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ANCIENT INDIA Introduction to Ancient India and its Geography Modern India today is composed of the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. It has always been a land of contrasts, physically, religiously, and linguistically, with numerous ethnic groups, languages, cultures, and levels of sophistication. Sometimes India is referred to as a subcontinent as the triangular landmass is resting on a tectonic plate that has been diving beneath the main Asian landmass for millions of years, causing the Himalaya Mountains to continually grow taller as long ago India was part of Eastern Africa and broke off. The earliest evidence of civilization was located in the Indus River plain, but over 1000 years later the Ganges River plain was populated, and eventually the Indus and Ganges Rivers became known as the Father and Mother of India. Today the Ganges is considered the holy river by Hindus. Every year with the melting of the snow in the Himalaya Mountains, silt washes down, fertilizing the river basins like the Nile and Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the Middle East. The Indus River flows southwest through the Punjab area and

empties into the Arabian Sea, in an area called Sind. The Ganges River flows southeast into the Bay of Bengal. Seasonal monsoons also provide needed water for agriculture and other uses. Western India is called Rajasthan, and is dry and desert territory. Southern India is rather dry, which is called the Deccan plateau, and on both coastal regions are high hills

called ghats. On the Malabar Coast on the Western part of Southern India rainfall is heavy, and this is where spices were grown, processed, and exported for thousands of years. Indus Valley Civilization First Ancient Civilization in India Indias first civilization was along the Indus River, and thus called the Indus Valley Civilization. One of the populated cities was Harappa, thus another name for this earliest society is also called the Harappan Civilization. It is only recently that the world scholars have learned about this early civilization through excavation, yet it lasted at least 1000 years. It is thought nearly 300 cities and many more towns and villages made up this sophisticated civilization. Seventy abandoned urban sites dot the river plain, but the main ones were Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, and Lothal. Lothal is the only city from this ancient civilization within the borders of the modern nation of India.1 Excavations are not complete at these numerous sites, and as the water table is rising, they may never be located. Their writing system has not yet been deciphered. Over 400 symbols have been identified, and one of the latest opinions of scholars is that it may not have been a written language, but signs of ownership. The writing or symbols have been found on seals. After this advanced civilization ceased to exist, it was another 1200 years before another written language was uncovered that has been found on Ashokas pillars (circa 200s B.C.E.)
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The Indus River and Valleys are in Pakistan today.

Advanced pre-planning of cities and sophisticated plumbing It has been ascertained that this dynamic civilization preplanned the major three cities and laid out a grid before people lived there. We know that these people traded extensively with the Mesopotamian Civilization, and perhaps as they saw their more casual organization of Mesopotamian towns, they decided to plan ahead. These Indus Valley people had superb engineers as there were the following amenities in these major cities: vast hypocaust heating systems, intricate underground sewage removal systems with manhole covers, piped water to each home and business, and indoor toilets and bathtubs. At Lothal the walled water reservoir allowing ships to come and go regardless of the tides is still there with visible water. At the Lothal Museum is a reconstruction of what scholars believe is the busy trading city with their warehouses, work sites, etc. Jewelry and bead manufacturing was part of their industrial pursuits. The bricks were standardized to build these structures, and it is apparent they had standard weights and measures. Religious practices People must have lived comfortable lives, but no large palaces or temples have been found. Their religious practices included the worship of

a mother goddess Devi, and the local people today are continually crafting replicas of these figures. In the later written Aryan primary source The Rig

Veda, they refer to these ancient Indus Valley people as phallic worshipers. Still today the avatar or god Shivas lingam is propitiated at many sites in India, including one of the newest Hindu Temples at Benares University in Varanasi. Large walled pools were also part of these early Indians religious practices, and the evidence for continual use of water as a salvation ritual is evidenced at Kalis Temple in Calcutta, where her worshipers immerse themselves in the water of the pool. It is believed by Hindus that immersion at the most southern tip of India today, where the Indian Ocean, Arabia Sea, and Sea of Bengal come together, washes away their sins. Why the downfall of the Indus Valley Civilization Gradually life in the Indus Valley Civilization began to deteriorate: buildings not up to code, roads not kept up, families crowded into houses, and then the whole civilization collapsed. Why did this occur? At first scholars tried to explain that these people were displaced by a superior warrior nomadic culture of Indo-Europeans called the Aryans, who entered India from the Northwest. It was said that they enslaved their darker skinned inhabitants, and imposed their gods and social organization on them. Now scholars have disputed this scenario, and suggest that the Harappan civilization had already collapsed by the time of the Aryan invasions. So did the Indus civilization fall to a series of natural disasters? Satellite imagery shows that the Indus River was silting up, and people were forced to relocate. Earthquakes may have produced heavy flooding or

changed the river channels so agriculture was disrupted. This led to refugees who relocated to villages or tribes where territory squabbles ensued. Arrival of the Aryans in India and their Religious Rituals Beginning about 1500 B.C.E. nomadic Aryans or Indo-Europeans entered into India along the Ganges and upper Indus Rivers. Unfortunately, our knowledge of them comes primarily from their religious writings, The Vedas, as few material artifacts have survived, and there were definitely no large cities like Harappa. Hinduism is the term used to categorize a complex and diverse range of religious and philosophical practices of these Aryans coupled with various ethnic and linguistic groups for the past several thousand years throughout South Asia. These Vedas were supposedly collected circa 1500-1000 B.C.E., but as there are no written manuscripts until the 4th century B.C.E., these collections of hymns, prayers, chants, and magical spells to the various gods and goddesses were celebrated during the sacrifices of animals and other rituals. The most famous of these Vedas is the Rig Veda, composed about 1500 B.C.E. by Aryan priests and poets. The last of the Vedas contain the Upanishads, philosophical dialogues which formed the basis of Hindu religious thought, composed circa ninth to fifth centuries B.C.E. In the Upanishads, there was a definite turning away from the sacrifices of earlier Vedic ritualism to inner sacrifice, to a life of contemplation based on meditation. Ascetic practices became prominent.

Development of Hinduism: Reincarnation, Karma, Dharma, Nirvana, Avatars, Caste, and Sacred Writings These texts articulated related ideas of reincarnation and karma. This period of religious ferment culminated in the founding of two great Indian religions in the 6th century B.C.E., Jainism and Buddhism, both of which challenged the religious authority of the Vedas and the priesthood associated with them. In this period of Hinduism male gods predominated and the

hereditary priesthood of Brahmans achieved great religious power as officiators at sacrificial ceremonies. At heart of Vedic and Hindu world view was the world soul Brahma, and ones individual soul or atman is a reflection of the world soul. At the end of the Rig Veda is a passage concerning the beginning of things: There was not then either the nonexistent or the existent? There was neither sky nor heavenly vault beyond it. . . In the Upanishads, the soul is immortal, but it can be born over and over, in what is referred to as transmigration of the atman, rebirth or reincarnation. The material life the soul takes on whether it is a bit of algae, a tiger, or human being, depends upon its conduct in its previous life. In tandem with this idea of reincarnation was the class or caste system. Originally it was comprised of three social classes, the warriors, the priests, and the commoners. Once they reached India they made it more complex, by adding a class of slaves, where most of the dark-skinned Dravidian speakers

went (what scholars refer to as the original Ancient Indus Valley people). Later the untouchable cast was added. The next change was to list the Brahmins or priestly caste first, the warrior or aristocratic class next, the farmers and merchants as the third caste and the slaves as the fourth caste. Over time these caste distinctions became hereditary. Eventually, hundreds of castes were formed, although today legally caste is outlawed, it still exists. Over time your caste prescribed who you could associate with, marry, and what type of job you had. Caste also limited your diet, and sometimes required you to perform rituals of purification as often as five times per day. In certain cases a man could marry a woman of a lower caste, but the woman could not marry a lower caste man without disgracing her family and defiling herself. Every caste had its customs and duties, and the individual soul accumulated good or bad karma depending upon ones actions in life, and by how well or how badly one carried out their dharma or duty. A good warrior will submit to his duty even if he does not want to fight. If a person accumulates so much bad karma, that person may very well be reborn as a mosquito or as a woman. Ideally the soul should aspire to escape the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Aiming for perfect union with Brahma, the universal soul is called nirvana. The Hindu faith produces people with a great deal of personal integrity, patient, kind to all living creatures and resigned to their life role. People in India have a sense of identity with the past. By the time of Buddha, the priestly caste had

elaborated the rules of daily living so much that Hindu culture was in some danger of stagnating. One of the greatest virtues of Hinduism is its toleration of other religions. Important Avatars in Hinduism Hindus had and have many deities or avatars (reincarnations of Brahma, the universal soul). Indra was the war god and god of thunder, rather like Zeus or Thor. Varuna was the Lord of Universal Order of dharma like Apollo. Shiva was the giver and destroyer of life. Devi or Kali was the mother goddess. Each god had many rebirths or avatars. Varuna also appeared as Vishnu, who was reborn as the great hero, Krishna. On the faade of the Hindu temples were carvings of these avatars or deities with their symbolic totem in their hand or next to them.
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There are intriguing

stories relating to these avatars, and the Indian people have massive festivals to enjoy worshiping their gods. Shiva and Parvati were husband and wife in one tale, and they had a young son. One day Shiva accidentally cut off his son Ganeshas head, and his wife became inconsolable until he promised her he would get another head of the first person walking down the road. As it was an elephant, Ganesha was given an elephant head. Ganesha as remover of obstacles became one of the most popular deities even for the Jains and Buddhists. One of the myths of the monkey-headed god Hanuman is found in the Ramayana, where Shiva requested from
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This is still true today where Hinduism is practiced

Hanuman a particular plant on a mountain, but forgetting which one, Hanuman brought Shiva the whole mountain. In other episodes about Shiva, he is called Lord of the Dance, and has multiple legs, enhancing his ability to shine as a dancer. Parvati is also identified with the Goddess Kali, who was the consort of Shiva. She is a powerful creator and destroyer too, who accidently killed Shiva, and awoke to this fact as she stood on his body. She is usually portrayed with a red tongue dripping with blood, a necklace of skulls, and other iconography clearly distinguishing her image. Another important avatar or deity was Saraswati, who with her multiple arms was the originator of the written Sanskrit language, goddess of wisdom, science, learning, knowledge, and music. Her consort was Brahma. Inside the temples are various shrines to the individual avatars, where worshipers leave sacrifices, flowers, milk, fruit, etc. About the only goddess or avatar that has her own distinct temple just in her name is Kali, in Calcutta. Hinduism is a religion you tend to be born into as you are born into a particular caste. Hindus response to other peoples gods is simply to find

them interesting manifestations of spirituality. Consequently, there became as many ways to practice Hinduism as there were people in India. Mahabharata and the Ramayana: Indias great epics The Aryans also produced two great epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. These two can be compared to the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homeric Greeks. Like the Iliad, the Mahabharata is a story of war. The

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Ramayana tells about the adventures of Prince Rama and his faithful wife Sita, just as the Odyssey contains adventures of Odysseus and his faithful wife Penelope. Rama was also the reincarnation of Vishnu, one of the

supreme gods, so Rama is both human and divine. The Bhagavad-Gita is a 700-verse sacred scripture from the Mahabharata, where the themes of the consequences of war and the souls immortality are related in what is considered as the crowning achievement of Indias spiritual wisdom and guide spoken by Lord Krishna to his disciple Arjuna. Development of Jainism The religion known as Jainism was an intermediary step between Hinduism and Buddhism, though founded at the same time as or earlier than Buddhism. The Jains were a group of extreme ascetics with the main tenet being the absolute refusal to take life. They sought to achieve nirvana by starving themselves to death. For the Jains, plants had as much life form as animals. In practice Jains are strict vegetarians, but the Jain Priests only eat what has fallen from a tree or bush. Their founder is said to be Mahavira or the Great Hero, who was the last of twenty-four saints. Protesting against the ritualism of Hinduism was one of the major beliefs of Jainism. Nonviolence was another basic tenet of Jains, and Mahatma Gandhi in the twentieth century made this belief popular. Many Jains became quite wealthy because money lending and mercantile endeavors were about the only profession open to them without risking the direct taking of life. The

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sacredness of the cow became a practice of Indians with the arrival of the Jain religion. Jain Priests did not wear any clothes and always carried a ostrich fan to clear any insects or plants before they sat down. In India today it is a honor to have a Jain priest attend your event. Siddhartha Gautama or the Buddha and the Development of Buddhism As a prince of a powerful tribe, the Sakyas, who lived in the foothills of the Himalayas (present-day Nepal), Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, and thus another great religion called Buddhism began in India. While early 20th century scholars gave his dates as 563-483 B.C.E., recent scholarship gives 486 or 411-400 as his death dates. Raised in a very secluded fashion by his parents, the stories relate that at the age of twentynine, Siddhartha decided to renounce his wealth and prestige to seek enlightenment. He first went to the Brahmin sages north of the Ganges River, but found their hairsplitting dialogues unsatisfactory. Next he turned to an extreme form of ascetic meditation, like disciplines of Jainism, but this left him weak and depressed. Finally, as he sat beneath a Bodhi tree thinking about his quest for truth, he experienced a flash of understanding. At this point Siddhartha became Buddha or the enlightened one. At Sarnath, right outside the town of Varanasi, is a Buddhist Temple with the purported descendant of the original Bodhi Tree still standing. Buddha then went out into the world and began teaching others his Four Noble Truths and his

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eight-fold path to Nirvana. The primary modus operandi was for Buddha the elimination of suffering. The First Noble Truth is that human beings suffer. Life is suffering and everything changes and decays. The pleasures of our senses and mind are merely traps that bind us to life and suffering. Our ignorance of this fact is the Second Noble Truth. As the world is sorrowful, transient, and soul-less, it is this materialistic rejection of the soul that sets early Buddhism apart from the idealism of Brahmans and Jains. Any ill which we can understand could therefore be cured, which is the Third Noble Truth. The Fourth Noble Truth was the Eight-Fold path to elimination of suffering. To follow the Eight-Fold path was to hold, practice and follow the right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation. The difficulty came in properly defining right. If you walked the Eight Fold Path without a misstep that the goal of nirvana would be achieved, and the pain of suffering would finally be overcome. Buddha seems to have regarded himself as a philosopher and teacher rather than a founder of a religion. He did not attack the Hindu gods or rituals, and he regarded the legalism of Brahmans with indifference. Buddhism simply by-passed caste, ritual sacrifices, and the fulfilling of ones dharma or duty according to priestly regulations. However, Buddha did not reject the Hindu idea of karma. For him, our actions in life affect others. Buddha taught for forty-five years until his death. By that time his followers in India had become a widespread order of

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monks, with vows of poverty and chastity, to pursue enlightenment according to the teachings of Buddha. To appease and acknowledge his mother-in-laws financial support of his teachings, Buddha consented to allow women to become Buddhist nuns, but they were not allowed to leave their nunneries. Monastic Buddhism spread East and West, North and South, in their saffron robes, teaching moderation, nonviolence, and love for all creatures. Two Major forms of Buddhism: Theravada and Mahayana As Buddhism spread it originally was divided into two major forms, Theravada or Hinayana Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism. Theravada Buddhism is the more ascetic Buddhism, and basically is where an individual follows the Four Noble Truths and Eight-Fold Path by himself to achieve Nirvana. Mahayana Buddhism criticized Theravada school for focusing on individual perfection. Mahayana belief centers on the idea of a Buddha-elect or Bodhisattvas, which detain their achievement of Nirvana long enough to help others in their quest for Nirvana. Mahayana Buddhists came to believe that Buddha was a god. This form of Buddhism took root in Nepal, Tibet, China, and Japan, while Theravada Buddhism is the prevailing religion in Thailand and Burma, who still theoretically regard Buddha as a man, though they make offerings of flowers and incense to his image. It is ironic that Buddhism is no longer an important religion in India itself.

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Mauryan Empire The first political union in India since the destruction of the Ancient Indus Valley Civilization large enough to be called an empire was the Mauryan Empire. It included both the Indus and Ganges river valleys, and was born as a defensive response to Alexander the Greats military attacks on India in the fourth century B.C.E. Chandragupta as the local raja with his capital at Patna is considered the founder of this empire. He was a military dictator, but developed a shrewd administration with an organized bureaucracy of civil servants and spies to keep his subjects in order. To assist him were his closest relatives and most trusted generals. His army had a strong infantry, a cavalry component including 8000 chariots and 9000 elephants. Even if these figures are exaggerated, they attest to the states remarkable size with an estimated population of fifty million by the third century B.C.E. Ashoka, the major ruler of the Mauryan Empire Ashoka, as the grandson of Chandragupta extended Mauryan rule southward until he controlled most of the Deccan except the southernmost tip. He was hailed as the first universal emperor of India. In his tenth year of his reign he converted to Buddhism as he was dismayed by his soldiers slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people in the Eastern part of India called Kalinga. Movies have been made of his pachydermal tank core

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fighting for the enlargement of his Empire. After his conversion to Buddhism, he practiced religious toleration, and gave up using violence. He ruled with appointed overseers of law like the Missi Dominici in Charlemagnes kingdom. This must have been a formidable task as the countless number of customs, laws, and languages among all the regions of India. To bring his people together, Ashoka built forty-foot pillars of stone, which had carved on them his basic moral advice of generosity, truthfulness, compassion, doing ones dharma, and respect for parents. At the top or capital of the pillar were three lions, which became the symbol for India. Part of Ashokas humane ruling practices included building wells for farmers and villagers, constructing 1500 miles of roads with numerous rest stops with shade trees for travelers and merchants. Many Indians followed his example of non-violence and became vegetarians during his reign. During Ashokas reign was a great period for Buddhist buildings. The stupa became a distinct architectural mound where each one on its top held some of Buddhas ashes. Supposedly, Ashoka erected 84,000 Buddhist stupas. Centuries after Ashoka architects added embellishments to the basic design of the Buddhist edifice which included a little square house on top where Buddhas spirit was supposed to pass from earth to the realm of heavenly nirvana. Atop the house were tiers of umbrellas as the umbrella is the Hindu symbol of sovereignty. Maybe these distinct Buddhist buildings influenced the pagoda for China. Stupas were also carved within caves of solid rock at

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Ajanta and Ellora where some of the most beautiful sculptures can be seen today. After Ashokas death his empire began to disintegrate, but his empire provided the model of Indian unity for the future. Ancient Indias Social Customs and Structure of Society Indian social customs and daily life during these ancient centuries is intriguing and varied. The family was an extended one with usually three generations living together in an essentially patriarchal pattern except along the Malabar Coast near the southwestern tip of India where a matriarchal form of social organization prevailed right down to modern times. In most of the sub-continent the oldest male possessed legal authority over the entire family. Male superiority was expressed in a variety of ways. Women could not serve as priests, and only the men could study the Vedas. Generally, the men had a monopoly on education since the primary goal of learning to read was to be able to carry on the family rituals. In high caste families young men after have been initiated into the Hindu faith, had a sacred thread strung from the left shoulder across the chest to under the right arm. Beginning his vedic studies with a guru or teacher, he then went on to higher studies in one of the major cities with his goal either as a religious or professional person, and he could not get married until twelve years of study. Only males could inherit property, except in the few cases where there were no sons. Legally, women were always minors, and divorce was prohibited although it did occur. According to the Arthasastra, a

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deserted wife could seek a divorce. Polygamy did occur but only rarely and then mainly among higher castes, but husbands were permitted to take a second wife if his first one was barren. Children were important to have as security for your old age, and a famous Hindu proverb says May you be the mother of a hundred sons. According to the Hindu classic Laws of Manu,

women were subordinated first to their father, then to their husband, and then to their sons. Perhaps the most graphic symbol of womens subjection to men was the ritual of sati. This occurred in the Brahman priestly caste where the wife was required to throw herself on her dead husbands funeral pyre. Yet there are some signs that women played an influential role in Indian society. The Hindu code of behavior stressed that women should be treated with respect. Indians also appeared to be fascinated by female sexuality, and traditions were held that women often used their sexual powers to achieve domination over men. The famous Kama Sutra is practically a textbook devoted to erotic sexuality. The author of the Mahabharata complained that fire has never too many logs, the ocean never too many rivers, death never too many living souls, and fair-eyed woman never too many men. Family religious practices were individually carried out in the homes to commemorate their ancestors. It was the oldest males responsibility to conduct these rites as in Ancient China.