Chapter 2 - Ancient India

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Chapter 2 - Ancient India
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Diversity of India

• Two major religions Hinduism and Buddhism
• Multiple languages
• Geography
• Himalayan and Karakoram mountains
• Ganges Valley
• Indus River holy river
• Hills
• Plains

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Harappan Civilization

• Indus River valley held a civilization
• Believed that the Harappa city emerged from the
  Dravidian people
• Because of this, the people of India are
  Harappans
• Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa cities
• Walled, had drainage systems for bathrooms,

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Harappan Civilization

• Unlike Egypt and Sumer because it was not a
  centralized monarchy
• Loose collection of cities tied together by trade
  and alliance to landlords
• Agricultural society
• Maybe 1st to cultivate cotton

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The City of Mohenjo-Daro
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Harappan Civilization

• Culture
• Functional architecture
• Sculpture were artistic
• Kiln-fire pottery and wheel turned
• Writing not deciphered
• We do not know much about their society because
  of this

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Lost Civilization

• Perhaps in the north of Indus River from Caspian
  Sea to Afghanistan
• Signs of domestication of animals
• Irrigation systems
• In process of developing writing

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Aryans

• Great mystery of how Harappan civilization ended
• Believed natural disaster (like Pompeii)
• Aryans were great at war
• Nomads, pastoralists people
• Indo-European language who moved south
• Unlike other Indo-Europeans who moved westward

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Aryan

• Adopted agriculture, used iron plow
• Writing system based on Aramaic script from
  Middle East
• Most of what is known about early Aryans from
  oral traditions of the Rig Veda
• Tribes led by chiefs called rajas, kings were
  maharajas (great rajas)
• Warrior class were the kshatriya
• Required to follow the dharma, or laws, that set
  out standards for all

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Aryan

• Impact of the Greeks
• Alexander the Great arrived in India in 326
  B.C.E.
• Left Greek administrators and veneer of Greek
  culture

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The Mauryan Empire

• Founded by Chandragutpa Maurya (324301 B.C.E.)
• Advised by Kautilya, possible author of
  Machiavellian-like Arthasastra
• 1) Practical politics, ends justify the means
• 2) Provinces ruled by appointed governors,
  divided into districts
• 3) Most lived in agricultural villages, governed
  by council of elders

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Caste/Varna (color) and Class Social Structures
in Ancient India
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Caste and Class Social Structures in Ancient
India

• The Class System
• Aryans superior over non-Aryans/Dravidians
• Light skin high status, dark skin lower status
• Class divisions were to be absolute in theory,
  born and died in same class
• enforced by numerous taboos
• Class system provided an identity for individuals
  in a hierarchical society
• The Jati kinship groups living in specific areas
  and carrying out specific functions
• Each jati was composed of hundreds or thousands
  of individual families

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Daily Life in Ancient India

• The Family three generations under same roof and
  generally patriarchal
• Linked together by ancestral religious rites
• Male superiority, could be priests, and had
  monopoly on education
• Marriage
• Woman legally considered as a minor, and divorce
  generally prohibited
• Child marriage common for young girls
• Ritual of sati required wife to immolate herself
  on husbands funeral pyre

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Daily Life in Ancient India

• The Role of Women
• Little utility outside home, but could have much
  influence inside it
• A liability because parents required to provide
  dowry when marry
• Indians fascinated by female sexuality
• The Economy
• Indian Farmers
• Life harsh taxes, often worked land as
  sharecroppers, famine common
• Unpredictable climate as much depended upon the
  seasonal monsoons
• Trade and Manufacturing
• Trade networks from China to the Mediterranean
• Indians trade spices, perfumes, jewels, textiles
  for gold, tin, lead, wine
• Under the Mauryas, government played a major role

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The Religious World of Ancient India

• Hinduism over time the original Aryan worship
  evolved into Hinduism
• Vedas are the sacred texts of hymns and
  ceremonies transmitted by Aryan priests
• Pantheon of nature gods, common to most
  Indo-Europeans
• Indra (warrior god) and Varuna (lord of justice)
• Sacrifice important in ceremonies by priests
  (brahmins)
• Asceticism in pursuit of spiritual meditation to
  get beyond material reality
• Led to yoga (union)
• Reincarnation individual soul is reborn after
  death in different forms

Indra warrior god
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The Religious World of Ancient India

• Final destination is union with Great World Soul,
  Brahman, and escape from the cycle of existence
• Karma (ones actions) determine where one is
  reborn on scale of existence
• Dharma is the law regulating human behavior,
  differs depending upon class
• Hindu Gods and Goddesses33,000 gods and
  goddesses
• Primary trinity, and all had wives
• Brahma the Creator
• Vishnu the Preserver
• Shiva the Destroyer
• Different manifestations of one ultimate reality

Brahma
Shiva
Vishnu
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Buddhism The Middle Path

• The Life of Siddhartha Gautama (c.560480
  B.C.E.), the Buddha
• 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
• Material world is an illusion
• Desires can be overcome through wisdom
  (bodhiBuddhism)

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Buddhism The Middle Path

• Escape from the wheel of life and achieve Nirvana
  by following the Eightfold Way
• Reject Hinduisms concept of class reincarnation
  as well as Hindu gods
• After his death, some of his followers worshipped
  the Buddha as a god
• Stupas (stone towers containing relics of the
  Buddha) constructed
• Monastic orders established, even for women

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Stupa at Sarnath
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Buddhism The Middle Path

• Jainism founded by Mahavira, contemporary of
  Siddhartha
• Stress poverty and asceticism and thus more
  extreme than Buddhism
• Asoka, a Buddhist Monarch (269-232 B.C.E.),
  grandson of Chandragupta Maurya
• Became benevolent ruler, considered the greatest
  in Indian history
• Constructed rock edicts throughout India

Wheel of Righteous
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The Empire of Asoka
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The Rule of the Fishes India after the Mauryas,
whose dynasty ended in 183 B.C.E.

• Numerous small kingdoms
• Xiongnu warriors established the Kushan kingdom
  over much of north India
• Rule of the fishes refer to the glorification of
  warfare, common attitude at the time

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Indian Culture

• Literature
• Four Vedas, from c. 1500, transmitted orally for
  a thousand years
• Literary language was Sanskrit, an Indo-European
  language, replaced by Prakit in oral
  communication
• The Mahabharata (written c. 100 B.C.E.) story of
  Bharata family feud c. 1000 B.C.E.
• Bhagavad Gita and dialogue between Krishna
  (Vishnu) and Arjuna
• The Ramayana (also written c. 100 B.C.E), story
  of Rama, the ideal Aryan hero, whose wife Sita
  was kidnapped by demon-king of Sri Lanka

Rama (right) seated on the shoulders of Hanuman,
battles the demon-king Ravana.
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Indian Culture

• Architecture and Sculpture
• Religious structures included stone pillars
  (weighing up to 50 tons), stupas, and rock
  chambers (such as at Ajanta), many built by
  Ashoka
• Popular and sacred themes, including Vedic,
  Buddhist, and pre-Aryan
• Religious art often exuberant and sexual in
  portrayal of otherworldly delights

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Indian Culture

• Science
• Devised numerical system which is known as Arabic
  numbers
• Recognized spherical nature of the earth
• Matter was divided into five elements of earth,
  air, fire, water, and ether (heaven)

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Discussion Questions

• What factors influenced the development of
  Indias caste system? What role did skin color
  play in the creation of caste distinctions?
• What challenges did Chandragupta Maurya face in
  creating an Indian empire? How successful was he?
• What does the Mahabharata tell us about ancient
  Indian values and beliefs?