Chapter 3 Section 2
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Chapter 3 Section 2 Kingdoms of the Ganges Mr. Schoff
OA • Please have your India maps ready for review!!!
The Aryan Civilization • Warlike people • Migrated across Europe and Asia seeking water and pasture for their horses and cattle • Early Aryans built no cities and left no statues or stone seals • Vedas – collection of prayers • Aryan priests memorized and recited the Vedas for 1,000 years before they were written down • Therefore, the period from 1500 B.C.-500 B.C. is often called the Vedic age
The Aryans continued • Appear as warriors who fought in chariots with bows and arrows • Nomadic herders that valued cattle, which provided them with food and clothing • Later, when they became settled farmers, families continued to measure their wealth in cows and bulls
Aryan Society continued • Aryans felt highly superior to the Dravidians • Aryans separated Dravidians and non-Aryans into a fourth group*, the Sudras (farmworkers, servants, and other laborers who occupied the lowest level of society) *Social Classes seen on last slide
Religious Beliefs • Polytheistic – gods and goddesses that embodied natural forces such as sky and sun, storm and fire • Fierce Indra, the god of war, was the chief Aryan god • Indra’s weapon was the thunderbolt, which he used not only to destroy demons but also to announce the arrival of rain (vital to Indian life) • Agni – messenger who communicated human wishes to gods; god of fire • Varuna – god of order and creation
Change • As lives changed, so did their beliefs • Some thinkers were moving toward the notion of a single power beyond the many gods of the Vedas • Moved towards mysticism • Meditation and yoga, spiritual and bodily discipline
Expansion • Led by chiefs called rajahs • Aryans gave up their nomadic ways and settled into villages to grow crops and breed cattle • Learned to make tools out of iron • They spread eastward to colonize the heavily forested Ganges basin • Some rajahs were powerful enough to rule over many villages • Developed a written language, Sanskrit • Priests now began writing down the sacred texts
Literature • Preserved a strong oral tradition • Memorized and recited ancient hymns, as well as two long epic poems • Mahabharata –India’s greatest epic • Ramayana – shorter, but equally memorable • Mahabharata – 100,000 verses • Ramayana – recounts the fantastic deeds of the daring hero Rama and his wife Sita • These epics evolved over thousands of years • Priest-poets added new morals to the tales to teach different lessons • This would evolved into major world religions – Hinduism and Buddhism
