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CHAPTER 4
ANCIENT INDIA
MRS. JACOBS
2016
LESSON 1: THE INDUS AND GANGES
RIVER VALLEYS VOCABULARY
• SUBCONTINENT: a large landmass that just out
from a continent
• MONSOON: a strong wind that blows across
East Asia at certain times of the year
• CITADEL: a fortress in a city
• MIGRATE: to move from one place to another
area
• CASTE: a social class of people
LESSON 1: INDIA’S GEOGRAPHIC SETTING
• Located on the Asian continent, India is separated from
the rest of the world by a large wall, aka the Himalaya
Mountains, the highest mountain range in the world.
• Geographers refer to India as a subcontinent, a large
landmass that juts out from a continent, because of it’s
kite-shaped land mass that juts out into the Indian
Ocean.
• Contact with the rest of the world was limited due to
India’s geography, providing them protection:
– Himalaya and Hindu Kush mountains
– The Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean, and Arabian Sea
LESSON 1: INDIA’S GEOGRAPHIC SETTING CONT.
• India’s climate is dominated by
monsoons, strong winds that blow
across the region at certain times
of the year.
• From Oct. to May, the winter
monsoon blows from the northeast
spreading dry air.
• Middle of June, the wind blows
from the Indian Ocean, spreading
rains that drench the plains and
river valleys daily.
• Monsoons provide life-giving rain
to the rivers, if it is late or weak,
farmers lose their crops, causing
famine; too much rain, and the
rivers cause deadly floods.
LESSON 1: INDIA’S GEOGRAPHIC SETTING CONT.
• Although mountains separate India from the rest of the world, there
are openings called passes that serve as a highway for migration and
invasion through the Indus and Ganges River Valley regions.
The Ganges River flows from the
The Indus River crosses the
Himalayas and empties into the Himalayas into the Bay of Bengal.
Arabian Sea.
Both rivers make it possible for farming in the river valleys.
LESSON 1: LIFE IN THE INDUS RIVER VALLEY
• Early farmers harvested a surplus of wheat
and other grains.
• With a surplus of food, populations grew
forming cities.
• Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, both located in
present-day Pakistan are two cities that
developed along the banks of the Indus River.
• Mohenjo-Daro is the larger of the two cities.
LESSON 1: LIFE IN THE INDUS RIVER VALLEY CONT.
• Because of floods, Mohenjo-Daro was built above
ground level.
• The city’s highest point served as a citadel, or
fortress.
• Built on a mound of dirt, the citadel was probably
enclosed by a brick wall protecting the cities most
important buildings, including a store house for grain
and a bath house.
• Unlike most other cities of this time, Mohenjo-Daro
had a drainage systems that carried waste from
homes and public buildings away from the city.
• Canals helped to control flooding by catching the
overflow from the Indus River, which often flooded.
LESSON 1: LIFE IN THE INDUS RIVER VALLEY CONT.
• Life in Mohenjo-Daro
– Merchants and artisans sold products from shops
• Artisans made jewelry and cotton clothing
– Carts loaded with grain rolled through the city
– Traders came far as far away as Mesopotamia
– Citizens lived in homes that opened onto courtyards
LESSON 1: LIFE IN THE INDUS RIVER VALLEY CONT.
• Life in Mohenjo-Daro
– Children played with toys and pets
– Adults enjoyed games and music
– Language is a mystery
– Writings appear on seals,
but experts haven’t deciphered it yet.
LESSON 1: LIFE IN THE INDUS RIVER VALLEY CONT.
• Life in Mohenjo-Daro
– Government is unknown
– Religion is unknown
• No royal tombs or great temples have been found, but
evidence found in city ruins suggest that people had a
number of gods
• Around 2000 B.C., Indus Valley farmers began to
abandon their land.
– Climate change could have caused the fertile soil to
change into desert
– Great earthquakes could have caused floods destroying
the canals.
– Without food people would have had to leave their cities.
LESSON 1: A NEW CULTURE ARISES
• Between 2000 B.C. and 1500 B.C., new comers,
Aryans, meaning “noble” or “highborn”, from the
north, entered the valley and eventually gained
power throughout the region.
• They migrated, or moved, from their homes in
Central Asia.
• They drove horse-drawn
chariots that helped them gain
power overwhelming their
enemy’s slow-moving foot
soldiers and settled people.
LESSON 1: A NEW CULTURE ARISES CONT.
• Local people adopted the language and some of the beliefs
of the Aryans, developing a new culture.
• The Aryan culture, first developed in the northern Indus
Valley and moved into the eastern Ganges River Valley.
• Tools and weapons made
from iron came about
in 800s B.C.
• They were able to clear out
areas of thick rain forests of
the northeast with iron axes,
building farms, villages,
and even cities.
LESSON 1: A NEW CULTURE ARISES CONT.
• Most of what we know about Aryan life came
from religious books called Vedas, which means
knowledge.
• Vedas tell us that Aryans were:
– Herders
– Warriors
– Lived in temporary villages
– Often moved around, nomadic
LESSON 1: A NEW CULTURE ARISES CONT.
– had 3 social classes:
• Priests, called Brahmans, performed religious
services and composed hymns and prayers
• Warriors and Nobles
• Artisans and Merchants
– Gradually a low-ranking 4th class was formed
• farmer, laborers, and servants
• Social classes also known as caste system, or class
system, performed special duties.
– People always had to stay in their parents’ caste.
– They had to do the same job as their parents.
LESSON 2: HINDUISM IN ANCIENT
INDIA VOCABULARY
• BRAHMAN: a single spiritual power that
Hindus believe lives in everything
• AVATAR: a representation of a Hindu god or
goddess in human or animal form
• REINCARNATION: the rebirth of the soul in the
body of another living being
• DHARMA: the religious moral duties of Hindus
• AHIMSA: the Hindu idea of non-violence
LESSON 2: THE BEGINNINGS OF HINDUISM
• As Aryan culture mixed with other cultures, new
ideas and beliefs became part of the Vedas
(religious texts).
• From the blending of these ideas and beliefs came
one of the oldest living religions, Hinduism.
• As Hinduism developed, it absorbed many beliefs
from other religions.
• Hindus believe that because
people are different, they need
many different ways of
approaching god.
LESSON 2: THE BEGINNINGS OF HINDUISM CONT.
• Hinduism is one of the world’s major religions for
over 1.8 billion people world wide, yet Hinduism
is unlike other major world religions.
• Hinduism has no one single founder.
• Hinduism is polytheistic,
however, they believe in one
single spiritual power called
brahman, which lives in
everything.
LESSON 2: THE BEGINNINGS OF HINDUISM CONT.
• The gods and goddesses stand for different parts of
brahman:
– Brahma, the creator, was born from an egg, but not as
widely worshipped as Vishnu and Shiva
– Vishnu, the preserver, a kindly god who is concerned with
the welfare of humans, visits Earth often in different forms
to guide humans or protect them from disaster
– Shiva, the destroyer, is not concerned with human matters,
but is very powerful and responsible for both the creative
and destructive forces of the universe.
• Shiva developed the god Rudra, the “wielder of the
thunderbolt”
LESSON 2: THE BEGINNINGS OF HINDUISM CONT.
• Hindu gods and goddesses take on many different
forms called avatars, the presentation of Hindu
god or goddess in human or animal form.
• Hindu gods have their own families.
• Many Hindus worship
Shiva’s wife, the goddess
Shakti who plays a role in
human life.
– Shakti is like her husband,
both a destroyer and creator,
both kind and cruel.
LESSON 2: THE TEACHINGS OF HINDUISM
• One of the Hindu religious texts is the
Upanishads, “means sitting near a teacher”,
written in a question format.
– A student might ask a teacher, “Who created the
world?”
– The teacher replies, “Brahman is the creator, the
universal soul.”
– The students replies, “Can you describe brahman?”
– The teacher replies, “It is too complicated for humans
to understand. Brahman has no physical form.”
LESSON 2: THE TEACHINGS OF HINDUISM CONT.
• One important idea in the Upanishads is
reincarnation, the rebirth of the soul.
• Hindus believe that when a
person dies, his soul is reborn
in the body of another living
thing, and that every living
thing has a soul, just as other
Asians believe.
• According to Hindu belief, the actions of a person in
this life affects his/her fate in the next life.
• Good behavior is rewarded; bad behavior is
punished.
LESSON 2: THE TEACHINGS OF HINDUISM CONT.
• Faithful followers of Hinduism will be reborn into a
higher position, those who have been bad, will be
reborn into a lower caste, or may even return as an
animal.
• If a person leads a
perfect life, he/she may
be freed from the cycle
of death and rebirth.
• As a result, the person’s
soul becomes one (united)
with brahman.
LESSON 2: THE TEACHINGS OF HINDUISM CONT.
• To become united with
the one spirit and escape
the cycle of death and
rebirth, a person must
obey his dharma, the
religious and moral
duties of each person.
• The duties depend on the person’ class, age, and
occupation.
• In Hinduism, it is a man’s duty to protect the
women of his family, and it’s a ruler’s duty to
protect his people.
LESSON 2: THE PRACTICE OF HINDUISM
• Another important idea of
Hinduism is ahimsa, or
nonviolence.
• To Hindus people and living things
are part of brahman and therefore
must be treated with respect, the
reason many Hindus do not eat
meat and try to avoid harming
living things.
LESSON 2: THE PRACTICE OF HINDUISM CONT.
• Many Hindus know yoga as a physical activity, a system
of special exercises and breathing.
• Hindus believe yoga exercises help free the soul from
the cares of the world.
• This way the soul may unite with
brahman.
• Yoga means “union”.
• There are many yogas that may be
used as paths to brahman.
–
–
–
–
Raja Yoga: physical activity, breathing and relaxing (exercise)
Karma Yoga: selfless deeds, giving to the poor, etc.
Jnana Yoga: knowledge, learning sacred writings, etc.
Bhakti Yoga: devotion, honoring a personal god
LESSON 3: THE BEGINNINGS OF
BUDDHISM VOCABULARY
• MEDITATE: to focus the mind inward in order
to find spiritual awareness
• NIRVANA: the lasting peace that Buddhists
seek by giving up selfish desires
• MISSIONARY: a person who spreads his or her
religious beliefs to others
LESSON 3: THE BEGINNINGS OF BUDDHISM
• A young prince, Siddhartha Gautama, once lived a life of
luxury in his palace in northern India. Because he was
surrounded with beauty and youth, he had never witnesses
old age, sickness, or death.
• Then one day, around the age of 30, the prince traveled
outside the palace walls. What he saw changed his life. He
met a bend and tired old man, a man who was very sick, and
a dead body, as it was being carried to a funeral.
• This suffering and death troubled the young prince greatly.
He wondered why there was so much pain and misery in the
world. He decided he must change his life in order to find the
answer.
• He gave up his wealth, his family, and his life of ease in order
to find the cause of human suffering. What he discovered
after 7 years of wandering led to the beginnings of a major
world religion: Buddhism.
LESSON 3: THE BUDDHA AND HIS TEACHINGS
• As Gautama traveled in the 500s B.C., he sought
answers to his questions about the meaning of life.
• At first, Gautama studied with Hindu philosophers, but
he could not accept the idea that only priests could
pass on knowledge.
• Gautama decided to stop
looking outward for the cause
of suffering and find understanding in his own mind,
so he began to meditate, to
focus the mind inward in order
to find spiritual awareness.
LESSON 3: THE BUDDHA AND HIS TEACHINGS CONT.
• Buddhist traditions say that Buddha fasted and
meditated under a fig tree for 49 days, and he
found the answers he sought.
• For the next 45 years, Gautama traveled across
India and shared his knowledge attracting many
followers.
• His followers called him
the Buddha, “Enlightened
One.”
• His teachings became
known as Buddhism.
LESSON 3: THE BUDDHA AND HIS TEACHINGS CONT.
• Buddhism teaches people to follow the Eightfold
Path, aka the Middle Way.
• By following this path, a person avoids a life of
extreme pleasure or extreme unhappiness.
• Buddha believed that selfish desires for power,
wealth, and pleasure causes human suffering; giving
up these selfish desires, one can become free from
suffering.
• To overcome selfish desires, Buddhists must learn to
be wise, to behave correctly, and to develop their
minds.
LESSON 3: THE BUDDHA AND HIS TEACHINGS CONT.
• To find the Middle Way, Buddha taught that people
must:
– act unselfishly toward others and treat people fairly
– tell the truth at all times
– avoid violence and the killing of any living thing
• If people follow Buddha’s path, their suffering will end,
and they will find nirvana, lasting peace.
– By reaching nirvana, people will be released of the cycle of
reincarnation.
– Buddhism also taught that all people are equal, anyone no
matter the caste, could follow the path to nirvana.
– Buddha encouraged his followers to establish monasteries
where people would learn, meditate, and teach.
– He also urged monks to become missionaries, people who
spread their religious beliefs to others.
LESSON 3: BUDDHISM INSIDE AND OUTSIDE INDIA
• After Buddha’s death, his teachings spread all over
India, but they didn’t last in the land of his birth.
• Hinduism gradually regained favor among those in
power, but Buddhism and Hinduism existed side by
side.
• As they existed side by side, both religions shared a
number of basic ideas:
–
–
–
–
It’s wrong to harm living creatures
Valued nonviolence
Believe in dharma
Believe in the cycle of rebirth (reincarnation)
• Buddhist missionaries and traders carried Buddha’s
message throughout Asia, first in China, then to Korea
Japan, and Vietnam.