Mohenjo-Mohenjo-Dara and Dara and HarappaHarappa

2600 BC2600 BC 1500 – 1000 BC

Vedic Period – Aryan Invaders

600 BC

Buddhism

321 BC

Mauryan Empire

Chandragupta

269 BC –

232 BC

Mauryan Empire

Asoka

500 years of turmoil

321 AD 5th Century AD

Gupta Empire

King Chandragupta I

Golden Age of India

Gupta Empire

Collapses

•India’s 1st civilizations.

•Started in 2,600 BC.

•Called the Indus Valley Civilization or the Harappan Civilization.

Map of ancient Mohenjo-Daro.

•Ganges river – forms a fertile farming valley.

•Indus river- farming region that produces wheat.

•Climate is impacted by monsoons.

•1st to make cotton.

•City was developed on a grid system.

•Advanced drainage and sewage systems.

•Supported a population of 35,000-40,000. Ended suddenly – no one knows why.

Images of ancient Mohenjo-Daro.

Images of ancient Mohenjo-Daro.

These images reflect the careful planning that went into the design of this ancient city.

• Floods, earthquakes or changes in climate weakened civilizations, and by 1500 BC, waves of Aryan

invaders migrated throughout the region.

•Migration was made possible via the Khyber Pass through the Hindu Kush Mtns.

• Himalayas-highest mountains in the world.Label the Hindu Kush Mtns, the Himalayas and the downward path

through the Khyber Pass.

•The Vedic Period - 1500-1000 BC- Invaders breached the Khyber Pass in the Hindu Kush Mtns.

•Conquered the Indus valley region of India.

•War-like and pastoral people.

•Aryan Kings or Leaders were called “Rajas” – (“princes”)

•India was made of warring kingdoms and shifting alliances.

An Indian Raja and Princess.

•Iron tools – plow, etc, made them good farmers.

•They produced: rice, wheat, barley, millet.

•Spices included: cinnamon, pepper, and ginger.

•Writing – Sanskrit

•Sanskrit was a status symbol of education and wealth.

•Only the higher castes were taught to read and write Sanskrit.

Selections from the Rig Veda above, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

Balto-Slavik

Slavik Baltic

Germanic Celtic ItalicLatin

Indo-Iranian

Indic IranianArmenian

Greek

Hittite

Polish

Czech

Russian

Ukrainian

Macedonian

Latvian

Lithuanian

Danish

Swedish

Norwegian

English

Dutch

Afrikaans

German

Breton

Welsh

Irish Gaelic

Scottish Gaelic

French

Portuguese

Spanish

Italian

Romanian

Hindi

Urdu

Punjabi

Bengali

Persian

Kurdish

•The dominant religion in the region is Hinduism which was brought in by the original Aryan invaders.

•With the birth of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) in 600 BC, the religion of Buddhism was also introduced in India.

•Aryans brought with them a strong oral tradition, and religion.

•These became the foundation for the religion of Hinduism.

•They established a social institution and class system – caste system.

Impact of the Caste System

•Position in society based on skin color.

•Occupation, and economic status are determined by your caste.

•This will also determine who you marry.

1. Brahmins – priests

2. Kshatriyas – rulers and warriors

3. Vaishyas – artisans and traders

4. Shudras – laborers and servants

•You are born into a caste for life.

•It determines: who you will marry, the job you will have, and the people you are allowed to associate with.

•Higher castes are concerned with ritual purity.

The lowest social class were known as untouchables because they did the dirtiest work that was considered

unclean and impure. They were butchers, gravediggers, and trash collectors.

•Patriarchal – men are educated and allowed to inherit.

•Women - no status, and daughters were an financial drain. (Dowry).

•Suttee – wife throws herself onto the pyre of her dead husband.

A Hindu widow commits

sati above.

A Rajput girl – right.

•After 400 B.C., India faced new threats from the west–first from Persia, Greece, and Macedonia, under Alexander the Great in 327 B.C. •Alexander left quickly, but his invasion gave rise to the 1st Indian dynasty.

Alexander’s battle with Porus on the Jhelum.

King Chandragupta

•321 BC - King Chandragupta established one of the greatest Hindu empires – the Mauryan Empire.

•He created a large army – 60,000 soldiers, 30,000 cavalry, and 9,000 elephants.

•The Mauryan Empire stretched from modern

day Pakistan and Afghanistan in the west, to

the Ganges river in the east.

•His grandson, Asoka would be the next great

ruler of India.

Extent of Mauryan Empire under Asoka

•The “founding Father” for India, was Mauryan ruler, Asoka who ruled from 268 BC -232 BC.

•Asoka added to his empire through a bloody battle at Kalinga.

•Saddened over the loss of life, Asoka turned to Buddhism for comfort.

Asoka Maurya above. Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Commons.

•“Along the roads, wells have been dug and trees planted for the use of men and beasts.”

•“I must promote the welfare of the whole world, and hard work…whatever may be my great deeds, I have done them in order to discharge my debt to all beings.”

•Asoka’s edicts – pillar edicts and rock edicts.

Map of Asoka’s rock edicts

•Asoka sent missionaries to other lands, spreading Buddhism.

•Carved royal messages on stone monuments that stood as “billboards” throughout his empire.

•His empire collapsed 50 years after his death, but to this day, his impact and legacy on India is powerful.

Asoka’s Chakra –

chosen 2,000 years

later for India’s flag.

•500 years later-Chandragupta, (no relation to the 1st Chandragupta), established a new kingdom in 320 A.D. He was called the Great King of Kings.

•The Gupta period was India’s Golden Age.•Arts, sciences and trade flourished.

Map of the Gupta Empire-413 AD

• Aryabhata was the Gupta Empire’s most famous mathematician.

• He was one of the first scientists known to have used algebra.

• Indian mathematicians also introduced the concept of zero.

Aryabhata

• The Guptas postulated that the Earth was not flat, but rotated on its axis.

• Astronomers calculated the solar year and the movement of bodies in space.

• In medicine, the Guptas knew how to set bones, and perform minor skin grafts.

• They traded salt, cloth, and iron domestically and as far away as China and the Mediterranean.

• In the 5th century A.D., invasion by nomadic Huns from the northwest weakened the empire.

Trade in the ancient world brought many cultures and

kingdoms together. Silk road was 4,000 miles.

• Writing – Sanskrit

• Many of the World’s Languages

• 3-Religions/Eastern Philosophies of:

Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

• Spice merchants and tradesmen.