Today I will introduce you to the course. You'll get your books, tell me a little bit about what you already know about the Indian Subcontinent, and watch the first episode of The Story of India.
Nothing due today.
We will watch the first episode of The Story of India. Here's a summary.
Part 1 of this video series deals with the pre-history of India, the time before written records, and a somewhat later period when there were written records, but we don’t know what the writing means because no one has yet deciphered the script. So how do we know about the period if there are no written records ? Archaeological digs which have exposed bits & pieces, which when put into context tell some of the history ; also, intelligent hunches from scientists & historians ; and, oral tradition. Even if people didn’t write, they told stories, and those stories were memorized and passsed down from one generation to the next, so that today we have an unbroken line of story-tellers to pass on the traditions, often with amazing detail and accuracy.
Use the following questions to guide your reading and prepare you for the discussion next class. The discussion question will be: What are the social, political, and economic advantages and disadvantages of urbanization?
1. Where on the planet did “man” first evolve, and what was the route to arrive in India ?
2. Who were the Brahmins, and what was their function in early Indian society ?
3. Why do we believe that Brahmin mantras still performed in Kerala (SW India) derived from the most ancient roots ?
4. Explain the fact that as religion developed the number of gods multiplied into the thousands.
5. What change in lifestyle permitted early man to convert from nomad to village/town/city dweller ?
6. What characteristics must have been found together in one place in order for the answer to Q5 to have occurred ?
7. When did the Harappa civilization begin ?
8. How do we ascertain such dates ?
9. To later Indians living in “British India”, what was the significance of the archaeological discovery of the Harappa-Mohenjo Daro civilization ?
10. What caused the formation of the world’s largest mountain range, the Himalayas ?
11. What are the “monsoons” ?
12. What do we think caused the demise of the Indus River civilization ?
13. What message does this hold for us today ?
14. Once the Indus River civilization was in decline, where do we think that people migrated, seeking better conditions ?
15. What is the “mother” language of a billion people in the Indian Sub-Continent today ?
16. The Vedas. What are they, and what is the Rig-veda ?
17. What story is told in the Rig-veda ?
18. What did British official, William Jones, learn by studying Sanskrit ?
19. How did Jones come to this conclusion ?
20. Where did the Sanskrit language originate ?
21. Who was the chief god of the Aryans ?
22. What does the word “Aryan” mean ?
23. The Aryans had, for a time, their headquarters in the Indus River valley, the nearby Swat river, and modern day Peshawar. Why has Swat & Peshawar been in the news in recent months ?
24. Where do we think the Aryans originated ?
25. What may have forced the Aryans to migrate towards the present-day India/Pakistan border ?
26. What is the Mahabharata ?
27. Why is the Mahabharata still so significant in India today ?
28. Was the Mahabharata a fabulous mythological tale, or a factual account of history ?
29. What is the Holi ceremony ?
South Asia
Indian Subcontinent
Brahmins
Agricultural revolution
Indus Valley civilization
Civilization
Harappa
Mohenjo-Daro
Himalaya mountains
Ganges river
Vedas
Rig Veda
Aryans
Sanskrit
Dharma
Monsoon
Vedic religion
Nomads
Hunter-gatherers
Varna
Jati
Caste
Upanishads
Mahabharata
Bhagavad Gita
Ramayana