Ancient

India

Social StructureThe society was divided into separate castes. Castes

were unchanging groups.

Castes:

Brahmin –priests, teachers, and judges

Kshatriya- warriors

Vaisya -farmers and merchants

Sudras- craftworkers and laborers

Untouchables- outcasts, people beyond the caste

system

In beginning of civilization, the ancient Indian government was very simple in structure. A tribe chief was selected, and he chose helpers to look over the

functioning of the society.

The government had three major components in the hierarchy.

The chief head of the three departments was the King.

The government kept

tabs on what people

thought of the

administration by

having a secret group

of spies. The spies

roamed around in the

kingdom in disguise.

There were regular

updates of

population, birth rate,

death rate, etc.

Despite a huge

empire, administration

was controlled and

highly effective in

ancient India.

The caste system restricted people from changing their occupation and aspiring for an upper caste's lifestyle.

In towns and urban centers trade took place with coins but in villages barter was the main system of economic activities.

Products like muslin, calicos, shawls, textiles and handicrafts, pepper, cinnamon, opium and indigo were exported to Europe, Middle East and South East Asia in return for gold and silver.

Most of ancient

India’s

population

believed in

Hinduism.

Besides

Hinduism, other

main religions

during ancient

India were

Buddhism, and

Jainism.

Buddhism

Hinduism

Jainism

The first Indian script, developed in the Indus Valley

around 2600 B.C. Sadly, the Harappan writing is still

undeciphered. We do know that people were using

this writing to mark their property, so other people

couldn't steal it, and to keep track of things. The

writing was in pictographs, like Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The languages of ancient India are usually called Indo-

Aryan. There are multiple

Indo-Aryan or Indic

languages:

Sanskrit-Literary language

Prakrit – Spoken language

Pali - like Prakrit but used for

writing Buddhist texts

Apabhramsa –Spoken

language