CIVILIZATION OF THE INDUS RIVER VALLEY

2400 BCE-civilization grew in the river valley of the Indus.

2500 and 2000 BCE-civilization decline.
512 BCE-India felt the centralized control of Persia through the satrap.
326 BCE-Alexander the Great conquered and annexed India to his empire until his
death.
322 BCE-India was united into a single empire known as Mauryan Empire founded
by Chandragupta Maurya.
261 BCE-Mauryan Empire was ruled by King Ashoka.
319 BCE-Gupta Dynasty established in Magadha.

THE INDUS RIVER AND ITS CITIES

Indus River flows southwest through Pakistan.
Indus River overflows and causes flood every year, leaving silts that provide good soil
for farming like the Tigris and Euphrates of Mesopotamia.
Archeologists discovered that Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were abandoned after a
flood and disappeared so completely. Though they disappeared, they left legacies.
The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro revealed streets of considerable size and
number.
The people were also found to have lived in walled cities made of brick buildings that
suggested an excellent and strong central government.
Relics found revealed that the setters of these cities lived by farming and
domestication of animals.
Clay seals described that they traded with other groups of people, most probably the
Mesopotamians.
THE ARYANS
First people to inherit the legacies of the Indus Valley.
Also called as Noble Ones.
They are known to be nomads who came from Iran through the northwest India
across the Khyber Pass.
Hinduism-result of the blending of the Indus Valley culture and that of the Aryans.
Sindhu-name given to the Indus and Sanskrit is the name of the Aryans language.
Vedas-four religious books that contain hymns, incantations, and rituals from ancient
India.
Scruti-means that which is heard. It is the collection of the four Vedas.
Samhita-means collection.
Rig Veda-tells of the barbarian tribes fighting in battles and settling themselves in
small villages cultivating crops and grazing flocks of goats, sheep, and cattle.
-oldest, compared to the other Vedas.
Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and Atharva Veda-the other three Vedas.
The Hindu principle of nonviolence, which forbids man to kill any of their animals, gave
special protection to cows, conferring on it almost the status of a sacred beast.
Dasyu-the conquered people of the Indus.

-means dark-skinned and was later known as slaves.

Indian Caste System-it is a position of a man and his descendants in the society.
-distinction by color was believed to be its basis.
BUDDHA AND THE INDIAN SOCIETY
Buddhism appealed to the lower-caste members. Buddhas teachings were confined
only at first to a small area in northeast India. Its effect, which centered on genuine
humanitarian resolution, was spread with the coming of great kings and creation of new
empires.
THE MAURYAN EMPIRE
According to the writings of the Greek diplomat Megasthenes, Pataliputra, the
capitalsurrounded by a wooden wall pierced by 64 gates and 570 towers
512 BCE-India felt the centralized control of Persia through the satrap
326 BCE-Alexander the Great conquered and annexed India to his empire until his
death.
322 BCE-India was united into a single empire known as Mauryan Empire founded
by Chandragupta Maurya.
THE REIGN OF ASHOKA
Ashoka-most outstanding king of the Mauryan Empire in 261 BCE.
He is a great warrior who set out to conquer the east coast of India.
In his words of conquests he said, a hundred thousand people were deported,
a hundred thousand killed.
This terrible cruelty was known to have filled Ashoka with remorse, so he decided to
convert to Buddhism.
He renounced war as a means of conquest and organized the state of humane
principles.
He gave instruction for the provision of medical services, personal morality, and a
new standard of justice for all.
He transformed Buddhism from a small religious sect to a great religion by sending
missionaries to as far as Southeast Asia.
He came to be known as the Great Propagator of Buddhism.
Because of the death of Ashoka, the Mauryan Dynasty declined. The vast empire broke
up again into separate kingdoms and conflict between sects continued. These conflicts
led to the Dark Ages of India.
THE GUPTA DYNASTY
Lasted from about AD 320 to 480.
It was established in Magadha, the center of Ashokas empire.
The dynasty was founded by Chandragupta II.

 Chandragupta was succeeded by Samudragupta (c. AD326-375), one of the greatest

of Indian kings, who conquered nearly the whole of India.
The Gupta kings, though tolerant of all religions were Hindus.
The Gupta Era was known to be the Golden Age of Hinduism.
The Gupta dynasty appears to have fostered a revival of Brahmanism at the expense
of Buddhism, and to have given an impulse to art and literature.
By the middle of the 6th century, nomadic tribes and the Huns broke through the
passes of the northwest and destroyed the flourished Gupta civilization. From then on,
several kingdoms rose and fell from the ruins of the Gupta Empire.
CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE INDUS CIVILIZATION TO THE MODERN WORLD

Hinduism and Buddhism shaped Indias culture.

The Kamasutra of the Gupta Era gave us the final form of the Indian art.
During the Gupta Era, astronomical studies made progress.
Aryabhata-5th century astronomer who believed that the earth was a sphere which
rotates on its axis and that the earth and sun also move.