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India
Early History
Indus River Valley (2600 B.C. - 1900 B.C.)
Very Powerful, hundreds of cities
Harappa & Mohenjo - Daro
Big planned cities, 400 miles apart
Aqueducts
Drainage for sweage
Roads
Irrigation
Don’t Know
Writing? Can’t read
Religion
Fall (Invasions? Soil erosion? River Shifted?)
1500 B.C. - 1000 B.C. - Aryan Migration
Indo-Europeans
Brought: Language = Sanskrit
Religion = Hinduism
Social Divisions: Caste System
Political History since Aryan Migration
Indian Subcontinent
Very Few Periods of Political Unity
Kingdoms arose in Northern India
Through most of history Northern India
Small kingdoms ruled by rajas
Strict social structure
Mauryan Empire (324 B.C. - 184 B.C.)
Arose in response to the threat from Greece
Short period of time united North india
Ashoka (269 B.C. - 232 B.C.) - important ruler … He converted to Buddhism
He puts pillars up
India Goods
Trade...Cotton
Divided kingdom into provinces
After Fall
India is not united again for 500 years, decentralization.
1 Kingdom in north india the Kushans...stop on the silk road, kind of powerful but not very powerful
Gupta Empire (320 AD - 550 AD)
North india
Hindu, but tolerant
Math: pi, zero, decimal system
Hinduism - Stability of India
Brahman (Creater/Great World Soul)
Brahman has an infinite number of forms, each village has a god and goddess, thousands total