Ancient India

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Ancient India Indo-Europeans, Aryans, and Hittites
Ancient India Indo-Europeans, Aryans, and Hittites
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India Timeline
Mohenjo-Dara and Harappa
Mauryan Empire Chandragupta
Mauryan Empire Asoka
Gupta Empire King Chandragupta I
Gupta Empire Collapses
Vedic Period Aryan Invaders
Golden Age of India
Buddhism
500 years of turmoil
269 BC 232 BC
2600 BC
1500 1000 BC
600 BC
321 BC
5th Century AD
321 AD
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Mohenjo-Dara and Harappa
Mohenjo-Dara and Harappa

• Indias 1st civilizations.
• Started in 2,600 BC.
• Called the Indus Valley Civilization or the
  Harappan Civilization.

Map of ancient Mohenjo-Daro.
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Geography
Geography

• Ganges river forms a fertile farming valley.
• Indus river- farming region that produces wheat.
• Climate is impacted by monsoons.

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Mohenjo-Dara and Harappa
Mohenjo-Dara and Harappa

• 1st to make cotton.
• City was developed on a grid system.
• Advanced drainage and sewage systems.
• Supported a population of 35,000-40,000. Ended
  suddenly no one knows why.

Images of ancient Mohenjo-Daro.
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Mohenjo-Dara and Harappa
Mohenjo-Dara and Harappa
These images reflect the careful planning that
went into the design of this ancient city.
Images of ancient Mohenjo-Daro.
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Indo European and Aryan Migrations
Indo European and Aryan Migrations

• Floods, earthquakes or changes in climate
  weakened civilizations, and by 1500 BC, waves of
  Aryan invaders migrated throughout the region.

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Geography
Geography

• Migration was made possible via the Khyber Pass
  through the Hindu Kush Mtns.
• Himalayas-highest mountains in the world.

Hindu Kush
Himalayas
Khyber Pass
Label the Hindu Kush Mtns, the Himalayas and the
downward path through the Khyber Pass.
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Indo European and Aryan Invaders
Indo European and Aryan Invaders

• The Vedic Period - 1500-1000 BC- Invaders
  breached the Khyber Pass in the Hindu Kush Mtns.
• Conquered the Indus valley region of India.
• War-like and pastoral people.

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Indo European and Aryan Invaders
Indo European and Aryan Invaders

• Aryan Kings or Leaders were called Rajas
  (princes)
• India was made of warring kingdoms and shifting
  alliances.

An Indian Raja and Princess.
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Indo European and Aryan Invaders
Indo European and Aryan Invaders

• Iron tools plow, etc, made them good farmers.
• They produced rice, wheat, barley, millet.
• Spices included cinnamon, pepper, and ginger.

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Indo European and Aryan Invaders
Indo European and Aryan Invaders

• Writing Sanskrit
• Sanskrit was a status symbol of education and
  wealth.
• Only the higher castes were taught to read and
  write Sanskrit.

Selections from the Rig Veda above, courtesy
Wikipedia Commons.
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Indo-European Languages
Indo-European Languages
Balto-Slavik
Indo-Iranian
Greek
Hittite
Armenian
Slavik
Baltic
Indic
Iranian
Polish Czech Russian Ukrainian Macedonian
Latvian Lithuanian
Hindi Urdu Punjabi Bengali
Persian Kurdish
Italic
Germanic
Celtic
Latin
Danish Swedish Norwegian English Dutch Afrikaans G
erman
Breton Welsh Irish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic
French Portuguese Spanish Italian Romanian
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Religions in India
Religions in India

• The dominant religion in the region is Hinduism
  which was brought in by the original Aryan
  invaders.
• With the birth of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) in
  600 BC, the religion of Buddhism was also
  introduced in India.

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Religions in India
Religions in India

• Aryans brought with them a strong oral tradition,
  and religion.
• These became the foundation for the religion of
  Hinduism.
• They established a social institution and class
  system caste system.

Vedas
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The Caste System
The Caste System

• Impact of the Caste System
• Position in society based on skin color.
• Occupation, and economic status are determined by
  your caste.
• This will also determine who you marry.

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Aryan Social Classes
Aryan Social Classes

1. Brahmins priests
2. Kshatriyas rulers and warriors
3. Vaishyas artisans and traders
4. Shudras laborers and servants

• You are born into a caste for life.
• It determines who you will marry, the job you
  will have, and the people you are allowed to
  associate with.
• Higher castes are concerned with ritual purity.

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The Untouchables
The Untouchables
The lowest social class were known as
untouchables because they did the dirtiest work
that was considered unclean and impure. They were
butchers, gravediggers, and trash collectors.
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Family Life in India
Family Life in India

• Patriarchal men are educated and allowed to
  inherit.
• Women - no status, and daughters were an
  financial drain. (Dowry).
• Suttee wife throws herself onto the pyre of her
  dead husband.

A Hindu widow commits sati above. A Rajput girl
right.
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Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great

• After 400 B.C., India faced new threats from the
  westfirst from Persia, Greece, and Macedonia,
  under Alexander the Great in 327 B.C.
• Alexander left quickly, but his invasion gave
  rise to the 1st Indian dynasty.

Alexanders battle with Porus on the Jhelum.
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Mauryan Empire
Mauryan Empire

• 321 BC - King Chandragupta established one of the
  greatest Hindu empires the Mauryan Empire.
• He created a large army 60,000 soldiers, 30,000
  cavalry, and 9,000 elephants.

King Chandragupta
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Mauryan Empire
Mauryan Empire

• The Mauryan Empire stretched from modern day
  Pakistan and Afghanistan in the west, to the
  Ganges river in the east.
• His grandson, Asoka would be the next great ruler
  of India.

Extent of Mauryan Empire under Asoka
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Mauryan Empire
Mauryan Empire

• The founding Father for India, was Mauryan
  ruler, Asoka who ruled from 268 BC -232 BC.
• Asoka added to his empire through a bloody battle
  at Kalinga.
• Saddened over the loss of life, Asoka turned to
  Buddhism for comfort.

Asoka Maurya above. Image courtesy of Wikipedia
Commons.
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Mauryan Empire
Mauryan Empire

• Along the roads, wells have been dug and trees
  planted for the use of men and beasts.
• I must promote the welfare of the whole world,
  and hard workwhatever may be my great deeds, I
  have done them in order to discharge my debt to
  all beings.
• Asokas edicts pillar edicts and rock edicts.

Map of Asokas rock edicts
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Mauryan Empire
Mauryan Empire

• Asoka sent missionaries to other lands, spreading
  Buddhism.
• Carved royal messages on stone monuments that
  stood as billboards throughout his empire.
• His empire collapsed 50 years after his death,
  but to this day, his impact and legacy on India
  is powerful.

Asokas Chakra chosen 2,000 years later for
Indias flag.
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Kingdom of the Guptas
Kingdom of the Guptas

• 500 years later-Chandragupta, (no relation to the
  1st Chandragupta), established a new kingdom in
  320 A.D. He was called the Great King of Kings.
• The Gupta period was Indias Golden Age.
• Arts, sciences and trade flourished.

Map of the Gupta Empire-413 AD
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Kingdom of the Guptas
Kingdom of the Guptas

• Aryabhata was the Gupta Empires most famous
  mathematician.
• He was one of the first scientists known to have
  used algebra.
• Indian mathematicians also introduced the concept
  of zero.

Aryabhata
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Kingdom of the Guptas
Kingdom of the Guptas

• The Guptas postulated that the Earth was not
  flat, but rotated on its axis.
• Astronomers calculated the solar year and the
  movement of bodies in space.
• In medicine, the Guptas knew how to set bones,
  and perform minor skin grafts.

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Kingdom of the Guptas
Kingdom of the Guptas

• They traded salt, cloth, and iron domestically
  and as far away as China and the Mediterranean.
• In the 5th century A.D., invasion by nomadic Huns
  from the northwest weakened the empire.

Trade in the ancient world brought many cultures
and kingdoms together. Silk road was 4,000 miles.
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Contributions of India
Contributions of India

• Writing Sanskrit
• Many of the Worlds Languages
• 3-Religions/Eastern Philosophies of Hinduism,
  Buddhism and Sikhism.
• Spice merchants and tradesmen.