Ancient India

MAP OF ANCIENT INDIA

Ancient India consisted of Northern India located in the mountains of Himalaya and Northwest India

located in Hindu Kush. Northern India was encircled by three parts of water: the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and

the bay of Bengal in the Northeast. The name India came from Indus River in India. Those People who live near the

wet area, such as oceans and rivers survived with seafood. The people who live in the mountains needed to make

textiles for get warm and keep the are dry. They needed to figure out to how to transport and conserve water. They

make big in height and length walls to save the water. They make underground pipes to transport the water to other

places from river.

Geography

Time PeriodThere were many things that were discovered in the time period of ancient India. This time period

was between 4000 B.C.E to 100 C.E.

Golden AgeThe golden age of ancient India is between 320-550 CE, which is the Gupta period. It happened

because ancient India was safe, they had powerful military to protect all people. They used elephants in wars as it

meant fewer people got killed in war. People got health care and they didn’t need to pay. Writers, artist and musician

produce their art and they were paid. Ancient India would have lots of resources for war to get safe.

GovernmentIn the large kingdoms in India, people who had more power would be chosen as king and that person

would be king forever. The king would be the ruler until his death. After that, his son would rule the kingdom. The

king chose additional kings to rule different states. No citizens or non-citizens had power or were opposed to the

kings. Until the 6th century B.C.E, there were 16 great kingdoms in ancient India.

Economy The economy in ancient India was mainly based on agriculture and artitecture but some people did

some other work to get money such as pottery, carpentry, metal-work, glass-work, leather-work and some of them

were merchant/traders and craftsmen.

Religion The main religion in ancient India was Hinduism. Besides Hinduism, there were other religions such

as Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, and Sikhism. Hinduism is believed to be the oldest major religion in ancient India.

There were the three main gods in Hindu:

▪ Brahma the creator

▪ Vishnu the preserver

▪ Shiva the destroyer.

Shiva, in his cosmic dance of destruction. He is a most feared god, whose followers beg him to create

and preserve. This is called “Siva’s dance” but in myth, people say that if Shiva is angry, he starts to break things.

The one guru gave Shiva a power that he has 3 eyes.

TechnologyThey invented a system of mathematics, which consists of numbers, symbols and equations.

Numbers- they only use number 0-9 even they use larger numbers. Symbols- there are addition, subtraction,

multiplication and division. Equations- they use symbols and numbers to make a statement of equal expression.

They advocated a medicine system that used human intervention instead of depending on the divine. They

advanced surgery, they introduced Vaccination, rhinoplasty, and eye surgery to the west. they invented a logical

system of alphabets. they advanced industries such as metalworking, textiles and shipbuilding.

KnowledgeAncient India was the first one to find a time measurement. In Jaipur people make a thing called

“Jantar Mantar” and it helps people to produce great works on astronomy, chemistry, geography, medicine, and

mathematics. Also, it made for observe the angles of the sun, moon, and stars in relation to earth.

Gurukul system - Students live together and teachers live near the students. Students are go to at

school called “Gurukul” and study 7-8 hours per day and after that they work a farm and some of them work on

cleaning the Gurukul. In good weather, The class takes place under the trees; in rainy weather, the class takes place

under the roof. They studied the Sanskrit language. Education was free for students, that means students doesn’t

need to pay any fee. students were expect to be self-disciplined and self control.

Arts & Culture The history of art in ancient India begins with painting or rock painting. They also used symbols in

their paintings. They also used art in architecture. Their art is an expression of their life and holds their passion. For

the music they produce their own music and sing in festival, weddings, and when they were pray. They plays lots of

instruments are bansuri, harmonium, pakhawai, rudra-vina, santur, sarangi, sarod, shehnai, sitar, tabla tanpura.

Architecture Indian architecture is as old as its history of the civilization. They had many different types of

architectures such as the cave architecture rock cut and temple architecture. There are lots of Temples, Golden

temple, Masjids, etc.

Find and explain each of the work what they do and how they do it.

Rise and FallThe Fall of Gupta Empire: On the 6th century, the Gupta Empire was already weak. The

government was almost powerless until the governors of provinces became stronger until they became same

stronger then king with their territory. New invaders called “the white Huns”. The Huns massacred the population

and they burned the houses. The Huns did not stay very long in India after massive slaughter and destruction. The

Huns could not bear the warmer climate in India.

ContributionsThere were many things that were discovered by ancient Indian. They had a huge influence of science

math and medicine. They were the first one to perform surgery. They invented algebra and trigonometry.

Sources/Websites :http://www.jeywin.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Indian-History-1-Ancient-India.pdf

http://www.indianetzone.com/39/education_ancient_india.htm

http://www.culturalindia.net/indian-history/ancient-india/ancient-geography.html

http://asiasociety.org/countries/traditions/math-science-and-technology-india-ancient-recent

http://www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_goddesses/brahma.htm

http://india.tilos.hu/english_hangszerek.html