There were many buddhist and hindu dynasties in Indian History but which dynasty was the greatest in terms of military
strength,cultural achievements and legacy.I have made a small list of dynasties which could match the conditions.
What do you think?Which dynasty was the greatest?

Ashoka the Great


King Asoka, the third monarch of the Indian Mauryan dynasty, has come to be regarded as one of the most exemplary rulers in world history. The British historian H.G. Wells has written: "Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history ... the name of Asoka shines, and shines almost alone, a star." Although Buddhist literature preserved the legend of this ruler -- the story of a cruel and ruthless king who converted to Buddhism and thereafter established a reign of virtue -- definitive historical records of his reign were lacking. Then in the nineteenth century there came to light a large number of edicts, in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. These edicts, inscribed on rocks and pillars, proclaim Asoka's reforms and policies and promulgate his advice to his subjects. The present rendering of these edicts, based on earlier translations, offers us insights into a powerful and capable ruler's attempt to establish an empire on the foundation of righteousness, a reign which makes the moral and spiritual welfare of his subjects its primary concern. The Australian bhikkhu Ven. S. Dhammika, the compiler of the present work, is the spiritual director of the Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society in Singapore.

i vaguely remember coming across that name asoka.

isn't gupta muslim/iranian? gupta is like the golden age of indian literature, i believe.

Maurya Empire is the best.

No,the Gupta Dynasty was a hindu Dynasty or at least the Gupta kings were hindus who also patronized Buddhism
and they also patronized the famous Nalanda University that was more or less a Buddhist University.

My list would probably be something like:

1. Maurya Empire
-The largest empire in the world during its time, it remains the largest in South Asian history and was instrumental in the spread of Buddhism beyond the Indian subcontinent under Ashoka the Great, who is considered the most pious ruler of the ancient world alongside Cyrus the Great.

2. Gupta Empire
-Considered the "Golden Age of India" or "Golden Age of Hinduism", for its major cultural contributions in the Indian arts, philosophy and sciences, which later had a worldwide influence following its transmission to China and the Islamic world.

3. Pala Empire
-The last major Buddhist empire in India, it was the largest Indian empire since the Maurya Empire, is considered the "Golden Age of Bengal", and was instrumental in the spread of Buddhism to Tibet.

4. Chola Empire
-This Hindu empire was the largest maritime empire in Indian history, with its power extending into Southeast Asia at its height, and it is considered the "Golden Age of Tamil culture" or "Golden Age of South India".

Perhaps you are right but we should not forget the Maratha Empire that had one of the strongest and toughest armies
in Indian history.The kings of the Maratha Empire were perhaps the only ones who were able to combine modern weapons
like cannons with medieval weapons in an effective way.

Maurya Empire.

If I rem correctly, the Cholas had the biggest empire(territory wise) of any Indian Kingdoms..in fact its probably the only Indian Empire to hold sway over the South East Asian islands. Needless to say, they were also the only Indian Empire to project power over such vast distances.


Ps: Lol code geass ^^ ur avatar pic

Like I said, the Chola Empire was "the largest maritime empire in Indian history", because of its vast overseas conquests in Southeast Asia:

Chola Empire


However, in terms of total land area conquered, the Maurya and Pala empires were slightly larger, as they unified most of Southern Asia and extended into Central Asia to the west and Burma to the east:

Maurya Empire


Pala Empire


The Chola Empire might appear larger because it extended across seas, and you could say the same for maritime empires in general. For example, the British and Mongol empires were almost the same size, and yet the British Empire seems larger because it was a maritime empire extending across seas, while the Mongol Empire was a land empire.

At the peak of its power the Maratha Empire was also one of the biggest Empires in Indian history.

Yes, the Maratha Empire was also the most powerful in its time. However, I was only focusing on the four largest empires, i.e. half of the list. I would say the Maratha Empire is probably the fifth largest from that list though.

could you elaborate or add to this? i always wondered whether the Indian influence in SEA was by their choice or not.

also, what date is that for the map?

That was during the 11th century, which was long after Indianized kingdoms were established in Southeast Asia. As far as I know, the Chola Empire was the only Indian kingdom to colonize parts of Southeast Asia (with the exception of Burma, since its borders often overlapped with India, hence Indian and Burmese kingdoms sometimes overlapped). After relations between the Chola Empire, a Hindu Tamil kingdom of South India, and the Srivijaya Empire, a Hindu Malay kingdom of SEA, turned sour, the Cholas invaded and captured most of Srivijaya's territories in SEA in the early 11th century. The Cholas eventually ended their occupation after establishing tribute from the Srivijayans in the late 11th century.

so most of that land was Srivijaya Empires?

do you know if they had conflict with any others in SEA? Lan Xang? Sukhothai? Khmer?

The Lan Xang and Sukhothai kingdoms were not yet established in the 11th century. Prior to the Chola expedition in Southeast Asia, most of mainland SEA was ruled by the Khmer Empire, most of maritime SEA was ruled by the Srivijaya Empire, while the Malay peninsula was ruled by the Tambralinga kingdom between them. In the early 11th century, large parts of all three kingdoms were occupied by the Chola emperor Rajendra Chola, who had also occupied large parts of the Pala Empire, a Bengali empire of eastern India, just shortly before his expeditions in SEA.

It seems the Chola conquests in SEA began due to a conflict in mainland Southeast Asia. At the beginning of the 11th century, the Khmer Empire had a civil war which led to the empire being divided between two kings, Suryavarman and Jayaviravarman. Suryavarman was successful in taking control of the Khmer capital city of Angkor Wat, which Jayaviravarman attempted to invade several times. At the same time, Angkor Wat came into conflict with the Tambralinga kingdom of the Malay peninsula. In other words, there was a three-way conflict in mainland Southeast Asia. After surviving several invasions from both his enemies, Suryavarman requested aid from the powerful Chola emperor Rajendra Chola. After learning of Suryavarman's alliance with Rajendra Chola, the Tambralinga kingdom requested aid from the Srivijaya emperor Sangrama Vijayatungavarman. This eventually led to the Chola Empire coming into conflict with the Srivijiya Empire.

Rajendra's father Rajaraja Chola was previously on friendly terms with the Srivijaya Empire, probably because the Srivijayas dominated the trade routes between SEA and China, and so the Srivijayas were like the "middle man" between the Chola and Song empires. After relations turned sour during Rajendra Chola's reign, possibly due to the Khmer conflict, he took advantage of the situation and launched invasions into the Srivijaya Empire itself in order to end their dominance over the SEA-China trade routes (thus cutting off the need for a "middle man"). The war ended with a victory for the Chola Empire and Angkor Wat, and major losses for the Srivijaya Empire, the Tambralinga kingdom, and Jayaviravarman's kingdom. The Chola Empire made the most gains overall, occupying the Srivijaya Empire, Tambralinga kingdom, and Jayaviravarman's kingdom, though the main purpose behind these conquests was to establish Chola dominance over the trade routes between India, SEA and China. The methods used by Rajendra Chola in order to achieve this almost resembles the "divide and conquer" strategy later used by the European colonial maritime empires (i.e. playing various local kingdoms against one another).

Sources:
-R. C. Majumdar (1961), "The Overseas Expeditions of King Rājendra Cola", Artibus Asiae 24 (3/4), pp. 338-342, Artibus Asiae Publishers
-Kenneth R. Hall (October 1975), "Khmer Commercial Development and Foreign Contacts under Sūryavarman I", Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 18 (3), pp. 318-336, Brill Publishers

fascinating. thanks i think this is what is lacking on AF in regards to history. its rare to hear about specifics on India and SEA. most of the time i just read that most of SEA culture and stuff was Indian influenced and thats it. rarely do i hear about which Indian entity did what with who.



would it be too much to ask if you could summarize or list some interesting things on the interaction of each of the listed Indian Kingdoms/Empires and SEA?

I second this, Jagger did an awesome job with the details. Devoid of the usual bias one sees on forums posts oh so often. Furthermore, posts with citations always carry much weight!

Thanks Jagger





True. I agree
I guess the SEA sea to the Cholas was like the Mare Nostrum to the Romans.

http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?...24&t=230102


The Indian influence in Southeast Asia was mostly due to independent Indian traders, merchants, missionaries, princes, scholars and statesmen rather than any Indian empires invading SEA. For example, the early Khmer kingdom of Funan was reportedly founded by an Indian prince fleeing from India. Later SEA states continued to frequently employ Indian statesmen, administrators and scholars to help run their kingdoms. It was for reasons such as these that Indianized kingdoms arose in SEA.

Initially, the early Indian influence in SEA mainly came from Eastern India, which was the seat of major empires like the Maurya, Gupta and Pala empires, each of which had extensive trade relations with SEA. However, the Chola Empire's military occupations in SEA introduced Tamil styles of South Indian art and architecture. This might be one of the reasons why the Hindu and Buddhist architecture across much of SEA today more closely resembles Southern Indian styles rather than Northern Indian styles.

If I had to summarize Indian-SEA relations during each of those Indian empires:

Maurya Empire
-During the reign of Ashoka the Great, relations with SEA were initially of a military nature, due to Ashoka being a war-like military general in his younger days. His eastward expansion extended up to Burma, where he forced local kingdoms to become tributary states. However, after Ashoka converted to Buddhism in his older days around ~250 BC, he became peaceful and redirected his ambitions towards spreading Buddhism peacefully to the rest of the world. He sent Buddhist missionaries westwards to the Middle East and Europe, northwards to Central Asia and Northwest China, and eastwards to Indochina. Ashoka was responsible for initiating the spread of Buddhism beyond India, thus he is often considered the most influential figure in the history of Buddhism after the Buddha himself.

Gupta Empire
-Much like the Maurya Empire before it, it looks like the Gupta Empire's eastward expansion also extended up to Burma, where local kingdoms had become tributary states. However, the Gupta Empire's relations with SEA in general was mostly cultural rather than military. Gupta relations with Indochina and the Malay Archipelago were generally peaceful. Through trade relations with Indochinese and Malay kingdoms, the Gupta Empire had a profound cultural influence on the Hindu kingdoms of SEA, influencing the arts, philosophies and sciences of the region during the 4th-6th centuries.

Rashtrakuta & Mewar Empires
-While these empires exerted a large amount of influence within the Indian subcontinent itself, I haven't yet found anything on their relations with SEA. Maybe someone with more knowledge on these empires could fill us in on their relations with SEA?

Pala Empire
-It looks like this Buddhist Bengali empire also extended eastwards up to Burma, though only the regions bordering India, at its height in the 9th century. Besides neighbouring Burma, the Palas also had extensive trade relations with other SEA kingdoms. Through trade relations, it had a lasting influence on the art and architecture of several SEA kingdoms, especially the Sailendra Empire, a Buddhist Malay empire that rivalled the Hindu Srivijaya Empire in the 9th century. Though the Pala Empire was the last Buddhist empire in India itself, it played an important role in the rise of Buddhism in SEA, which was previously a mostly Hindu region.

Vijayanagara Empire
-The Vijayanagara Empire of South India had extensive trade relations with several SEA kingdoms, particularly those located on the Malay Archipelago, and especially the island of Java. SEA also served as a trade route for relations between the Vijayanagara and Ming Chinese empires. For example, the Hui Chinese admiral Zheng He made a visit to the Vijayanagara Empire, after travelling through the SEA route.

Maratha Empire
-The Maratha Empire's relations with SEA was mainly due to relations with the Portuguese and British empires, both of which colonized parts of SEA and India. Since the Marathas were usually not friendly towards the Brits and Portuguese, we can assume Maratha relations with British and Portuguese colonies in SEA was also of an unfriendly nature.


Well, the Cholas didn't rule the Indian Ocean for nearly as long as the Romans ruled the Mediterranean Sea. The Chola occupation in SEA lasted less than a century, or maybe even half a century, whereas the Romans ruled the Mediterranean for several centuries, so I wouldn't say the Cholas saw the Indian Ocean as their "Mare Nostrum" ("Our Sea" in Latin). Of course, the Indian Ocean is a lot more expansive (and deeper) than the Mediterranean Sea, so it would have been more difficult to rule large parts of the Indian Ocean for an extended period of time. For example, the Arab Empire conquered most of the Mediterranean Sea in a matter of decades and ruled it for several centuries, and yet the Arabs didn't even attempt to invade the Indian Ocean despite frequently visiting the region.

very informative. thanks

I have found some movies and serials about the great Indian rulers Prithviraj Chauhan,Sri Krishna Devaraya,
Peshwa Baji Rao,Shivaji Maharaj,Emperor Ashoka, Chandragupta Maurya and Maharana Pratap.
By the way I have only posted the trailers for the serials.



Prithviraj Chauhan Serial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIGqtBsSrAU




Peshwa Baji Rao Serial Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E205h4Z9dVY




Sri Krishna Devaraya Movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN7Bu0-jgPQ





Shivaji Maharaj Serial Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8JIa_2XMOQ...feature=related


Emperor Ashoka Movie

Chandragupta Maurya Movie



Maharana Pratap Movie Trailer

Perhaps we should also include the Eastern Ganga Dynasty and the Gajapati Kingdom
which were one of the biggest kingdoms in India from 11th to the 15th century.During
that time the Eastern Ganga Dynasty covered Orissa,parts of Chhattisgarh,parts of Andra Pradesh
and parts of Bengal.

Another great Hindu dynasty we overlooked is the Rajput Kingdom of Northwestern India. The Rajputs were great warriors responsible for stopping many Central Asian and Middle-Eastern armies (including Arabs, Turks, Afghans, etc.) from invading India for nearly a thousand years. The Rajputs were recently featured on "Deadliest Warrior" (a show simulating battles between various historical warriors), where they faced-off a Rajput Warrior against a Roman Centurion in battle...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm7Y7VpMJI4

Great video.But it seems that some Hindu Rajput rulers used some heavier armors like
this one which was made in the 12th century.

Rajput Armor

thanks for sharing such an awesome info about buddhist and hindu dynasties.its is interesting to know.its a great work.keep up the good work.






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I think the Mewar Dynasty was more or less the major Rajput Kingdom during medieval times even
though there were also smaller Rajput Kingdoms in central India like the Gwalior Kingdom,Chandela Kingdom
and the Orcha Kingdom of the Bundela Rajputs.
By the way I am surprised that the famous Rajput weapon the Tigerclaw was not mentioned in the video.
Even the famous Maratha Emperor Shivaji used the Tigerclaw as some kind of emergency weapon.
I am pretty sure that the Tigerclaw was invented by the Rajputs.

The Rajput on the show is from 900 CE, so the Rajput was equipped with 10th-century coat armour rather than 12th-century plate armour.


On Deadliest Warrior, each warrior has upto four weapons to choose from. For the Rajput, the Katar (a thrusting fist-dagger) was chosen over the Tigerclaw. It was a good choice though, as the Katar pierced right through the Roman's Lorica Hamata chainmail armour.

Katar

Thanks for the information.
By the way I think I have made one mistake.The greatest Dynasty of medieval India was perhaps not
the Mewar Dynasty but it was rather the Western Chalukya Dynasty.

You were right on about Lan Xang (1st Lao kingdom) and Sukhothai (1st Thai, or rather T'ai, kingdom). As for the the Malay Peninsula, there were several kingdoms in and around the Malay Isthmus, most of them loosely allied into a federation of sorts called Langkasuka, which itself came under the hegemony of Palembang Srivijaya. I'm not sure if Srivijaya controlled the Langkasukan kingdoms via the Tambralinga-based kingdom formally named Nagara Sri Dharmaraja. It could be possible, the concentric-spheres, or mandala, concept of empire. While NSD itself was sort of sometimes-part-of-Langkasuka, sometimes standalone. BTW, the place where Tambralinga used to be is now the city of Nakhon Si Thammarat, i.e. the Thai transliteration of Nagara Sri Dharmaraja.


What you've called the 'Tambralinga kingdom' and Jayaviravarman's Tambralinga-based Nagara Sri Dharmaraja kingdom was actually one and the same kingdom. Jayavarman's original name was Sujita, they called him Sujita Raja (i.e. King Sujita) when he was just the raja of NSD. He was maternal nephew of Jayavarman V, maharaja of the Angkorian realm. His mother was the maharaja's sister. While on his father's side, Sujita had Malay and Palembang Srivijayan royal ancestry. Yes he was one of those guys who had glorious royal lineage on both sides. BTW, NSD was an ethnically Malay kingdom which remained Buddhist in faith, never converted to Islam to the end, unlike the Patani-Langkasuka kingdom to its south.

Partly due to his close relations with the Angkorian maharaja, Sujita was also senapati (army chief) of the Angkorian empire, whose military HQ was based at Lavo (today's Lopburi), while at the same time being raja of NSD which was then more or less subservient to the more powerful Angkor. When Lavo was invaded by the northern Mon kingdom of Haripunchai, Sujita himself launched an attack of his own on Lavo and seized Lavo for himself, then used his power as senapati to launch an invasion on Angkor itself, which was then in total disarray in the wake of the old maharaja's demise. Sujita's audacious move succeeded beyond all expectations, and he ascended the throne of Angkor as Maharaja Jayaviravarman in 1006 AD, while his younger Khmer rival Suryavarman retained control over Khmer cities to the south and east of Angkor.

The two kept on fighting each other, Suryavarman eventually prevailing and becoming the new maharaja of all Angkor in 1010 AD.

A distant Khmer ancestor of Suryavarman, possibly Indravarman I, once had his kingdom (Sea/Water/Lower Chenla) invaded and conquered by a distant ancestor of Sangrama, named Samaratunga, prince of Sailendra, a Buddhist kingdom in Central Java, in 790 AD. Samaratunga had married Dewi Tara, daughter of Dharmasethu, raja of Palembang Srivijaya, thereby effectively engineering a merger of two large, powerful kingdoms, Sumatran-based Srivijaya and Javanese-based Sailendra. Samaratunga then held Lower Chenla as a vassal of Srivijaya-Sailendra for 22 years, until 912 AD. I suppose you could forgive Suryavarman if he had a phobia of Srivijaya-Sailendra.


During Rajaraja Chola's time, Sangrama's grandfather, Chulamani Varmadeva, had actually sponsored the construction of a Buddhist vihara (temple) in Nagapattinam, in Chola territory, for use by visiting Buddhist traders, merchants, travellers and scholars, with Rajaraja's blessing. Rajaraja had in fact pledged to Chulamani the revenue from several surounding villages for the upkeep of the vihara at Nagapattinam. So cordial was their relationship then. But then things took a drastic turn during the reign of Rajendra Chola, Rajaraja's successor. Trade frictions, political rivalries between proxies, like you said.

In 1016 AD, Sangrama's father, Maravijayottungavarman, had invaded and totally laid waste persistent rival/enemy Mataram, a Hindu kingdom in central Java, very probaby another close Hindu ally of Chola, with the assistance of dissatisfied/rebellious Mataram province Wurawari. Maravijayo was possibly also aided by forces from Srivajayan ally/vassal kingdoms on the Malay peninsula. The first of Rajendra's attacks on Srivijaya and its ally/vassal kingdoms was in 1017 AD. You just do the maths.

Thus, there could also be a multi-religious-rivalry angle to the Cholan-Srivijayan conflict. In early 11th century AD, Hindu northern India was under constant threat of attack by the Muslim forces of Mahmud Ghazni, while the Hindu kingdoms of southern India were batttling to sustain and restore Hindu supremacy and roll back the ascendancy of Buddhism, which had started with Asoka Maurya. While Chola was then like the last credible bastion of Hinduism in southern India. Whereas Palembang Srivijaya had been thriving for several centuries as a Mahayana-Tantra-Vajrayana Buddhist stronghold that exerted hegemony over smaller Theravada Buddhist kingdoms in the Malay Peninsula. Buddhism was then like continuing its gradual usurpation of Hinduism in all South East Asia, a worrying trend for staunchly Hindu Chola. While the Angkorian realm was then like Chola's last remaining Hindu hope for South East Asia, noting also the fact that some of the Angkorian maharajas had themselves on occassions favoured Buddhism over Hinduism.

The victories of Chola over Srivijaya in 1017 and 1025 AD therefore also stood, symbolically, in a way, as victories of embattled Hinduism over ascendant Buddhism.

The Top 5 Indian Dynasties were definitely the Maurya Empire, Gupta Empire, Pala Dynasty, Chola Empire and the Maratha Empire.
The Maurya Empire was the biggest Empire in Indian history.
Gupta Empire was one of the greatest patrons of literature. During the Gupta rule many ancient Indian texts were written or completed.
The Pala Dynasty was the greatest patron of education as the Pala rulers patronized several ancient Universities like the Nalanda University
and the Vikramashila University.
The Chola Empire established the greatest maritime Empire in Indian history.
The Maratha Empire was the greatest military force in Indian history. The Maratha Empire produced a high number of great Indian generals.

There is a great TV Serial on the Maratha Empire on Youtube.
Here is the link.
Maratha Empire

The Rashtrakuta Empire was at least as big as these Empires.