GEOGRAPHY AND EARLY INDIA
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Worksheet #1
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continents geographers Asia
India is huge. In fact, it is so big that many call it a subcontinent. A subcontinent is a large landmass that is smaller than a continent. Subcontinents are usually separated from the rest of their by physical features. If you look at a map of India you can see that mountains largely separate India from the rest of .
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India Himalayas fertile
Among the mountains of northern India are the , the highest mountains in the world. To the west is the Hindu Kush. Though these mountains made it hard to enter
, invaders have historically found a few paths through them. To the west of the Himalayas is a vast desert. Much of the rest of India is covered by plains and rugged plateaus.
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Pakistan Several flooding
major rivers flow out of the Himalayas. The valley of one of them, the Indus, was the location of India’s first civilization. The Indus is located in present-day
, west of India. When heavy snows in the Himalayas melted, the Indus flooded. As in Mesopotamia and Egypt, the left behind a layer of fertile silt. The silt created ideal farmland for early settlers.
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CLIMATE
winters floods climate seasons
Most if India has a hot and humid . This climate is heavily influences by India’s monsoons, seasonal wind patterns that cause wet and dry . In the summer, monsoon winds blow into India from the Indian Ocean, bringing heavy rains that can cause terrible . Some parts of India receive as much as 100 or even 200 inches of rain during this time. In the winter, winds blow down from the mountains. This forces moisture out of India and creates warm, dry .
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HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION
improved controlled India
Historians call the civilization that grew up in the Indus River Valley the Harappan civilization. Centered along the Indus, the civilization also large areas on both sided of the river.
Like other ancient societies you have studies, the Harrappan civilization grew as irrigation and agriculture . As farmers began to produce surpluses of food, towns and cities appeared in .
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INDIA’S FIRST CITIES
information discovered Mohenjo Daro
The Harrappan civilization was named after the modern city of Harappa, Pakistan. It was near this city that ruins of the civilization were first . From studying these ruins, archaeologists think that the civilization thrived between 2300 and 1700 B.C.
The greatest sources of we have about Harappan civilization are the ruins of two large cities, Harappa and . The two cities lay on the Indus more than 300 miles apart by were remarkably similar.
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addition Harappa fortresses
Both and Mohenjo Daro were well planned. Each stood near a towering fortress. From these , defenders could look down on the cities’ brick streets, which crossed at right angles and were lined with storehouses, workshops, market stalls, and houses. In
, both cities had many public wells.
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Artisans civilization tools
Harappan was very advanced. Most houses had bathrooms with indoor plumbing. , made excellent pottery, jewelry, ivory objects, and cotton clothing. They used high-quality and developed a system of weights and measures.
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Egypt writing kings why
Harappans also developed India’s first system. However, scholars have not yet learned to read this language, so we know very little about Harappan society. Historians think that the Harappans had and strong central governments, but they aren’t sure. As in , the people may have worshipped the king as a god. Harappan civilization ended by the early 1700s B.C., but no one is sure . Perhaps invaders destroyed the cities or natural disasters, like floods or earthquakes, caused the civilization to collapse.
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ARYAN INVASION
Worksheet #2
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Aryans crumbled civilization
Not long after the Harappan civilization , a new group took over in the Indus Valley. They were called the , invaders from Central Asia. Some people think they may have helped end the Harappan .
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INVADERS FROM THE WEST
1200 B.C. warriors Valley
The Aryans were skilled . Using chariots and advanced weapons, these invaders took new territory. By , Aryan warriors had swept through the Hindu Kush and taken control of the entire Indus Valley. From there they moved east to the Ganges River .
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GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY
cities As farm
nomads, the Aryans took along their herds of animals as they moved. But over time, they settled in villages and began to . Unlike Harappans, they did not build big .
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Aryans system Instead
The Aryan political was also different from the Harappans system. The lived in small communities based mostly on family ties. No single ruling authority existed. , each group had its own leader, often a skilled warrior.
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Villagers raja pastures
Aryan villages were governed by rajas. A was a leader who ruled a village and the and around it. farmed some of this land for the raja. They used other sections as for their cows, horses, sheep and goats.
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other along fighting fought
Although many rajas were related, they didn’t always get . Sometimes rajas joined forces before a common enemy. Other times, however, rajas went to war against each . In fact, Aryan groups fought each other nearly as often as they outsiders.
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LANGUAGE
poems read Vedas works
The first Aryan settlers did not or write. Because of this, they had to memorize and hymns that were important in their cultures, such as the . If people forgot these poems and hymns, the would be lost forever.
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root Eventually language ancient Sanskrit
The in which these Aryan poems and hymns were composed was Sanskrit, the most important language of India. As first, Sanskrit was only a spoken language. , however people figured out how to write it down so they could keep records. These records are a major source of information about Aryan Society. Sanskrit is not longer spoken today, but it is the of many modern South Asian languages.
INDIAN SOCIETY DIVIDES
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Worksheet #3
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Indian complex could
As Aryan society became more their society became divided into groups. For the most part, these groups were organized by people’s occupations. Strict rules developed about how people of different groups interact. As time passed, these rules became stricter and became central to society.
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THE VARNAS
warriors Vedas Brahmins
According to the there were four main varnas, or social divisions, in Aryan society. These varnas were:
· Brahmins,(BRAH-muhns,) or priest
· Kshatriyas, (KSH-tree-uhs), or rulers and
· Vaisyas, (VYSH-yuhs,) or farmers, craftspeople, and traders,
· Sudras, (SOO-drahs),or laborers and non-Aryans.]
The Brahmins were seen as the highest ranking because they performed rituals for the gods. This gave the great influence over the other varnas.
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THE CASTE SYSTEM
society interaction existed
As the rules if between varnas got stricter, the Aryan social order became more complex. In time, each of the four varnas in Aryan society was further divided into many castes or groups. The caste system divided Indian into groups based on a person’s birth, wealth, or occupation. At one time, some 3,000 separate castes
in India.
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individual caste change
The to which a person belonged determined his or her place in society. However, this ordering was by no means permanent. Over time, castes gained or lost favor in society as caste members gained wealth or power. On rare occasions, people could caste.
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People outcasts unpleasant belong contact
in the lowest class, the Sudra castes, had hard lives. But there was a group of people who were even worse off, a group who didn’t to any caste at all. They were called untouchables because people from the castes were not supposed to have with them. The only jobs open to them were ones, such as tanning animals hides and disposing of dead animals. As a result, they were seen as unclean and were the of society.
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CASTE RULES
Aryans banned marry others
To keep their classes distinct, the developed sutras or guides, which listed all the rules for the caste system. For example, people were not allowed to anyone from a different class. It was even forbidden for people from one class to eat with people form another. People who broke the caste rules could be form their homes and their castes, which would make them untouchables. Because of these rules, people spent almost all of their time with in their same class.
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BRAHMANISM
Religions meaning often
had been an important part of Aryan life even before the Aryans moved to India. Eventually, in India, religion took on even more . Because Aryan priests were called Brahmins, their religion is called Brahmanism.
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THE VEDAS
sky based probably
Aryan religion was on the Vedas. There are four Vedas, each containing scared hymns and poems. The oldest of the Vedas, the Rigveda, was written before 1000 B.C. It includes hymns of praise to many gods. This passage, for example, is the opening of a hymn praising Indra, a god of the and war.
“The one who is first and possessed of wisdom when born; the god who strove to protect the gods with strength; the one before whose forced the two worlds were afraid because of the greatness of his virility; he, O people, is Indra.”
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LATER VEDIC TEXTS
called thoughts performed offerings
Over the centuries, Aryan Brahmins wrote down their about the Vedas. In time these thoughts were compiled into collections Vedic texts. One collection of Vedic texts describes Aryan religious rituals. For Example, it describes how
sacrifices should be . Priests place animals, food, or drinks to be sacrificed in fire. The Aryans believed that the fire would carry these to the gods.
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Vedas forest 600 B.C. rituals
A second collection of Vedic texts describes secret that only certain people could perform. In fact, the rituals were so secret that they had to be done in the
, are from other people. The final group of Vedic texts are the Upanishads
(OO-PAHN-ee-shads), most of which were written by about . These writings are reflections on the by religious students and teachers.
HINDUISM DEVELOPS
Worksheet #4
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Hinduism ideas texts example
The Vedas, the Upanishads, and the other Vedic remained the basis of Indian religion for centuries. Eventually, however, the of these sacred texts began to blend with ideas from other cultures. People from Persia and other kingdoms in Central Asia, for , brought their ideas to India. In time, this blending of ideas created a religion called , the largest religion in India today.
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HINDU BELIEFS
world Preserver gods
The Hindus believed in many . Among them are three major gods; Brahma the Creator, Siva the Destroyer, and Vishnu the . At the same time, however, Hindus believe that each god is part of a single universal spirit called Brahman. They believe that Brahman created the world and preserves it. Gods like Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu represents different aspects of Brahman. In fact, Hindus believe that everything in the
is part of Brahman.
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LIFE AND REBIRTH
Brahman reborn goal illusion everyone
According to Hindu teachings, has a soul, or atman, inside them. This soul holds the person’s personality, the qualities that make them who they are. Hindus believe that a person’s ultimate should be to reunite that soul with Brahman, the universal spirit. Hindus believe that their souls will eventually join because the world we live in is an illusion. Brahman is the only reality. The Upanishads taught that people must try to see through the of the world. Since it is hard to see through illusions, it can take several lifetimes. That is why Hindus believe that souls are born and many times, each time in a new body. This process of rebirth is called reincarnation.
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HIMDUISM AND THE CASTE SYSTEM
caste Hindu karma
According to the traditional view of reincarnation, a person who had died is reborn in a new physical form. The type of form depends upon his or her , the effects that good or bad actions have on a person soul. Evil actions during one’s life will build bad karma. A person with bad karma will be reborn into a lower or as a lesser creature, such as a pig or an ant.
untouchable helped called lives karma
In contrast, good actions build good karma. People with good karma are born into a higher caste in their next . In time, good karma will bring salvation, or freedom form life’s worries and the cycle of rebirth. The salvation is moksha. Hinduism taught that each person had a duty to accept his or her place in the world without complaint. This is called obeying one’s dharma. People could build good by fulfilling the duties required of their specific caste. Through reincarnation, Hinduism offered rewards to those who lived good lives. Even could be reborn into a higher caste. Hinduism was popular at all levels of Hindu society, through all four varnas. By teaching people to accept their places in life, Hinduism preserve the caste system in India.
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HINDUISM AND WOMEN
men taught other
Hinduism that both men and women could gain salvation. However, Hinduism also taught that women were inferior to As a result, Hindu women were not allowed to read the Vedas or sacred texts.
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JAINS REACT TO HINDUISM
called Hinduism religious
Although was widely followed in India, not everyone agreed with its beliefs. Some unsatisfied people and groups looked for new idea. One such group was the Jains, believers in a religion Jainism.
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