Indian Empires

Now’s the time to get to know India, a huge peninsula, originally divided into small kingdoms and city-states, with an ancient history of war and struggle among powerful rulers.

Kids who have heard about Alexander the Great will be fascinated to find out how this great military leader, who wanted to rule the world, was stopped in India. Kids interested in government will be fascinated to discover the origins of the many principles of good governance developed under the leadership of Ashoka in the third century BCE, after his conversion to Buddhism.

Kids may be familiar with images of Buddha sitting under a tree. Here’s their chance to take a deep dive into the origins, beliefs, and spread of Buddhism. They’ll discover that Buddha means “Enlightened One” and that at the heart of Buddha’s teachings are the Four Noble Truths, which say that the path to liberation is through the transformation of selfish desires. Kids then board the spiritual train and follow the spread of Buddhism throughout the region. Portraits, sculptures, and other art and memorabilia bring these ancient times to life. Kids of Indian ancestry and others will want to know about the wonders of India’s Golden Age, when Indian mathematicians were the first to use a base-10 number system, and Indian doctors developed many ideas and treatments that led to modern medicine, like how to set broken bones and use inoculations to keep disease from spreading. And that is just the beginning!