Early Civilizations of Ancient India

1. Early Civilizations of Ancient India Info Taken from: Ms. Susan M. PojerHorace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY Canal Winchester Local School District100 Washington StreetCanal Winchester, OH 43110

2. The Indus River Valley Civilization • Over 2,000 years old! • 2,500 BC developed on the banks of the Indus River Valley • Referred to as Dravidian Culture • Or Harappan Civilization • After one of its major cities • Lasted until approx. 1,700 BC • Near present-day Pakistan • Borders stretch from present-day Kabul, Afghanistan to Delhi, India

3. The Harappan Civilization

4. I. The Indus River Valley Civilization • Hundreds of towns and two major cities: • Harappa • Mohenjo-Daro • Large city • Well-built homes • Public buildings • Canals • City walls

5. Citadel Of Mohenjo-Daro

6. Aerial View of Mohenjo-Daro

7. I. The Indus River Valley Civilization • Mohenjo-Daro • Craft workers used clay for beautiful figurines and communication • Streets in a grid design • Expected a large population • roughly 30,000 citizens • Wall around the city • Houses had brick/stone foundations • Houses had as many as three floors. • Several rooms, toilets, wells, drainage system with brick lined sewers in the streets • Citizens were conveniently able to dispose of their garbage through a slit cut into their house which would then fall into containers lined up on the street below. • Ditches and canals for irrigation • Public bathhouse • Buildings for storing grain and holding meetings

8. Wide View, Mohenjo-Daro

9. The Great Bath, Mohenjo-Daro Mohenjo-Daro’s brick floored bathhouses were even designed to have dirty water drain through clay pipes into an underground gutter system

10. Bath Area, Mohenjo-Daro

11. Well, Mohenjo-Daro

12. Granery, Mohenjo-Daro

13. pottery, Mohenjo-Daro

14. Necklace, Mohenjo-Daro

15. Drain, Harappa

16. Unicorn Seal, Harappa

17. Burial Pottery, Harappa

18. Male Skeleton, Harappa

19. Female Skeleton with Child, Harappa

20. Harappan Writing Undecipherable to date.

21. The Vedic Age (1500 BCE - 500 BCE)

22. II. The Aryan Influence on South Asia • 1,700 BC—Aryans came to South Asia • Migrated through Russia and passes in the Hindu Kush mountains • Suggests that Aryans played a role in the end of the Harappan civilization • Aryan people and Indus River valley civilization eventually blended into one culture • This culture was concentrated in both the Indus River valley and the Ganges River valley

23. What Happened? • The Dravidian culture, • a civilized peaceful matriarchal empire. • This is a very good thing, but not when another culture wants to take over control. • The Dravidians were totally unprepared for invasion by the barbaric patriarchal tribes of Aryans. • However the Dravidian empire did hold out for several centuries before being taken over by the Aryans. • When the Aryans took the empire, they imposed a harsh patriarchal control over the land. • The Aryans divided the empire into four classes and the Dravidians were at the bottom of the barrel. • The defeated Dravidians, • now called the Shudras, • were enslaved and their only right was to serve the upper three classes of Aryans.

24. Aryan Migration • pastoral  depended on their cattle. • warriors  horse-drawn chariots.

25. Sanskrit writing

26. The Vedas • 1200 BCE-600 BCE. • written in SANSKRIT. • Hindu core of beliefs: • hymns and poems. • religious prayers. • magical spells. • lists of the gods and goddesses. Rig Veda oldest work.

27. Varna (Social Hierarchy) Brahmins Kshatriyas Vaishyas Shudras Pariahs [Harijan]  Untouchables

28. The Caste System Brahmins WHO IS… Kshatriyas • The mouth? • The arms? • The legs? • The feet? Vaishyas Shudras What is a JATI?

29. The Vedic Age The foundations for Hinduism were established!