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Assignment on Ancient India

Submitted to:
Professor Samina Sultana
BRAC University


Submitted by:
Azizul Islam
Zarin Tasnim Deepty
Shamim Ahmed
Farzana Sultana
Naushad Qader









Date of Submission: March 5, 2012
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Ancient India Civilizations:
Nestled in Indus valley in western India, The Indus Civilization flourished from about 2500
BC to 1700 BC. It covered a larger area than modern Pakistan. The two important cities,
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro each held perhaps 35,000 people at their height. Other cities
excavated included Kalibangan; on the west coast bordering Pakistan was almost as large as
Harappa or Mohenjo-Daro. These cities had features which made them unique included brick
and had well-planned streets, pottery drainage ditches, large granaries, and a large bath for
ritual cleansing. Constructed on raised platform most of the major buildings were made from
brick. There were some small, two-room structures to large houses with two-storied with
courtyards.


Ancient India (Location)
The people of Indus civilization traded with Sumer and sent merchant ships to the island of
Tilmun in the Persian Gulf. The main items of exports included pottery, inlays, and wood.
Sumerian merchants referred to the Indus Valley as Meluhha. They also traded with
Mesopotamia and Egypt. Harrappan civilization was the first to turn cotton into yarn and
weaving the yarn into cloth. Cotton was first developed around 2000 B.C.The people used to
export surplus grain, pottery vases, ivory combs, pearls, precious woods, and semi-precious
stones. Indus Valley farmers grew wheat, barley, field-peas, melons, sesame, and dates. They
also domesticated humped cattle, short-horn cattle, and buffaloes, and perhaps even pigs,
camels, horses, and donkeys. The land was full of water, buffalo, tigers, elephants, rhinoceros
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and enormous forests. Their unique script consisted of 400 symbolic pictures, has not yet
been deciphered. The lack of public inscriptions or written historical documents has hindered
other information about the civilization.
The Indus civilization declined in 1900 BC under pressure from a new people, the Aryans.
The Indo-European speaking Aryans entered the area from eastern Iran by 1500 BC. The Rig
Veda the main religious and socio-economic text was written between 1300 and 1100 BC.
They settled in different regions of northwestern India. The tribes were called Gana (literally
a "collection" - of people). The chief of each tribe held all the powers and it passed from
father to son and so on. The people in the Vedic period lived in straw and wooden huts. Some
homes were made of wood, but not until later, during the Epics Period. The social life
centered on Yagna .The Aryans ate meat; vegetables etc .They also introduced horse and
raced chariots. They were religious and prayed to many gods and goddesses. The caste
system has its beginning based on occupations. Education was oral and writing was done on
bark and leaves which has not left any records. People enjoyed lavish embroidery and
embellishments. From then on new people and races entered India and settled here bringing
with them diverse ideas, beliefs and traditions and in course of time amalgamated within the
Indian civilization.
Architecture:
Starting from the urban architecture of the Harappan civilization to the contemporary
architecture of India, change has always been vital. Indian architecture of the old has taken
influences liberally from the regular inflow of cultures coming to India. In turn, India has also
played a major role in influencing and shaping the architecture of South East Asian countries.
The British left the President House and colonial architecture of New Delhi and Mumbai such
as Gateway of India, Victoria Terminus etc as prominent examples of European Architecture.
Each monument is a strikingly splendid specimen of incredible artistry, shrouding a sense of
mystery, intrigue and romance. Be it the marvel in white marble, the unparalleled Taj Mahal,
one of the seven wonders of the world; or the red stone splendor, the imposing Red Fort; or
the magnificence of temple art of Khajuraho, Konark and Hampi, therein is evident the
master craftsmanship and elegance, that brings to the fore the grandeur of the bygone era.

The talent of the shilpis or the Indian artisans' is till date visible in the temples constructed
centuries ago. The sculptures boast of creativity and hard work. The numerous sculptures on
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temple walls are all carved out of hard rock & have lasted centuries. Rock-cut architecture
was first perfected by the Buddhists, and was followed by several Hindu rulers. In Southern
India, the Pallavas excelled in this art form. The sculptures or idols in temples are made of
granite & the Utsava murthis are made of bronze & panchaloha. Apart from these, there are
the huge Iyyanar statues & horses exist in South Indian villages. Every village city or state in
India has some form of craft traditions in embroidery, metalwork, pottery, terracotta, jewelry
work or other form of art.
Agriculture:
Even though, the nature of the Indus civilization's agricultural system is still largely a matter
of conjecture due to the paucity of information surviving through the ages, the possibility of
speculation remains.
Historians believe that the Indus Valley civilization agriculture must have been highly
productive; after all, it was capable of generating surpluses sufficient to support tens of
thousands of urban residents who were not primarily engaged in agriculture. It relied on the
considerable technological achievements of the pre-Harappan culture, including the plough.
Still, very little is known about the farmers who supported the cities or their agricultural
methods. Some of them undoubtedly made use of the fertile alluvial soil left by rivers after
the flood season, but this simple method of agriculture is not thought to be productive enough
to support cities. There is no evidence of irrigation, but such evidence could have been
obliterated by repeated, catastrophic floods.
The Indus Valley civilization appears to contradict the hydraulic despotism hypothesis of the
origin of urban civilization and the state. According to this hypothesis, cities could not have
arisen without irrigation systems capable of generating massive agricultural surpluses. To
build these systems, a despotic, centralized state emerged that was capable of suppressing the
social status of thousands of people and harnessing their labor as slaves. It is very difficult to
square this hypothesis with what is known about the Indus civilization. There is no evidence
of kings, slaves, or forced mobilization of labor.
It is often assumed that intensive agricultural production requires dams and canals. This
assumption is easily refuted. Throughout Asia, rice farmers produce significant agricultural
surpluses from terraced, hillside rice paddies, which result not from slavery but rather the
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accumulated labor of many generations of people. Instead of building canals, Indus
civilization people may have built water diversion schemes, which-like terrace agriculture-
can be elaborated by generations of small-scale labor investments. In addition, it is known
that Indus civilization people practiced rainfall harvesting, a powerful technology that was
brought to fruition by classical Indian civilization but nearly forgotten in the 20th century. It
should be remembered that Indus civilization people, like all peoples in South Asia, built
their lives around the monsoon, a weather pattern in which the bulk of a year's rainfall occurs
in a four-month period. At a recently discovered Indus civilization city in western India,
archaeologists discovered a series of massive reservoirs, hewn from solid rock and designed
to collect rainfall, that would have been capable of meeting the city's needs during the dry
season.
Trade and Industry:
The Indus civilization's economy appears to have depended significantly on trade, which was
facilitated by major advances in transport technology. These advances included bullock-
driven carts that are identical to those seen throughout South Asia today, as well as boats.
Most of these boats were probably small, flat-bottomed craft, perhaps driven by sail, similar
to those one can see on the Indus River today; however, there is secondary evidence of sea-
going craft. Archaeologists have discovered a massive, dredged canal and docking facility at
the coastal city of Lothal.
Judging from the dispersal of Indus civilization artifacts, the trade networks, economically,
integrated a huge area, including portions of Afghanistan, the coastal regions of Persia,
northern and central India, and Mesopotamia.
Arts:
The people of Indus were great lovers of the fine arts, and especially dancing, painting, and
sculpture. Various sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry, terracotta figures, and other
interesting works of art indicate that they had fine artistic sensibilities. Their art is highly
realistic. The anatomical detail of much of their art is unique, and terracotta art is also noted
for its extremely careful modeling of animal figures. Bronze, terracotta, and stone sculptures
in dancing poses also reveal much about their art of dancing. Similarly, a harp-like instrument
depicted on an Indus seal and two shell objects from Lothal confirm that stringed musical
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instruments were in use in the ancient Indus Valley civilization. Today, much of the Indus art
is considered advanced for their time period.
Science:
The people of the Indus civilization achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and
time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. Their
measurements were extremely precise. Unique Harappan inventions include an instrument
which was used to measure whole sections of the horizon and the tidal dock. In addition, they
evolved new techniques in metallurgy, and produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin. The
engineering skill of the Harappans was remarkable, especially in building docks after a
careful study of tides, waves, and currents.
In 2001, archaeologists studying the remains of two men from Mehrgarh, Pakistan made the
startling discovery that the people of Indus civilization, even from the early Harappan
periods, had knowledge of medicine and dentistry. The physical anthropologist that carried
out the examinations, Professor Andrea Cucina from the University of Missouri-Columbia,
made the discovery when he was cleaning the teeth from one of the men.
Vedic Aryan Civilization, (1700-500 BC)
Sources: 1) Vedic Aryan civilization was a rural not an urban civilization and few material
remains from it are extant; hence little in the form of archeological evidence; 2) no written
documents that record this invasion. 3) In their absence: the Vedas, a collective term for the
ancient wisdom preserved in texts about rituals, priests, and speculations about the nature of
the human and divine worlds and transmitted orally. The earliest Vedas date from as early as
1700 BC, and the most important collection are the 1,028 Sanscrit hymns called the Rig
Veda.
Character of the Aryan invasion: The Aryans were semi-nomadic warriors who may have
entered India about 1800 BC from modern-day Afghanistan by crossing passes in the Hindu
Kush. They settled in the Punjab and the Indus Valley. With them came a new language, a
new form of social organization, new military techniques, and new religious ideas and
rituals. According to the Vedas, centuries of warfare followed as the Aryans established
themselves and then expanded, ultimately occupying the entire Indian sub-continent, thus
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providing the basis for modern Indian civilization. The invading Aryans also mixed with
Indus and other peoples living on the subcontinent and assimilated elements of earlier
cultures.
Science:
Mathematics:
The Aryan people contributed a lot in the development of mathematics. Invention of zero was
held during this time. They also introduced decimal system and the extract roots. They also
developed the fundamentals of algebra.
Medicine:
Ancient India saw great advancements in medical science. Some of these fields were dental
surgery, cataract extraction and plastic surgery. It is amazing that even in the absence of
anesthesia some of the complex operations are performed. Around 800 B.C the first instances
of surgery were recorded. It was considered as one of the eight branches of
Ayurveda.Shushruta- Samhita is the oldest treatise dealing with surgery. The main medical
practitioners were Atraya, Charaka and Shusruta.Shushruta studied human anatomy with an
aid of a dead body. He had described in great detail surgery in eight parts which included
chedya,lekhya,vedhya,esya,ahrya,vsraya and sivya.He excelled in plastic surgery and
ophthalmology (removing cataracts).The restoration of mutilated nose or rhinoplasty was one
of the greatest contributions of Shushruta.The success rate was very high attracting people
from all the country and outside. He meticulously carried out the operation almost similar to
the steps followed by modern day plastic surgeons.
Political and social order:
The Vedic Aryans were originally a nomadic and non-urban people, so it is hardly surprising
that their basic political and social order was based on the patriarchical family and the
grouping of related families into kin groups and tribes. Early in the development of the social
structure, there were probably only two Aryan social classes, nobles and commoners, and the
Dasas, the original inhabitants. Over a long period of evolution, however, a more complex
and rigid fourfold class or caste system (Varna) developed, and it was more or less in place
by the 7th century BC:
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Nature of the caste system:
1) Hereditary and mixing across class boundaries was discouraged or banned (i.e. marriage or
the social custom of drinking from the same cup)
2) characteristic employment
3) complex rules regarding food, water, touching and ritual purity
4) each caste had its dharma or code of appropriate moral conduct
Only the first three participated fully in Aryan social, political, and religious life. This
fourfold class system had a lasting influence on the development of the later caste system
with its some 3,000 hereditary castes. There was also a large under-class of outcasts, the
Untouchables who lived on the fringe of society and did jobs others found unworthy, such as
serving as butchers or handling dead bodies.
Religion:
Vedic religion was polytheistic and controlled by the priests who served the traditional
military aristocracy. Aryans gods were associated with the forms of nature. Important deities
include Dyaus Pitar, the father-god; Prithivi Matar, the mother-goddess of earth; Indra, the
god of war and storm; Mitra, the moral god of faithfulness and loyalty; the powerful Varuna,
the god who guarded the cosmic order (the law of nature and the universal moral law or
truth); Rudra, the awesome mountain god; Agni, the god of fire; and Soma, the god of the
hallucinogenic soma plant and drink. The main religious rite was sacrifice and requests for
the good things of life; soma was also drunk to intensify the religious experience. Over time,
the sacrificial rituals performed out-of-doors became more and more complex. The priest, as
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custodians of the rituals and the sacred words, became powerful and influential. Buddhism
and Jainism had also been emerged during this time.

References:
1. Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations, 1978
2. Burn & Others, World Civilization
3. Romila Thapar, Ancient India (1987)