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