India and the Indus River Valley Civilization
Timeline
3000 B.C. - Rise of the Indus Valley civilization
2500 B.C. - Height of Indus Valley civilization
1700 B.C. - The Indus Valley civilization declines
1500 B.C. - Aryan invaders destroy the Indus Valley civilization; Vedic Age begins; development of Hinduism.
1400 B.C. - Rig Veda composed.
1000-700 B.C. - Mahabharata and Ramayana composed
700 B.C. - Sanskrit developed
563 B.C. - Siddhartha was born
Ca. 550 B.C. - Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) attempts to reform Hinduism
483 B.C. - Siddhartha dies
Summary
Topography of the Land
The Indus River Valley is in modern day Pakistan. The Indus Valley civilization was created by people who started farming and herding communities. The Hindu Kush Mountains are in the west/northwest, and on the northeast are the Himalaya Mountains. The civilization extended the length of the Indus River.
Beginning of the Indus River Valley civilization
The origins of the civilization are mostly unknown, and it reached its height ca. 2500 B.C. It declined ca. 1700 B.C. until it collapsed in ca. 1500 B.C. Two major cities were Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. They were carefully planned out and are made of the uniform materials throughout. They were ruled by a strong central authority. The buildings were made of dried bricks using kilns, and were of a standard size. They had well-planned sanitation systems, as there were wells for water for most homes and drainage systems. The streets were arranged in a grid pattern, and there were large public baths, which are thought to be for both hygienic and religious purposes.
Not much is known about the politics or economics of the civilization. The cities were probably ruled by priest-kings. The people (given the name Dravidians) were polytheistic and worshipped a mother goddess and three-faced god. There were stone seals found with carved inscriptions, yet they have not been deciphered as of 1992. Excavations show that floods damaged Mohenjo-daro. By 1500 B.C., the civilization had been taken by a group of people with iron weapons and horse-drawn chariots. These people were the Aryans, and they pushed through the Hindu Kush Mountains into modern day Iran to overtake the land.
Aryan Conquest
The Aryans were a light-skinned people that came in, and possibly enslaved the dark-skinned Dravidians or forced them out to other parts of India. Most of what was the Indus River Valley civilization was destroyed, and did not have the influence that Egypt and Sumer had. The early Aryan people were a nomadic people “loosely organized into tribes" (Howe, 106). They pushed eastward and settled in the region called the Indo-Gangetic plain. Their chief enemies were the Dravidians who probably lived in southern India during this period (1500-1000 B.C.). The tribes fought for control of the Indo-Gangetic plain, and the tribes were led by rajahs, or elected chiefs. Individual rajahs made their own kingdoms across the northern plain. There is little known about the early Aryans, because they had no method of writing until Sanskrit was developed around the year 700 B.C. Much of what is known comes from “the carefully guarded oral traditions that were handed down by the priests" (Howe, 106).
Hinduism
The earliest religious traditions are the Vedas, which literally means ‘knowledge”, which is a collection of poems, religious writings, and hymns, composed between the years of 1500 and 1000 B.C. The original Vedas were the Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda, and the Atharva Veda. These offer much information about the people of the time. The Rig Veda is the oldest and has 1028 hymns to different gods. Later writings were called Upanishads, and are commentaries on the ideas of the Vedas. The Vedas and the Upanishads together were the sacred literature of Hinduism. The period between 1500 and 700 B.C. is known as the Vedic Age.
In the religion of Hinduism “many ideas and inconsistencies coexist” (Howe, 106). The Hindus believe in Brahma, which is a single unifying force. They worship many gods in which are seen as difference aspects of Brahma. If the Hindus act in accord with dharma (universal moral laws), they can “attain the ultimate goal of existence” which is the reunifying of the individual’s soul with atman, the universal soul. This cannot be done in a lifetime, and people were believed to go through a series of rebirths. Each lifetime, one can get closer to this “ultimate goal”.
The Vedas also tell about wars among the Aryan kingdoms between 1000 B.C. and 700 B.C. Two primary sources are two epic poems called the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. They seem to mix fact and fiction just as Homer’s Iliad does. The Mahabharata is composed of 90,000 stanzas. The Ramayana shows the wandering of Rama, and is a tale of “love, abduction, and heroic rescue” (Howe, 108). He was banished from his homeland by his father while his wife Sita awaited his return. The story also focuses on the ideals expected of males and females. There are many religious themes woven throughout the epic.
The social structure of the earlier Aryans developed into today’s social caste system of India. In the earliest stages, there were three classes: warriors, priests, and commoners. At the end of the Vedic Age, a person’s status was determined at their birth, and priests replaced the warriors as the highest class. There were then four classes: Brahmans (priests and scholars), Kshatriyas (rulers and warriors), Vaisyas (craftworkers, merchants, and farmers), Sudras (unskilled workers and peasants). There were also outsiders that were classes, such as the Dravidians, and those who intermarried with them. This caste system was tied to the Hindu concept karma, which is the belief that all of a person’s actions will determine one’s fate in the following life. For example, the class they were born into was a result of how they acted in the former life. These actions were the obedience to the social, religious, and moral laws of their class.
Buddhism
The end of the Vedic Age was marked by the rise of the great power of the Brahmans. Their influence in society was derived from their roles as the guardians to the sacred Hindu texts and their control of sacred rituals. There were reformers that went up to challenge them, one of which was Siddhartha Gautama. He was from the Kshatriya class, and therefore very wealthy. He was disturbed from the suffering around him, so he gave up his life of riches to seek “understanding”. He wandered for six years in search of “answers”, and achieved “enlightenment” (Howe, 109). He was therefore called the Buddha, and the founder of Buddhism. Siddhartha taught Four Noble Truths:
- All life is suffering
- The cause of suffering is desire
- The only way to escape suffering is to end desire
- The way to end desire is to follow the Noble Eightfold Path
The Noble Eightfold Path includes:
- Right belief
- Right thoughts
- Right conducts
- Right speech
- Right living
- Right ambition
- Right pleasures
- Right effort
The goal of existence, according to Siddhartha, was the attainment of Nirvana, the condition of emptiness. He set out to reform Hinduism, and his teachings reflected this. On the other hand, he rejected the caste system and the Brahman domination. The religion flourished in India for centuries after his death, and then merged back into Hinduism. The message of Buddhism did reach the Far East, namely China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia, and it made a major impact there just as Christianity made an impact in Europe (Howe, 109).
A Review of Religious Impact
The Vedic Age beliefs were formulated into religious doctrine and dogma. Prominent activities consisted of war, drinking, chariot racing, and gambling.
The chief Aryan god was Indra, who was a great warrior. From this Hinduism emerged, and was entwined with the idea of the rigid social structure it came to embrace. The Rig Veda described the emergence of the four castes and states that the lowest caste should serve the upper three classes.
The significance of the end of the Vedic Age is the emergence of Buddhism. The teachings focused on noble thoughts as a means of salvation, and that individuals have control over their own destinies (Howe, 109).
Sources
Howe, Helen and Robert Howe. Ancient and Medieval Worlds. White Plains: Longman, 1992, pgs 104-113.