Today we will begin to study the Golden Age of Indian civilization and the Guptas.
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Watch Episode 4 of The Story of India ("Ages of Gold"): Use the video to develop a question that you would like to answer in a written essay at the end of this unit. Use the questions below as a guide.
1. What time period are we now in ?
2. What is happening in Europe at the same time ?
3. How did India avoid the same disaster ?
4. What caste were the Guptas ?
5. Why is the Gupta Era called the “Golden Age” ?
6. Durga Puja ?
7. Ram Lila ?
8. In the 4th C C.E., was the story of Ram simply a lovely mythic story ?
9. Ayodhya : real or mythic ?
10. What had been the dynastic capital of India before Ayodhya ?
11. Why did the Gupta kings decide to make Ayodhya their capital ?
12. “Communal violence” is a common phrase in India today. Who is fighting whom ?
13. Michael Wood walks up to a Hindu temple in Ayodhya. What edifice existed on this same site in the 3rd Century BCE ?
14. If there are 3 layers of religious archaeology in Ayodhya, what are they, from earliest to most recent ?
15. How extensive was the Gupta Empire ?
16. How do we have such a detailed picture of the Gupta Empire in 400 C.E. if oral tradition was the only record kept by Indians in those days ?
17. List 5 arguments for stating that the Gupta did indeed create a Golden Age.
18. What is special about the iron pillar in Delhi ?
19. Tell me a little about Gupta Era science & mathematics.
20. Christianity could not deal with Galileo’s astronomical discovery that the human place in the Universe was tiny. How did Indian society handle the discoveries of Aryabhata ?
21. “India has always been a guilt-free society as far as sex is concerned.” Why ?
22. “Human love in Indian culture is a mirror of our relation with the gods.” Explain.