Ancient India

2. Mohenjo-
Dara and
Harappa
2600 BC 1500 – 1000 BC
Vedic Period – Aryan
Invaders
600 BC
Buddhism
321 BC
Mauryan
Empire
Chandragupta
269 BC –
232 BC
Mauryan
Empire
Asoka
500 years of
turmoil
321 AD 5th Century AD
Gupta Empire
King
Chandragupta I
Golden Age of India
Gupta
Empire
Collapses

3. •India’s 1st
civilizations.
•Started in 2,600 BC.
•Called the Indus
Valley Civilization or
the Harappan
Civilization.
Map of ancient Mohenjo-Daro.

4. •Ganges river – forms
a fertile farming
valley.
•Indus river- farming
region that produces
wheat.
•Climate is impacted
by monsoons.

5. •1st to make cotton.
•City was developed on
a grid system.
•Advanced drainage
and sewage systems.
•Supported a
population of 35,000-
40,000. Ended suddenly
– no one knows why.
Images of ancient Mohenjo-
Daro.

6. Images of ancient Mohenjo-
Daro.
These images reflect the
careful planning that
went into the design of
this ancient city.

7. • Floods, earthquakes or changes in climate weakened
civilizations, and by 1500 BC, waves of Aryan
invaders migrated throughout the region.

8. •Migration was
made possible via
the Khyber Pass
through the
Hindu Kush Mtns.
• Himalayas-
highest mountains
in the world.
Label the Hindu Kush Mtns, the Himalayas and the downward path
through the Khyber Pass.

9. •The Vedic Period - 1500-
1000 BC- Invaders
breached the Khyber Pass
in the Hindu Kush Mtns.
•Conquered the Indus
valley region of India.
•War-like and pastoral
people.

10. •Aryan Kings or
Leaders were called
“Rajas” – (“princes”)
•India was made of
warring kingdoms
and shifting alliances.
An Indian Raja and Princess.

11. •Iron tools – plow, etc,
made them good
farmers.
•They produced: rice,
wheat, barley, millet.
•Spices included:
cinnamon, pepper, and
ginger.

12. •Writing – Sanskrit
•Sanskrit was a status
symbol of education
and wealth.
•Only the higher
castes were taught to
read and write
Sanskrit.
Selections from the Rig Veda above,
courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

13. Balto-Slavik
Slavik Baltic
Germanic Celtic
Italic
Latin
Indo-Iranian
Indic Iranian
Armenian
Greek
Hittite
Polish
Czech
Russian
Ukrainian
Macedonian
Latvian
Lithuanian
Danish
Swedish
Norwegian
English
Dutch
Afrikaans
German
Breton
Welsh
Irish Gaelic
Scottish
Gaelic
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Italian
Romanian
Hindi
Urdu
Punjabi
Bengali
Persian
Kurdish

14. •The dominant religion in
the region is Hinduism
which was brought in by
the original Aryan
invaders.
•With the birth of
Siddhartha Gautama
(Buddha) in 600 BC, the
religion of Buddhism was
also introduced in India.

15. •Aryans brought with
them a strong oral
tradition, and religion.
•These became the
foundation for the religion
of Hinduism.
•They established a social
institution and class
system – caste system.

16. Impact of the Caste
System
•Position in society based
on skin color.
•Occupation, and
economic status are
determined by your caste.
•This will also determine
who you marry.

17. 1. Brahmins – priests
2. Kshatriyas – rulers and warriors
3. Vaishyas – artisans and traders
4. Shudras – laborers and servants
•You are born into a caste for life.
•It determines: who you will marry,
the job you will have, and the
people you are allowed to associate
with.
•Higher castes are concerned with
ritual purity.

18. The lowest social class were known as untouchables
because they did the dirtiest work that was considered
unclean and impure. They were butchers,
gravediggers, and trash collectors.

19. •Patriarchal – men are
educated and allowed to
inherit.
•Women - no status, and
daughters were an
financial drain. (Dowry).
•Suttee – wife throws
herself onto the pyre of
her dead husband.
A Hindu widow
commits sati
above.
A Rajput girl –
right.

20. •After 400 B.C., India faced
new threats from the west–
first from Persia, Greece,
and Macedonia, under
Alexander the Great in 327
B.C.
•Alexander left quickly, but
his invasion gave rise to the
1st Indian dynasty.
Alexander’s battle with Porus
on the Jhelum.

21. King Chandragupta
•321 BC - King
Chandragupta
established one of the
greatest Hindu empires –
the Mauryan Empire.
•He created a large army
– 60,000 soldiers, 30,000
cavalry, and 9,000
elephants.

22. •The Mauryan Empire
stretched from modern
day Pakistan and
Afghanistan in the west, to
the Ganges river in the
east.
•His grandson, Asoka
would be the next great
ruler of India.
Extent of Mauryan Empire
under Asoka

23. •The “founding Father” for
India, was Mauryan ruler,
Asoka who ruled from 268 BC -
232 BC.
•Asoka added to his empire
through a bloody battle at
Kalinga.
•Saddened over the loss of life,
Asoka turned to Buddhism for
comfort.
Asoka Maurya above. Image
courtesy of Wikipedia
Commons.

24. •“Along the roads, wells have
been dug and trees planted for the
use of men and beasts.”
•“I must promote the welfare of
the whole world, and hard
work…whatever may be my great
deeds, I have done them in order
to discharge my debt to all
beings.”
•Asoka’s edicts – pillar edicts and
rock edicts.
Map of Asoka’s rock edicts

25. •Asoka sent missionaries to
other lands, spreading
Buddhism.
•Carved royal messages on stone
monuments that stood as
“billboards” throughout his
empire.
•His empire collapsed 50 years
after his death, but to this day,
his impact and legacy on India is
powerful.
Asoka’s
Chakra –
chosen
2,000 years
later for
India’s flag.

26. •500 years later-
Chandragupta, (no relation to
the 1st Chandragupta),
established a new kingdom in
320 A.D. He was called the
Great King of Kings.
•The Gupta period was
India’s Golden Age.
•Arts, sciences and trade
flourished.
Map of the Gupta Empire-413
AD

27. • Aryabhata was the Gupta
Empire’s most famous
mathematician.
• He was one of the first
scientists known to have
used algebra.
• Indian mathematicians
also introduced the
concept of zero.
Aryabhata

28. • The Guptas postulated that
the Earth was not flat, but
rotated on its axis.
• Astronomers calculated the
solar year and the movement
of bodies in space.
• In medicine, the Guptas
knew how to set bones, and
perform minor skin grafts.

29. • They traded salt, cloth,
and iron domestically and
as far away as China and
the Mediterranean.
• In the 5th century A.D.,
invasion by nomadic
Huns from the northwest
weakened the empire.
Trade in the ancient world
brought many cultures and
kingdoms together. Silk road was
4,000 miles.

30. • Writing – Sanskrit
• Many of the World’s
Languages
• 3-Religions/Eastern
Philosophies of:
Hinduism, Buddhism and
Sikhism.
• Spice merchants and
tradesmen.