The next important event in Indian history was the 

 founding of the much more far-reaching religion of Bud- 

 dhism by Gautama Buddha about 580 B.C. This brilliant 

 thinker concluded, after a lengthy consideration of human 

 misery in his time, that peace for the mind ("Nirvana") 

 could be secured by withdrawal from the world, with 

 meditation and self-control. Buddhism aims at the re- 

 moval of mental anxiety by the suppression of wishful 

 thinking not leading to permanent happiness for the indi- 

 vidual. Buddha also emphasized that attainment of the 

 tranquil mind was dependent solely on the individual's 

 own ability, and that no supernatural aid could be ex- 

 pected. Undoubtedly Buddha's ideas of personal meditation, 

 self-control, and the use of personal abilities are to be 

 upheld by modern thought, although too great an amount 

 of withdrawal would suggest a tendency towards schizo- 

 phrenia today. Under the Mauryan Dynasty (c. 300 B.C. 

 to B.C.) nearly all of India became united, and the 

 great emperor Ashoka (280 B.C.) established Buddhism 

 and sent missionaries to nearby countries; advanced edu- 

 cation, hospitals, and roads; and maintained peace. But 

 in the next two centuries this Empire was destroyed by 

 further foreign invaders, and India remained divided into 

 various states. 



The peak of Indian achievement was reached during the 

 Gupta Dynasty (c. 250 A.D. to c. 700 A.D.) when a unified 

 people developed science, art, and literature. In mathe- 

 matics, the decimal system with zero was used; in astron- 

 omy, great stone instruments were built, and the rotation 

 of the Earth was theorized; in architecture, shrines and 

 temples were erected; poetry was written; and Sanskrit 

 was used as the literary language. At the end of this period 

 another series of invasions, this time by Huns and Arabs, 



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