INDIA

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INDIA
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• The first recognized civilization on the Indian
  subcontinent started along the INDUS RIVER in
  present day Pakistan.
• Like the Nile River and the Huang He, the Indus
  was known for its annual flooding. The Indus
  River flooded because of the melting snows of the
  HIMALAYAS but also because of the season rainy
  season and its rain bearing winds MONSOONS.

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• The first civilizations in the Indus River are
  called HARAPPAN after the city of Harappa. The
  city of Mohenjo Daro was also an early
  civilization.
• Harappan civilization began ca. 2300 B.C.E.
• Harappan cities were known for their urban
  planning
• Citadels strong central fortresses
• Grid pattern of streets
• Sewers and in-door latrines
• Bricks made of baked clay

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• Harappan society developed
• a written language
• Great knowledge of metallurgy
• Trade routes with Mesopotamia
• The beginnings of CULTURAL DIFFUSION.

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• Harappan civilizations became severely disrupted
  about 1500 B.C.E. The exact reason is unclear.
  It may have been due to
• Invaders
• Change in the flow of the Indus River
• Earthquakes and flooding

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• As the Harappan civilization declined nomadic
  Indo-Europeans moved into the Indus River Valley
  ca. 1750 B.C.E.
• These Indo-European people called themselves
  Aryan WE WILL CALL THESE PEOPLE INDO-ARYAN so
  we do not confuse them with the other
  Indo-European Aryans that populated Persia.
• Over time, the Indo-Aryans conquered the existing
  Harappan people with some intermingling. The
  Aryans were initially hunters and herders while
  the Harappans were had an experienced
  agricultural society. The Aryans had extensive
  use of iron and iron tools at their disposal.

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• The people of the Indus River Valley and the
  Indo-Aryans blended cultures the Indo-Aryans
  adopted the Harappan techniques of farming and
  their written language known as SANSKRIT. The
  Harappans adopted the Aryan gods. This borrowing
  of useful parts of another persons culture is
  known as CULTURAL DIFFUSION.

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VEDIC AGE/EPIC AGE

• Ca. 1500-1000 B.C.E. Vedic Age
• As the Aryans moved from an oral tradition to a
  written Sanskrit culture, their
  historic/mythological stories VEDAS were
  written down.
• Vedas knowledge
• These Vedas will become the cultural and
  religious underpinnings of Indian society.

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• Rig-Veda over 1000 hymns dedicated to Aryans
  gods
• Ca. 1000-600 B.C.E. The Epic Age as great
  sweeping epics dealing with real and mythological
  battles were written stories took on moral and
  religious dimensions
• Mahabharata
• Ramayana
• Upanishads

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Organization of Aryan Society

• The Aryan segment of society created social norms
  that maintained their need for a highly organized
  patriarchal framework.
• By 500 B.C.E. the peoples of the Indian
  subcontinent had developed into a society based
  upon VARNAS or social classes.
• A religion and way of thinking of life developed
  and was presented in writings known as VEDA or
  Vedic texts. These teachings combined with
  ancient epics developed into the religion known
  as HINDUISM.

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• The Indo-Aryans spread their new lands to include
  the GANGES RIVER in northeastern India. Strong
  central states developed ruled by kings. The
  kings ruled with the help of powerful priests
  known as BRAHMANS. The Brahmans taught that the
  gods could only be appeased through sacrifices.

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Development of Hinduism

• Over time some Brahmans began to question the
  use of sacrifice to appease the gods. They went
  into the forests for solitary meditation. What
  developed was a belief that the soul never dies.
  After death, the soul is reborn into another
  person or another life form. This is known as
  REINCARNATION.

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• If the person led a good life the next form
  will be a higher level of being. If the person
  led an evil life the next life form will be
  lower.
• KARMA is the balance of good and evil that
  determines the fate of a soul.
• DHARMA is the idea that your new life form is
  determined by the life you led.

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How to escape the cycle of reincarnation?

• 1. make amends for wrong doings
• 2. study the VEDAS hymns, prayers, and
  religious teachings
• 3. meditate
• If you do these successfully over many lives
  you may achieve inner perfection and join BRAHMA
  the world soul the creator god the essence
  of life itself.

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Brahma the creator
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Shiva the destroyer
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Shiva
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Vishnu the preserver god of mercy and goodness
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• While people often speak of the Hindu trinity of
  Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu there is actually one
  god Brahma. The others are expressions of
  Brahma.
• Traditionally, Hindus are cremated and if
  possible their ashes spread in the Ganges River.

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The Hindu Caste System

• Over time, religious and social concerns divided
  society into strict hereditary CASTES.
• Brahmin highest caste of priests
• Kshatriyas rulers and warriors
• Vaisyas merchants and professionals
• Sudras workers and servants
• UNTOUCHABLES not members of the caste system
  and outside Hindu society.
• Subcategories are called JATI
• People are social mobile WITHIN the caste or
  varna

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• The development of Hindu varnas or caste may be
  traced to the Rig-Veda.
• The polytheism of the Aryans developed into a
  highly thoughtful and complex religion
  Hinduism. Originally, the religion beliefs of
  the Aryans may be compared with that of the
  Greeks or Scandinavians but Hinduism
  transformed far beyond a mere pantheon of gods.
• Rituals became highly important as did a
  connection with nature and certain animals such
  as cattle and monkeys.
• Religion dedicated to an after-life filled with
  rituals and mysteries became a unifying force in
  India.

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Buddhism

• The Path to Nirvana

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Siddhartha Gautama

• Siddhartha Gautama born ca. 563 B.C.E., Gautama
  was born to an Indian prince. He was expected to
  live a life of luxury and pleasure.
• Instead, inner unhappiness led Gautama to leave
  his family and his privileges and set out to
  learn the meaning of and reasons for death and
  suffering.
• Why was his life supposed to have been so much
  better than the lives of most of the people he
  saw?

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• Like many Hindu teachers, Gautama traveled
  wandered through the wilderness. He fasted,
  lived as a hermit and meditated.
• After many years of teaching, wandering, and
  experiencing many aspects of life he was
  sitting under a Bodhi tree when he suddenly
  achieved a state of complete inner calm and
  understanding.
• Siddhartha Gautama became enlightened and
  became The Buddha.

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Bodhi Tree
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Buddhist Dogma

• Gautama Buddha accepted the Hindu notion of
  reincarnation but his teachings centered on
  FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS.
• 1. all human life contains suffering and sorrow
• 2. desire causes suffering
• 3. by rejecting desire you may attain NIRVANA
  perfect peace and free your should from
  reincarnation.
• 4. in order to reject desire follow the EIGHT
  FOLD PATH

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The Eight Fold Path

• Wisdom
• 1. Right understanding
• 2. Right intention
• Ethical conduct
• 3. Right speech
• 4. Right action
• 5. Right livelihood
• Mental discipline
• 6. Right effort
• 7. Right mindfulness
• 8. Right concentration

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Buddhism vs. Hinduism?

• Gautama Buddha came from the Brahmin class of
  Hindu society but
• Buddha did not believe that the Vedas were sacred
  texts
• Buddha rejected the Brahmin idea of a priestly
  class of society stating that virtue was not
  inherited.
• Buddha wanted priest to live virtuously, accept
  nonviolence and live a life of poverty.
• Buddha rejected the rigid Hindu caste system,
• These ideas made many of the Brahmin class reject
  him but the Sudras the untouchables accepted
  his dogma.

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• After Buddhas death his followers spread his
  teachings.
• THERAVEDA way of the elders they recognize
  Buddha as a spiritual leader and follow his
  original teachings. Southeast Asia
• MAHAYANA greater vehicle organized Buddha's
  teachings into an organized religion priests,
  temples, rituals, etc.- China, Japan, Korea, etc.

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Internal Division and Invasions

• By 500 B.C.E., the Indian subcontinent was ruled
  by many separate kingdoms there was no central
  government or unity.
• No strong dynastic cycle
• Faced with invasions
• The Persian Empire was always trying to take over
  India.
• Even Alexander the Great attempted to conquer
  India.
• Persian and Hellenistic influences were present
  in India.

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Mauryan Empire

• By 300 B.C.E., most of India was controlled by
  Chandragupta Maurya who established the Mauryan
  Empire which lasted until 232 B.C.E.
• The Mauryan Empire used a large standing army,
  elephant cavalry, and an expanding bureaucracy to
  rule as an autocracy.
• Chandragupta Maurya abdicated and left power to
  his son ASHOKA. Chandragupta became and ASCETIC.
• Ashoka ruled from 269-232 B.C.E
• Brutal in his rule but later adopted Buddhism
  while honoring Hindu thought
• Developed strong trade routes and road
  infrastructure

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Invasion from the Hindu Kush

• As the Mauryan Empire weakened, invaders from the
  northwest the KUSH took control of India.
• KANISHKA strong Kushan ruler converted to
  Buddhism but his conversion led many in India
  to develop a negative attitude of Buddhism as it
  was connected with their conqueror.
• The Kushans fell by 220 C.E. and a period without
  a strong ruler continued until the rise of the
  GUPTAS.

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The Gupta Empire

• In the 300s C.E./A.D., the GUPTA family began to
  unify India under its rule. While the Gupta
  supported Buddhism in part it favored Hinduism
  more. This support led to the flowering of
  Hindu culture. Hindu art and literature
  flourished.
• The Guptas looked for political stability through
  intermarriage with local leaders, negotiations
  rather than attacks. The Guptas promoted
  Hinduism believing that the Hindu gods placed
  them in positions of power. Caste system and
  religion controlled society rather than political
  idealogy.
• The Guptas
• Used high taxes for revenue
• Used a weak bureaucracy and strong regional
  rulers the Guptas placed a representative with
  each local ruler to insure that the Guptas were
  represented.
• No single language enforced
• Uniform laws were used
• Continued development of road infrastructure

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Gupta Culture

• Kamasutra 4th century C.E. examination of
  relationships
• Law
• Panchatandra Sinbad the Sailor, Jack the Giant
  Killer, etc.
• Universities libraries, observatories
• Medicine used information from the Greeks and
  developed a knowledge of bone setting, plastic
  surgery, sterilization of wounds, inoculations
• Numerals that the Arabs brought to the west
• The decimal system
• The calculation of pi
• Concept of zero
• The rotation of the earth
• The spherical shape of the Earth
• Aryabhatta determined the length of the solar
  year
• Calculated eclipses
• Examined gravity
• Found seven planets in the solar system

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• Gupta society also continued to divide Indian
  society into strict groups with complex relations
  to each other.
• Indian women led restricted lives
• They were recommended to worship their husbands
  as gods
• The practice of suttee held that widows were to
  commit suicide by throwing themselves on their
  husbands funeral pyres.

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Islam meets Hindu and Buddhist India

• In the 500s C.E. HUNS began to invade and weaken
  the Guptas.
• By the 900s C.E., the Gupta Empire had fallen and
  once again India was comprised of many often
  warring states.
• 997 C.E. Turkish sultan MAHMUD OF GHAZNA began
  invading and attacking India destroying temples
  and returning west with Indian gold and other
  riches.
• By 1206 Muslim invaders had taken control over
  most of the Indian subcontinent establishing an
  Islamic sultanate with its capital in the city of
  DELHI.

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• Mahmud

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• Muslim control of India nearly destroyed Buddhism
  in India and removed Hinduism from political
  power.
• Differences between Hindus and Muslims caused
  often violent conflicts which last to this day
• Polytheism vs. Monotheism
• Different food and drink rules
• Muslim dislike of the Varna caste system

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Mughal India

• 1483 Zahir ud-Din Muhammad was born. He became
  known as Babur the Tiger.
• He was Turkish on his fathers side and a
  descendant of Genghis Khan through his mother.
• He dreamed of creating a new and more powerful
  empire in what is today Afghanistan, Pakistan and
  northern India.

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• Victorious in a series of battles Babur the
  Tiger took control of lands in northern India and
  central Asia making a new MUGHAL empire with a
  capital at Agra.

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• The Mughal Empire grew and ruled over India until
  1707.
• The Mughal ruler AKBAR tried to bring religious
  unity to India.
• After studying and talking with leaders of
  various religions, the Muslim Akbar began to see
  himself as divine the ultimate judge if Islamic
  law.

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• 1581 Akbar established DIVINE FAITH blended
  elements of Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and
  other religions.
• Mughal art, architecture etc. became a blend of
  Indian and Persian styles.

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Shah Jahan

• One of the most famous Mughal rulers was the Shah
  Jahan.
• IN 1631, his favorite wife Muntaz Mahal died
  giving birth to their fourteenth child.
• The despondent Shah Jahan had a tomb built for
  his wife which is still considered to be one of
  the most beautiful buildings in the world the
  Taj Mahal.

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