Ancient India

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Ancient India
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The Indus and Ganges River Valley

• The rivers start in the Himalaya mountains
  because of melting snow and rain
• The rivers flow across the plains of and creates
  fertile farmland in the valleys.

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Indias Geographic Setting

• Subcontinent A large land mass that juts out
  from a continent (Asia)
• India was a very isolated country, which limited
  contact with the rest of the world
• The Himalayan Mountains and the Hindu Kush
  separated India from Asia

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Climate of the Monsoons

• Indias climate is dominated by the monsoon.
  (monsoon is strong winds)
• October to May the winter Monsoon blows from
  northeast.

• In the middle of June the summer monsoon picks up
  moisture from the ocean.
• People depend on the summer monsoons to provide
  life giving rain.

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Barriers and Pathways

• Although the mountains separate India from other
  lands there are openings.
• The Hindu Kush Mountain range has passes that
  allowed people to migrate in, as well as,
  invaders.

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Life in the Indus River Valley

• The rich soil of the Indus river valley provides
  early farmers harvest with a surplus of wheat
  and other grains.
• With all the surplus food that population grew
  more and more, and some other villages became
  cities.
• From 2500 BC to 1500 BC, well planned cities grew
  in the valley, one was Mohenjo-Daro

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The Worlds Earliest City Planners

• Mohenjo-Daro was a large city and need careful
  planning because the Indus River often flooded
• The cities rulers built Mohenjo-Daro on a high
  mountain

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The City of Mohenjo-Daro

• To make travel easy in the city, streets were
  laid out in squares.
• People built their homes and shops around these
  squares
• At the center of the city there was a Citadel.

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Conquest by the Aryans

• The invaders called themselves the Aryans, which
  in their language meant noble or highborn.
• The Aryans migrated.
• Aryans cross the plains of northern India, the
  people of the Indus River Valley huddled behind
  the crumbling walls of the cities.
• The Aryans conquer the people of the Indus River
  Valley many became slaves of the invaders

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Caste System

• Strict division of social order
• Under the caste system, people always had to stay
  in the caste of their parents
• The caste system still exists in present-day India

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Caste System

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Beginnings of Hinduism

• Roots of Hindu Belief
• Hinduism is the worlds oldest and major religion
• Aryan culture mixed with the conquered peoples
  and some beliefs from the Vedas, formed the Hindu
  religion

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Hindus worship gods and goddess, but the only
believe in one spirit

• Most important gods are Brahma the creator,
  Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer.
• These gods take human and animal form.

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Shiva

• Shiva is the most important and powerful
• He doesnt get into human matter
• He creates and destroys the world
• His wife Shakti is also worshipped but she takes
  part in human life

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Vinshnu

• Vinshnu is a kind god that is concerned about
  humans
• Visits Earth from time to time in different forms
• He guides and protects humans

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Brahma

• Brahma was the creator of everything
• Hindus believe that he was born in a golden egg
• Created the Earth and everything on it

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Basic Hindu Beliefs

• The beliefs are all in religious text and
  writings
• Hindu books are written in a language called
  Sanskrit

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Upanishads

• Upanishads are Hindu religious text
• Upanishad means sitting near a teacher
• It is filled with questions from students and
  answers from teachers

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Reincarnation

• Reincarnation is after you die your soul goes
  into another body
• Good people with strong beliefs would be reborn
  in a higher class
• People who were bad would come back in a lower
  class even and animal
• If you were perfect your spirit would go straight
  to Brahman

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Hindus Duties

• If you are perfect your spirit goes to Brahman
  and you get off of the cycle of dieing and coming
  back
• The soul becomes on with Brahman

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Dharma

• Dharma is the religious and moral duties of
  people
• Duties depend on the persons, age, class, and
  occupation
• If you obey your dharma you get closer to Brahman

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Ahimsa

• Ahimsa means being nonviolent
• They dont eat meat because they wont harm
  animals
• Another belief is that there is more than one
  path to truth

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Buddhism

• Buddhism is a religion created by a young prince
  named Siddhartha Gautama. When he was 30 he
  dropped his wealth and his family to go find the
  solution to human suffering. Guatama believed
  that you look inwardly and meditate to find the
  answers. After 49 days of meditating and fasting
  he found the answer to human suffering.

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• His followers call him Buddha or enlightened
  one. Buddha taught that suffering was caused by
  people that have selfish desires for money,
  power, and pleasure. If you give these things up
  you can be free of suffering. To give up these
  desires you can do it by following the Middle
  Way. To get to Middle Way Guatama taught that
  you cant have too much pleasure or too much
  worry about life. Also you have to treat people
  fairly, and unselfishly. You must never kill a
  living thing, and always tell the truth.

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Following Buddhas Path

• You will find nirvana
• Nirvana is lasting peace
• There are no social class boundaries in Buddhism
• There is an eightfold path to guide people