India’s First Civilizations

Chapter 4-1

Page 239

Geography of India

• Subcontinent – part of a continent that is separated from the rest of a continent– India

• Himalaya – highest mountain range in the world, separates the Indian subcontinent from the rest of Asia

Himalaya, Tibetan Plateau

Mount Everest

Best place for civilizations

***Ganges River Valley

***Indus River Valley– Two river valleys fed from the melted snow of

the Himalaya

Indus River

• Deccan Plateau – Dry hilly plains south of the river valleys

• Monsoons – strong wind– Winter monsoons: cold, dry air from the

mountains– Summer monsoons: warm, wet air from the

Arabian Sea and provides drenching rains

***Monsoon rains help the farmers

India’s first civilization

• Began near the Indus River

• 3000-1500 B.C.

• Harappan civilization

• The cities Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro helped scientists learn about India

The city of: Harappan

• Large, about 35,000 people• Walls, fortresses• Wide streets, narrow lanes• Mud brick houses, courtyard in the middle• Wells• Drains, indoor bathrooms!• Garbage chutes• Granaries to store grain

Harappan society

– Writing not decoded– Royal palace, temple– Farmers– Traded with Mesopotamians– Harappan city ruined by earthquake and floods

***Aryans settled on the land• They came from central Asia and raised and herded

animals• Good warriors, horse riders and hunters

Cattle: prized possessions to the Aryans

• What did they use cattle for?– Used as money– Meat– Milk– Butter– Wealth measured by how many cows a

person owned

A cow free to roam the street.

Aryans make changes

***Improved farming

•Invented the plow

***Brought the language of Sanskrit to India

•Organized into tribes

•Tribes led by a Raja (prince)

***Created the caste system (a social group that someone is born into and cannot leave)

Caste System Rules/Guidelines

• Your social level in society

• Dictates a person’s job

• Dictates marriage

• Dictates friends

• Possibly started based on skin color

• Thousands grouped together into four levels

Why was the caste system developed?

• Aryans thought they were better

• Color of skin

• People in India outnumbered them

• Kept groups separate

• Set rules for behavior

• Helped Aryans maintain control

Varnas - Classes

• Brahmans – priests

• Kshatriyas – warriors, rulers

• Vaisyas – common people– Merchants, farmers

• Sudras – unskilled workers, servants– Not Aryans, Indians– Had few rights

Rulers

Not even a varna…

• Pariah – Untouchables***Performed work other Indians would not do

Examples:

- Collecting trash

- Handling dead bodies

- No one wanted to come near a Pariah

• Photograph by William Albert Allard• "Her fate scripted by Hindu law, an

Untouchable girl can imagine little else than working along the Yamuna River in Delhi as a Dhobi. Members of this clothes-washing caste handle items 'polluted' by blood or human waste."

•—From "India's Untouchables," June 2003, National Geographic magazine

Families

• Family the center of life

• Oldest male head of house

• Guru – teacher for boys in top Varnas

• Girls educated at home

• Arranged marriages

• Suttee – practice where wife leaped into the cremation flames of her dead husband

Mumbai

Taj Mahal