Ancient India

-Himalayan Mountains are in the North.

• Ghats Mountains are east & west.

-India is a sub-continent plateau

1. Introduction:

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India’s Geographical Setting:

-Monsoons (Seasonal winds with rain) hit India.

-India’s two main rivers are; The Ganges & Indus River

- Indus Valley is the cradle of India’s civilization.

�The first settlements ca. 3000 B.C.E., when farmers settled along the Indus River in what is now Pakistan.

II. Indus Valley Civilization:

By 2500 B.C.E. the entire region was dominated by two cities called;

Harappa and

Mohenjo-Daro

Harappa-Mohenjo Daro

Traded with Iran and neighboring regions in India to the east.

Harappa:

Mohenjo-Daro

Traded with the Persia Gulf and Sumer to the west.

Political

Structure:

Villages & cities were never politically united; however, they did share a common language & culture.

This is very similar to Mesopotamia and China. Region was united only by trade.

• Writing system

Indus Valley Achievements:

• Trading Seals

Writing developed from earlier trading seals, which had the merchants name and symbols of trade items.

Terra Cotta Trade Seals.

• Peaceful items like toys jewelry. ��(Terracotta toy cow with Moveable �head.)�

Jewelry made of gold, agate, jasper, and garnets.

• Wheel technology ca. 2300-2200 B.C.E.

• Standard weights and measures based on ratio of 1/16^th.

• The first civilization to cultivate cotton and make cotton clothing.

• First matrilineal society (female led society.)

• Cities had sewer systems; because bathing was an essential part of their religion.�

Religious beliefs:

• Great Bath Tanks were used for the purification of the body & soul.

• Religion beliefs were centered on the idea of an afterlife, thus bodies were buried with personal items.

• Hump-back bull;

Symbolized leader, whose strength protects the people

• Priest meditated in yogi style to become connected with the gods.

III. Aryan invaders:

Around 1500 B.C.E., the Indus culture were

conquered

by the

Aryans.

• The Aryans were a nomadic people who migrated into the Indus Valley from central Asia (Russia.)
• They introduced iron and the horse chariot to India.

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New Aryan Ideas:

1. A new government system. They had no complex government; only grouped in clans, that were ruled by warrior chiefs called rajas.

• The Aryan tribes settled in different regions of northwestern India.
• The tribes were called Gana (meaning “collection” of peoples).
• The chief of each tribe was an hereditary job. He had final say on decision; but had to listen to a committee of the people.

2. A new language (Sanskrit/Hindi); and literature.

The Vedas “Books of Knowledge”:

A collection of poems & sacred hymns, composed around 1500 B.C.E., that describes the beliefs & daily life of the Aryans. The period of 1500 – 1000 B.C.E. is called the Vedic Period.

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The End.