Ancient Asian Civilization and Culture

India and China

What do they have in Common?

Ancient Indian Timeline

• 6000BCE- First villages spring up with farming of cereal grains, domestication of goats and trading with in the area

• 4000BCE- Housing is made of permanent mud brick, trading is extensive, and these people are now known as the Harappa!

Major Cities

Indus Valley Civilizations • Isolated because of

geography, Himalayas and Hindu Kush mountains, they were not under constant invasion like Mesopotamia.

• Khyber Pass was the only path through the Hindu Kush mountains which was used by trading merchants, and later for invasion.

Hindu Kush

The Khyber Pass

Indus River Valley

• Hundreds of towns and two major cities: – Harappa

– Mohenjo-Daro • Large city

• Well-built homes

• Public buildings

• Canals

• City walls

The Harappan Civilization

3300 BCE - 2400 BCE

Harappa

• Buildings and Houses were built at right angles to form a grid pattern.

• Houses had bathrooms with indoor plumbing. • Streets were paved with drainage systems. • Pottery, jewelry, ivory objects and cotton

clothing were made by artisans. • High quality tools were produced. • A system of weights and measures was

developed to weigh precious stones. • India’s first known writing system was

developed although historians have been unable to translate.

Harappan Writing

Undecipherable to date.

Harappan Agriculture

2500BCE

• Farmed wheat and barley

• Were able to predict the flood cycles of the Indus River, so they planted their crops as waters reseeded between June and September and harvested around March.

• Used extensive irrigation for their farming

• Cities along the river had massive flood walls for protection from the flooding

• Cotton was a major cash crop

Agricultural Domestication

• Domesticated Chickens (first?)

• Goats

• Oxen and cattle

Harappan Trade Network

• Traded extensively such goods as (gold, copper, cotton, beads, baskets, pottery, and perishable goods (food).

• Traded as far away as Eastern Africa, Arabia, and Persian Gulf on large sea vessels.

Public Well, Harappa

Drain, Harappa

Mohenjo-Daro

• Craft workers used clay for beautiful figurines and communication

• Streets in a grid design

• Wall around the city

• Houses had brick/stone foundations

– Several rooms, toilets, wells, drainage system with brick lined sewers in the streets

• Ditches and canals for irrigation

• Public bathhouse

• Buildings for storing grain

Citadel

Of

Mohenjo-

Daro

Aerial View of

Mohenjo-Daro

Wide View, Mohenjo-Daro

The Great Bath,

Mohenjo-Daro

Bath Area,

Mohenjo-Daro

Well, Mohenjo-Daro

A Main Street,

Mohenjo-Daro

Granary, Mohenjo-Daro

Pottery, Mohenjo-Daro

Bison Seal,

Mohenjo-Daro

A Horned-God Seal,

Mohenjo-Daro

A Male Head,

Mohenjo-Daro

Dravidian

A Priest-King,

Mohenjo-Daro

Necklace, Mohenjo-Daro

What happened to Harappa?

• 1,700 BC—Aryans came to South Asia – Migrated through Russia and passes in the Hindu Kush mountains

• Suggests that Aryans played a role in the end of the Harappan civilization

• No one knows why the civilization ended around 1,700 BC • Possible theories:

– Climate change? – Conquered or Assimilated? – Natural disasters?

• Aryan people and Indus River valley civilization eventually blended into one culture

• This culture was concentrated in both the Indus River valley and the Ganges River valley

I. India and Ancient Hinduism

A. Indus River Valley

• Aryan Invasions– Caucasus Mountains around 1500 BCE

Ancient India

Ganges River

A. Indus River Valley

2. Caste System a. Varna

b. Jati

c. Dharma

B. The Five Castes

1. Brahman

– Priests

http://www.csuchico.edu/~cheinz/syllabi/asst001/s

pring98/india.htm

B. The Five Castes

2. Kshatriya

– Rulers, Warriors and Landowners

http://www.ruchiskitchen.com/ruchiskitchen/kids

/stories/avtaars/parshurama.htm

B. The Five Castes

3. Vaisya

– Herders, Farmers, Workers, and Craftspeople

http://www.vrindavan.de/social.htm

B. The Five Castes

4. Sudra

– Farm Workers, Servants, and Laborers

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/diamond

s/caste.html

B. The Five Castes

5. Achuta

– Untouchables

– Leather working, street cleaning, prostitution

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm

/0306/feature1/

C. Ganges River Valley

1. Monsoon

2. Rice Farming

Results for Culture and Religion?

D. Transcendental Religion

1. Spirit World

a. Truth

b. How to get there

D. Transcendental Religion

2. Reincarnation

Birth

Life

Death and Rebirth

D. Transcendental Religion

3. Karma

4. Karma and Rebirth

II. Aryan Religion and its Effect

A. Asceticism

1. Rejected Priests

2. Upanishads

3. Nirvana

III. Buddhism

A. Prince Siddartha Guatama– 566 BCE

B. Four Noble Truths

1. All Life is Suffering

2. Reason for Suffering– Reincarnation

3. End suffering by achieving Nirvana

4. Eightfold Path to Nirvana

C. The Eightfold Path

1. Right Views

2. Right Aspiration

3. Right Speech

4. Right Conduct

5. Right Livelihood

6. Right Effort

7. Right Mindedness

8. Right Rapture

D. Two Branches

1. Threveda

– South and South East Asia

– Traditional Buddhism

2. Mahayama

– China, Korea, and Japan

– Buddha Worshipped as a god

Spread of Buddhism

IV. Chinese Government

A. Mandate of Heaven

B. Middle Kingdom

Universe

Earth

China

Emperor

C. Chin Dynasty– 771-221 BCE

1. Shi Wang Di

2. 400-200 BCE– Chaos

– Civil War

– No Mandate of Heaven

– What should a good person do to help a chaotic world?

V. Confucianism and Daoism A. Confucianism

1. Confucius – Frustrated Bureaucrat

– Ethical Principles

2. Analects– Rules for Living – Improvement through study

– Accept roll in life

– No concern for supernatural

– Banned at first

– Official philosophy by Han Dynasty in 136 BCE

VI. Hinduism

A. Northwest India around 400 CE

B. Combination of Religious Traditions

1. Brahman importance of Vedas

2. Local Customs and Gods

VI. Hinduism

C. Three Main Gods of Hinduism

Vishnu

(creator)

Brahma

(sustainer)

Shiva

(destroyer and replenisher)

VI. Hinduism

D. Other Gods

1. Thousands for emotions or nature

2. Worshiped one at a time—Kantotheism

E. Two Epic Poems

1. Mhabrhata- Contains the Bhagavad Gita

2. Ramyana

F. Takeover peaceful

– Made official religion by Gupta Empire