...WOMEN IN ANCIENT INDIA The sub-continent of India is both diverse in its history and geography. It was not until the Mauryan Empire in the third century b.c.e. when most of India was brought together under one ruling dynasty. Before the Mauryans there was the ancient era known as the Indus Valley or Harappan civilization, and then the invasion and settlement of the Aryans along the Ganges River plain. The Ganges and Indus Rivers are known as the mother and father of India. Other rivers traverse the land, which has a lot of desert regions, the mighty Himalayan Mountains, and the torrid and humid south where spices lured traders. Yearly monsoons interrupt the dry weather with its hot humidity. Today the countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh are separated from the state of India, but in the past there were an integral part of the culture. Many languages have served to separate the Indians, but Hinduism has been an uniting religious and cultural force in additional to the impact of Buddhism, Janism, and later Islam. Just recently India surpassed China as the most populated country in the world. Ancient India spans a vast period 2500 b.c.e.-250 b.c.e. Archaeology, ancient texts, and artifacts are being used to reconstruct the lives of women. “The earliest materials found by archaeological excavations suggest the worship of goddesses. The earliest recorded religious texts (ca. 1500 b.c.e.) call on the life-giving power of goddesses to give life and to nurture and sustain it.”...
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...Ancient India The civilizations of the Indus River Valley were a very unique group for a number of reasons. As with most ancient civilizations, the social, political and economic systems were guided by religious beliefs. For ancient Indians; however, religious practice literally dictated most levels of social organization and political direction. Also, the same basic religious beliefs are still practiced today, giving researchers a deep understanding of this religious tradition. Another unique aspect of ancient India is the nature of its ruins. There are a number of urban centers that appear to be abandoned, yet not destroyed. The intact nature of these sites creates an intriguing picture of an advanced society set in the ancient world; with nuance and details usually lost to time still available for study. One of the earliest cities of ancient India is Mohenjo-Daro. Located on the Western edge of the subcontinent, Mohenjo-Daro was a walled city built along the Indus River, which was typical of the time. It was a particularly large city, with approximately 50,000 residents. For purposes of illustrating the social structure and lifestyle of early Indians, it serves as the perfect example. Constructed of mud and bricks, the city had two distinct areas; the citadel and the city proper. The citadel served as a meeting area for military operations and as a hide out for citizens during attacks. Its location on a hill, high above the town proper suggests both its importance...
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...overview The Indus Valley civilization was an ancient civilization located in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent. The Indus Valley is contemporary with the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. The civilization is famous for its large and well-planned cities. Over 1,052 cities and settlements have been found. Most of these are small, but amongst them are some of the largest cities of their time, especially Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Geography The Indus Valley civilization covered most of what is today Pakistan and the Indian states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab. Settlements which were closely related to the core civilization - and may have been colonies of it - have been found in Afghanistan and central Asia. The huge Indus river system waters a rich agricultural landscape. The Indus plain is surrounded by high mountains, desert and ocean, and at that time dense forest to the east. Well-planned Cities The early phase of the civilization lasted from circa 3300 BC until 2800 BC. This saw farming settlements grow into large and sophisticated urban centres. The quality of municipal town planning indicates that these communities were controlled by efficient governments. These clearly placed a high priority on accessibility to water. Modern scholars tend to see in this the influence of a religion which places a string emphasis on ritual washing - much like modern Hinduism. Hygiene was also important to the inhabitants...
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...Culture 1. What did daily life look like in the Indus Valley? Although the Indus Valley civilization dates to the distant past, it’s daily life ranged from a diverse collection of clothing, food, and art. Firstly, the limited depictions of clothing in the Indus Valley represent that both men and women dressed in colourful robes. For instance, some male figurines that have been found in graves show that men wore a cloth around the waist, resembling a modern dhoti and similarly passed between the legs. Other relics reveal that they also wore a long shawl over the left shoulder, leaving the right shoulder and chest bare. On the other hand, woman’s clothing is portrayed as a knee-length skirt with a cloth draped over their body, referred to...
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...medicines and technologies. While there are many civilizations to choose from, some of the best contributions came from the Egyptian, Chinese, Greek, Roman, Muslim, Indian, and Japanese cultures. In order to understand what these civilizations did to transform the medical world, it is a necessity to first recognize and appreciate what they were able to accomplish with the little resources available at the time. That being said, even though these societies had little to work with, they were still capable of amazing achievements. The first civilization being considered is the Egyptian civilization because it is one of the oldest and most well-known for their proficiency in various fields, including medicine. The Egyptians possessed a large amount of knowledge of healing with herbs as well as repairing physical injuries in order to tend to the workers responsible for building the great monuments that we still see today in Egypt (Shuttleworth, Ancient Medicine). The Egyptians were very skilled at performing eye surgery, since irritation of the eyes was common in a desert society. Most of the archeological evidence we have today is thanks to the well preserved mummy corpses. We know that healed skeletons were a good indication that prove the Egyptians were capable of major repairs to broken bones. Doctors practiced amputation and sometimes even applied prosthetics while using antiseptics to counter infections from amputation (Shuttleworth, Ancient Medicine). The Egyptians were very knowledgeable...
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...Ministry of Tourism launched a campaign to promote Incredible India as a tourist destination in 2002 Indian Flag – Facts • The saffron colour = denotes courage and sacrifice. • White colour = denotes truth, peace and purity. • Green colour = symbolizes prosperity, vibrance and life. • The Ashok Chakra (wheel) represents the righteousness, progress and perpetuity. The 24 spokes of the wheel represents the 24 hours of a day. • Indian flag was adopted on 22nd July 1947 • Nickname for Indian flag is Tiranga (Tricolor) Introduction • The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 Before Common Era; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. • The Indus Valley is one of the world's earliest urban civilizations, along with its contemporaries, Mesopotamia (site of several ancient civilizations; part of what is now known as Iraq) and Ancient Egypt • "Ek sur" (One Tune) (languages of India), or Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" as it is better known, is an Indian song and accompanying video promoting national integration and unity in diversity. • The concept for Mile Sur was developed in 1988 by Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad and promoted by Doordarshan (then India's sole TV broadcaster) and India's Ministry of Information. MUSIC & DANCE • Music has always occupied a central place in the imagination of Indians. • More than 60 Instruments and 15 vocal forms •...
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...Battuguldur Bilguun Travis Schill World History October 12, 2013 Early Civilizations From 10200 B.C to 400 AD was a timeline of Early Civilizations. Early Civilizations are divided into 3 main groups; The Neolithic Era, Bronze Age and Iron Age. They all had great accomplishments in agriculture, government, religion, and education. Every civilization had their own unique way of living. Many of our agriculture, inventions, and religion were practiced by them. We merely adopted their way of life. So we can say that Early Civilizations became fundamentals for our modern invention, agriculture and religion. Ancient people discovered the development of agriculture accidentally. Before finding agriculture, ancient people had a hunter-gatherer system where males go hunting and females and kids stay home and gather fruits or any other edible plants. Farming started from the Neolithic Era which involved the domestication of animals and plants. Increasing population was the number one reason people started to farm. Because they couldn’t feed all the hungry mouths just by hunting animals. They had to have a large population at that time because ancient people lived under constant dangers caused by other tribes. The people who first cultivated cereal grains have observed them in the wild while they were hunting or gathering and noticed the seeds fall. After sometime, they return to the same place to find a...
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...The ancient "Olmec’s" of Mexico and Mesoamerica are one of the most intriguing civilizations of the Americas. In fact, they are the first civilization in Mexico and it was from them that all other civilizations in Mesoamerica followed. There society emerged from around 1200 B.C. to about 400 and they settled in the forests, savannas, and rivers of the Gulf of Mexico. Yet, the theories of the Olmec’s origins strike a controversy that’s baffling between many scholars. Studies done by researchers such as Ivan Van Sertima have presented evidence that identifies the Olmec’s with the Mandé people of West Africa. According to Betty Meggers of the Smithsonian Institution the Olmec civilization originated due to Shang Chinese influences around 1200 BC. The ancient Olmec’s of Mexico and Central America were a fascinating people. Upon the discovery of colossal stone heads in Mexico during the early part of the twentieth Century, there was no doubt that the facial features and hair texture (including cornrows) represented in the colossal Olmec sculpture represented African people. The assertion that the Olmec came from Africa is supported with scientific evidence via genetics, writings, religion, language and archaeology. To elaborate, the Olmec’s were not Indians with "baby faces," or Indians who looked like Blacks. They were Africans no different from Africans found in the Mende regions of West Africa. Studies done by Ivan Van Sertima show that the Olmec’s used the Mende script, a writing...
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...presents a complete account of the idealistic British Empire’s presence in India. Simon Schama reveals the fundamental aspects of governing principles of the Empire in India. He shows the effect of the free market economies and the liberal politics on the presence and the influence of British Empire in India. Some transformational occurrences in India such as the mutiny and Irish Potato Famine are greatly highlighted. As a result, the attempts of Britain to civilize Indians and simultaneously transform them into British people through education and legal reforms are the main points demonstrated in the video. The video indicates the way, in which the noble principles of the British Empire were not appropriate for handling the situations in India. Although the empire was supposed to provide benefits associated with Western civilization, the inhabitants of Ireland and India endured poverty because of the laissez faire economic policy. The lack of religious sensitivity, famine and mutiny resulted in the conflict between Indians and Britons. Moreover, the great Irish potato famines led to mass migration from Ireland to New Zealand, Australia, Canada and America. According to Simon Schama, Britain witnessed the establishment of the liberalism ideology and fast development of political institutions in the mid-19th century. As Britain continually developed and the public attained more freedom, liberalism was distributed to different colonies, in which settlers in New Zealand, Canada and...
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...UNDERSTANDING THE ARYANS A roadmap for students and beginners Burjor Avari (Manchester Metropolitan University) It is a known fact of history that the British curiosity and interest in Indian cultures increased phenomenally after the East India Company came to acquire a territorial hold on Bengal from the late 1750s onwards. Their paramountcy over India’s millions depended upon their thorough understanding of the cultures of the sub-continent which required a mastery in its languages.[i] The small circle of dedicated and assiduous students of India’s languages included Sir William Jones, the eminent jurist and polymath who resided in India between 1783 and 1794.[ii] After studying Sanskrit for just under three years he observed, in 1786, that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin and Old Persian had all descended from an original speech. His observation has proved correct; and, since his time, most learned philological opinion has accepted that, in terms of language classifications, the common source of these tongues was what is now called proto-Indo-European. Its geographical focus was presumed to be the area around the Caspian Sea. It is also generally accepted that the eastern branch of the Indo-European family of languages is known as the Indo-Iranian whose first speakers called themselves Aryans. Whether the Aryans, speaking some variety of Indo-European languages, invaded or migrated into Iran and India from their original trans-Caspian homeland or...
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...Pyramids in Peru The pyramids in Peru were thought to be between 4,400-4,600 years old and some people say it is the oldest city in the Americas. The pyramids of Peru are 1 of 6 civilizations with pyramids. Even the civilization that supposedly built them lacked ceramics, writing and apparently had almost no art, yet they somehow build these amazing pyramids. Caral complex didn't build the original pyramids made out of many layered rocks. This civilization built these pyramids and buried them and left them for somebody to find without knowing what they meant. For example, the mysterious mounds that litter the Ohio valley are attributed to local Natives but the Indians themselves saying they never built the mounds and that a lost race had built...
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...Cambridge University Press 0521817404 - Ancient Cahokia and the Mississippians - Timothy R. Pauketat Excerpt More information 1 Civilization in North America This wasn’t a chiefdom; it was a kingdom! Robert Carneiro1 “Civilization” is not a word typically associated with ancient North America. The cities, stone pyramids, and writing systems of the Old World, Mexico, or Peru are not generally thought to have existed in the pre-Columbian Mississippi valley. However, if we define a civilization as a kind of political culture or as a great tradition associated with popu- lated administrative centers and spread across some portion of a conti- nent, then it is clear that there was a pre-Columbian civilization in the Mississippi valley, or at least the early stages of one. Archaeologists often call it “Mississippian culture” and refer to the many peoples of the time simply as “Mississippians.” There were political and religious centers associated with the Mississip- pian civilization, the largest of which was Cahokia, along the middle por- tion of the Mississippi...
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...The history of the world is the history of humanity, beginning with the Paleolithic Era. Distinct from the history of Planet Earth (which includes early geologic history and prehuman biological eras), world history comprises the study of archeological and written records, from ancient times on. Ancient recorded history begins with the invention of writing.[1][2] However, the roots of civilization reach back to the period before the invention of writing. Prehistory begins in the Paleolithic Era, or "Early Stone Age," which is followed by the Neolithic Era, or New Stone Age, and the Agricultural Revolution (between 8000 and 5000 BCE) in the Fertile Crescent. The Neolithic Revolution marked a change in human history, as humans began the systematic husbandry of plants and animals.[3][4][5] Agriculture advanced, and most humans transitioned from a nomadic to a settled lifestyle as farmers in permanent settlements. Nomadism continued in some locations, especially in isolated regions with few domesticable plant species;[6] but the relative security and increased productivity provided by farming allowed human communities to expand into increasingly larger units, fostered by advances in transportation. World population[7] from 10,000 BCE to 2,000 CE. The vertical (population) scale is logarithmic. As farming developed, grain agriculture became more sophisticated and prompted a division of labor to store food between growing seasons. Labor divisions then led to the rise of a leisured...
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...INDUS CIVILIZATION Indus civilization, also called Indus valley civilization or Harappa civilization, the earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent. It was first identified in 1921 at Harappa in the Punjab region and then in 1922 at Mohenjo-Daro (Mohenjo-Daro), near the Indus River in the Sindh (Sind) region, now both in Pakistan. Subsequently, vestiges of the civilization were found as far apart as Sutkagen Dor, near the shore of the Arabian Sea 300 miles (480 km) west of Karachi, also in Pakistan, and Rupnagar, in India, at the foot of the Shimla Hills 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to the northeast. Later exploration established its existence southward down the west coast of India as far as the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay), 500 miles (800 km) southeast of Karachi, and as far east as the Yamuna (Jumna) River basin, 30 miles (50 km) north of Delhi. It is thus decidedly the most extensive of the world’s three earliest civilizations; the other two are those of Mesopotamia and Egypt, both of which began somewhat before it. The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) located in the western region of South Asia, and spread over what is now Pakistan, northwest India, and eastern Afghanistan. Flourishing in the Indus River basin, the civilization extended east into the Ghaggar-Hakra River valley and the upper reaches Ganges-Yamuna Doab, it extended west to the Makran coast of Baluchistan and north to northeastern...
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...Schaffer, at Case Western University, writes in “Migration Philology and South Asian Archeology” that there is an indigenous development of civilization in India going back at least to 6000 B.C. He proposes that the Rigvedic civilization initially crops up in the surrounding of the Sarswati River described in the RigVedic text. The river dries up due to environmental changes and this has forced the Rig-Vedic people to make their new abode in the surrounding of the Indus River. He mentions that the movement of populations away from the Sarswati to the Ganges after the Saraswati dries up in about 1900 BC is reflected in the changes from the Sarswati- based literature of the Rig Veda to the Ganges based literature of Itihas and Puranic text. He also states that the AIT reflects a colonial and Euro-Centric perspective that is quit out of date. He...
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