AGENDA
 4.1 Reading Quiz
 Early India & Hinduism Notes
 Sacred Religious Texts Worksheet
 4.2 (?)
 Homework:
 Read “Hindu Beliefs” Handout and answer
questions #1-4
Early India
September 2015
Main Ideas
 Early civilization arose in the Indus
River Valley, flourished, and then
died out
 The Indus River Valley civilization
thrived from 2500 BCE – 2000 BCE
 Later, India’s Vedic civilization
developed a culture based on old
and new beliefs.
Note!
 BCE  Before Common Era
 Like “BC”
 CE  Common Era
 Like “AD”
Snapshot of India
 India is a country in
South Asia
 2nd largest population
in the world
 Capital: New Delhi
 Languages: Hindi &
English
 Religions: Hinduism,
Islam, Christianity
 Hinduism = 80% of
population
Geography
 Subcontinent
 Large landmass that juts out from a larger continent
 3 Geographical Zones
 Mountains
 Hindu Kush & Himalayas
 Deccan Plateau
 Dry
 Northern Plains
 Fertile soil
 Monsoons
 Heavy winds and heavy rains
 Both helped and hurt early peoples
Indus Valley
Civilizations
 First civilization along Indus River
 Guessed to be about 2500 BCE
 Remains show complex cities and villages
 Well planned and designed
 Suggests a functioning government
 Economy focused on agriculture and trade
 Traded both locally and great distances
 Little is known about Indian culture and civilization
 Believed to be a single society vs. many states
Decline…
 Thrived from about 2500 BCE – 2000 BCE
 Best guesses for decline…
 Floods
 Famine
 Over-farming
 Other natural causes
 Aryans moved into the Indus Valley around
1500 BCE – not sure if they caused the
collapse or if they followed it
Aryans
 A group of Indo-Europeans that migrated into
the Indus River Valley from the Caucasus
Mountain Region
 Aryan = Sanskrit world meaning noble
 Little known about them
 Sacred literature, the Vedas is all the
archeologists have on them
 Hence the name “Vedic Period”
Vedic Period
 Society:
 Smaller villages than IRV civilization
 Some villages grouped together under
regional leaders known as rajas
 Rajas were also war leaders
 Society was divided into four varnas (caste
system)
Caste System
 Divided into 3 classes or castes:
 Priests (Brahmins) – highest ranking, fewest in
number
 Warriors (Kshatriyas)
 Peasants (Vaisyas)
 Non Aryans made up a fourth class (Sudras)
Caste System
 People treated according to position in caste
system
 Born into caste for life
 People outside caste system = “untouchables”
 Gravediggers, butchers, trash collectors
 Considered “impure”
Hinduism
Hinduism – Quick Facts
 80% of the population in India practice
Hinduism
 World’s 3rd largest religion
 Called “one of the oldest living religions”
 No single founder
Where did Hinduism come from?
 Named after the people on the southern
side of the Sindu (Indus) River, as described
in the Vedas, an ancient text
 Ultimately spread through out the
subcontinent, absorbing cultural and
religious practices, but continuing to claim
the Vedic tradition
Hindu Scriptures
 Vedas: hymns of praise dating from second
millennium BCE; contain information gods,
riturals, varnas (castes), duties of priests
 Upanishads: reflections on the Vedas
 Epics: Ramayana and Mahabharata
 Bhagavad-Gita is a 700 verse scripture that
is part of the Mahabharata
Hindu Scriptures
 Using the textbook, fill in the scriptures chart
 Explain what each scripture is how it is important
to Hinduism
God - Brahman
 The Universal Soul or Supreme power
 To access and understand the workings of
God in the world, people worship and pray to
other manifestations of God
 God is also trinity of
 Brahma – creator
 Shiva – destroyer
 Vishnu – preserver
Beliefs
 Dharma
 Karma
 Samsara
 Moksha
Dharma
 “Law of being”
 Principle or law that orders the universe
 Individual conduct in conformity with this
principle
 Sacred duty
 Both spiritual and practical
 Dictated by
 Caste
 Age
 Station in life (single, married, parent, child)
Karma
 All deeds (even small ones) have an effect
(negative or positive)
 The state of one’s soul (atman)
 Cumulative impact of one’s actions
 Your actions now impact your next life
Samsara
 The continuing cycle of the soul’s birth,
death, and rebirth
 Reincarnation: the rebirth into another living
form
 Whether one achieves rebirth into a higher or
lower station is result of karma
Moksha
 The release from samsara (release from the
cycle of rebirth)
 Reaching moksha is THE goal of spiritual
Hindus
 The merging of the individual soul (atman)
with the Universal Soul (Brahman)
In Short…
 The way to achieve moksha is to fill one’s
dharma (duties)
 Fulfilling one’s dharma allows a person to
create good karma