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Geography Of The Indian Subcontinent

Decent Essays

Geography of the Indian subcontinent influenced the development of civilization there greatly, because of how diverse India is. The geography of the Indian subcontinent had a big affect not only with the development of civilization, but on economics, religion and social order as well. The Indian subcontinent is diverse in many ways, such as the array of languages, as well as the reputation of being a “cradle of religion” which created two of the world’s major religions, Hinduism and Buddhism(p. 38). For example, in civilizations such as the Harappan civilization the political and social structures were affected by the geography of where their civilization resided. “In several respects, Harappan civilization closely resembled the cultures of Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley”(p. 39). The resemblance resembled closely, because of how the civilizations probably started out being farming villages and slowly grew into a large city. The city that was considered the center of power was the city of Harappa. “The city of Harappa was surrounded by a brick wall over 40 feet thick at its base and more than 3.5 miles in circumference”(p. 39). With this city of power archaeological evidence suggest that the social structures were a loose confederation made up of more than 1500 cities connected by commerce and trade alliances and ruled by the wealthy merchants and landlords. The economy of this era was primary based on agriculture such as, wheat barley, rice, and peas being the primary

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