1. EARLY CIVILIZATIONS OF INDIA

2. INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION 2500-1500 BCE, largest of the world’s earliest civilizations, 1,000 miles inland from Arabian Sea

3. PLANNED CITIES: Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro Carefully laid out, checkerboard roads, walls, warehouses for food, elaborate bathing facilities

5. FARMING Grew barley, wheat, peas, and sesame Kept cattle, sheep, goats, and water buffaloes 1 st to grow cotton and domesticate chickens

6. UNSOLVED PUZZLES Clay seals with pictographs- we can’t decipher! Religion-a mother goddess? Cattle?

7. DECLINE OF THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION By 2000 BCE- cities show sign of decay: bricks no longer uniform, broken streets not repaired, large homes divided into apartments Possible reasons for decline: possible invaders, farming could not provide food for population, Indus River changed course, floods

8. ARRIVAL OF THE ARYANS Came to Indus River Valley through the Hindu Kush Mountains Aryan migration into India took hundreds of years: successors came due to iron weapons and chariots

9. ARYAN CULTURE Vedas- oral religious tradition: get most information about Aryan culture: includes hymns, prayers, and rituals Written between: 1500 BCE and 1000 BCE

10. RELIGIOUS BELIEFS First passed down by word of mouth Sanskrit developed later as a language

11. ARYANS WORSHIPED MANY GODS Indra: warrior god who had many human characteristics and enjoyed pleasures Varuna: strict figure who governed the universe and punished sinners

12. SACRIFICES Sacrifices: made to the gods, performed by priests on open-air alters Sacrifices of food and wine give people wealth, healthy children, long lives, and success in war

13. VILLAGES Aryans were farmers and herders who placed great value on cattle Men received cattle as rewards and measured wealth in cattle; the Vedas compared the Earth to cows- the rain was like a cow’s milk and the sun like a calf

14. RAJAHS Rajahs- hereditary chiefs- rules the villages with the help of a council of warriors The chief priests were the only ones who could carry out the sacrifices to please the gods.

15. SOCIAL CLASSES Four social classes called Varna which became the caste system

17. High priests originally determined class order Can compare occupations to the human body If from upper class and wed a Sudra or a non- Hindu, descendants are Pariahs or outcasts/untouchables