CHAPTER 3 –

ANCIENT INDIAN
CIVILIZATIONS
Section 1: Indus River Valley Civilizations
Section One Essential Questions
1. What role did geography and climate play in the
settlement of the Indian subcontinent?
2. How did people in the first Indus River valley
civilization live?
India
Physical features:
 India is separated from the rest of Asia by the
Himalayas (kept out invaders)
 Two great rivers:
 Ganges River (through fertile valley)

 Indus River (through drier plain)

Harappan civilization:
 Arose in Indus River valley around 2500 BC and
lasted through 1500 BC (same time as Egypt’s
Old and Middle Kingdoms)
 Harappa and Mohenjo Daro were the two major
cities of the region
 Mohenjo Daro translates as “Mound of the Dead”
 Citadel was strong central fortress in both cities
 Both cities were large and carefully planned
 Had public baths, brick sewers, and some two-
story homes had bathrooms
 Had irrigation canals and ditches
Mohenjo-Daro This map shows the layout of Mohenjo-
Daro, one of the principal cities of the Indus Valley
civilization. The larger eastern area contained the
residential and commercial sections of the city, which
were laid out in a grid of large rectangular blocks. Rising
more than twenty feet to the west stood the citadel, built
on a mound of mud brick and rubble. Fortified by a brick
wall and towers, the citadel contained the city’s shrine,
assembly hall, baths, and granary.
Technology:
 Storehouses for grains could hold food for
35,000 people
 Ability to store and distribute surplus food
shows strong central government
 Evidence of writing from 2300 BC
 Can’t decipher it
 Most are personal seals with names on them
Religion:
 No temples, shrines, or religious writings have been
found
 May have held rituals in homes or outdoors
 Buried their dead in wooden coffins along with many
pottery vessels that were probably filled with food
for the afterlife
 Most people were buried with some simple jewelry,
such as shell or copper bracelets and agate beads
 Elaborate ornaments of gold, silver and precious
stones were never included in burials and must have
been kept by the living relatives
Economy:
 Rich farmland around cities – grew cotton, wheat,
barley, rice and raised cattle, sheep, pigs, and
goats
 Traded with Mesopotamia by 2300 BC
 Made cloth, pottery, bronze items, gold and silver
jewelry
Disappearance

 Unsure as to why they disappeared around

1700 BC
 Floods, violence, or an earthquake are all

ideas
 Several complete skeletons were found

 People appear to have abandoned their

homes and possessions

Section Two Essential Questions
1. How did life in northern India change with the
coming of the Indo-Aryans?
2. What were the major contributions of the Indo-
Aryans to Indian society?
Indo-Aryans
 Nomads from the North who established Indian
civilization around 1750 BC
 We know about them through their religious writings
called Vedas
 Aryans today are called Indo-Europeans and Indo-
Iranians, depending on location
 Indo-Aryans brought new religion (Hinduism) and a
new language (Sanskrit) to northern India
 The word Aryan has to do with ancestry and language
group
 Hitler misused this word to his own benefit, to try to show
“pure” roots of his people
 They also brought the idea of the caste system
 Distinctsocial classes appeared in Indian society
 People were not able to move classes after birth

 The fifth class was the Untouchables – garbage

collectors, movers of dead bodies, etc.
 Farming provided a living for people in the North
 Trade provided a living for people in the South
 Silk,cotton, wool, ivory, spices, gems
 To Far East, SW Asia, Africa, and Europe
Indian Caste System
Section Three Essential Questions
1. How important was religion in ancient Indian
society?
2. What were the principal elements of Hinduism?
3. What were the basic beliefs of Buddhism?
 Hinduism
 India’s major religion
 We know about Hinduism through religious writings
called the Vedas
 Teaches that the world we see is an illusion
 Believe in reincarnation of souls
 Ultimate goal is nirvana – a perfect peace
The Hindus have a trinity of gods –
Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Brahma
is the creator, Vishnu is the preserver
and Shiva is the destroyer. The daily
alternation of light and dark is caused
by Brahma. This picture shows
Vishnu and Shiva.
Is Hinduism polytheistic?
 Hinduism worships multiple forms of one god
 Hindus believe in monotheistic polytheism
 Pantheism is the view that god is everything and
everyone and that everyone and everything is god.
 Your book calls it Monism (a single reality)
 A tree is god, a rock is god, an animal is god, the sky is
god, the sun is god, you are god, etc.
 Hinduism has grown to become the world's third
largest religion, after Christianity and Islam.
 It has about 950 million followers -- about 14% of
the world's population.
Buddhism
 Founded by Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) in India
around 500 BC
 Accepted some Hindu ideas, including reincarnation
 Taught that ethics are more important than
ceremonies
 Believed “desire causes suffering”
 Believed that anyone, regardless of caste, could
reach nirvana
Is Buddhism polytheistic?
 Buddha was a teacher, not a god
 They honor Buddha for bringing ultimate wisdom
 Buddhism does not depend on the existence of a god
who created the universe
 Buddhism is neither monotheistic nor polytheistic
 Buddha did not rule out the existence of a god or
gods altogether
 Today, Buddhists talk about a large number of Divine
Beings
 There are estimated to be around 350 million
Buddhists worldwide (6% of the world's population).
 This makes Buddhism the world's fourth largest
religion.
•The Golden Buddha
is the world's largest
solid gold statue, with a
weight of 5.5 tons.

•It is located in the

temple of Wat Traimit
in Bangkok, Thailand.
SECTION 5: ANCIENT
INDIAN LIFE AND CULTURE
Section Five Essential Questions
1. In what ways were women’s rights limited in
ancient Indian society?
2. What were the most important cultural
achievements of the Gupta period?
Ancient Indian Life and Society
 Polygyny was accepted – men had more than one
wife
 Children of higher castes were educated in literature,
astronomy, math, warfare, government
 Studied math, medicine, and astronomy in great detail
 Lower castes educated in crafts and trade
 Indians were advanced in studying medicine
 Understood importance of spinal cord
 Developed technique of inoculation

 Knew about cleanliness and disinfecting wounds