Ancient India
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
Geography of India
 India is located in the continent we call Asia.
 India is a subcontinent, a subcontinent is a large land mass that is
smaller than a continent.
 India climate is influenced by monsoons. A monsoon is a
seasonal wind pattern that cause wet and dry seasons.

The Harappan the Aryan Civilizations
 One of the first civilizations in India was the Harappan
civilization. Harappan civilization was a very advanced
civilization. They developed India’s first writing system and had
indoor plumbing.
 Aryan villages were ruled by rajas (RAH-juhz).
 The language in which the Aryan’s composed was called
Sanskrit. The most important language in India.
 The Origins of Hinduism
 Aryan priests were called Brahmins. Their religion was called
Brahmanism.
 The Brahmins priests were seen as the highest ranking social
division because they performed rituals for the gods.
 The caste system in India divided society into groups based on a
person’s birth, wealth, or occupation. The caste system
determined a person’s place in society.
 The blending of religion of India and Persia eventually became
Hinduism, the largest religion in India today.
 The Hindus believed, after death souls are born and reborn many
times, each time in a new body. This process is called
reincarnation.
 The type of form a person becomes depends of their karma, the
effects that good or bad actions have on a person’s soul.
 Hinduism taught that each person had a dharma, or a set of
spiritual duties to fulfill.
 Another important idea of Hinduism is ahimsa (uh HIM sah) or nonviolence.
 Yoga is a system of special breathing exercises that help free the
soul from man.

Origins of Buddhism
 Siddhartha Gautama was called the Buddha (Boo-duh), or the
“Enlightened One.”
 Siddhartha started fasting, or going without food. He dedicated his
time to meditation, or the focusing the mind on spiritual ideas.
 The followers of Buddha were the first believers in Buddhism, a
religion based on the teachings of the Buddha.
 Nirvana (nir-VAH-nuh), is a state of perfect peace.
 Buddhism continued to attract followers after Buddha’s death. After
spreading to India, the religion began to spread to other areas as well.
 Missionaries are or people who work to spread their religious
beliefs, to other kingdoms in India.
 Buddhism eventually spread via the Silk Road into China, then to
Korea, and Japan.

Empires of Ancient India
 Chandragupta (chun druh GUP tuh) Maurya founded India’s Maurya Empire.
 Chandragupta was guided by the basic belief in absolute rule.
 Asoka who built the greatest empire India had ever seen in 273 B.C.
to his people.

Indian Achievements
 Sanskrit was the main language of the people of ancient India.
 Ancient Indians were pioneers of metallurgy (MET-uhl-uhr-jee), the science
of working with metals.
 The Indians also knew processes for mixing metals to create alloys,
mixtures of two or more metals.
 The numbers we use today are called Hindu-Arabic numerals
because they were created by Hindu scholars and brought to Europe.
 Ancient Indians used inoculations. An inoculation was injecting
someone with a small dose of a virus to help build up their defense
for the disease.
 Ancient Indians were also interested in astronomy, the study of stars
and planets.