india’s first civilizations chapter 4-1 page 239
TRANSCRIPT
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
Mount Everest
Best place for civilizations
***Ganges River Valley
***Indus River Valley– Two river valleys fed from the melted snow of
the Himalaya
• 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
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
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