South Asian Ancient Sites of
Development
Indus River
Ganges River
Discovery
• British Engineers in 1830s used
Harappan bricks for railway line
• 1912 J. Fleet discovered
Harappan seals
• 1921-1922 discovery of
Harappa by Sir John Marshall
• 1940s Sir Mortimer Wheeler
excavated Mohenjo Daro
Indo-Gangetic Plains
Evidence
Aerial View
Citadel @ Mohenjo Daro
First Street
Narrow Street
Great Bath
College or Priestly Residence?
Child’s Toy Cart
Early Bathrooms
Homes
Granaries
Drains
Seals
Harappan Civilization: What we
know to be true?
Importance of Religion
Polytheistic, bull /bison important, burial, priestly class
Importance of Water
Well, drainage, baths
Agriculture
Surplus, Grains, Cotton
Urban Planning
Citadel, grid-like streets, residential areas, common
areas
Writing System
Undecipherable
Harappan Civilization: What we
speculate about or assume to be true?
• Government must have been complex
(autocratic or democratic?)
• Water has religious significance – purity
• Cattle/Bull has religious significance
• Priestly class (social classes as evidenced by
different home size)
• Thriving merchant class (contact with Sumer)
Grains, cotton, dyes
• Highly urban – 4x size of Sumerian cities
• Not as innovative as Sumer
Where does the
historical record
begin?
The Vedic Age
1700BCE – 500BCE
Vedic Age
The Vedic Age
• Political Development
– Raja: tribal Chief
– Jana: individual, tribal kinship units
• Evolved into geographical region of control
• Jana-rajyapadas: national kingdoms
• Rigid social class structure
– 4 main levels, or varna
– Caste System: varna subdivided (jati) into inflexible ranking
system
Varna (Social Hierarchy)
Brahmins
Kshatriyas
Vaishyas
Shudras
Untouchables
Hindu Creation
Story..
Purusha Myth
• creator of the
basic elements of
the world
• His body formed
the castes of
Indian Hindu
society
How do we know?
Identifying Evidence…
History after 1700BCE
• Rig Vedic Period 1700-1000 BCE (approx)
– Rig Veda – religious poems passed down orally
by priestly class (Classical Sanskrit)
– Pastoral nomadic people?
– Overtime, settled Ganges River Valley
– Jana-Rajyapadas – numerous rajas
• Later Vedic Period 1000-500 BCE
– Brahman (priestly class) dominance
– Epic Age (numerous religious texts)
– Hindu Roots – world’s oldest religion
Sanskrit
4th Century BCE
~ Latin, as a basis of modern languages
Recorded after the Vedic Age!!
The Vedas
 date of origin?
(~1700BCE)
 Hindu core of
beliefs:

hymns and poems.

religious prayers.

magical spells.

lists of the gods
and goddesses.
Hindu Texts
• 4 Vedas (Rig Veda – the oldest)
• Upanishads
– 800-400BCE
– basic doctrine of Hinduism (Brahman, Karma, atman)
• Puranas – Pantheon of Gods (Henoistic- Brahma)
• Epics
– Mahabharata (Bhagavad-Gita)
– Ramayana
What insights into Aryan culture
does this quote from the
Mahabharata offer?
“The warrior, he says, has a duty to
fulfill. No matter what, he must
fulfill his duty: For there is more
joy in doing one’s duty badly than
in doing another man’s duty well.”
Mahabharata
What about the Ramayana?
“First, when war is no more, a ruler should
lay aside his weapons and forget former
grudges. Second, when fearless warrior
falls-even an enemy-it is proper to give
that hero all due honor. Third, when even
one citizen suffers, a compassionate king
offers comfort. And fourth, when a
monarch serves justice, he must not
hesitate, even when dealing with a difficult
situation.”
Frawley's Paradox
The Harappan people of the Indus Valley have left
profuse archaeological records over a vast region, must
have supported over 30 million people, and believed to
have at one time lived an advanced civilization. …
Yet, these people have left absolutely no literary records.
The Vedic people of the Ganges and their successors on
the other hand have left us a literature that is probably
the largest and most profound in the world. …
But, there is absolutely no archaeological record that they ever
existed, either on the Indian soil or outside its boundaries.
From where did the Ganges River Valley
people of the Vedic Age originate?
What is their relationship to the Harappan
People?
Competing Theories
Conquerors from
outside the
Subcontinent
Indigenous people who
adapted and reorganized
as a result of changing
ecological conditions
Aryan invasion
Evidence
Hypothesis
• Vedic Literature refers to
“Aryan People”
• Shared linguistic roots
with other IndoEuropean
• Pastoral, nomadic and
war-like people
• Eastward Movement
• Oral Vedic traditions
form the root of Hindu
beliefs
• Black Sea Origins
• Movement into
subcontinent caused
chaos and a reorganization
of society
• Caste emerged from
differences between
invaders and indigenous
people
• The roots of Hinduism,
Caste and modern Indian
culture emerged as an
outgrowth of Aryan
Movement into
Subcontinent in ~1500BCE.
Who were the Indo-Aryan Migrants?
objections to AIT
Why did people start to Question this long-held theory
• No Vedic references to…
– history outside India, or invasion/massacre
• Geographic Evidence
– Saraswati River,often in Vedic literature, was also the site of
Harappan cities
• Evidence of horse remains exist at Harappa
• Some argue that later Harappan script does have ties
to Sanskrit
• No such thing as an ‘Aryan Race’
– Arya defined good-natured, righteous person
Alternate Theory
• The so-called Aryans were the original habitants
of the townships along the Indus, Saraswati and
other rivers of the vast northern region of the
Indian subcontinent.
• No invasion by nomadic hordes from outside
India ever occurred and the civilization was not
destroyed, but the population simply moved to
other areas, and developed a new syncretic
civilization and culture by mutual interaction and
exchange of ideas.
How does alternate
theory address AIT
evidence
• Saraswati river did dry up – natural disaster
– Forced movement east and west
• Indian influences diffuse into Iranian Plateau
– Persian and Indian similarities in religion
– Movement westward, not invasion into India,
explain Indo European linguistic connections
Continued Understandings…
• Indo -Gangetic Plain Origins
• People of the Northern Plain are the foundation
of Indian Culture, Hinduism & Caste
• Natural Disasters ended “Harappan Period”
• After the Harappan decline, chaos ensued
• After about 1700BCE, the creation of a new
civilization began, which would serve as the
most direct contribution to modern India
World History, p14
Present Day India
Controversies &
Implications of AIT
• It artificially divides India into a northern Aryan
- Indo-European - and southern Dravidian
culture which were made hostile to each other by
various interested parties
• AIT created and introduced to India as a product
of 19th Century European Nationalism as a
justification and tool of Colonization
A new Chronology???
• 7000-4000 BC Vedic Age
• 3750 BC
End of Rig Vedic Age
• 3000 BC
End of Ramayana - Mahabharata
Period
• 3000-2000 BC Indus Civilization develops
• 2200-1900 BC Decline of Indus Civilization
• 2000-1500 BC Period of chaos and migration
• 1400 - 250 BC Period of evolution of syncretic
Hindu culture
How would these dates change our understanding of
World History in its entirety?
What do you think?
Should textbooks be changed?
How should this be taught?
Mission: Advise Prentice Hall as to the
most appropriate way to teach the
development of Ancient History in the
Indian Subcontinent.
What do you think?