gracie ancient india

7/28/2019 Gracie Ancient India

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ANCIENT INDIA

2500 B.C.
http://www.indiasite.com/gifs/mohankodero.jpg


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Things You Need To Know About

Ancient India About the river system and the physical setting

About the Aryan invasions

About Hinduism and Brahmanism

About the caste system

About Buddha

About the Maurya empire

About Emperor Asoka


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Ancient India Geography

India is a subcontinent, separated by the rest of the continent by

the Himalayas. India can be divided in two, the northern

plains, a flat low plain and the Deccan, a land with many hills.

Up in northwest India is the Thar Desert. The Himalayas

provided natural protection from northern invasions. TheIndian Ocean and the Arabian Sea provided protection for the

west and the east.


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The River System

The main river in Ancient India was the Indus River.

The Indus River deposited fertile soil during annual

flooding. The source of the Indus River is in the

Himalayas.


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The Aryan Invasions

At about 1500 BC the Aryans began to migrate into India from

the dry plains near the black sea. Nobody really knew who

they were, their name meant noble, but scientists believe that

they were warriors and herders. They also do not know why

they left their homeland, but it may have been because ofoverpopulation. They moved into Mesopotamia, then across

Persia, and then decided to settle on the Punjab plain which is

now in Pakistan. At first they were herders but over time they

adapted into farmers and became more and more like theIndian people.
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The Maurya Empire

Chandugragupta Maurya ordered land to be cleared and swamps

drained to help out farmers, he improved the roads, and he did this

by using taxes. This helped out the richer people but the common

people suffered, because they could not pay them. He was very

mean, but this helped him expand his empire, this made theoverworked and overtaxed people thought of him as a cruel man.

Knowing that people hated him, he feared he was in danger, and he

was very cautious, he slept in different rooms each night, and he had

his servants taste his food first for poison. He had a grandchild who

became one of the greatest rulers of India, his name was Asoka.
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Emperor Asoka

As a young ruler he was very cruel, but after he conquered

Kalinga in 261 BC his life changed, he began to hate violence

and he became a Buddhist. He then made Buddhism the state

religion and built Buddhist temples and sent out missionaries.

Asoka had commands carved into stone pillars and they wereposted all across his empire. Some pillars still stand today.
http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.htmlhttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.butte.edu/~tben/india/ashokapillar.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.butte.edu/~tben/india/day2.html&h=255&w=183&sz=6&hl=en&start=8&tbnid=aD5NW9P7R-eyeM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=80&prev=/images?q=emperor+ashoka&svnum=10&hl=en&sa=N


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The Caste System

The Aryan society was divided into four classes, or

varnas. The highest are Brahmans, priests, second is

Kshatriyas, warriors, third is Vaishyas, farmers,

merchants, and craftsmen, fourth, the lowest isShudras, they are servants or slaves.

1st

BRAHMAN

2nd KSHATRIYAS

3rd VAISHYAS

4th SHUDRAS
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The Caste System cont.

The cast system determined many things about how people live,it determines their job, what they eat, what they wear, wherethey live, and who they marry. People are born into their caste,and have it for life. The Indian legend is that the castesemerged from body parts of Purusha the first human being.

BRAHMANS: Head, they perform religious ceremonies, and offer sacrifices to

the god. Passed down info through WORD.

KSHATRYAS: Arms, took charge of the army and government. Use arms to

FIGHT.

VAISHYAS: Legs, merchants, farmers, and craftsmen. They traded, tended

cattle, lent money, like a bank, and farmed. Much TRAVEL.

SHUDRAS: Feet, very poor and uneducated. On their FEET begging.


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Hinduism

Hinduism evolved from the Aryans beliefs and from those of

the people of India. The most important deities, or gods, in

Hinduism were Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The most

important thing in Hinduism is how you act to other living

things and what you do. They believe that each living thinghas a soul that is reincarnated into another thing. Dharma,

religious duty, and Karma, actions, decide the new caste they

are reincarnated into, if you do well at both

you move up and not so good you movedown.

BRAHMA SHIVA

VISHNU


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Buddhism

Buddhism was introduced Siddhartha Gautama, a princewho believed in Hinduism except if you are good and

pure you no longer have to go through the cycle of

reincarnation. These ideas eventually formed into

Buddhism. One day Siddhartha went in the shade of a treeand meditated on the idea of suffering and once he found

what he wanted, became Buddha.


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Buddhism cont.

Buddha spread his teachings to northern India with followers

becoming monks. Each monk meditated for multiple hours

every day. The first written versions of Buddhas teachings

were made around 200 and 100 BC. Buddhas teachings were

centered around the Four Noble Truths. #1 said that sufferingis part of life. #2 says that wanting things is the root of

suffering. #3 says becoming wise and not wanting things takes

away suffering. #4 is a guide to living with the eightfold path.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://brian.hoffert.faculty.noctrl.edu/TEACHING/Buddha.Tree.Saffron2.png&imgrefurl=http://brian.hoffert.faculty.noctrl.edu/TEACHING/Buddhism.India.html&h=191&w=197&sz=121&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=xboIcjHUspVNiM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=104&prev=/images?q=buddha+tree&gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=enhttp://www.lotus.org/images/lg/lt_flower/Lotus.jpghttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.spookmaster.com/pumpkin-carving-patterns/pumpkin-carving-patterns-numbers.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.spookmaster.com/pumpkin-carving-patterns-numbers.htm&h=240&w=199&sz=7&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=_cIaOAF9Hgb7gM:&tbnh=110&tbnw=91&prev=/images?q=numbers&gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en


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Fun Facts!

The city Harappa was rebuilt 6 times due to flooding

The game chess began in India

Ancient Indians invented the number system and zero

They used anesthesia No slavery was known of

They were the first ones to calculate pi

It held the worlds first university

They came up with navigation
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