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The Season 1 Finale of Echoes of India is a rollercoaster ride through 600 years of Indian history, of the rise and fall of empires and ideas until the eve of the Gupta Empire in 300 CE.
Starting where the season began, with the defeat of the Paurava Raja by Alexander III of Macedon, the finale discusses the deep patterns, processes and networks that led to Indian history unfolding the way it did. From art to religion to language, the finale sets the stage for the beginning of early medieval India with the Gupta and Vakataka empires in Season 2, starting March 27th.
Voice Credits & Notes Below.
Voice Credits (in order of appearance):
Anirudh Kanisetti, Anirudh Kanisetti, Anirudh Kanisetti, bwahahaha
Notes:
Since this is a season finale, here's the entire bibliography for the season.
On the Mauryan Empire: Chakravarti, Ranabir. "Mauryan Empire." The Encyclopedia of Empire (2015): https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe096
Source for the evolution of Skanda: Mann, Richard D. The Rise of Mahāsena: The Transformation of Skanda-Kārttikeya in North India from the Kuṣāṇa to Gupta Empires. Edited by Johannes Bronkhorst. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
Bryant, Edwin F. Krishna: A Sourcebook. Oxford University Press, 2007
McCrindle, John Watson. Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian. Thacker, Spink, 1877
Narain, Awadh K. The Indo-Greeks. 1962
Volume II of the UNESCO History of Civilizations of Central Asia, available at http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/general-and-regional-histories/history-of-civilizations-of-central-asia/
Behrendt, Kurt A. The Art of Gandhara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of art, 2007. You can get the PDF for free here.
Singh, Upinder. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: from the Stone Age to the 12th century. Pearson Education India, 2008
Maxwell, Thomas Stuart. The Gods of Asia: Image, Text and Meaning. 1997.
Davids, Thomas William Rhys. The Questions of King Milinda. Vol. 35. The Clarendon press, 1894.
Basu, Chandreyi. “The heavily ornamented female figure from Pompeii,” in Il Fascino Dell’Oriente Nelle Collezioni E Nei Musei D’Italia (exhibition catalog),Beatrice Palma Venetucci ed., pp. 59-63, Artemide, Roma. 2010.
Rhinoceros Sutra quotes from: Salomon, Richard. The Buddhist Literature of Ancient Gandhāra: An Introduction with Selected Translations. , MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018.
Shaw, Sarah (trans.) The Jatakas: Birth Stories of the Bodhisattva. Penguin Random House, 2006.
Alcock, Susan. Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History. Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History, 2001. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1BkzrE1jHJYC&pgis=1.
Harmatta, Janos. UNESCO History of Civilizations of Central Asia Volume II. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/general-and-regional-histories/history-of-civilizations-of-central-asia/
Skilling, Peter. “New Discoveries from South India: The Life of the Buddha at Phanigiri, Andhra Pradesh.” Arts Asiatiques 63, no. 2008 (2008): 96–118. doi:10.3406/arasi.2008.1664.
Brancaccio, Pia, and Kurt A Behrendt. Gandharan Buddhism : Archaeology, Art, Texts. Asian Religions and Society Series, 2006.
"Decentring the King: Kinship, Identity and Power in the Ikṣvāku Kingdom.” In The Social Worlds of Premodern Transactions: Perspectives from Epigraphy and History. Edited by Mekhola Gomes, Digvijay Singh, and Meera Visvanathan. Delhi: Primus Books. In Press.
Sharma, R S. “Satavahana Polity.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 28, no. 1966 (1966): 81–93. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/44140395.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Ab03a2aae7e79695e163084a7082e5b3f.
Berger, Douglas. Nagarjuna (c. 150—c. 250) Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy at https://www.iep.utm.edu/nagarjun/
Mukund, K. The World of the Tamil Merchant: Pioneers of International Trade. Story of Indian Business. Portfolio Books Limited, 2015. https://books.google.co.in/books?id=BXz6sgEACAAJ.
Articles from Encyclopedia Iranica: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/heraus http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kushan-dynasty-i-history
Pollard, Elizabeth Ann. "Indian Spices and Roman" Magic" in Imperial and Late Antique Indomediterranea." Journal of World History(2013): 1-23.
Chakravarti, Ranabir. "Kushan Empire." The Encyclopedia of Empire (2016): 1-6.
Mukherjee, B.N., "The Great Kushana Testament", Indian Museum Bulletin, Calcutta, 1995
Ollett, Andrew. Language of the Snakes: Prakrit, Sanskrit, and the Language Order of Premodern India. University of California Press, 2017. (The author has very generously made it available for free here.
Pollock, Sheldon. The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India. Univ of California Press, 2006.
Mehrotra, Arvind. The Absent Traveller: Prākrit Love Poetry from the Gāthāsaptaśatī of Sātavāhana Hāla. Penguin UK, 2008.
Carla M. Sinopoli, "On the Edge of Empire: Form and Substance in the Satavahana Dynasty", from Alcock, D'Altroy, Morrison, and Sinopoli (eds.) Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Shastri, A. J. The Satavahanas and the Western Kshatrapas: A Historical Framework. Dattsons, Nagpur, 1998.
Barua, Pradeep P. The State at War in South Asia. Unviersity of Nebraska Press, 2005.
Padma, Sree, and A.W. Barber, eds. Buddhism in the Krishna River Valley of Andhra. SUNY Press, 2008. doi:10.1016/j.religion.2009.04.002.
Ray, Himanshu Prabha. “Early Historical Urbanization: The Case of the Western Deccan.” World Archaeology 19, no. 1 (1987): 94–104. doi:10.1080/00438243.1987.9980026.
Morrison, Kathleen D. “Trade, Urbanism, and Agricultural Expansion: Buddhist Monastic Institutions and the State in the Early Historic Western Deccan.” World Archaeology 27, no. 2 (1995): 203–21. doi:10.1080/00438243.1995.9980304.
Loeschner, Hans, and Victor H Mair. “The Stūpa of the Kushan Emperor Kanishka the Great , with Comments on the Azes Era and Kushan Chronology.” SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS, no. 227 (2012).
Shimada, Akira, and Michael D. Willis. “Amaravati : The Art of an Early Buddhist Monument in Context,” 2016, 126.
Shimada, Akira. Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stupa at Amaravati. Brill, 2013.
Glucklich, Ariel. The Strides of Vishnu: Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Behrendt, Kurt A. “MAITREYA AND THE PAST BUDDHAS: INTERACTIONS BETWEEN GANDHARA AND NORTHERN INDIA.” In Changing Forms and Cultural Identity: Religious and Secular Iconographies VOL. I, edited by Deborah Klimburg-Salter and Linda Lojda, 29–40. Brepols, 2014.
Behrendt, Kurt A. “Fasting Buddhas , Ascetic Forest Monks , and the Rise of the Esoteric Tradition.” In Coins, Art and Chronology II: The First Millennium C.E. in the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, edited by M. Alram, D. Klimburg-Salter, M. Inaba, and M. Pfisterer, 299–328. Wien: Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2010.
Huntington, John C. “The Iconography and Iconology of Maitreya Images in Gandhara.” Journal of Central Asia 7 (1984): 133–78.
Falk, Harry. “Making Wine in Gandhara under Buddhist Monastic Supervision.” Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series 23 (2009): 65–78.
Beal, Samuel. Si-Yu-Ki Buddhist Records of the Western World: Translated from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang (AD 629) Vol II. Available for free on archive.org.
Burgess, James. Notes on the Amaravati Stupa. Prithivi Prakashan, 1972.