Early Civilizations of India

Chapter 7 section 3

Early Civilizations of India1. Indus Valley Civilizations

• From 2500 B.C to 1500 B.C.2. Planned cities- carefully laid out in

checkerboard pattern, & sewer system• Most people were farmers, probably first people

to grow cotton and to tame chickens• Traded with people in the Middle East

3. Unable to decipher the meaning of their writing4. Change in climate or invaders aided in the fall of

the civilization – cause not known!

Early Civilizations of IndiaAryans Arrive

5. Nomadic warlike people came from the Hindu Kush mountains through the Kyber pass.

6. Oral religious traditions know as the VedasReligious beliefs

• Much later written language called Sanskrit.• Worshiped may gods (polytheistic)

7. They settled into villages

Social Classes of the Aryans

13. Four social classes called Varna8. Ranking : Priests, Warriors,

Landowners-merchants-herders, servants-peasants

10. Later this turned in the Caste system, social classes that you are born into

~ Priests still at the top but many more levels