refers to the route through the mountains of northwest India where the Roman Empire and China, aside from other states, frequently traded. Some of the products that travelled through this route were ivory, indigo, textiles, precious stones and pepper from India and silk from China, while Rome exported silver, wine, perfume, slaves, glass and cloth from Egypt.

The ideas that travelled along this route were importation of Buddhist printings from India that developed printing in China, health care information from Buddhists, and technological advancements in astronomy, mathematics, and linguistics. The Gupta Dynasty replaced the Kushans, wherein afterwards, Buddhism changed from being a way of life to other sub-branches of Buddhism. Buddhism branched out to Therevada Buddhism that asserted that they preserved the old teachings and that Buddhism is a way of life, and Mahayana Buddhism that taught Buddhism as a religion and that must be attained through both devotion and painstaking observance of proper behaviors.

Buddhism became less popular in India probably because of the rise of competition in religions and its rejection of dominant cultural and socioeconomic Indian beliefs. The development of a revived Hinduism and the arrival of Islam increasingly became more popular than Buddhism. Buddhism also rejected the existence of a soul that opposed a dominant Indian spiritual belief. At the same time, Buddhism resisted social class definitions, which threatened the socioeconomic structure of India.Islam arrived at India through its eastward spread from the Arabian Peninsula during the seventh and eight centuries to Persia and the mountains of the Hindu Kush.

After Indian pirates attacked an Arab ship near the Indus River, the Muslim ruler demanded an apology from the rule of Sind, a Hindu state, but the latter declined. Muslim forces attacked and conquered Sind in 711 and expanded to Punjab. Mahmud of Ghazni expanded the Islamic state in India from 997 to 1030 up to the upper Indus valley and far into the South of the Indian Ocean. Though subsequent Islamic rulers were not as successful as Ghazni in widening Islamic territories, the Muslim peoples established states there because Indians often warred with one another and were not as united as the Muslims due to the latter’s different religions and ethnicities.

Islam changed Indian society in terms of religion by offering an alternative religion to Hinduism and Buddhism. It did not abolish Indian class and caste system but added to its own version and by becoming part of it in some ways.Southeast Asia was (and still is) an important source of agricultural products and served as a trade route before 1500 C.E. The main states were agricultural (e.g. Vietnam, Angkor, and Burmese state of Pagan) and trading states (e.g. Malay Peninsula). Angkor was the most influential state before the sixteenth century.

Its wealth mainly came from its wet rice industry. The Malay Peninsula linked regional trade networks. In Indonesia, the two biggest trading societies were Srivijaya and Majapahit who were the major participants in the Spice Road, the Southeast Asian version of the Silk Road. India influenced Southeast Asia through the adoption of the former’s class system, written language system, popular stories, and entertainment.