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Title: Ancient India-2


1
Ancient India-2
  • Mrs. Cox
  • Paisley IB
  • WHAP

2
Learning Objectives
  • The chief features of the of the Harappan
    civilization, and the ways in which it was
    similar to the civilizations that arose in Egypt
    and Mesopotamia.
  • The effects of the class system and family on
    Indian civilization.
  • The tenets of Hinduism and Buddhism, and how each
    religion influences Indian civilization.

3
Learning objectives
  • Indias inability to maintain a unified empire in
    the first millennium BCE.
  • How the Mauryan empire was temporarily able to
    overcome tendencies towards disunity.

4
Learning Objectives
  • The ways in which the culture of ancient India
    resembled and differed from the cultural
    experience of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.
  • Some of the key factors that explain why India
    became one of the first regions to create an
    advanced technological society in the ancient
    world and the degree to which it merits
    comparisons with Mesopotamia and Egypt as the
    site of the first civilizations.

5
Critical thinking questions
  • 1. Compare the Brahmins and Vaisyas.
  • 2. What was the significance of the jati?
  • 3. What was life for women in ancient India?
  • 4.What were key elements of Aryan religious
    beliefs that were incorporated into Hinduism?
  • 5. What is the significance of reincarnation in
    Hinduism?

6
Emergence of Civilization in India Harappan
Society
  • A land of diversity
  • 1. Many languages and peoples Dravidians,
    Aryan, and hill peoples
  • 2. Cradle of religions Hinduism and Buddhism,
    also Sikhism and Islam

7
Emergence of Civilization in India Harappan
Society
  • 3. Geography
  • Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in north
  • River valleys of the Indus and Ganges
  • Deccan plateau in the south

8
Emergence of Civilization in IndiaHarappan
Society
  • Harappan Civilization A Fascinating Enigma, only
    discovered in 1920s
  • 1. Possibly ancestors to todays Dravidians in
    south India
  • 2. Covered 600,000 square miles
  • 3.Major cities were Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, 400
    miles apart

9
Emergence of Civilization in IndiaHarappan
Society
  • 4. Political and Social Structures
  • Harappa perhaps 80,000 population, 3-1/2 miles
    circumference
  • Cities on grid pattern, buildings of standardized
    bricks
  • Writing not yet deciphered, but included four
    hundred characters

10
Emergence of Civilization in IndiaHarappan
Society
  • Probably not a centralized monarchy but rather
    1,500 cities and towns loosely connected by trade
    and alliances
  • Based on agriculture, perhaps first to cultivate
    cotton

11
Emergence of Civilization in IndiaHarappan
Society
  • 5. Harappan Culture
  • Architecture functional rather than monumental
  • Wheel turned and kiln-fired pottery

12
Emergence of Civilization in IndiaHarappan
Society
  • A Lost Civilization?-north of Indus River from
    Caspian Sea to Afghanistan

13
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • Harappan fall not due to Aryans but probably
    natural disasters ( climatic change, floods)

14
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • The early Aryans were pastoralists ( cows and
    horses) not agriculturalists
  • 1. Belonged to Indo- Europeans of steppes of
    Central Asia
  • 2. Moved across the Ganges plains between 1500
    and 1000 BCE and then south across the Deccan
    plateau

15
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • 3. Eventually adopted agriculture, used the iron
    plow
  • 4. Developed a writing system based on Aramaic
    script from the Middle East
  • 5. Most what is known about early Aryans is from
    oral traditions of the Rig Veda

16
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • 6. Tribes led by chiefs called rajas, kings were
    maharajas (great rajas)
  • A. Warrior class were the Kshatriya
  • B. Required to follow the dharma, or laws, that
    set out standards for all

17
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • 7. Impact of the Greeks
  • A. Alexander the Great arrived in India in 326
    BCE
  • B. Left Greek administrator and veneer of Greek
    culture

18
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • C. The Mauryan Empire
  • 1. Founded by Chandragupta Maury (324-301BCE)
  • A. Advised by Kauthilya possible author of
    Machiavellian-like Arthasastra
  • 1. Practical politics ends justify the means

19
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • 2. Provinces ruled by appointed governors,
    divided into districts
  • 3. Most lived in agricultural villages, governed
    by council of elders

20
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • D. Caste and Class Social Structures in Ancient
    India
  • 1. The Class System
  • a. Aryans superior over non-Aryans/Dravidians
  • 1. Light skin, high status, dark skin lower status

21
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • b. Classes known as Varna ( color), sometimes
    mistakenly called castes
  • 1. Brahmins, the priestly class
  • 2. Kshatriya, the warrior class
  • 3. Vaisyas, the commoners, often merchants

22
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • 4. Sudras, servants and laborers, mostly
    indigenous peoples
  • 5. Outcasts or untouchables
  • c. Class divisions were to be absolute in
    theory, and one was born and died in the same
    class enforced by numerous taboos

23
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • d. class system provided an identity for
    individuals in a hierarchical society
  • 2. The Jati kinship groups living in specific
    areas and carrying out specific functions
  • a. Each jati was composed of hundreds of
    thousands of individual families

24
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • E. Daily life in Ancient India
  • 1. The Family three generations under same roof
    and generally patriarchal
  • a. Linked together by ancestral religious rites
  • b. Male superiority, could be priests, and had
    monopoly on education

25
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • 2. Marriage
  • a. Women legally considered as a minor, and
    divorce generally prohibited
  • b. Child marriage common for young girls
  • c. Ritual of sati required wife to immolate (
    kill ) herself on husbands funeral pyre ( fire)_

26
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • 3. The role of women
  • a. Little utility (use) outside the home, but
    could have much influence inside it
  • b. A liability because parents required to
    provide dowry (money to new husband) when she
    married
  • c. Indians fascinated by female sexuality

27
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • F. The Economy
  • 1. Indian Farmers
  • a. Life harsh taxes high, often worked the land
    as sharecroppers, famine was common
  • b. Unpredictable climate as much depended upon
    the seasonal monsoons

28
The Arrival of the Aryans in India 1500 BCE
  • 2. Trade and Manufacturing
  • a. Trade networks from China to the Mediterranean
  • b. Indians trade spices, perfumes, jewels,
    textiles for gold, tin, lead, wine
  • c. Under the Mauryas, government played a major
    role

29
Escaping the Wheel of life the religious World
of ancient india
  • A. Hinduism over time the original Aryan worship
    evolved into Hinduism
  • 1. Vedas are the sacred texts of hymns and
    ceremonies transmitted by Aryan priests
  • a. Pantheon ( lots of them) of nature gods,
    common to most Indo-Europeans
  • 1. Indra ( warrior god) and Varuna ( lord of
    justice)

30
Escaping the Wheel of life the religious World
of ancient india
  • b. Sacrifice important in ceremonies by priests (
    Brahmins)
  • c. Asceticism in pursuit of spiritual meditation
    to get beyond material reality
  • 1. Led to yoga (union)

31
Escaping the Wheel of life the religious World
of ancient india
  • 2. Reincarnation individual soul is reborn after
    death in different forms
  • a. Final destination is union with Great World
    Soul, Brahman, and escape from the cycle of
    existence
  • b. Karma (ones actions) determine where one is
    reborn on the scale of existence
  • c. Dharma is the law regulating human behavior,
    differs depending upon class

32
Escaping the Wheel of life the religious World
of ancient india
  • 2. Hindu Gods and Goddesses-33,000 gods and
    goddesses
  • a. Primary trinity, and all had wives
  • 1. Brahma the Creator
  • 2. Vishnu the Preserver
  • 3. Shiva the Destroyer
  • b. Different manifestation of one ultimate reality

33
Escaping the Wheel of life the religious World
of ancient india
  • B. Buddhism The Middle Path
  • 1. The Life of Siddhartha Gautama (560-480 BCE),
    the Buddha
  • a. Quest for how to escape from human suffering,
    which is caused by attachment to things of this
    world
  • The Middle Path between extreme asceticism and
    materialism

34
Escaping the Wheel of life the religious World
of ancient india
  • c. Material world is an illusion
  • d. Desires can be overcome through wisdom
  • (bodhi-Buddhism)
  • e. Escape from the wheel of life and achieve
    Nirvana by following the Eightfold Way
  • f. Reject Hinduisms concept of class
    reincarnation as well as Hindu gods

35
Escaping the Wheel of life the religious World
of ancient india
  • g. After his death, some of his followers
    worshipped the Buddha as a god
  • 1. Stupas ( stone towers containing relics of the
    Buddha) constructed
  • 2. Monastic orders established, even for women

36
Escaping the Wheel of life the religious World
of ancient india
  • 2. Jainism founded by Mahavira, contemporary of
    Siddhartha
  • a. Stress poverty and asceticism ( abstinence
    from worldly pleasures) and thus more extreme
    than Buddhism

37
Escaping the Wheel of life the religious World
of ancient india
  • 3. Asoka, a Buddhist Monarch (269-232 BCE),
    grandson of Chandragupta Maurya
  • a. Became benevolent ruler, considered the
    greatest in Indian history
  • b. constructed rock edicts ( statements of
    authority )throughout India

38
The RULE OF FISHES India after the mauryas,
whose dynasty ended in 183 bce
  • A. Numerous small kingdoms
  • B. Xiongnu warriors established the Kushan
    kingdom over much of north India
  • C. Rule of the fishes refer to the glorification
    of warfare, common attitude at the time

39
The Exuberant World OF indian culture
  • A. Literature
  • 1. Four Vedas, from 1500, transmitted orally for
    a thousand years
  • 2. Literary language was Sanskrit, an
    Indo-European language, replaced by Prakit in
    oral communication
  • 3. The Mahabharata (written 100 BCE) story of
    Bharata family feud 1000 BCE

40
The Exuberant World OF indian culture
  • a. Bhagavad Gita and dialogue between Krishna
    (Vishnu) and Arjuna
  • 4. The Ramayana ( also written 100 BCE) story of
    Rama, the ideal Aryan hero, whose wife Sita was
    kidnapped by demon-king of Sri Lanka

41
The Exuberant World OF indian culture
  • B. Architecture and Sculpture
  • 1. Religious structures include stone pillars
    (weighing up to 50 tons) stupas, and rock
    chambers ( such as Ajanta), many built by Ashoka
  • a. Popular and sacred themes, including Vedic,
    Buddhist, and pre-Aryan
  • b. Religious art often exuberant and sexual in
    portrayal of otherworldly delights

42
The Exuberant World OF indian culture
  • C. Science
  • 1. Devised numerical system which is known as
    Arabic numbers
  • 2. Recognized spherical nature of the earth
  • 3. Matter was divided into five elements of
    earth, air, fire, water and ether. (ether-
    combustible compound)

43
Conclusion
  • Around 3000 BCE a civilization arose along the
    banks of the Indus River in the Indian
    subcontinent this civilization, the Harappan,
    rivaled those of Egypt and the Middle East.
  • Because scholars are unable to decipher Harappan
    pictographs, this great culture is not well
    understood.

44
Conclusion
  • The Harappan civilization ended abruptly around
    1500 BCE, possibly because of the invasion of the
    Aryans from the north.
  • The mixture of Aryan and Dravidian cultures
    combined to form the basis of modern Indian
    civilization.

45
Conclusion
  • The subcontinent is also the birthplace of two
    great religions-Hinduism and Buddhism, and other
    faiths including Sikhism and Islam flourish here.
  • India is greatly diverse in language, religion,
    culture, and geography, thus making it difficult
    to achieve unity under a single political
    leadership.

46
Conclusion
  • Only the Mauryan dynasty succeeded in uniting
    this great civilization in its early history
    before it too collapsed under the pressure of
    internal divisions.
  • A distinct, diverse Indian culture remained,
    however.
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