After having read the chapter and listening to this episode, students should be able to

•Identify the chief destinations along the Silk Road, and the kinds of products and ideas that traveled along the route.

•Understand the changes in Buddhism in the centuries after Siddhartha Gautama’s death and why the religion ultimately declined in popularity in India.

•Explain how Islam arrived in the Indian subcontinent and why Muslim peoples were able to establish states there.

•Grasp the impact Muslim rule had on Indian society.

•Identify the most important cultural achievements of Indian civilization in the era between the Mauryas and the Mughals.

•Understand the main characteristics of Southeast Asian social and economic life, culture, and religion before 1500 C.E.