Periods in Pre-Classical India

• Ancient Harrapan Civilization

• The Vedic Age

• The Epic Age

Harappa & Mohenjo Daro

• A prosperous river valley civilization emerged along the Indus River by 2500 BCE, of which the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro were a part.

• Indus River peoples had trading contacts with Mesopotamia, but they developed their own distinctive culture.

• Harappan civilization fell around 1500 BCE, and a new civilization arose in India, brought by nomadic Aryan invaders.

• The Aryans began a new (pre-classical) period, called the Vedic and Epic ages.

The Harappan Civilization

3300 BCE - 2400 BCE

CitadelOf

Mohenjo-Daro

Aerial View of Mohenjo-Daro

Wide View, Mohenjo-Daro

The Great Bath, Mohenjo-Daro

Bath Area, Mohenjo-Daro

Well, Mohenjo-Daro

Granery, Mohenjo-Daro

A Horned-God Seal, Mohenjo-Daro

A Priest-King, Mohenjo-Daro

Drain, Harappa

Bull Figurine, Harappa

Elephant Figurine, Harappa

Male Skeleton, Harappa

Harappan Writing

Undecipherable to date.

The Vedic Age1500 BCE-500 BCE

Aryan Migration

Sanskrit

writing

The Vedas 1200 BCE-600 BCE.

written in SANSKRIT.

Hindu core of beliefs:

hymns and poems.

religious prayers.

magical spells.

lists of the gods and goddesses.

Rig Veda oldest work.

The Caste System• Most of what we know about the pre-classical

period comes from the Vedas (written in Sanskrit).

• The Vedic Age takes its name from the Sanskrit word Veda, which means knowledge.

• The Rig-Veda, the first Aryan epic, attributed the rise of the caste system to the gods (The Aryans brought to India a religion of many gods and goddesses that would form the basis of the Hindu religion.

• It developed initially as a means of establishing relationships between the Aryan conquerors and the indigenous people, whom the Aryans regarded as inferior.

Varna = Aryan Social Classes

Sudras = common laborers

Vaishyas = traders/farmers

Kshatriyas = Warriors /governing

class

Pariahs Untouchables

Brahmins = Priestly class

The Caste system

• Initially, the Kshatriyas (warriors) ranked highest, but during the Epic Age, the brahmins replaced them, signaling the importance of religion in Indian life.

• The basic castes divided into four groups called varnas, and each varna is divided by smaller subgroups, called jati, each with distinctive occupations.

The epic age1000 BCE-600 BCE

The epic age

• The period is named for its literary developments.

• India’s greatest epic poems, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana were written during the Epic Age.

• Both of these epics reflect a more settled agricultural society and better-organized political units than the Rig-Veda of the Vedic Age.

• The Epic Age also witnessed the creation of the Upanishads, epic poems with a more mystical religious tone.

Works cited

• Adas, M., Gilbert, M.J., Schwartz, S.B., & Stearns, P.N. (2007). World civilizations: The global experience. (5th ed.). New York: Pearson Education.

• Images from Susan M. PojerHorace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY, http://www.pptpalooza.net/.