In the tenth week of our history class we did a recap on what we learned about the first Indian settlement and city. The first Indian settlement ever was Mehrgarh (7500, Pre Harappan). Then came the Indus valley civilization which lasted from 7500 BC – 1500 BC. Which is when the Harappan age began. From 1500-1300 BC is when the bronze age collapsed and so did the Vedic Kingdom. After this kingdom collapsed Nanda prevailed only to decline when Mauryan empire took over, becoming the first ever centralised authority. Later on, we learned about how the 16 different Mahajanapadas (cities) in India, of which are:
-Magadha
-Kashi
-Kosala
-Gandhara
-Avanti
-Kuru
-Anga

These cities were ruled by Nanda whose empire was later taken over by the Satvahana dynasty which was founded by Gaotamiputra Satakarni.

An aspect I found interesting about the way people rose to power was Saam, Daam, Dand, Bhed. These four tactics were primarily used to convince people to do tasks for people in power. Saam, when someone cajoles and tries to get what they want using sycophancy. Daam, is when the person offers a reward if the opposite person agrees to the task. Dand is when someone uses the possibility of punishment as a way of convincing a person, and lastly, Bhed is when someone threatens someone into doing the task for them. These methods, ironically, I have noticed have also been replicated politically in real life to this date. We see parallels of how politicians in this day can age influence the citizens of their countries by using, primarily the “Daam” method. President Donald Trump coaxed most of America into believing him when he said he would “make America great again”, as a way of rewarding his citizens. He also used the Saam method to convince them using his rhetoric in order to get he most votes for the 2016 elections. Narendra Modi, similarly did the same, thing and so did Hitler. As absurd it may seem, I think that these parallels occur mainly in politicians and people in positions of power, and are ways of coaxing people into believing them, whether its for good or bad reasons.