Download India`s ____ was created by the Aryans

Chapter 3
Early India
 The Aryans created India’s caste system.
 The Aryans were Indo-European
nomadic peoples who created a new Indian
society.
 The caste system was a social class
system split into 5 categories.
 The priests or Brahmans were at the top.
 The second class was the warriors or Kshatriyas.
 Third, was the Vaisyas or commoners.
 The fourth class called the Sudras made up a bulk of the
Indian peasant population.
 The lowest class was called the Untouchables and they
were given menial, degrading tasks such as trash collection,
sewer cleaner, handling of dead bodies, etc.
 To the other classes, untouchables were not considered
human and were not to be treated as such.
 To a certain extent, this unofficially
continues to this day in parts of India.
 Hinduism has its origins with the Aryan
peoples.
 Hinduism teaches that one’s role in life
is defined by one’s birth into a certain class,
or caste.
 Hindus worship a multitude of gods and
believe in reincarnation to achieve a higher
social status.
 Dharma is the set of divine rules. Karma
is the force generated by one’s actions that
determines where one will be socially in his
next life. Following the dharma will get you
good karma!
 Siddhartha Gautama was the founder of
Buddhism.
 The Buddha (Guatama) believed that
suffering is caused by attachment to the
things of this world.
 Buddhists are forbidden from
worshipping any god, even Buddha himself.
 For this reason, many consider
Buddhism to be more of a philosophy than a
religion.
 Buddhism rejects the Hindu division of
human beings into rigidly defined castes.
 Instead, Buddhism teaches that all
human beings can reach nirvana, or ultimate
reality, as a result of their behavior in this
life.
New Empires in India
 The Gupta Empire traded with China,
Southeast Asia, and the Mediterranean.
 Asoka is generally considered to be the
greatest ruler in the history of India.
 The Silk Road was a trade route between
the Roman Empire and China that ran
through India’s Kushan Kingdom.
 Ancient Indians possessed an impressive
amount of scientific knowledge.
 In astronomy, they charted the
movements of the heavenly bodies and
recognized that the earth was a sphere that
rotated on its axis and revolved around the
sun.
 In mathematics, they were the first
scientists known to have used algebra.
 Aryabhata was one of the first scientists
known to have used algebra.
 Indian mathematicians also introduced
the concept of zero and used a symbol (0)
for it.
 This system was adopted by Arab
scholars and eventually spread through
Europe.
Early Chinese Civilizations
 Historians of China have traditionally
dated the beginning of Chinese civilization
to the founding of the Xia (SHE-A) dynasty,
about which little is known.
 The Zhou (JOH) dynasty claimed it
ruled China because it had the Mandate of
Heaven.
 The Mandate said that the king ruled
because his authority comes directly from
Heaven.
 But, the Mandate was a double-edged
sword. The ruler could be overthrown by the
will of Heaven is he did not rule according
to the Dao or the “Way”.
 One element of the Confucian view of
the Dao is the idea of humanity, consisting
of a sense of compassion and empathy for
others.
 Daoism was a system of ideas based on
the teachings of Laozi (LOW DZUH).
 Daoists believed the duty of human
beings was to work hard and improve life
here on earth.
 Legalism was a third philosophy unlike
either Confucianism or Daoism.
 It proposed that humans were evil by
nature and they could only be brought to
follow the correct path by harsh laws and
stiff punishment.
Rise and Fall of Chinese Empires
 After a bloody civil war, the Qin (CHIN)
dynasty emerged based on Legalism beliefs.
 The central bureaucracy of the Qin
dynasty was divided into the civil division,
the military division, and the censorate.
 The Qin dynasty created the censorate as
a part of the central bureaucracy that had
inspectors who checked on government
officials to make sure they were doing their
job.
 Qin Shihuangdi (SHE-HOO-ANG-DEE)
unified the Chinese world in part by creating
a single monetary system and ordering the
building of a system of roads.
 Qin Shihuangdi also was instrumental in
starting the building the Great Wall.
 The founder of the Han dynasty was Liu
Bang, a man of peasant origin.
 He discarded Legalism and adopted
Confucianism.
 An important concept that became a
crucial part of Chinese history was the
Confucian belief that the government should
be open to all men of superior talent.
 Liu Bang started civil service exams and
established schools to train these candidates.
 Soon the Empire expanded and new
technology prospered.
 One of the technological advances of the
Han dynasty was the invention of water
mills, for grinding grain.
 The invention that led to major
expansion of trade in the Han period was the
development of fore-and-aft rigging and
rudders on ships.
 In 1974, farmers digging a well about 35
miles east of Xian discovered an army of
terra-cotta warriors who were buried in Qin
Shihuangdi’s tomb showing a modern day
glimpse into ancient Chinese culture.