1. Chapter 7: Geography and Indian Life Pages 218 - 224
Ancient India
Chapter 7: Geography and Indian Life
Pages

2. Objectives
Describe physical features, including river systems that characterized ancient India.
Describe the development of early Indian cities.
Analyze Harappan civilization
Insert a map of your country.

3. Main Ideas Geography: Government: Culture:
Mountains and seasonal winds shape climate and affect agriculture.
Government:
Well-organized cities near the Indus River.
Culture:
Harappan civilization produced writing, a prosperous way of life, and a widely shared culture.
Insert a picture of one of the geographic features of your country.

4. Vocabulary Subcontinent Hindu Kush Himalayas Monsoon Harappan
Civilization
Planned city
Aryan
Caste
Brahmanism
Hinduism
Reincarnation
Karma
Insert a picture illustrating a season in your country.

5. Physical Geography India is a subcontinent.
Includes present-day Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and most of Pakistan.
Referred to as South Asia
The Ganges River: considered holy
Geographers think the kite-shaped subcontinent used to be a separate land. It inched north until it hit Asia. The collision turned up mountains where the two lands met.
Ganges river is one of the major rivers of India and most Indians consider it holy.
A subcontinent is a large landmass similar to, but smaller than, a continent.

6. Mountains and Waterways
Mountain Ranges:
Hindu Kush
Himalayas
Both mountain ranges are in north India
Waterways:
Ganges River
Indus River
These two rivers carry water for irrigation.
The Indus River valley was home of first Indian civilization.
Saraswati River
Existed in ancient times. Ran parallel to the Indus River.
Arabian Sea
Indian Ocean
Bay of Bengal
These bodies of water surround India and played a role in traveling, which encouraged trade.

7. Hindu Kush Mountain Range

8. Himalaya Mountain Range
“Him” (snow)
“aalaya” (home)
Mt. Everest is the highest mountain on Earth…29,028’ high.

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12. Climate Tall mountains block cold north winds
Temperatures are usually warm
Monsoons, seasonal winds, shape India’s climate. This causes India to have a dry season in the winter and rainy season in the summer.
Summer monsoon provides rain for India’s crops, but these rains can also cause severe flooding.

13. How Did They Deal with Problems?
Large cities have to deal with the problem of human waste.
Harappan cities were very advanced
Almost every house had a bathroom and a toilet
Underground sewers carried away the waste
People need to use much planning and organization to build such complex cities.
Historians believe the ancient Harappans must have had powerful leaders.
We do not know if priests or kings or a combination of both ruled the Harappans, but their government must’ve been strong.

14. Harappan Culture: Writing & Religion
Evidence of Religion:
Large public bath used for religious rituals
Figures of animals, such as bulls, that Indians still regard as holy.
Evidence of Writing:
Mysterious form of writing covered stone seals
500 pictographs
Some of the stone seals may have indicated types of trade goods.
These objects have been found in Mohenjo-Daro and other Harappan ruins, and also in the faraway lands of Mesopotamia. Many agree that the distribution and the art on the seals reveal that the Harappans traded widely.
Some scholars think the 500 pictographs may stand for words, sounds, or both, but they don’t really know.
No one has figured out how to read the writing of the Harappan civilization.
The only way to learn about the civilization is by studying artifacts.
Many religions have rituals linked to cleansing, such as Christian baptism stands for the act of washing away sin.

15. Culture: Widespread and Prosperous
Harappan cities spread across an area about 500,000 square miles
Twice the size as Texas!
Used standard weights and measures.
Made similar bronze statues and clay toys
Gained wealth from agriculture and trade
Indians traded timber, ivory and beads
Mesopotamians sold the Indians silver, tin, and woolen cloth.
The different cities shared a common design which shows how widely the culture had spread.
These artifacts show that the Harappans could afford to have more than just basic necessities and it’s because they gained wealth from agriculture and trade.

16. Challenges to Harappan Life
2000 – 1500 B.C. earthquakes shook the region
Forced people to leave their cities
Harappan civilization went into decline
The Harappan culture lasted for about 800 years
The earthquakes probably caused the Saraswati River to dry up. It also could’ve caused the Indus River to flood.
Ancient Indians were the first to domesticate chickens and the first Asians to produce cotton cloth.

17. Chapter 7, Lesson 2: The Origins of Hinduism
Around 2000 B.C., something drove the Indo-Europeans from their homeland.
Different groups moved to different regions.
The Hittites went to Southwest Asia.
Around 1500 B.C., the Aryans traveled east into India.
Insert a picture of one of the points of interest for your country.

18. Who Were the Aryans? Came from Central Asia They were herders.
The mysterious religion appealed to many Dravidians – the people living in India when they arrived. The Dravidians taught the Aryans about city life. Because of these interactions, India developed a complex, blended culture.
Came from Central Asia
They were herders.
Lived in simple houses
Spoke Sanskrit
Practiced a mysterious religion
Organized into classes: warriors, priests, and commoners.
These classes developed into the caste system: a social class whose members are identified by their job.

19. Aryan Beliefs and Brahmanism
Early religion of the Aryans is now called Brahmanism.
Aryans worshiped many nature gods-made sacrifices to those gods by offering animals to a sacred fire.
Rituals of Aryan religion and many hymns to their gods are found in ancient Sanskrit texts called the Vedas.
Indians wrote about their ancient history in such works as the:
Mahabharata: an epic poem that retells many legends.
Bhagavad Gita: means “Song of the Lord” and is part of the Mahabharata. It is an ancient Indian text that became an important work of Hindu tradition in terms of both literature and philosophy. 
Brahmanism is named after the Aryan priests, called Brahmans.
Religoius ceremonies became more and more complex. Some lasted for days or even months.

20. Hinduism: The Religion of India
Hinduism is the modern name for the major religion of India, which grew out of early Brahmanism.
Hindus worship many gods but also recognize one supreme God or life force.
The three most important of the other gods are Brahma (the creator); Vishnu (the protector) and Shiva (the destroyer).
Hindus believe in reincarnation, which means that each person has many lives. What a person does in each life determines what he or she will be in the next life (Karma).
Hindus believe they connect with God by following their own individual path.
Hindus have a choice of spiritual practices to grow closer to God:
Meditation: the practice of making the mind calm
Yoga: a complex practice that includes exercise, breathing techniques and diet.
Hindus consider the other gods to be parts of the one universal God.
Shiva destroys the world so that it can be created anew.
Evil deeds cause a person to be reborn as a lower being, such as an insect.
Reincarnation creates a repeating cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. The cycle ends only when a person achieves a mystical union with God. To achieve that, a person must come to realize that his or her sould and God’s soul are one.