Download Worksheet #_____ Name: Date:______ Eastern Civilizations

Worksheet #_____
Date:________
Ms. Didyoung
Name:________________________
Eastern Civilizations: Period:______
Hinduism
1. Origins
 Hinduism is one of the ___________ religions in and the world
 It is the ________ largest today
 There are over 1 billion Hindu followers in the world
 2 million followers in the US
 Started around 1500 B.C.E. and found in the Vedas
What are the Vedas?
Which early civilization is the Vedas from?
2. Brahmanism
 Brahmins (priests) recited the Vedas and were written down in Sanskrit much later
Aryan religion changed and borrowed ideas from other people the Aryans encountered
 The mix of beliefs eventually became __________________
 Hinduism grew out of the religious customs of many people over thousands of years
 Even though Hinduism has many deities Hindus believe they are part of one universal
sprit, which is ___________________.
3. Upanishads
 Ancient sacred texts that say that every living being has a soul that wants to be reunited
with Brahman
 This happens when a person dies
 Upanishads describe how a person united with Brahman
 “A soul that becomes one with Brahman is like a lump of salt thrown into water. The
lump of salt is gone, but the water tastes salty. The salt has become part of the water.”
4. Beliefs

: the idea of passing through many lives to reach
Brahman
Soul is not joined to the Brahman right after death but a person passes through many lives
first
Soul may be reborn into a higher caste unless a person lived a bad life then maybe into a
lower caste
Influences how Hindus live their daily lives and even how they treat animals (because all
life is sacred)

: the divine law
To earn the reward of a better life in the next life, Hindus believe they must perform their
duty
Requires people to perform the duties of their caste
A farmer has different duties than a priest
Men have different duties than a woman

: the consequences of how a person lives
If Hindus do their duty and live a good life, they will have good karma
Having good karma will move them closer to Brahman in their next life
Having bad karma will have negative effects
5. The Caste System
Worksheet #_____
 Originates in the early religious ideas of the Aryan people that were written about in the
Vedas
 The _______________ laid out the early forms of Hinduism and the Caste System
 The Caste System divides people according to their occupations and roles in society
Hereditary (passed down) differences between individuals and groups
6. Varnas
 Varnas: the classification of the Hindu society into four castes that were created by the
Brahmins and their sacred
texts
 ____________ main varnas
(divisions)
7. Caste Rules
 To keep their classes distinct,
the Aryans developed
___________which listed
all the rules for the caste
system
 Rules included:
You cannot marry someone from
a different class
You cannot eat with people from
another class
 If you broke the rules you
could become an
____________________
8. Hinduism and the Caste System
 According to ______________________, a person who has died is reborn in a new
physical form but this depends on karma (do good things and good things will happen to
you)
 People with good karma are born into a higher caste in their next life
 Discussion Question
 The Caste System really enslaves the poverty stricken in India.
How is life in India influenced by Hinduism and its beliefs and rules?
Why don’t the people living in poverty try to make their lives better?
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