SOCIAL STUDIES CHAPTER 4 NOTES: ANCIENT INDIA
SECTION 1: India’s Geographic Setting
I. Map and Introduction
-The land of India is separated from the rest of the world by a great wall.
-Rising along India’s northern border, the wall is nearly 1500 miles long and nearly
five miles high.
-This great barrier is the Himalayas, the highest mountain range in the world.
II. India’s Geographic Setting
-India juts out from Asia into the Indian Ocean.
-India is a subcontinent, or a large landmass that juts out from a continent.
-For centuries, geography limited the contact the people of the Indian subcontinent
had with the rest of the world.
-The Himalaya and the Hindu Kush mountain ranges separate India from the rest of
Asia.
-The Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea limit contact with lands to
the east and west.
-India’s climate is dominated by the monsoons, strong winds that blow across the
region at certain times of the year.
-From October to May, the winter monsoon blows from the northeast, spreading dry
air across the country.
-In the middle of June, the wind blows in from the Indian Ocean. This summer
monsoon picks up moisture from the ocean. It carries rains that drench the plains
and river valleys daily.
-The people of India depend on summer monsoons to provide life-giving rain.
-Although the mountains separate India from other lands, they do have openings.
-Passes through the Hindu Kush mountain range have served as highways for
migration and invasion.
-Great rivers begin in the mountains.
-The Indus River crosses the Himalayas and empties into the Arabian Sea.
-The Ganges River flows from the Himalayas into the Bay of Bengal.
-Fed by melting snow and rain, the Indus and Ganges rivers cut through the
mountains. They flow across northern India and make farming possible in the river
valleys.
III. Life in the Indus River Valley
-From the rich soil of the Indus valley, early farmers harvested a surplus of wheat
and other grains. This led to a growth in the population.
-As a result, some villages grew into cities.
-From around 2500 to 1500 B.C., well-planned cities flourished in the valleys.
-Two such cities were Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, both located in present-day
Pakistan.
-Mohenjo-Daro was the larger of the two cities, and it lay along the banks of the
Indus River.
-The ruins of Mohenjo-Daro show how carefully the city was planned. To help
protect it from floods, the city was built above ground level.
-Homes and workshops made up one side of the city. Public buildings stood on the
other side.
-The city’s high point served as a citadel or fortress.
-Mohenjo-Daro had a drainage system. Clay pipes ran under the brick streets. They
carried waste from homes and public buildings away from the city.
-Outside the city, canals ran along the Indus River, which often flooded. The canals
helped to control flooding by catching overflow from the river.
-In Mohenjo-Daro, merchants and artisans sold their wares from shops that lined
the streets. Traders came from as far away as Mesopotamia to buy and sell
precious goods.
-The language of the people is still a mystery.
-The form of government and the religion of Mohenjo-Daro are also unknown.
-For some unknown reason, around 2000 B.C., Indus valley farmers began to
abandon their land.
-Between 2000 and 2500 B.C., newcomers from the north entered the valley. These
newcomers eventually gained power throughout the region.
IV. A New Culture Arises
-The newcomers called themselves Aryans, which in their language meant “noble”
or “highborn.”
-They migrated from their homelands in central Asia. For several centuries, waves of
these nomadic herders swept into India.
-The Aryans drove horse-drawn chariots that overwhelmed the enemy’s
slow- moving foot soldiers and settled populations.
-Gradually, a new Aryan culture developed. This culture combined the traditions of
the original inhabitants with ideas and beliefs brought by the newcomers.
-This new culture first developed in the northern Indus valley. Gradually, it spread
into the Ganges valley to the east, where people also adopted the Aryan language.
-By about 800 B.C., the people of northern India had learned to make tools and
weapons out of iron. With iron axes, the people cleared areas of the thick rain forest
of the northeast. There they built farms, villages, and even cities.
-Most of what we know of early Aryan life comes from religious books called Vedas,
which means “knowledge.”
-The Vedas tell us that the earliest Aryans were herders and warriors who lived in
temporary villages.
-The Aryans organized their society around three classes.
-Aryan priests, called Brahmans, performed religious services and composed hymns
and prayers.
-Ranked below them was a class of warriors and nobles.
-Next came the artisans and merchants.
-Gradually, a low-ranking fourth class was formed. It was made up of farm workers, laborers, and servants.
-By 500 B.C., there was a strict division of classes called the caste system.
-Under the caste system, people always had to stay in the caste of their parents.
-Since people could not leave their caste, they did the same work that their parents
did.
SECTION 2: HINDUISM IN ANCIENT INDIA
I. The Beginnings of Hinduism
-As Aryan culture mixed with India’s existing cultures, new ideas and beliefs became
part of the Vedas. From this blending of ideas and beliefs, came one of the world’s
oldest living religions, Hinduism.
-As Hinduism developed over 3,500 years, it absorbed beliefs from other religions.
-Hindus believe that since people are very different, they need many different ways
of approaching god.
-Hinduism is one of the world’s major religions, and a way of life for more than 850
million people in India today.
-Hinduism has no one single founder, but Hindus have many great religious
thinkers.
-Hindus worship many gods and goddesses. However, they believe in one single
spiritual power called brahman, which lives in everything.
-Hindus believe there is more than one path to the truth.
-The gods and goddesses of Hinduism stand for different parts of brahman.
-The most important Hindu gods are Brahma, the Creator; Vishnu, the Preserver;
and Shiva, the Destroyer.
-Hindu gods take many different forms, called avatars. An avatar is the
representation of a Hindu god or goddess in human or animal form.
-Hindu teachings say that Brahma was born from a golden egg. He created earth and
everything on it. He is not as widely worshipped as Vishnu and Shiva.
-Hindus believe that Vishnu is a kindly god who is concerned with the welfare of
humans.
-Unlike Vishnu, Shiva is not concerned with human matters. He is very powerful and
is responsible for both the creative and destructive forces of the universe.
-Hindu gods have their own families. Many Hindus worship Shiva’s wife, the goddess
Shakti who is both a destroyer and creator, both kind and cruel.
II. The Teachings of Hinduism
-One of the Hindu religious texts is the Upanishads. Upanishad means “sitting near a
teacher.” Much of the Upanishads is in the form of questions by pupils and
responses by teachers.
-One important idea in the Upanishads is reincarnation, or rebirth of the soul.
-Hindus believe that when a person dies, the soul is reborn in the body of another
living thing.
-Hindus believe that every living thing has a soul.
-According to Hindu belief, the actions of a person in this life affect his or her fate in
the next. Good behavior is always rewarded. Bad behavior is always punished.
-If a person leads a perfect life, he or she may be freed from this cycle of death and
rebirth. As a result, the person’s soul become one with brahman.
-To become united with the one spirit and escape the cycle of death and rebirth, a
person must obey his or her dharma.
-Dharma is the religious and moral duties of each person.
-In Hinduism, it is a man’s duty to protect the women in his family, and it is the
ruler’s duty to protect his subjects.
-Another important idea of Hinduism is ahimsa or nonviolence. To Hindus, people
and living things are part of brahman and must be treated with respect. For that
reason, many Hindus do not eat meat and try to avoid harming living things.
III. The Practice of Hinduism
-Because Hinduism teaches that there is more than one path to truth, it allows its
followers to worship in various ways.
-Hindus believe yoga exercises help free the soul from the cares of this world. In this
world, the soul may unite with brahman.
-In fact, the word yoga means “union.”
-For the Hindu, there are many yogas that may be used as a path to brahman.
Physical activity is one yoga. Another is the yoga of selfless deeds. By learning the
sacred writings, a Hindu practices the yoga of knowledge. And by honoring a
personal god, a Hindu follows the yoga of devotion.
-Hindus worship in public by praying and performing rituals in temples.
-They also show privately at home often at a home altar.
SECTION 3: THE BEGINNINGS OF BUDDHISM
I. Introduction
-According to Buddhist tradition, a young Hindu prince named Siddhartha Gautama
lived a life of luxury in his palace. He was surrounded by beauty and youth and
never witnessed old age, sickness, or death.
-At around age 30, he traveled outside the palace walls and witnessed sickness and
death. This suffering and death troubled him greatly. He wondered why there was
so much pain and misery in the world. He gave up his wealth, his family, and his life
of ease in order to find the causes of human suffering.
-What he discovered after seven years of wandering, led to the beginnings of a major
world religion: Buddhism
II. The Buddha and his Teachings
-As Gautama traveled in the 500s B.C., he sought answers to his questions about the
meaning of life.
-At first, Gautama studied with Hindu philosophers, but their ideas could not satisfy
him. He could not accept the Hindu belief that only priests could pass on
knowledge.
-Gautama decided to stop looking outwardly for the cause of suffering. Instead, he
tried to find understanding within his own mind through meditation.
-Buddhist tradition says that that Gautama fasted and meditated under a fig tree.
After forty-nine days he believed that he finally understood the roots of suffering.
-For the next forty-five years, Gautama traveled across India and shared his
knowledge. Over the years, he attracted many followers. His followers called him
the Buddha or “Enlightened One.”
-Buddhism teaches people to follow the Eightfold Path also called the Middle Way.
By following this path, a person avoids a life of extreme pleasure or extreme
unhappiness.
-The Buddha believed that selfish desires for power, wealth, and pleasure cause
humans to suffer. By giving up selfish pleasures, a person can become free from
suffering.
-To overcome selfish desires, Buddhists must learn to be wise, to behave correctly,
and to develop their minds.
-They must tell the truth at all times.
-People should also avoid violence and the killing of any living thing.
-If people follow the Buddha’s path, their suffering will end. They will eventually
find nirvana, or lasting peace. By reaching nirvana, people will be released from the
cycle of reincarnation.
-Buddhism also taught that all people are created equal. Anyone, could follow the
path to nirvana, regardless of his or her social class.
-Like other religions, Buddhism has priests. Although monastery life is difficult,
people of any social class can work to become a Buddhist priest or monk.
III. Buddhism Inside and Outside India
-After the Buddha’s death, his teachings spread all over India. But the Buddha’s
teachings did not last long in the land of his birth. Instead, Hinduism gradually
regained favor among those in power.
-Meantime, Hinduism had developed in ways that made it more appealing to the
lower classes. Over time, Buddhism died out almost completely in India.
-During those years when Hinduism and Buddhism coexisted in India, a number of
basic ideas came to be shared by both.
-Both Hindus and Buddhists accept the idea that it is wrong to harm other living
creatures. Both value nonviolence and believe in dharma and the cycle of rebirth.
-Some Hindus came to honor the Buddha as a reincarnation of the god Vishnu. But
because Buddhists do not embrace the sacred texts of Hinduism, most Hindus do
not worship the Buddha as an avatar.
-Buddhism was accepted by millions of people in other lands.
-It took root first in China, where the ideas of the Buddha became mixed with those
of other Chinese thinkers. Millions of Chinese became Buddhists, and Buddhists
monasteries in China became centers of religious thought.
-From China, Buddhism spread to Korea and Japan.
-Today, Buddhism is part of the cultures of such countries as Japan, the Koreas,
China, Tibet, and Vietnam.
SECTION 4: THE MAURYA EMPIRE
I. The Rise of the Maurya Empire
-Around 321 B.C., a new ruler came to the throne of a kingdom in northeastern
India. Within thirty-five years, the tiny kingdom had grown into the giant Maurya
Empire.
-Chandragupta Maurya founded India’s Maurya Empire.
-Chandragupta had been born to a poor family and sold into slavery at a young age.
But later when he became king, Chandragupta enjoyed luxuries from all parts of
Asia.
-India was made up of a number of warring states before Chandragupta came to
power. Strong and ruthless, Chandragupta’s armies overthrew kingdoms along the
Ganges River. Turning west, the armies advanced into the Indus River valley. In
only a few years, Chandragupta’s power extended over most of northern and
central India.
-Chandragupta was guided by the basic belief that a ruler must have absolute power.
-Chandragupta commanded a huge army. The army also had a herd of 9,000 war
elephants, which struck fear into the hearts of opponents.
-Under Chandragupta, the empire enjoyed great economic success. Most of its
wealth came from farming.
-However, as his rule continued, Chandragupta became fearful for his life. He feared
being poisoned and slept in a different room every night to ward off assassins.
-One story says that toward the end of his life, Chandragupta left the throne to his
son and became a monk in southern India. Fasting and praying, he starved himself
to death.
-Although his rule was harsh, Chandragupta used his wealth to improve his empire.
-New irrigation systems brought water to farmers.
-Forests were cleared, and more food was produced.
-Government officials promoted crafts and mining.
-A vast network of roads made it easier for Maurya traders to exchange goods with
foreign lands.
-Chandragupta’s leadership brought order and peace to his people.
II. Asoka’s Leadership
-Chandragupta passed the leadership of the Maurya Empire on to his son.
-After the son died in 273 B.C., Chandragupta’s grandson, Asoka, gained power.
-Asoka, whose name means “without sorrow,” further expanded Chandragupta’s
empire.
-By the end of his lengthy rule in 232 B.C., Asoka had built the greatest empire India
had ever seen.
-For more than thirty-five years, Asoka rules an empire that included much of the
Indian subcontinent.
-Early in his rule, Asoka led his army south into the state of Kalinga.
-In about 261 B.C., he won a bloody battle in which thousands of people were
injured or died. The great slaughter at Kalinga was a turning point in Asoka’s life.
He was filled with sorrow over the bloodshed. He gave up war and violence. He
freed his prisoners and restored their land. Later, he chose to convert to Buddhism .
-Asoka practiced and preached the teachings of the Buddha.
-He did not allow the use of animals for sacrifices. He gave up hunting.
-Asoka thought of his people as his children and was concerned about their welfare. He had hospitals built and even had wells dug every mile beside the roads so that travelers and animals would not go thirsty.
-Asoka was also concerned with his people’s moral and spiritual life. To carry the Buddha’s message throughout his vast empire, Asoka issued writings of moral advice. His advice and laws were carved on stone pillars about forty feet high.
-Asoka practiced religious tolerance toward the Hindus.
-During his rule, many of the Buddha’s teachings became part of Hinduism. Buddhism grew under Asoka.
-At the time of Asoka’s death, India was united as never before.
-After his death, however, the great Maurya Empire declined.
-Without his strong leadership, his territories became divided. Small states began fighting with one another.
-Several centuries of invasion and disorder followed.
-It took almost 600 years before India was united again.
III. The Influence of India’s Physical Geography
-India has been influenced by its physical geography in many ways. First, the
Himalayas cut India off from the rest of the ancient world. However, invaders
entered India through the passes of the Hindu Kush Mountains to conquer and
settle the land.
-Two great river systems cut through the Himalayas and carried melting snow to the
plains.
-The Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea limited contact with lands to the east and
west.
-Monsoons dominate the climate and bring rains that create fertile farmlands.
-The Indus River Valley contained fertile soil for farming. Well-planned cities
flourished there.
IV. The Rule of Chandragupta and Asoka
-Both were strong rulers who brought order and peace to their people.
-In the early years of his rule, Asoka was warlike like his grandfather.
-They were different because Asoka eventually embraced Buddhism and became
concerned about his people’s welfare. Chandragupta, on the other hand, ruled
harshly.
Chandragupta used his powerful army to conquer kingdoms and build his empire.
He brought order and peace to his people.
Asoka issued writings of moral advice to his people, established laws that required people to treat each other with humanity, spread Buddhism by sending out missionaries, united India, treated his subjects like his children, and built hospitals and wells because he cared about them.
V. The Maurya Empire and India’s Golden Age.
-Many believe that the Maurya Empire marked India’s Golden Age for several
reasons.
-foreign trade developed during the reign of Chandragupta, the emperor used his
wealth to improve the empire by clearing forests, creating a network of roads, and
producing more food.
-Also due to Asoka’s concern for his people which led to the construction of
hospitals and the toleration of other religions.