The Prehistory of India

Episode 13 South Asian Civilizations and Beliefs

The Big History of Civilizations (2016)

Dr Craig G Benjamin

Film Review

Benjamin begins this lecture around 1500 BC, when Indo-Aryans from northern Asia invaded the Indus Valley civilization. They battled with indigenous Dravidians for 500 years. Eventually they abandoned their nomadic way of life for a sedentary lifestyle, assuming control of most of India as a new ruling elite.

The Rig Veda, a sacred text of the Hindu religion, comes out of this period. From 1000 BC on, the population of India was divided into four varas (Sanskrit for color):*

• Brahmans – priests
• Kshartryas – nobles and warriors
• Varshyas – artisans and merchants (ie commoners)
• Sidras – serfs

“Untouchables,” the fifth vara was added later. “Untouchables” performed unclean work and touched dead animals (tanners and butchers).

In the 7th century BC, a radical Brahman sect emerged that embraced mysticism, yogic meditation and reincarnations. They recorded their teachings in the Upanishads. Jainism and Buddhism emerged about a century later.

Jainism, which teaches that all living beings (including plants and insects) have a soul and forbids any form of violence. The Jains rejected caste systems and lived extremely ascetic lives.

Buddhism, founded by Siddhārtha Gautama during the 6th century BE, also rejected caste systems but were less ascetic than the Jaines. Initially more a philosophy than a religion, Buddhism teaches that renouncing desire and rampant ambition is the only way to end human suffering. Because Siddhārtha and his disciples taught in local dialects, rather than Sanskrit, his teachings quickly spread throughout India, China, Japan, Korea and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Eventually the entire Indus Valley was broken up into city-states, with each having its own maharaja (king).  Villages surrounding the city-states were self governing with elected village committees.

Women had virtually no rights. They could only be in public with a male protector and were were forbidden to participate in religious life (except as nuns). After 500 BC, widows were expected to practice Suti (ie leaping into their husband’s funeral pyre).

Between 522 and 486 BC, the Persians expanded their empire into the Indus Valley and occupied much of modern day Pakistan.

Alexander the Great liberated the Indus Valley when he conquered Persia. Once Alexander withdrew (322 BC), Chandragupta Maurya united most northern India city-states into a single state. The Mauryan empire engaged in irrigation agriculture, manufacturing, road construction, timber harvesting, cattle breeding and inter-indregional trade.

Following the death of Chandragupta’s son Ashoka in 232 BC, the Mauryan empire began to decline. It collapsed in 185 BC, with northern and southern India breaking into separate regional city-states.

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*After the Portuguese colonized India in the 16th century, the word “caste” was adopted from the Portuguese word “castas”)

The film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/south-asian-civilizations-and-beliefs

The Mysterious Indus Valley Civilization

Episode 11: Early Mediterranean Civilizations

The Big History of Civilizations (2016)

Dr Craig G Benjamin

Film Review

Benjamin attributes the immense success of early Indus Valley civilization (located in modern day Pakistan and northern India) to a uniquely positive environment. The recurrent flooding of the Indus and Ganges rivers by seasonal monsoons created a flood plain with the richest alluvial* deposits in the world. This combined with the natural protection the Himalayas provided against invasion.

According to archeological evidence, grain cultivation began as early as 7000 BC and cotton domestication by 5000 BC. A tripling of the population between 3000 and 2500 BC led to rapid urbanization, gradually progressing from villages to towns to cities. A written language, consisting of roughly 400 symbols, developed. It has never been deciphered.

The two biggest Indus Valley cities were Harappa and Marenjo-Davo. Around 2300 BC, they each had 40,000 inhabitants each. Both produced exceptional pottery, sophisticated street layouts, drainage systems, multistoried buildings, marketplaces, indoor bathing facilities and toilets, and pipes to carry wastes. The cities collected grain (wheat, millet and barley) surpluses as a form of tax, which they stored in granaries.

From early on, Indus Valley cities and towns engaged in a vigorous maritime trade with Persia, Central Asia and Mesopotamia. By 2000 BC, they were also trading with Africa, Persia and the Arabian Peninsula. With Mesopotamia, they traded copper, ivory and pearls for wool, leather and olive oil. With Persia they traded semi-precious stones for gold, silver and copper.

Although the growth of the international trade led to the emergence of social classes, there is no evidence they they formed powerful kingdoms or engaged in military warfare. The richest residents lived in mutistoried homes with large courtyards, while the poor were crowded into one-room tenements. Society was extremely patriarchal. Unlike Sumer, under the code of Hammurabi, and Egypt, women had no legal rights no public life outside the home.

After 1900 BC, Indus Valley civilization began to decline (possibly due to deforestation, climate change, or epidemic malaria or cholera) and the cities were gone by 1500 BC. There is evidence of major migration of Indo-Aryan into the area starting around 1800 BC. It’s unclear where a major invasion took place or if the Indo-Aryans were gradually assimilated into the original Dravidian population.

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*Alluvial deposits are nutrient rich sand and soil left behind by rivers and floods.

The film can be viewed free on Kanopy.

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/video/mysteries-indus-valley