Hist 4538

January 20, 2004

Ancient India

Correction: Musharraf coup in Oct 1999 (not 2000)     

Communalism: a “means of mobilization, the symbols that stir people into action, often mass and violent action” (Stein 32)

Major Developments

• Vedic Culture

◦ “Hymn of Primeval Man”:       The brahmin was his mouth,

Of his arms was made the warrior,

                                                            His thighs became the vaisya,

Of his feet the shudra was born.

◦ four varnas: brahmin (priest), kshatriya (warrior), vaishya (trader),

shudra (cultivator)

• Hinduism

◦ polytheistic: Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna, Ganesh

◦ belief in cycle of rebirth, reincarnation depending on karma (actions in this life)

◦ salvation comes as moksha, or release from this cycle or reincarnation

◦ Ramayana: Sita as paradigmatic good wife

◦ Mahabharata (contains Bhagavadgita, central text of Hinduism): dharma (duty)

• Buddhism

◦ Prince Siddhartha (5^th c BCE) achieves enlightenment, becomes Buddha

◦ advocates middle way between desire and ascetism

• Jainism

◦ Mahavira (5^th c BCE)

◦ austere religion; emphasis on not taking life

• Ashokan Empire (270-230 BCE)

◦ Ashoka a convert to Buddhism

◦ attempted to apply Buddhist principles to administration

• Gupta Empire (320 CE-497 CE)

◦ “golden age” of artistic flowering, religious tolerance

◦ caste mobility

• Judaism

◦ Jewish traders from Middle East settled on Malabar Coast (SW India) ~ 1^st c AD

• Christianity

◦ St Thomas believed to have been active in India in1st c AD

◦ Christianity has a long history in South Asia

Themes

• political and social change (not unchanging society)

• connections between South Asia and other regions

• development of South Asian religions

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