world history-chapter 3 india and china pdf
TRANSCRIPT
India and China, 3000 BCE to 500 CE
Early Civilization in India
New Empires in India
Early Chinese Civilizations
Rise and Fall of Chinese Empire
Early Civilization in India
Objectives:
1. Describe how India’s earliest cities provided the foundation for the
Aryans
2. Examine the caste system—a set of rigid
social categories in Indian society
The Land of India
The Indian subcontinent, isolated by the Indian Ocean,
the Himalaya, and dense jungle
*Himalaya, the highest mountains in
the world
*Ganges River, a chief region of Indian
culture
The Indus River valley, a relatively dry plateau
that forms the backbone of the modern state of
Pakistan
*Deccan, a plateau that extends from the
Ganges Valley to the southern tip of India
*Monsoon, a seasonal wind
pattern in southern Asia
Throughout history Indian farmers have depended on
these rains brought by the
Monsoons to grow their crops
India’s First Civilization
As in Mesopotamia and Egypt, early civilization in India and China emerged
in river valleys
Between 3000 BCE and 1500 BCE, the valleys of
the Indus River supported a flourishing civilization
The major cities Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro—the
Indus civilization
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
Harappa—35,000 inhabitants; Mohenjo-Daro—35,000 to
40,000
Walled cities and building made of mud brick; public wells, advanced drainage
systems
A system of chutes took household trash from houses to street-level garbage bins. Only a well-organized government could have maintained such
carefully structured cities
Rulers and the Economy
The Indus River flooded every year,
providing rich soil for the growing of wheat, barley, and peas, the
chief crops
Much of this trade was carried by ship via the
*Persian Gulf
The Arrival of the Aryans
Who Were the Aryans?
around 1500 BCE, a grouped of
nomadic peoples known as the
*Aryans moved south across the
Hindu Kush mountain range into the plains of northern India
Aryan Ways of Life
Organized in groups, the Aryans were a pastoral people with a strong warrior tradition
The introduction of iron, transforming regular farming
The creation of the iron plow, along with the use of irrigation, made it possible for the Aryans
to clear the dense jungle growth along the Ganges River and turn it into a rich farming
area
Aryans had no written language
by 1000 BCE, *Sanskrit—the
written language of the Aryans—was developed
Various Aryan leaders, known as
*rajas (princes), had carved out
small states
Society in Ancient India
India’s Social SystemThe *caste system of ancient India was a set of rigid social
categories that determined not only a person’s occupation and economic potential, but also his
or her position in society
*caste (jati)
In addition to the jati, Indian society was broadly divided into four major social classes
called varnas
The priests and the warrior (the top varna);
*Brahmans, priestly class; *Kshatriyas,
warriors
*Vaisyas, commoners (merchants or farmers)
*Sudras, peasants (manual labor)
*Untouchables, menial degrading tasks (trash,
dead bodies, non-human)
The Family in Ancient India
Equal-class marriage
Arranged marriage
Dowry
Suttee—required a wife to throw herself
on her dead husband’s flaming funeral pyre
Hinduism*Hinduism had its origins in the
religious beliefs of the Aryan peoples who settled in India after
1500 BCE
Early Hindus believed in the existence of a single force in the
universe—Brahman
It was the duty of the individual self, the atman, to seek to know this
ultimate reality
*Reincarnation is the belief that the individual soul is reborn in a
different form after death
*Karma, the force generated by a person’s actions that determined how the person will be
reborn
The concept of *dharma, or divine law, ruled
karma—requiring all that they do their duty
Reincarnation provided a religious basis for the
rigid divisions in Indian society
*Yoga, a method of training designed to lead to a union, or oneness, with God
Hundreds of deities were included in
Hinduism—including the three chief deities: Brahma the Creator,
Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer
—often seen collectively as the
Brahman
Buddhism
In the sixth century,
*Buddhism appeared in
northern India and soon became a
rival of Hinduism
*Siddhartha Gautama, known
as the Buddha—”Enlightened
One”
The Story of the Buddha
The foothills of the Himalaya in c. 563 BCE to a ruling family
Protected from pain and suffering, but suddenly
encountered both
In reaction, he followed the example of the *ascetics who
practiced self-denial, but nearly starved to death
Entered a period of meditation, through which he reached
enlightenment
The Basic Principles of Buddhism
To reach *nirvana, one must believed the Four Noble
Truths and the Eightfold Path
1. Ordinary life is full of suffering
2. This suffering is caused by our desire to satisfy ourselves
3. The way to end suffering is to end desire for selfish goals and to see others as extensions of
ourselves4. The way to end desire is to
follow the Middle Path
1. Right view: We need to know the Four Noble Truths
2. Right intention: We need to decide what we really want
3. Right speech: We must seek to speak truth and to speak well of others
4. Right action: The Buddha gave five precepts—”do not kill, steal, lie, be
unchaste, drink alcohol, take drugs”5. Right livelihood: We must do work
that uplifts our being6. Right Effort
7. Right mindfulness: keep our minds under control
8. Right concentration: we must meditate to see the world in a new
way
Objectives:
1. Describe how India’s earliest cities provided the foundation for the
Aryans
2. Examine the caste system—a set of rigid
social categories in Indian society
New Empires in India
Objectives:
1. Discuss why the Mauryan dynasty
flourished under asoka
2. Summarize how the Kushan kingdom
prospered
3. Identify the contributions of the Gupta
Empire in the areas of literature, architecture,
and science
The Mauryan Dynasty
India faced new threats from the west, first from
*Persia, which extended its empire into western India
Alexander the Great’s conquest into western
India gave rise to the first dynasty to control much of
India—a consequence of external incursion leading
to unification
The Founding of the Mauryan Dynasty
Chandragupta Mauryadrove out the foreign
forces and established the capital of his new
Mauryan Empire in northern India
The king divided his empire into provinces,
using large armies and a secret police that followed
his orders
The Reign of Asoka
The Mauryan Empire flourished during the reign of *Asoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya—
greatest ruler in the history of India
Buddhism set up hospitals for both people and animals
After Asoka’s death in 232 BCE, the Mauryan Empire
began to decline
The Kushan Kingdom and the Silk Road
A number of new kingdoms arose along the edges of India in Bactria, known today as Afghanistan
Nomadic warriors seized power and established a new Kushan kingdom
The Kushans spread over northern India as far as the
central Ganges Valley
The Kushans prospered from trade between India and the Mediterranean Sea—largely through the *Silk Road (called so because silk was China’s
most valuable product)
The Silk Road, which had arisen sometime between 200 BCE and 100
CE, from *Changan, through Mesopotamia, to the Mediterranean
Only luxury goods were carried on the Silk Road, due to the danger and
expense of travel
silk, spices, teas, ivory, textiles, pepper, and porcelain
The Kingdom of the Guptas
The Kushan kingdom came to an end in the third century CE, when invaders from Persia
overran it
Samugragupta, expanded the empire into surrounding areas
Eventually the new kingdom of the Guptas became the dominant
political force throughout northern India
The greatest of its culture was reported by Chinese traveler,
*Faxian, who spent several years there in the 5th century
The Gupta Empire actively engaged in trade with China,
Southeast Asia, and the Mediterranean
Much of their wealth came from religious trade as
*pilgrims from across India and as far away as China came to
visit the major religious centers
Beginning in the late fifth century CE, invasions by nomadic *Huns from the
northwest gradually reduced the power of the empire
The World of Indian CultureLiterature:
A Lasting LegacyThe earliest known Indian literature comes from the
Aryan tradition in the form of the *Vedas
After the Aryan conquest of India and the development of a writing system, the Vedas
were written down in Sanskrit
India’s great historical epics—Mahabharata and Ramayana
The Mahabharata consists of over ninety thousand stanzas, making it
the longest poem in any written language
The most famous section of the book, the *Bhagavad Gita, is a
sermon by the god Krishna
The Ramayana is an account of the fictional ruler Rama, banished from the kingdom and forced to live as a
hermit in the forest
One of ancient India’s most famous authors was *Kalidasa, who lived
during the Gupta dynasty
The desire to spread the ideas of Gautama Buddha inspired the
creation ofgreat architecture: the pillar, the
stupa, and the rock chamber
Many stone pillars were erected along side roads to mark sites
related to events in Buddha’s life
A stupa was originally meant to house a relic of Buddha
Early architecture was the rock chamber, carved out of rock cliffs
in which monks lived
Architecture
Science
Many recognized that Earth was a sphere that rotated on its axis and
revolved around the sun
*Aryabhata, the most famous mathematician of
the Gupta Empire, was one of the first scientists
known to have used Algebra
the concept of Zero (0) and the adoption of it by Arabs
Objectives:
1. Discuss why the Mauryan dynasty
flourished under asoka
2. Summarize how the Kushan kingdom
prospered
3. Identify the contributions of the Gupta
Empire in the areas of literature, architecture,
and science