South Asia Indus Valley Civilization

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South AsiaIndus Valley Civilization
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Harappan society ca. 2000 B.C.E.
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• 3500 to 1800 BCE
• Mohenjo-Daro
• Harappa
• 80 smaller cities

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Life in Mohenjo-Daro

• Population 35,000
• Underground Sewage
• Protective towers
• Public Baths
• Granaries
• 4 Story buildings

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Great Bath
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A legacy lost?
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Priest-King?
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Dancing Girl Or.?
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The Aryan Invasions

• Lords or Noblemen
• Myth or reality?
• c. 2000-1500 BCE
• Social stratification
• Caturvarnas or "four colors"
• Castes based on ethnicity

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The Vedas

• Wisdom or Knowledge
• Poems, songs, prayers worshipping Aryan gods by
  priests.
• Oral tradition and then written in Sanskrit
• Rig Vedacompiled 1400-900 BCE

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The Upanishads

• speculative and mystical scriptures often in
  reference to the Vedas
• regarded as the wellspring of Hindu religious and
  speculative thought.
• composed beginning c.900 B.C.

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Hinduism

• From the Vedic tradition and Upanishads
• Gods from Dravidian and Aryan pantheons.
• A way of life, not simply a faith.
• Correct living and instructions for achieving
  ultimate reality (nirvana) by escaping the life
  cycle
• (moksa the escape, samsara the life cycle.)

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Legacy

• Karma good behavior will be rewarded and bad
  will too.
• Reincarnation eternal spirit returns in a better
  form.
• Ahimsa deep respect for living things. Being
  responsible.
• Dharma (dhamma) proper behavior.

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Hinduism as social control.

• Keeping people in their place
• Emphasis on social elites
• Legalistic rather than faith based.
• Reactions

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Buddhism

• Siddhartha Gautama, the "Buddha," or "Awakened
  One c. 563-483 BC
• all human suffering is caused by human desire
• Largely gone from India 1300 CE

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Four noble truths

• existence is suffering
• suffering has a cause, namely craving and
  attachment
• there is a cessation of suffering, which is
  nirvana

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4. The Eightfold Path

• right views,
• right resolve,
• right speech,
• right action,

• right livelihood,
• right effort,
• right mindfulness
• right concentration.

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Jainism

• Mahavira the great hero 540-486 BC
• Monks vows of celibacy, nudity,
  self-mortification, and fasting.
• Ahimsa non-injury
• Elimination of evil thoughts and acts ends the
  cycle of life and death.

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Persian Conquest