Civilizations of Current Day India
Hinduism
- A diverse body of religion, philosophy, and cultural practice.
- Native to India.
- Belief in reincarnation and a supreme being of many forms and natures.
Bold Words : Deities
- Brahma- The Hindu creator god
- Vishnu – The Hindu preserver
- Shiva- the Hindu destroyer god.
Brahma
- God of creation.
- Senior member.
- He felt alone and separated from the world.
- Split himself and created the god Shatapura.
Vishnu
- God of preservation and protection of creation.
- Often represented resting on the coiled serpent Shesha.
- Never sleeps.
- When the forces of good and evil are not balanced, Vishnu will incarnate himself as a human to set the forces equal.
Shiva
- Destroyer of the world (so that it can be re-created)
- Also called the Lord of the Dance.
- Half man and half woman.
- Wild passion causes extreme behavior and his relationship with his wife.
Military Conquest
Maurya Empire
- Founded after the death of Alexandra the Great.
- First three emperors were Chandragupta Maurya, Bindeusara Maurya, and Ashoka Maurya.
- All of the emperors were able to gain land.
- 9000 elephants.
- 8000 chariots.
- 30000 calvary.
- 750,000 soldiers.
- War elephants had swords on their trunks.
Gupta Empire
- Chandra Gupta was dying and he told his son to rule the world.
- His son went on an extreme military campaign.
- He conquered Bengal, Nepal, Assam, Malava, and eventually Ujjayini.
- 500,000 infantry
- 50,000 cavalry.
- 20,000 chariots.
- 10,000 elephants.
- Navy with more than 1,200 ships.
Buddhism and Hinduism Art
Stupas
- Mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, ashes of deceased, place of meditation
Behind Buddhism Art
- Originated from Indian subcontinent.
- Spread from contact with other cultuers throughout Art.
- Influenced the development of Hindu art.
- Buddhist art flourished and even influenced the development of Hindu art.
- (almost disappeared around 10th century in India)
Buddhism Art
- Worked with brick, wood, thatch and bamboo.
- Stone railings, gateways and sculptures, stupas
- Painted scrolls.
Behind the Hinduism Art
- According to the Hindu view, there are four goals of life on earth, and each human being should aspire to all four.
- Everyone should aim for dharma or okama or human righteous living; artha or wealth acquired through the pursuit of a profession, exual love and finally moksha, or spiritual salvation.
Hinduism Art
- Costume decorations, perfumes, jewelry making, magic, ointments, cooking, sewing, embroidery.
Advancements in Medicine, lit, Math, Astronomy, and Performing Arts
Medicine
- Ayurveda (life knowledge) – ancient science of medicine that originated in India.
- Used the practice of herbal medicine.
- Believed the body has 3 types of energy
Surgery
- Introduced as a common practice.
- Plastic surgery.
- Dental surgery.
Literature
- Greatest time for poetry and drama.
- Kalidasa – well known writer.
- Kalidasa was an Indian dramatist and poet.
- Sanskrit writer.
- Classical language in India.
- 2 categories – Sruiti and Smriti
- Sruti- listened to or heard
- Smriti- remembered or memorized.
Math
- Decimal number system still used today was first developed in India.
- Early contributions to the study of concept of zero as a number, negative numbers, arithmetic and algebra.
- Trigonometry (Sine and Cosine)
- Early simplified versions of Calculus
- Consisted of different sections:
- Sutras – set of rules or problems in verse to help student memorize them.
- Prose Commentary- composed by several scholars that described the problem in detail
Astronomy
- Ancient India used stars and planets tp create astrological charts.
- Calculation of occurrences of eclipses.
- Determination of Earths circumference.
- Theory of gravitation.
- Sun was a start.
- Number of planets.
Aryabhata
- Presented mathematical system that the sun spins on an axis and considered the motion of the planets in respect to the sun.
- Proposed that the moon reflected the light of the sun.
Comments