India

and
Southeast Asia

1500 B.C.E.-1025 C.E.

 India has three topographical
zones: (1) the northern
mountainous zone; (2) the Indus
and Ganges Basins; and (3) the
peninsula. The Vindhya Mountains
and the Deccan plateau divide the
peninsula from the other two
zones.
.
Coromandel
Coast
Kerala Coast
Tamil Nadu
 Sri
Lanka
 The Indus
Valley is
dry, so it
requires
irrigation--
site of
Harappa and
Mohenjo-
Daro
 Ganges
Valley:
subtropical
with much
rainfall

rice grows
well in the
Ganges
delta
 The Vedic Age
• Aryas (or Aryans) moved into Ganges Valley
circa 1000 B.C.E.
– Iron tools
• Cut down trees
• Cultivate land
• Oral tradition relates tales of violent struggles
against the darker Dasas people (Dravidian)
– No evidence of violence
– Dasas pushed into southern India
 Class system (varna)
• Brahmin
– Priests/scholars
• Kshatriya
– warriors
• Vaishya
– merchants
• Shudra
– Peasants/laborers
• Untouchables
– NOT part of system—demeaning labor or dead bodies
 Hereditary occupational groups (jati)

• HEREDITARY
• Complex rules
– Appropriate occupation
– Duties
– Rituals
– Interaction between people of different jati
Justification of classes/jati
• Reincarnation
– One’s actions in
this and
previous lives
determines
what you will be
in your next life
The Vedics believed in the
atman (eternal soul).
Jainism and Buddhism
Jainism
Founded by
Mahavira (540-468
B.C.E.)
Most extreme:
Wore no clothes,
starved selves to
death, attempted to
harm no living
things
Lord Mahavira
 Jainism
• Nonviolence
– Cause no harm to living beings
• Truthfulness
– always speak the truth in a harmless manner
• Non-stealing
– Do not even desire another’s possessions
• Celibacy
– Other than one’s spouse
• Non-materialism
– Ownership is okay; attachment is not
Buddhism
Siddhartha
Gautama
(Buddha)

“Four Noble
Truths”

Eightfold Path
Buddhists: all things, including the
individual, are composite.