India

Key Terms Aryans: Indo-European migrants- hunter and herding people originally from central Asia- gradually came to terms with agriculture but had their own impact on culture and social structure of their new home.

Ashoka: Chandragupta's grandson who enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, with frequent horseback riding and feasting but also engaged in a study of nature and was strongly influenced by the intense spiritualism not only of the brahmin religion but also of Buddhism. He extended Mauryan conquests, gaining control of all but the southern tip of India through fierce fighting.

Gupta: a new line of kings who emerged after the collapse of the Kushan state and who established a large empire beginning in 320 C.E that produced no individual rulers as influential as the two great Mauryan rulers but they perhaps had a greater impact.

Caste System: a system in India that defined people's status and regulated their every day lives. It was made up of five main groups: the Kshatriyas stood at the top of the pyramid, the Brahmins came after them, followed by Vaisyas the traders and farmers, then came the Sudras or common laborers this people mainly worked on the large estates of landowners and finally came the untouchables.

Hinduism: the religion of India's majority that developed gradually over a period of many centuries that had no single founder, no central holy figure from whom the basic religious beliefs stemmed.

San Skirt: the first literal language of the new culture.Wrote down the orally told stories from the Aryans about pre-classical Indian history.

Upanishads: epic poems with a more mystical religious flavor than Ramayana, Mahabharata and Rig-Veda.

Dharma: The law of moral consequences.

Buddhism: one of the world''s greatest religions that provided a powerful challenge to the brahmans and many of the anciet Vedic beliefs and practices that was founded by Buddha.

Tamils: first Indian language that was given classical status because it has the oldest extant literature amongst other Dravidian languages.

Chandragupta's Maurya: a young soldier who seized power along the Ganges River and the first of the Mauryan dynasty of Indian rulers.

Gurus: mystics who gathered disciples around them as Hinduism became an increasingly formal religion by the first centuries of the common era.

Bhagavad Gita: a classic sacred hymn about a warrior who is sent to do battle against his own relatives but because he is fearful of killing them is advised by Brahma's incarnation Krishna to carry out his duties and that he won't really be killing the victims because their divine spirit will move on. The ethic urged that honorable behavior,, even pleasure seeking, is compatible with spirituality and can lead to a final release from the life cycle and to unity with the divine essence.

** ESPESPIRIT Chart ** You You must include main ideas and details in each category

CivilCivilization/Nation/Group __India__

__ Time Period _____1000 B.C.E - 500 C.E_____

· Had a lot of emphasis on trade and merchant activity compared to China and the classical Mediterranean world. Also merchants in India enjoyed life in the high caste status and the flexibility that they received from the Hindu ethic. · The economy was based on agriculture and as it grew it stuck to its main roots. || · Low-caste individuals had few legal rights, and servants were often abused by their masters, who were restrained only by the ethical prompting of religion toward treatment. If a person from a higher class killed a servant there was no big penalty but the abuse was rare to find. Plus majority of the peasant families had little or no contact with the higher class people and villagers who tried to protect them from constant interference from the landlords or rulers were charged. · Family life was emphasized and it evolved during the Vedic and Epic ages, but the dominance of husbands and fathers remained strong and women rights became limited as the country developed economically and culture wise. Family life combined patriarchy with an emphasis on affection. · During this period, there was a system of arranged marriages. This was when parents contracted unions for their children with people they had never met and this was very common for daughters. They child brides paid in dowries of land or domestic animals to the ultimate family estates and this young people were then drawn into a family structure with no voiced opinion. · The rigid structure about family and male dominance was much stronger in theory than in real life since loving relations and sexual pleasure were practiced regularly and husband and wife were supposed to provide mutual emotional support as a marriage developed. Small children were often pampered and when asked to sit on a man’s lap it was considered a blessing. However, after years of being spoiled grown up kids were expected to work hard and grown-ups were expected to help out elders. Therefore, the main reason for arranged marriages was to promote a family’s economic well-being because almost everyone lived in a family setting. || · Autocratic kings and emperors dotted the history of classical India, but there were also aristocratic assemblies in some regional states with the power to consult and decide on major issues. · Because of India’s diversity and regionalism even the great empires had a shaky base and the Mauryan rulers depended strongly on their large armies. · Rulers in the Gupta dynasty used a lot of devices to gain support which went from claiming that they had been appointed by the gods to rule, to saying that they favored the Hindu religion to Buddhism because only the Hindu’s believed in such gods. · They didn’t create an extensive bureaucracy, rather than allowing local rulers whom they had defeated to maintain regional control so long as they deferred to Gupta dominance and they stationed a personal representative at each ruler’s court to ensure loyalty. || · The southern Indians, or the Tamils traded cotton, silks, dyes, drugs, gold and ivory which in return earned them great fortunes. From the Middle East and Roman Empire, they brought back pottery, wine, metals, and some slaves and gold. · A young soldier named Chandragupta Maurya gained power along the Ganges river and became the first ruler of the Mauryan dynasty and unified much of the subcontinent. || · Hinduism had no single founder, no central holy figure from whom the basic religious beliefs stemmed. This helps explain why the religion unfolded so gradually, sometimes in reaction to competing religions such as Buddhism or Islam. · Hinduism comes from the Vedic and Epic ages as an Aryan religion. · Buddhism was a religion that developed by an Indian prince named Siddhartha Gautama who question the poverty and misery in the world. Therefore giving away his wealth to live a life without materialistic items in it. || · There are stories that also celebrated women’s emotions and beauty. · Cultural values were what Indian qualities relied on mostly. · As the evolving of Hindu gained ground on Buddhism under Gupta rule, was the clearest cultural cement of this society, cutting across political and language barriers and across the castes. · Contemporary children are encouraged to indulge their imaginations longer than Western children, and are confronted less sharply with outside reality. || · Their capacity in iron making outdistanced European levels until a few centuries ago so was their techniques in textiles. · First subcontinent to manufacture cotton cloth, calico, and cashmere. · Trade with southeast Asia was the most active since they transported sophisticated manufactured goods but also the trappings of India’s active culture to places like Malaysia and the larger islands of Indonesia. ||
 * E || · India developed extensive and internal maritime trade.
 * S || · The caste system in India structured the social framework such as assigning people to occupations and regulated marriages.
 * P || · Local and regional governments dominated in India, which placed less emphasis on politics than other early civilizations.
 * I || · Merchants also traveled a lot and not only in India but also in the Middle East and east Asia.
 * R || · Hinduism and Buddhism were the religions of classical India.
 * I || · Indian culture feathered clever and strong-willed women and goddesses so this contributed to women’s statuses as wives and mothers.
 * T || · In manufacturing, Indians invented new uses for chemistry, was the best in the world. Most manufacturing was done by artisans who formed guilds and sold their goods from shops.

Summary:

India civilization was mainly based on culture and had a lot of importance for merchants.Merchants played a big role in society and were part of the upper class caste. They traveled widely around the surroundings countries and in the Middle East and south Asia. They also took a lot of religion in Asia especially the Islands of Indonesia and Malaysia. Its main religions were Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism had no single founder and it gradually grew and India developed. Buddhism however was created by Siddhartha Guatama, an Indian prince who gave up the riches of the world to search for enlightenment of the soul. There were three main groups that came into power in Classical India. They are the Indus Valley people, the Aryans, the Mauryans, and the last were the Gupta.India also had a caste system that governed the people. Its origin comes from the Vedic and Epic ages.