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| The Old Indian CivilizationThe Old Indian CivilizationPlan: 1. The “unknown land” of Asia – India. The “unknown lands” of Asia and Africa have fascinated Westerners for centuries. The Orient, with her silks and her unique cultures, has attracted travelers since early days. Despite the contacts, between Asia and Africa remained virtually unaffected by Western influences until the twentieth century. India is a land of great diversity, in its topography (the physical
features of a land), climate, and population, it is a study in contrasts. These people must have felt secure from invaders and foreign influences. They were protected by tall mountain ranges in the north and by seas on the east and west. But despite these natural barriers, India did not remain an isolated land. Throughout her history, merchants, foreign invaders and Wandering tribes crossed the mountains along India’s northwestern border and settled in the fertile river valleys. As a result, India became a land of diverse elements. Within Indian Society, a unique culture developed. Early Indian Civilization India derives its name from the Indus River, along whose fertile banks the earliest Indian civilization flourished (ca 2300 BC). Much of our limited knowledge of this civilization has come from excavations of two of its leading cities: Mohenjo – Daro and Harappa. These carefully planned cities had wide, straight streets lined with brick houses. Evidence indicates that, these cities had elaborate drainage and sewer systems, which were more advanced than those in most, modern Indian Villages. Although a great distance separates India and the Near East, the early inhabitants of India carried on trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia. From archeological evidence it is known that the Indus civilization ended suddenly – perhaps by flood on by enemy invasion. It was at this time that a warlike people called the Aryans migrated into the Indus Valley. The Aryans were a fair-skinned people who came from central Asia
sometime after 1500 BC and subdued the non Aryan people of northwest India. Our knowledge of the Aryans and their influence on Indian society comes not from archaeology, but from a collection of religious literature known as the Vedas, meaning “knowledge”. Preserved in the Vedas are early traditions and religious beliefs of the Indians, which were passed down orally from one generation to the next. From Sanskrit literature, we gain insights into the Aryan way of life, which became the basis of Indian culture and tradition. Key Features of Indian Society India has one of the oldest cultures in the modern world. The basic characteristics of Indian society, described in the Vedas, have changed little from ancient to modern days. Joint-Family The family has always been one of the most important social units in Parents chose the husbands or wives for their children in order to maintain the family’s position and honor in society. Caste Imagine living in a country in which your status in life was determined the moment you were born. India was such a country. Her population was divided into rigid social groups called castes. The Indians formulated strict rules governing the life of the members of each caste group: where they lived, what they did (profession), what they wore, what and with whom they could eat, as well as, whom they could marry. India had between two and three thousand different castes and subcastes. Each one fell into one of four broad “class” groups. The most important group was the priests, called the Brahmans. Next in rank were the rulers, and warriors, followed by the merchants and traders. The lowest class group was the sudras – composed of servants and serfs. Outside the caste system and at the bottom of the Indian social ladder were the outcastes, or “untouchables”, for mere contact with them was thought to bring defilement. While anyone could improve his status within his caste system there was little change in the village and family life of India. This fact explains in part why Indian society remained nearly the same for thousands of years. Religion and the Indian Way of Life Religion has played a dominant role in shaping Indian culture. From Hinduism Hinduism is ingrained in the Indian way of life. It developed from the
early culture and traditions of India: her social structure, literature,
arts and customs. It has not only preserved the traditional elements of Because Hinduism has no formal statement of doctrine, it was able to absorb into its system of belief a wide variety of gods and religious concepts found among the many of the people of India. The majority of people in India are Hindus. The basic tenets of Hinduism are found in the religions literature of ancient India, namely the Vedas and the Upanishads. Hindus believe that a great god called Brahman permeates everything in the universe. The Hindus acknowledge many gods; all deities, however, are considered only manifestations of the eternal, unchanging Brahman . Since Brahman is not a personal being, he is often referred to as the great soul or world soul. The ultimate purpose and goal of man according to the Vedas, is to reunite his soul with the world soul. This reunification is accomplished through the process of reincarnation, in which a man’s soul passes through many states (or rebirths) before it escapes the physical world and unites with Brahman. This cycle of rebirths is called the wheel of life. The Hindu believes that a person’s deeds in this life determine his status in the next. If he has lived a good life, then he will move to a higher caste in the next life. The soul of an evil person may be reborn into a lower caste or even into some form of animal life. By observing the religious ritual and ceremonies prescribed by the Hindu priests and by fulfilling the duties and obligations of his caste a Hindu believes that he can ultimately gain release from the “wheel of life” and attain union with the world soul. Buddhism. India was also the birth of Buddhism. The founder of this new religion was Siddhartha Gautama later know as Buddha, the Enlightened One”. At the age of twenty-nine, Gautama became troubled over the world. He became convinced that he should devote all his efforts to find the way of deliverance from suffering. Therefore, he renounced his wife and child, and set out to find peace and true happiness. After six frustrating years, living as a hermit in self-sacrifice and meditation, Gautama was at the point of despair. Sitting down under a tree, he vowed that he would not move until the truth came to him. According to Gautama, he was pondering the questions of life when he realized the truth and attained enlightenment. Central to Buddha’s teaching are his Four Noble Truths: 1) suffering is part of all existence; 2) suffering has a cause – selfish desires. As long as man has a craving for pleasure, possessions, and power, he will have sorrow and misery; 3) suffering can be overcome by destroying selfish desires. 4) If man follows the Eightfold Path, he will destroy selfish desires and end all suffering. This pattern for living includes correct beliefs, intentions, speech, conduct, livelihood, effort, thoughts, and meditations. Buddhism is a religion built upon works and moral behavior. Buddhists believe that man does not need the help of the gods or membership in a higher caste in order to obtain freedom from suffering. Once a man has absolutely freed himself from his selfish craving, he will no longer be reborn but will enter into Nirvana – the state of absolute peace and happiness, where he loses himself in the world soul. Lack of Political Unity While many aspects of Indian Society have remained the same for
centuries, the political history of India has been one of constant change. Mauryan Empire In 326 B.C. Alexander the Great threatened India. His armies crossed
the Indus River and conquered many small kingdoms in India’s northwestern
region. Alexander intended to advance further into India, but when his army
refused to continue, he had to turn back. According to traditional
accounts, he met a young man named Chandragupta Maurya while in India. As The most famous of the Mauryan rulers was Chandragupta’s grandson Asoca is created with building thousands of Buddhist shrines called steepas. He also had Buddhist teaching inscribed on stone pillars still stand, providing valuable information concerning Asoca’s reign. One of his most far-reaching acts was the sending of Buddhist missionaries abroad. Buddhism soon spread across much of Southeast Asia, where it became a powerful force in other Asian cultures. It did not gain a wide following in India, however. Hindu priests viewed Buddhist teaching as dangerous to the caste system. Fearing that they might lose their prestige and rank in society, they worked against the acceptance of Buddhist beliefs. Gupta Empire The first great period of Indian unity was short-lived. Not long after Even so, it was not until the fourth century A.D. with the rise of the One historian has stated that “at the time India was perhaps the
happiest and most civilized region of the world”. The rulers of the Gupta
dynasty reunited northern India under a strong and effective government. Gupta literature became renowned for its adventurous and imaginative fables and fairy tales. The foremost Indian poet and dramatist of this period was Kalidasa, whose plays have earned him the title “the Indian Shakespeare”. The popularity of various Indian Stories soon spread outside India, where many of them found their way into the literature of other lands. But Indian literature is represented by Mahabharata and Ramayana. Mahabharata is one of the two great Sanscrit epics. It’s the story of the Great Bharata War, a fratricidal war of succession between the Kaurava and Pandava cousins (descendants of Bharata) in which nearly all the kings of India joined on one side or the other. The Kauravas were destroyed and the Pandavas attained sovereign power but in the end the eldest. (Yo) Yudhishthira, renounced the throne and with his four brothers Book III Ch.313 “The Mahabharata” Romayana (adventures of Rama) is the earliest of the two great At instigation of his second queen Dasaratha sends Rama, his eldest
son, into exile for 14 years. He is accompanied by Sita, his young Wife and Rama accepts her but for the same reason banishes her (again) the next time. She goes away to Valmiki’s ashram, where her twin sons are born and brought up. She prays to the earth goddess to take her away if she is innocent who seated on her throne appears out of the earth and seating Sita on her lap takes her away for good. The epics Ramayana and Mahabharrata arose to supplement and reinforce
the teaching of the Vedas, particularly in respect of the moral, religious
and spiritual ideas of men and women. Since remote times, the two epics
have been the two eyes of the nation guiding it and holding up before it
the ideas of the truth and righteousness of Rama and Yudhishthira and of
chastity and wifely devotion of Sita, as also of the negative example of These epics were expected to fulfil the mission of placing before the people examples of how virtue triumphed and vicefell. This was also an age of advance in mathematics, science, and medicine. Customs in India India has many customs. The practice of self-information by fire has a strange and terrible place in the lore of India, and it brings to mind the practice of suttee, widow burning. This barbaric survival of ancient customs lasted in India to a late day. In 1817 there were 706 cases of suttee in Bengal alone. This was at a
time when the British authorities were making efforts to stop the practice. Hindu addiction to tradition, and resorted to intensive persuasion. No suttee was permitted until the prospective, victim had been examined by a magistrate, who made sure that she was proceeding of her own free will and urged her to give up her ghastly intention. The great source of information in that period is a massive volume The last king of Tanjore, who died in 1801, left behind him four lawful wives. The Brahmins decided that two of these should be burnt with the body of their husband, and selected the couple that should have the preference. It would have been the everlasting shame to them and the grossest insult to the memory of the deceased had they hesitated to accept this singular, honor, so they seemed perfectly ready to yield to the terrible lot which awaited them. The necessary preparations for the obsequies were completed in a single day. Three or four leagues from the royal residence a square pit of no great depth, and about twelve to fifteen feet square, was excavated Within it was erected a pyramid of sandalwood, resting on a kind of scaffolding of the same wood. The posts which supported it were so arranged that they could easily be removed and would thereby cause the whole structure to collapse suddenly. At the four courners of the pit were placed huge brass jars filled with ghee, to be thrown on the wood in order to hasten combustion . The following was the order of the procession as it wended its way to the pyre. It was headed by a large force of armed soldiers. Then followed a crowd of musicians chiefly trumpeters, who made the air ring with the dismal sound of their instruments. Next came the king’s body borne in a splendid open palanquin, accompanied by his guru, his principal officers, and his nearest relatives, who were all on foot and wore no turbans in token of mourning. Then came two victims, each borne on a richly decorated palanquin. The two queens were accompanied by some of their favorite women, with whom they occasionally conversed. Then followed relatives of both sexes, to whom the victims had made
valuable presents before leaving the palace. An innumerable multitude of On reaching the spot where their fate awaited them, the victims were required to perform the ablutions and other ceremonies proper on such occasions and they went through the whole of them without hesitation and without the least sign of fear. When, however, it came to walking round the pyre, it was observed that their features underwent a sudden change. During this interval the body of the king had been placed on the top of the pyramid of sandalwood. The two queen, still wearing their rich attire and ornaments, were next compelled to ascend the pyre. Lying down beside the body of the deceased prince, one on the right and other on the left, they joined hands across the corpse. The officiating Brahmins then sprinkled the pile with holy water, and emptied the jars of ghee over the wood, setting fire on it at the same moment. The flames quickly spread and the props being removed, the whole structure collapsed and in its fall must have crushed to death the two unfortunate victims. Thereupon all the spectators shouted aloud for joy. During the sixth century the Gupta Empire collapsed under the repeated
attacks of the White Huns (perhaps related to the Huns who plagued the After years of constant raids, Muslim warriors conquered much of
northern India, where they established a Muslim kingdom in 1206 near the
city of Delhi. Almost immediately a conflict arose between the Muslim and The Hindus followed the rigid caste system while the Muslims believed in the equality of all men before their god, Allah. Although Muslim control of northern India ended at the close of the fourteenth century, the hostilities between Hindus and Muslims in Indian society have continued to the present. Muslims contributed to the development of Indian culture. They left the valuable monument of art, the great masterpiece – Taj Mahal. Taj Mahal Of the seven Wonders of the Ancient World, two were dedicated to sentiment in marriage: the Mausoleum, monument of a wife’s devotion to the memory of her husband; the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, erected by a husband for the happiness of a favourite wife. Among the wonders of the modern world, one of the most famous commemorates a husband’s devotion to a wife. It is, of course, the incomparable Taj Mahal, the tomb that Shah Jehan
created for the beauteous Mumtaz Mahal, at the city of Agra, in India. The The Taj Mahal is the masterpieces of Mohammedan Art. That it arose on The founder of the Mogul Empire was one of the remarkable men of all
time. In martial ardor and ability to command, Baber may have been a
typical princeling of Iartary, but he was also a man of culture, the author
of perhaps best political memoirs ever written by a reigning monarch. In Baber did not finish the work of integrating an imperial domain. But the Moguls were lucky in the next representative of their dynasty Akbar, known to history as Akbar The Great. He introduced a new system of government, bringing ale the land under his direct authority naming his own viceroys, setting up a comprehensive tax levy, keeping the provincial military forces in the pay of the central treasury to prevent local rebellious before they could get started. At his death (1605) he left behind an empire so closely knit and
organized that it could continue in much the same form for another century. Iahangir died in 1627 and the throne passed to his son, Shah Jehan. Shah Ielah reacted to the tragedy as did Artemisia on the death The basic material used was wite marble, with the wall and gates of red sandstone, a colour scheme, that has the remarkable effect of showing different tints at different times of the day. The building stands on a 186- foot square with the angles cut to form on octagon. Beneath it is a raised marble platform, extending all around and marked by delicate minarets at each corner. Above swells the great dome, about two thirds of a sphere, surmounted by a crescent and flanked by smaller domes, each of the walls is cut by arches of a similar but not at all mono fonous pattern, rather, they contribute to the unity of the whole, Light enters through marble screens. There is an old saying that “The Moguls built like titans and finished like jewelers”. The Taj Mahal proves the truth of the remark. Looked from a distance, its appearance is indeed dreamlike, with a grare and balance that make us wonder how human beings ever achieved so miraculous a result from marble and sandstone. After Shah Jehan the Mogul Empire had no place to go except downward. Then Aurangzeb moved the capital of the Mogul Empire from Agra to But India is famous not only for this monument of art – It has other wonderful masterpieces of architecture. Art of India Indian civilization was one of the oldest and most original in the In the 3rd century b.c. almost the whole Hindostan peninsula and some neighbouring countries, were united into one gigantic empire under the powerful king, Ashoch (273). Only stone edifies in that period have survived till nowadays: temples and cells, stone-shrines. Shrines were erected of brick and stone in the form of hemisphere, surrounding by the fence with 4 gates in it. Stone statues served as adornments of architecture and more often were created in the form of scenic relief. Motions, gestures and poses of the people on the relief are extremely expressive and graceful. That was under the influence of the dance art, widely spread and popular in India. Religious architecture of the Ashoch period is represented by cave
complexes and temples. Such temples were usually carved in the picturesque
and secluded places out of the solid rock massif. Excavations in the North Figures of Buddha resemble much statues of the Roman emperors and some
of the Greek gods. They were made by Greek masters who lived in Indian and
adopted Indian religions. Later on the Indian apprentices of Greek masters
started sculpting Buddha according to the notion of the Indian people:
sitting with his legs crossed. Period of the blossoming Indian culture
dates back to the 4th –6th centuries a.d. Remarkable specimen of the
ancient Indian painting have survived in Buddhist temples and monasteries
in Adjanta. Walls, ceilings, pillars in these temples are painted with the
scenes from Buddhist legends and are decorated with statues and carving. Conclusion The Indian civilization was one of the oldest and most original in the last. Its contribution to the culture of human kind is immense. At a very early stage, ancient India maintained close cultural contacts with many countries of the ancient Orient and with the Greco-Roman World. Ancient traditions are highly viable in India and it is therefore not surprising that many achievements of the ancient Indian civilization long outlived the epoch of antiquity becoming an important component of the country’s modern culture and of world civilizations. Bibliography 1. “A Crown of Eagles” by Anne Covell. 2. “The Indians” by Blecker Sonia 3. “Across the Centuries” by S. Armento. G.B. Nash 4. “The story of Ancient Times” by Meclure C.H. 5. “People and Nations World History” by Mazour Anatol 6. “Lands and Peoples” by Bulliet Richard W. 7. “Investigations Man’s World” by Hanna Paul 8. ‘The West Indies” by Harman Carter 9. “Southeast Asia” by Karnow Stanley 10. “People” by Frederick King 11. “World History Atlas” 12. “Atlas of World and Environmental” by Middleton Nick 13. “World History” by David A. Fisher 14. “Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies” by Abbe Dubois 15. Encyclopedia “India” 16. “The New and Wander Book of Explorations and Discoveries” by D. Sweet 17. New English – Russian Dictionary (1999 Moscow) 18. Oxford Russian – English, English – Russian (Oxford) 19. English – Romanian, Romanian – English Dictionary by Andre Bantash |
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