•   Archaeological evidence of idols can be traced from Indus Valley Civilization from where idol of Mother Goddess was found.

•   But it does not conclude into the existence of idol worship during that period.

•   No traces of dedicated religious places are found from the sites of IVC like temples etc.

•   It can be said that Gupta Period was marked by great transformation in Hinduism and Buddhism.

•   With the rise of sects like Shaiva, Vaishnava, or Shakta in Hinduism, rise of Mahayana form of Buddhism and development of temples, it can be inferred that idol worship started during Gupta period in true sense.

•   The Indo-Aryan migrations started sometime in the period from approximately 2000 to 1600 BCE.

•   It was the period of Indus Valley Civilization before Aryan migration and Vedic age in India.

•   Indus cities thrived from ca. 3000 to 2000 BCE and went into slow decline after that time.

•   IVC people worshiped mother goddesses who personified nature’s seamless power of fertility, caring love, and destruction.

•   IVC people also revered lingam and a deity in yogic posture- possibly a precursor of both Shiva and Brahma.

•   Around the last decade of the 3rd century CE (about 275 CE), the dynasty of the Guptas came to power.

•   The Gupta Empire established its control over a good part of the former dominions of both the Kushanas and the Satavahanas.

•   The Guptas (possibly Vaishyas) kept northern India politically united for more than a century (335 CE- 455 CE).

•   The Guptas are believed to have been feudatories of the Kushanas.

•   The original kingdom of the Guptas comprised Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with their centre of power at Prayag (U.P).

•   The Guptas set up their rule over the fertile plains of the Madhyadesha, also known as Anuganga (the middle Gangetic basin), Saketa (U.P Ayodhya), Prayag (U.P) and Magadha (mostly Bihar).

•   The Guptas made good use of the iron ore reserves in central India and south Bihar and also took advantage of their proximity to the areas in north India which carried on silk trade with the Byzantine Empire (eastern Roman empire).

•   The Gupta period in ancient India is referred to as the “Golden Age” because of the numerous achievements in the field of arts, literature, science and technology. It also brought about the political unification of the subcontinent.

•   Buddhist rock cut temples of Gupta period are located at Ajanta, Maharashtra and at Bagh, Madhya Pradesh.

•   Guptas also built first Hindu cave temples at Udayagiri, Madhya Pradesh. These are Vaishnava temples.

Kings of Gupta Empire

•   Mauryan Empire, in ancient India, a state centered at Pataliputra (later Patna) near the junction of the Son and Ganges (Ganga) rivers.

•   It lasted from about 321 to 185 BCE and was the first empire to encompass most of the Indian subcontinent.

•   The Mauryan Empire was an efficient and highly organized autocracy with a standing army and civil service.

•   That bureaucracy and its operation were the model for the Artha-shastra (“The Science of Material Gain”), a work of political economy similar in tone and scope to Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince.

•   In the wake of the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, Chandragupta (or Chandragupta Maurya), founder of the Mauryan dynasty, conquered the Punjab region from the southeastern edges of Alexander’s former empire.

•   The Seleucids, a contending dynasty for Alexander’s legacy, attempted to advance into India in 305 BCE. They were defeated and, after the conclusion of a treaty, the Seleucids and the Mauryans maintained friendly relations.

•   Now enjoying peace along the western border, Chandragupta was free to focus his military exploits to the east and to the south.

•   By the end of his reign, he had extended his empire across northern India.

•   His son, Bindusara, continued the empire’s expansion well into the Deccan, stopping around the region known today as Karnataka.

•   Bindusara’s son, Ashoka (reigned c. 265–238 BCE or c. 273–232 BCE), added Kalinga to the already vast empire.

•   That addition would be the last, however, as the brutal conquest of that region led Ashoka to abandon military conquest.

•   Rather, he embraced Buddhism and instituted dharma as the state ideology.

•   Much is known of the reign of this Buddhist Mauryan emperor from the edicts inscribed on exquisitely executed stone pillars that he had erected throughout his realm.

•   Those edicts constitute some of the oldest deciphered original texts of India.

•   After his conversion, his notion of conquest consisted of sending many Buddhist emissaries throughout Asia and commissioning some of the finest works of ancient Indian art.

•   After Ashoka’s death the empire shrank because of invasions, defections by southern princes, and quarrels over ascension.

•   The last ruler, Brihadratha, was killed in 185 BCE by his Brahman commander in chief, Pushyamitra, who then founded the Shunga dynasty, which ruled in central India for about a century.

•   Vedic people did not worship images or idols.

•   They worshipped gods through prayers, chants, songs, rituals and sacrificial ceremonies.

•   They envisioned them as divine entities who manifested upon earth as forces of Nature.

•   Megasthanese, the Greek Ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Mauyra, mentioned people carrying images in procession in his extant work, the Indica.

•   Kushanas are considered to be one of the five branches of the Yuezhi tribe who lived in the Chinese frontier or central Asia.

•   They moved eastward towards India defeating the Parthians and the Sakas in the 1st century AD.

•   Kujula Kadphises or Kadphises is considered as the founder of Kushan dynasty in India.

•   Kanishka (127 AD – 150 AD) was the most important ruler whereas Vasudeva I was the last great king of the Kushanas.

•   It was during Kanishka’s rule that fourth Buddhist council was held in Srinagar in 72 AD.

•   Sanskrit literature began to be developed during the times of Kushanas. Ashvoghosha, a contemporary of Kanishka, is considered to be the first Sanskrit dramatist.

•   Three distinct schools of art Gandhara School, Amaravati School and the Mathura School flourished during Kushans.

•   The Kushans controlled large parts of the Silk Route causing a flourishing trade with China and Roman empire and helping in the spread of Buddhism to China, Japan and Korea.

•   There was a great variety of religious practices and cults in existence within the Kushan Empire, from which its emperors could choose elements at will.