Ancient India Research Paper

The early civilizations of China and India emerged prior to 600 CE in what is known today as the continent of Asia. With the Himalayan mountains in between them, these civilizations developed in isolation from one another, and yet still managed to produce kingdoms with continuous growing populations to this day. Individual growth and development amongst the people stimulated technological inventions, increased the chances of survival and lead to: greater agricultural production, strong armies, and expansion. Eventually, these commodities and other luxury items produced will be traded, spurring the economic growth of both civilizations. Overall, these early stages of development not only furthered contact amongst these two great empires allowing for cultural diffusion, but also set the foundation for future generations to follow. Although China and India’s growing empires took place in different parts of the world, the structure of their economies developed similarly, beginning with an agricultural infrastructure and progressing towards trade within and beyond the kingdoms, while also acquiring distinctive cultural differences overtime such as a social hierarchy defined by certain beliefs. These characteristics will define the beginning and the advancement of early economic systems used during the Foundations Era and Classical Age, and provides insight on the essentials that influenced the two economic

Ancient Egypt was a civilization located in Northeastern Africa concentrated along the lower edges of the Nile River. Originally Egypt was separated into two parts, Upper and Lower Egypt. The history of ancient Egypt occurred in a series of stable kingdoms separated by periods of relative instability. It was not until 3150 B.C. that Egyptian civilization really began to grow and prosper due to political unification. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization is often credited to the fact the people were able to adapt to the extreme conditions of the Nile River valley.

Things that stayed the same in India from 300 CE to 600 CE were the Gupta rule, the social structure, the most popular religion, and the wealth generated by trade. Hinduism will continue to be the popular religion in India. The caste system was the main social structure. The Brahmins were the highest class in India. Because they were priests, who showed their support for the caste system, they

Hinduism, Buddhism and Shinto, while vast in differences there is much to learn about these three religions similarities as well. Some facts and history of Hinduism include, Hinduism (being the oldest of the three) is dated back in pre-history before 10000 BC even believed to predate the Indus River Valley Civilization! The Vedas (the holy text of Hinduism) is the foundation for Indian culture and also the basic belief system of Hinduism. The basic belief structure of Hinduism is as follows, the three doctrines; Samsara (1) which means “successive rebirths” indicating the belief in reincarnation started by ATMA or the spark of life given by the god Brahma. This cycle continues until the soul collects enough good Karma (2) to break from the

Ancient civilizations have had profound effects of what we know as the modern world today. The primary purpose for anything that lives is to survive. Throughout history animals, plants and humans have adapted to their surroundings. All living things have changed throughout time. The thing that differs humans from rest is, humans are more cognitively advanced. Over the course of time the shape and size of the human skull has changed. The size of the human brain has increased, which has allowed humans to adapt more to their surroundings. To survive, humans were making tools for hunting and to cut with. The closer you lived to the equator the darker your skin may have been, so you could adapt to the intensity of the sun’s rays. If you lived further

Upon reading about the historical and religious background of Ancient India, one can clearly assume that the country was strongly influenced by three main religious teachings: Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. These three sects in religious thinking have many similarities as all recognize the life-cycle and the need of liberation, they worship one central deity that used to be a human who gained enlightenment and they all recognize the existence of the eternal soul and after-death re-incarnation. However, they also share a lot of differences that mark the underlying principles of practicing them. I will identify the scope of differences and similarities in these ancient religions in an attempt to understand why each attracted followers, why

Ancient river valley civilizations are one of the earliest societies in the world. The rises of these ancient river valley civilizations started the first cradle of civilization. The Indus Valley Civilization, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Mesopotamia, and Ancient China are the earliest civilizations that were successful enough to make enough food for everybody. Every one of these civilizations had three things in common: they all had a special relationship with the river, they created their own writing system, and they all relied on trade.

On the other hand, while the Law of Manu is considered a ‘legal system’ it is focused more on a social duty/obligation kind of system as explained above. The Law of Manu was like religious orders. There wasn’t really a sense of reward for following the laws; it was more based off of the idea of karma. If you didn’t happen to fulfill your social duties, that karma will follow you into your afterlife where it could ultimately affect who or what you become in your next life after your

In ancient India, there were multiple religions, but the two main ones were Buddhism and Hinduism. These two allowed the people to believe in specific philosophies, such as reincarnation in Hinduism, which persuaded people to believe that they could be born into another life. This level of hope made the citizens want to be more courteous and kind to others, so that they could be reborn higher on the scale. This additionally relates to karma in Hinduism, which is the idea that wrongful deeds lead to bad repercussions. During their daily lives, the Hindus had more motivation for life and had strong levels of optimism. In Buddhism, this is also seen through people wanting to achieve the state of Nirvana by performing good and respectable tasks in life. Each person wanted to act the best they could and have a high sense of the future, since they are the ones who are controlling

Hinduism is generally regarded as the world's oldest organized religion. It consists of thousands of different religious groups that have evolved in India since 1500 BCE. Because of the wide variety of Hindu traditions, freedom of belief and

What was technologically complex about the Harappan civilization? They had running water in their houses, toilets, citywide drainage system, they might have been the first humans to invent it, and developed their own alphabet and art forms (Stearns 27). What evidence exists that they traded and why is it believed that they were conservative? Trade was primary with precious stones from China and Southeast Asia found (Stearns 27). They were conservative because they did not keep up with tools available in Mesopotamia. Did not manufacture swords and relied on bronze as arrows instead.

Ancient India: Buddhism and Jainism were founded in India in the 500’s and 400’s B.C. These two religions spread rapidly in India and both rejected the authority of the Vedas and the Brahmans.

How do the political, religious, and social structures of Harappan society compare its counterparts in Mesopotamia and Egypt?

The Indus Valley Civilization (3300–1300 BCE) was the one among the greatest early civilzation of the Old World alongside the ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (Wright 2009, Wright 2010), which developed in South Asia along perennially flowing Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra ( also called as Saraswati) river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan (Wright 2010, Giosan 2012, Maemoku 2013). Though least studies so far, emerging archeological studies suggest that the Indus Valley (oftenly called Harappa) might have been most wide spread, extending across today’s northwest Pakistan deep into western India and carried probably more than five million people at its peak (Kahn 2005, McIntosh 2008). Reduced water supply has possibly caused the civilization’s demise and eastward movement of its population (Madella 2006, MacDonald 2011, Brooke 2014) towards the Gangetic plain after its decline (Possehl 1999; McIntosh 2002:11) giving rise to many succeeding Vedic tradition linked cultures reinforced by reports of many religious artefacts of Hindu practices from Indus Valley locations (Mishra 2001). The northwestern region of pre-partition India was the centre for Indus Valley civilization and for the shift from hunting-gathering to the societies with settled agriculture and domesticated animals (Allchin and Allchin 1997) well supported by archeological discoveries of first agricultural occupation in the Indus basin near Mehrgarh (now in Pakistan) and surrounding areas

     India was an ancient civilization that had many rulers and empires. The first rulers were the Harappans. They ruled from 3500 BC through 1500 BC. The Aryans took over the Harappan empire around 1500 BC. Then, Alexander the Great came and took over control of India. After ruling for only a couple of years, he died. A few years later the Mauryan Empire took over. Next was the Ashoka. Finally, the Guptas ruled from 320 BC through 535 AD.