Indian Civilization Develops

The huge triangular peninsula of South Asia is so geographically and culturally distinct from the rest of Asia that it can be thought of as the Indian subcontinent.

Great cities are built in the Indus Valley

The most recently discovered of all the early center of civilization. Two great cities:

These cities and the society they ruled, developed about the same time as civilization arose in Somer.

The Harappans engage in trade

As in many civilizations, merchants used stone or clay seals to mark goods and sign contracts. They combined carved animal designs and few pictographs that probably represented the merchants name. The Harappans built seaports on the Arabian Sea.

Invaders end the Indus Valley

The Indus Valley civilization began to decline. Mohenjo-Daro was abandoned, perhaps because its people feared roving tribes who were attacking border territories. Many Harappans fled south to the region called the Deccan or to southern India.

The Aryans bring a new language to India

Aryans migrated west to Europe as well as southeast to Persia and India, They took their language now known as IndoEuropean

Early Indian history is unwritten A constant cycle of death and rebirth Until the third century BC no written records or inscription were kept in India.

Religious literature gives a picture of Vedic Age

Four religious books known as Vedas The Vedas are a huge collection of battle hymns, religious rituals, wise sayings, chants, and tales. Oldest and Most important of the Vedas is the Rig-Veda. It contains more than a thousand hymns, prayers, and songs.

Aryan society changes

The early Aryans had a simple three-level class systems: warrior-nobles, priests, and commoners. One of the warriors was chosen to be the chief or rajah. The class system was fairly flexible, and people could move between classes.

Class divisions become stricter

By late in the Vedic Age, therefore, priests known as Brahmins. Next came the warrior-nobles, the Kshatriya. The Vaisya, the common people, were merchants, traders, and artisans as well as landowning farmers and herders. There was a great social gap between these three classes and laboring class, the Sudra.

The Vedic Age sets the patterns for Indian thought and society

The members of each class had their own dharma certain rights and duties.

Religious Thought Shapes Indian Society

Religious beliefs and customs were the major force in everyday Indian life and society.

HINDUISM AND HINDU SOCIETY

The Upanishads set forth the basic ideas of Hinduism

One famous collection of these writings is Upanishads, which date from about 800 BC. They discuss basic ideas about right and wrong, the universal order, and human society. The Upanishads describe a world spirits or supreme principle called Brahman. Karma can be Understood most simple as the accumulated good and bad acts of all ones previous lives.

Hindus recognize many deities

Hindus believe in many different gods and goddesses but all are considered to be symbols and expressions of Brahman. The most important gods are Brahma the creator, Shiva the destroyer, and Vishnu the preserver.

Hindu epics tell stories of heroes

These tales of war, love and adventure. Ramayana Prince Rama and Princess Sita, represent the ideal Hindu couple the perfect fero and his devoted wife. The Mahadbharata brings together hundreds of ancient myths and legends in the story of a great war in which mortaks and gods fight side by side to control a kingdom.

Many castes develop within Hindu society

The Caste System a system of rigid social groupings grew up alongside this class structure. The most important caste rules concerned sharing meals, marrying within ones caste and choosing appropriate occupations.

Outcastes are cut off from Hindu society

One large group of people was excluded from being a real part of society. These people were the out castes, also know as Untouchables.

Hindu women have a few freedoms

Hindu law and tradition set up certain expectations for both men and women. The ideal couple were Rama and Sita, the hero and heroine of the Ramayana. Sita was unquestioningly loyal, obedient, ad devoted to Rama. These were the qualities expected of married Hindu women.

A few women take part in public life

In a few small kingdoms, a daughter could inherit the throne and rule as Rani or queen. Some women ruled until their infant sons grew up.

Widows are excluded from society

In families that followed strict Hindu custom, a woman faced a bleak future after her husband died. A widowed woman, particularly in an upper-class family, could not remarry or return to her own family.

Buddhism appeals to those unhappy with the caste system

Many Sudras and Outcastes were discontented with the misery of their lives. In Hinduism their only hope of change lay in the next life, not this one.

Gautama becomes the Enlightened One

Siddhartha Gautama, born about 56 BC was the son of a Kshatriya noble Gautama was given four signs. He became the Buddha, the Enlightened One

The Buddha taught the way to enlightenment

Four Noble Truths. 1. Sorrow or Suffering is part of all life 2. People suffer because they are constantly wanting and trying to get things they cannot have 3. The way to escape suffering is to overcome these frustrating desires and reach a stage of not wanting 4. The Buddha pointed out the steps on the path to enlightenment or Nirvana.

Buddhist monasteries are established

The Buddha established a community of minks and at the request of his aunt, a community if nuns. They wore yellow robes, lived simply, owned little, an d usually begged their foods from followers.

Buddhist beliefs changes as Buddhism

As Buddhism spread, disagreements grew up about some of its teachings and beliefs. They developed a ritualized religion with temples, saints, and statues of the Buddha.

JAINISM

The Jains devote themselves to self-denial

The founder of the Jains was given he name Mahavira (Great Hero) by his followers. He lived at the same time as the Buddha. Mahavira described karma as an actual substance that clung to the soul and diminished its original purity and brightness.

The Jains practice nonviolence

They took vows not to steal, lie or desire anything, and they would not kill any living being. Ahimsa, or nonviolence was their central belief.

Indian Empires Are Established

Magadha takes control of northeast India

The kingdom of Magadha on the Ganges River, though not the largest in the region, was the most stable and prosperous. Magadhas ruler Bimbisara was a good administrator who built roads, coordinated village governments, and made the kingdom stronger that its neighbors.

The Persian Empire claims northwest India

An invading army led by Cyrus the Great of Persia crossed the mountains into northwest India. Darius I, Cyruss successor, had conquered the Indus Valley and Punjah

Alexander conquers Persia but loses India.

Persian power in India ended as Alexander the Great moved steadily across the Near East, extending his vast empire. He defeated the Persian in several great battles, then moved into India in 327 BC

Chandragupta Maurya established a new empire

Soon after the death of Alexander, a young adventurer named Chandragupta Maurya took over the kingdom of Magadha. The Mauryan Empire, with its capital at Pataliputra, had a strong central government in which the emperor was the supreme authority. The Mauryan Empire passed to Chandraguptas grandson Asoka

Asokas reign brings a golden age to India

Asoka began his career with the fierce conquest of the coastal province of Kalinga in 261 BC Some 1000,000 people were killed in battle, thousands of others died from hunger and disease and 150,000 were taken prisoner.

An age of invasion follows the Mauryan Empire

After Asokas death in 232 BC his successors were unable to hold the huge empire together. For about 500 years, northern and central India were broken into many small kingdoms, and states.

Trade routes cross India

The Kushanas of Central Asia made northwest India a part of their Empire. By the time of Kanishka, the most famous Kushana king, their territory extended through Central Asia to the borders of the Chinese Empire

Tamil culture is dominant in the south

The culture of south India developed quite separately from those in the north. This southern region was settled by people from the Indus Valley who had fled southward from the Aryan invaders. Called Dravidians, they established a distinctive culture in south India.

Trade by sea flourishes in south India

The Tamils were seafarers who traded with Southeast Asia and conquered and occupied much of the Island of Ceylon. Tamil kings built harbor facilities and encouraged trade.

The Gupta Empire brings prosperity to southern India

The first emperor united several kingdoms through marriage, took the name Chandra Gupta an established a new line of rulers.

Hinduism influences Gupta writers

Gupta literature showed the importance of Hinduism in everyday Indian life. Indians greatest poet and playwright, often compared with Shakespeare was Kalidasa His play Shakuntala, based on an idea from one the Hindu epics, is still performed in India today

Invasions end the Gupta

About the middle of the fifth century, invaders from Central Asia began to raid the borders of the Gupta Empire. A young prince named Harsha united two kingdoms in 606 and began a rule if more than forty years.

India Comes Under Muslin Rule

Muslim and Hindu beliefs conflict

The beliefs of Islam and Hinduism, however, differed in their most basic principles. The Muslims believed strongly in one god. The Hindus were equally firm in accepting many deities. Two faiths could exist side by side, but they could not blend

The Rajputs hold back an Arab invasion

The first Muslim invaders crossed the mountains from Persia and moved into the Indus Valley. Their advance was stopped by the barren Thar Desert and by the Rajputs, the warrior clan of the northwest.

Mahmud of Ghazni terrorizes India

Its ruler Mahmud, was rapidly expanding his empire. He did not want Indian land but did want the gold and treasure of the cities, temples, and monasteries,

The Rajputs fail to stop another Muslin invasion

About 1175 the empire of Ghazni was taken over by a group of Turks led by a chieftain named Mahammad Ghori.

The Delhi sultanate establishes Muslim control of India

The rulers of Delhi were proclaimed sultans of India by the caliph of Baghdad. The sultanate was never stable.

Mongol invasions set the stage for conquest

In early 1200s, Genghis Khan led his fierce Mongol warriors across Asia, conquering and destroying as he established a huge empire. Delhi was destroyed and thousands of people killed.

 In the early 1500s Baber, a descendant of Benghis Khan and Tamerlane, led his army into India. 1526 the Delhi sultanate fell.

Akbar introduces an era of toleration

Babers grandson Akbar was only thirteen years old when he inherited the throne Gained absolute power and became a wise and skillful ruler.

The Mogul Empire expands under Akbars successors

Jahangir and Shah Jahan, the two rulers who succeeded Akbar, never achieve his greatness or wisdom. Jahangir married a clever and beautiful Persian woman, Nur Jahan. Jahangirs son, Shah Jahan, led a rebellion against his father and had his brothers murdered to secure the Mogul throne. The Taj Mahal

Aurangzeb attempts to conquer all India

Sah Jahans son Aurangzeb, who imprisoned his father and seized the throne. Aurangzeb nicknamed the World Shaker

New forces rebel against the Moguls

Hindu Rajputs were among the important allies offended by Aurangzebs intolerant policies. Another people who held firm againsts Mogul power were the Sikhs. The Marathas, a Hindu people living along the western coast, established a small independent empire within the Mogul Empire.