ancient india and china section 1. ancient india and china section 1 preview starting points map:...

Ancient India and China Section 1


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• Starting Points Map: Eastern Asia

• Main Idea / Reading Focus

• India’s Geography

• Indus Valley Civilization

• The Vedic Period

• Quick Facts: The Varnas

Early India


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Reading Focus

• How did India’s geography affect the development of civilization there?

• What were the defining features of the Indus Valley Civilization?

• What do we know about life in India’s Vedic period?

Main Idea

Early civilization arose in the Indus River Valley, flourished, and then mysteriously died out. Later India’s Vedic civilization developed a culture based on old and new beliefs.

Early India


India’s Geography

Indus River flows across northwest edge of Indian subcontinent—large landmass, part of a continent

• Home of one of ancient world’s great river valley civilizations

• Indian subcontinent includes three major geographic zones

– Far north: Himalaya, Hindu Kush mountain systems, separating India from rest of Asia

– South: Deccan Plateau, high plateau receiving less rain than other parts of subcontinent

– Between mountains, plateau are Northern Plains, where society first developed in India


• Summer, monsoon winds from southwest bring warm air, heavy rains from Indian Ocean; most of annual rainfall at this time

• Winter, northeast monsoons blow cool, dry air from Central Asia, drier months

Monsoon Winds

• Flood deposits from Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra rivers enrich soil of Northern Plains, make it very fertile

• Heavy rains also add to fertility of plains

• Much of rain brought to India by seasonal winds, monsoons

Fertile Region

Floods and Annual Rainfall


The people of India’s first civilizations depended upon the monsoons to bring the water that their crops needed.

• Monsoon rains flooded rivers; rivers deposited fertile silt in which farmers could grow crops

• With abundance of rainfall came threat of devastation

Monsoon Rains• Monsoon rains too heavy—

crops, homes, lives could be lost

• Monsoon rains too late, did not last long enough—people could not grow crops; famine became danger

Devastating Effects

Water Critical Factor


Describe

What problems could monsoons cause for early Indians?

Answer(s): flooding or drought


People have lived in the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent for thousands of years. At first people lived as hunter-gatherers, but slowly people began to settle down in farming communities.

• Farm communities gave rise to India’s first civilization

• Developed in valley of Indus River

• Began 2500 BC, when people first developed writing system

First Civilization

• 1920s,remains of two large cities first ruins found

– Harappa

– Mohenjo Daro

• Civilization called Harappan

• Other cities, towns since uncovered

Cities, Settlements

• Settlements well planned, carefully laid out

• Streets ran in grid pattern; major avenues twice as wide as minor streets

Indus Society

Indus Valley Civilization


Economy

• Economy likely based on agriculture, trade

• Most probably farmed, herded livestock

• In cities, many specialized in crafts like pottery, metalwork, jewelry

• Indus traded goods with people nearby, distant civilizations

• Traders from Indus Valley brought goods to locations as distant as Central Asia, Arabian Peninsula, Mesopotamia

Life in Towns and Cities

• Water came from community wells, smaller wells in courtyards of homes

• Public drainage systems carried away wastewater

• Walled, elevated citadel—fortress—enclosed buildings like granaries, warehouses

• Homes, workshops, shrines built outside citadel

• Uniformity suggests central authority in power


Few Details

• Archaeologists, historians not able to learn many details about Indus society

• Had writing system, but historians not able to read it

• Some say Indus civilization single society, rather than collection of city-states

Decline

• No one knows what led to decline, or if single cause

• Environmental damage suspected; flooding, disappearance of Sarasvati river

• Invasion, disease may also have helped end civilization

Similarities

• People shared common tool designs, standard set of weights, measures

• Suggest single authority in control

• Civilization thrived from about 2500 BC to 2000 BC, then began to decline

Society


Analyze

Why do historians know relatively little about Indus society?

Answer(s): have not deciphered Indus writing


This period in Indian history is often called the Vedic period.

Sometime after 2000 BC, a new people took control of India. Historians often refer to this group as the Aryans, from a Sanskrit word meaning “noble.” Eventually the Aryans ruled over most of India, except for the far south.

• Historians not sure when Aryans arrived, where they came from

• Some assume they moved from area between Caspian, Black seas

• Others argue Aryans developed in northern India, did not move into area

Origin of Aryans

The Vedic Period

• Little archaeological evidence remains to document early Aryan period in India

• Most comes from sacred writings called the Vedas

• Include many details about Aryan history, society

Archaeological Evidence


• According to the Vedas, people settled in villages smaller than cities of Indus Valley

• Later groups of villages banded together under regional leaders known as rajas

• Raja primarily war leader responsible for protecting people; received payments of food, money in return

• According to oldest of the Vedas, the Rigveda, Vedic society divided into four social classes, varnas

• Each played particular role in society

• People of four varnas created from body of single being

Social Structure• Part of body from which each varna

created tied to its duties

• Brahmins came from mouth, source of speech, wisdom; were priests

• Kshatriyas: warriors, rulers

• Vaisyas: common people, farmers

• Sudras: servants

Varnas

Vedic Society


• Social hierarchy developed, some castes had more privileges than others

• Not everyone belonged to a caste

• Untouchables had no protection of caste law, could perform only jobs that other castes did not

Social Hierarchy

• Over centuries, four varnas of Vedic period divided into hundreds of smaller castes

• Membership in caste determined what jobs one could hold, whom one could marry

Castes

Jobs and Privileges


Vedic Religion

• Vedas consist mostly of hymns in praise

• We know much about Vedic religion as result

Fire Sacrifices

• People worshipped gods through fire sacrifices, chanting sacred hymns

• Priests offered food, drink by placing on roaring fire

Prayer

• People prayed to many aspects of single eternal spirit

• One aspect was Indra, who ruled over heaven

Complex

• Rituals grew more complex

• Priests said order in universe maintained only through rituals

• Brahmin varna gained more influence in society

Vedic Religion


Summarize

How was Vedic society organized?

Answer(s): into four social classes called varnas

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