The Indian Subcontinent and Ancient China. Geography of the Subcontinent India as a landmass joined...
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Transcript of The Indian Subcontinent and Ancient China. Geography of the Subcontinent India as a landmass joined...
Geography of the Subcontinent• India as a landmass joined
Eurasia about 10 million years ago
• Today includes countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
Geography Con’t• Physical features
– River systems• Indus• Ganges
– Himalayas– Northern Plain– Deccan Plateau– Eastern and Western
Ghats
• Phenomena– Monsoon Seasons
• Dry NE wind Sept-March• Wet SW/SE storm June-Sept
Indus Valley Civilization
• Emerged around Indus River c 2500 BC
• Two Main sits of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
Indus Valley Civilization Con’t
• Archeological digs reveal well-planned cities laid out in grid pattern
• Houses had modern plumbing
• Merchants employed uniform weights and measures
• No written records, literature, very few historical accounts
Indus Valley Civilization Con’t
• Most people were farmers, growing mostly: wheat, barley, and dates
• First people to cultivate cotton and weave into cloth
• Traded with Civilizations as far away as Sumer
• Little known about their religion, venerated mother goddess figure
Decline and Aryan Invasion
• 1750 BC Aryan migration to subcontinent brings about decline of Indus Valley Civilization
• Scholars still not sure if invasion or slow cultural diffusion
• Originally Nomads
Aryan or Vedic Civilization• Civilization expands to
Ganges Valley and Northern Plain
• Displace original Indus Valley inhabitants called Dravidians
• Vedic Period lasts from 1500 BC - 500 BC
• Aryans compose the Vedas, oral and eventually written history and myths about Aryan Society
Vedic Caste System
• Society organized into Caste
• Caste is inherited at birth and is unchangeable
• Each caste performs a function for society
Hinduism
• Historically oldest religion
• Unbroken continuity of worship since before 3,000 BC
• Polytheistic in nature
• Two of many major texts– Mahabharata– Ramayana