CHAPTER 3
Warm-up
 What is a sub-continent?
 What do you remember about India from last
year World Geography?
Indus River Valley
Civilization
 Indian subcontinent
 Indian Ocean
 Mountain ranges (Himalayas)
 Two great rivers- Ganges River flows
southeast through a fertile valley
 West the Indus River flows southwest across
the a drier plain.
Indus River Valley
Civilization
 Climate: Monsoons
 Winds that mark the seasons in India
November to March. Blow from the north and
northeast.
Warm-up
 “ A changing Society” describe how the
Indian caste system and Americas social
classes are different or the same…
Indus River Valley
Civilization
 2500 BC/ River valley lasted till 1500 BC
 Two ancient cities Harappa, Mohenjo Daro
named it the Harappan civilization
 Had wide streets, had a water system with
public baths and brick sewers.
 Two story brick homes (had bathrooms and
garbage chutes)
 Citadel-built on brick platform
Indus River Valley
Civilization
 Rich farmlands
 Grew cotton, wheat, barley, rice
 Raised cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats
 Irrigated their fields, farmers build canals and
ditches.
 Written language
 Worshiped a great god, worshiped a bull,
buffalo, and the tiger.
Indo-Aryan Migrants
 1750 BC tribes of Indo –European people
began to cross the Hindu-Kush Mountains
 Came from the North of the Black and
Caspian Seas.
Indo-Aryan Migrants
 Vedic Age:
 Sheep & cattle herders as well as skilled warriors.
 Conquered all of Northern India…
 Vedas: Indo Aryans’ great works of religious
literature.
 Sankskrit language
 Period from 1500 BC to 1000BC the Vedic Age.
 Religion: Vedas drawn from nature. Earth, fire,
light, rain, sky, storms, sun, and water.
Indo-Aryan Migrants
 Vedic Age:
 Brahmins- special priests, became important in
Indo-Aryan society. Sanskrit became the language
used by priests in their rituals.
Hinduism & Buddhism
 Developed in India
 Upanishads- explanations of the Vedic religion
 Stories developed into stories, combined into two




epics.
Epics- long poems based on historical or religious
themes.
Became known as the Mahabharata and Ramayan
Mahabharata tells the great story of a great battle
in a kingdom in what is now northern India.
Epic is known as the Bhagavad Gita(famous in the
Hindu scriptures.)
Hinduism & Buddhism
 Changing Society:
 Transformed Indian society between 1500 B.C.
and 500 AD. Establishment of the cast system:
 Cast system: a complex form of social
organization that began to take shape after the
Indo-Aryan migration.
Hinduism
 India's major religion, Hinduism….
 Upanishads, divine essence called Brahman
fills everything in the world.
 Belief in the unity of God and creation is
called monism