2. Social Structure
The society was divided into separate castes. Castes
were unchanging groups.
Castes:
Brahmin –priests, teachers, and judges
Kshatriya- warriors
Vaisya -farmers and merchants
Sudras- craftworkers and laborers
Untouchables- outcasts, people beyond the caste
system
3. In beginning of civilization, the ancient Indian
government was very simple in structure. A tribe chief
was selected, and he chose helpers to look over the
functioning of the society.
4. The government had three major components in the
hierarchy.
The chief head of the three departments was the King.
5.
6. The government kept
tabs on what people
thought of the
administration by
having a secret group
of spies. The spies
roamed around in the
kingdom in disguise.
There were regular
updates of
population, birth rate,
death rate, etc.
Despite a huge
empire, administration
was controlled and
highly effective in
ancient India.
7. The caste system restricted
people from changing
their occupation and
aspiring for an upper
caste's lifestyle.
In towns and urban
centers trade took place
with coins but in villages
barter was the main
system of economic
activities.
Products like muslin,
calicos, shawls, textiles
and handicrafts, pepper,
cinnamon, opium and
indigo were exported to
Europe, Middle East and
South East Asia in return for
gold and silver.
14. The first Indian script, developed in the Indus Valley
around 2600 B.C. Sadly, the Harappan writing is still
undeciphered. We do know that people were using
this writing to mark their property, so other people
couldn't steal it, and to keep track of things. The
writing was in pictographs, like Egyptian hieroglyphs.
15. The languages of ancient
India are usually called Indo-
Aryan. There are multiple
Indo-Aryan or Indic
languages:
Sanskrit-Literary language
Prakrit – Spoken language
Pali - like Prakrit but used for
writing Buddhist texts
Apabhramsa –Spoken
language
