EARLY CIVILIZATIONS OF INDIA

INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

2500-1500 BCE, largest of the world’s earliest civilizations, 1,000 miles inland from Arabian Sea

PLANNED CITIES: Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

Carefully laid out, checkerboard roads, walls, warehouses for food, elaborate bathing facilities

FARMING

Grew barley, wheat, peas, and sesameKept cattle, sheep, goats, and water buffaloes1st to grow cotton and domesticate chickens

UNSOLVED PUZZLES

Clay seals with pictographs- we can’t decipher!Religion-a mother goddess? Cattle?

DECLINE OF THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

By 2000 BCE- cities show sign of decay: bricks no longer uniform, broken streets not repaired, large homes divided into apartments

Possible reasons for decline: possible invaders, farming could not provide food for population, Indus River changed course, floods

ARRIVAL OF THE ARYANS

Came to Indus River Valley through the Hindu Kush Mountains

Aryan migration into India took hundreds of years: successors came due to iron weapons and chariots

ARYAN CULTURE

Vedas- oral religious tradition: get most information about Aryan culture: includes hymns, prayers, and ritualsWritten between: 1500 BCE and 1000 BCE

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

First passed down by word of mouthSanskrit developed later as a language

ARYANS WORSHIPED MANY GODS

Indra: warrior god who had many human characteristics and enjoyed pleasuresVaruna: strict figure who governed the universe and punished sinners

SACRIFICES

Sacrifices: made to the gods, performed by priests on open-air altersSacrifices of food and wine give people wealth, healthy children, long lives, and success in war

VILLAGES

Aryans were farmers and herders who placed great value on cattleMen received cattle as rewards andmeasured wealth in cattle; the Vedas compared the Earth to cows- the rain was like a cow’s milk and the sun like a calf

RAJAHS

Rajahs- hereditary chiefs- rules the villages with the help of a council of warriorsThe chief priests were the only ones who could carry out the sacrifices to please the gods.

SOCIAL CLASSES

Four social classes called Varna which became the caste system

• High priests originally determined class order• Can compare occupations to the human body• If from upper class and wed a Sudra or a non-

Hindu, descendants are Pariahs or outcasts/untouchables