Unit 5ancient Indiamr. Mac's 6th Grade Ngss
Unit 5ancient Indiamr. Mac's 6th Grade Language Arts
Unit 5ancient Indiamr. Mac's 6th Grader
Unit 5ancient Indiamr. Mac's 6th Graders

Mac's 6th Grade: Home Classroom Parents Who is Mr. Ancient greece (800-300 bce) Physical Map of Greece. Alexander the Great's Empire 'The. This ranking system may have developed out of a need to show differences in occupations in early Indian society. Alexander the Great-Did He Ever Stop? (Yes, the Indians Knew How to Fight.) A. Alexander the Great invaded northern India in 326 B.C. When he invaded, India was divided into many rival kingdoms.

3,000 to 180 B.C.

Origins of Civilization

A. The Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley Civilization was located along modern India’s Northwest border with Pakistan. The Indus River, like the Nile in Egypt, provided a floodplain where inhabitants could easily grow wheat and barley.
Nomads had periodically inhabited the floodplain since 5,000 B.C., but sometime around 3,000 B.C., permanent urban dwellings began to emerge. Therefore, historians agree that civilization emerged in India roughly around 3,000 B.C.
Between 2,500 and 1,750 B.C., the civilizations of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro emerged.

B. What We Know

Video: Mohenjo Daro

There is much archaeological evidence for historians to go by when trying to understand the Indus Valley Civilization.
From ruins of their cities, we know they must have had strong central governments, because city buildings were laid out in a pattern, and sewage systems built. It takes strong leadership for such organization to occur.
They used furnace-baked bricks to build their homes and buildings.
There is evidence they grew wheat, barley, millet and sorghum, and stored them in granaries.
Metallurgists worked with copper and bronze to form artwork, tools, and weapons. Very few weapons have been found, which suggests a very peaceful society.
We know from archaeological evidence in the Valley and from written records in Sumer that the Indus people actively traded with Sumerians.
Artifacts suggest they worshipped animals and a goddess-perhaps a fertility goddess.
Our knowledge of the Indus Valley people is ultimately limited though, because their pictographic writing has not been deciphered.
Sometime around 1750 B.C., the Indus Valley Civilization was in sharp decline. We don’t know why, but some archaeological evidence points to a depletion of natural resources.

A Change is Gonna Come

Unit 5ancient Indiamr. Mac's 6th Grade Ngss

A. Aryan Migrations

Around 1,500 B.C. or perhaps before, a nomadic people whom historians and linguists call the Aryans began to trickle into northern India. They settled with the Indus Valley people and slowly became absorbed into the Indus Valley community. These Aryans had a supposed cultural link to the Persian Aryans and the Indo-Europeans who (much earlier in ancient history) would become the Greeks, Latins, Germans, and Celts. Our knowledge of them comes chiefly from the Vedic texts. There is very little archeological evidence the Aryans ever existed. Just who the Aryans were or weren’t is still hotly debated, and has become a sensitive issue among some modern Indians.
Aryans should not be confused (again) with Hitler’s Aryans. The Aryans belonged to a very large group of Indo-Europeans (people who supposedly came from north of the Black Sea). Aryans weren’t an ethnic group, but shared some aspects of culture and language.
The Aryan migrations into India would take centuries to complete, and ended around 700 B.C.
Their impact on southern India was not as significant as it was in the north. The natives of southern India, who belonged to a diverse culture called “Dravidian,” actively resisted Aryan influence.

The Vedic Period 1000 – 500 B.C.

A. A combining of cultures

The Aryans brought their religion and culture, which would become absorbed into the Indus Valley culture. Politically, India would become divided into several petty kingdoms.
The religious concepts of the Vedas (I’ll explain them later) heavily influenced this now Indian society. No longer were there Aryans vs. Indus Valley people. By this period they were one people.
Of primary importance to the Vedic Period (up to recent times) was the concept of a caste system.
The caste system placed people in separate social levels-from the lowest to the highest. Once a person was born into his/her specific caste, he/she could not leave it. In other words, you stuck to your own kind.
The caste system would go through many changes throughout Indian history, but at the Vedic Period, the caste system (from top to bottom) was as follows:
- 5a. Brahmins – priestly caste
- 5b. Kshatriyas (KSHAH tree ahs) – warrior/ruling caste
- 5c. Vaishyas (VAY shee ahs) – merchant, farmer, commoner caste
- 5d. Shudras (Shoo druhs) – Servant caste
6. This ranking system may have developed out of a need to show differences in occupations in early Indian society.

Alexander the Great-Did He Ever Stop? (Yes, the Indians Knew How to Fight.)

A. Alexander the Great invaded northern India in 326 B.C.

When he invaded, India was divided into many rival kingdoms.
The Macedonian army took on the strongest king in West Punjab (northern top of India, probably the Pakistan side). They called him Porus– Purushottam in India.
Porus proved to be Alexander’s greatest challenge. Porus had a large army at his disposal with a cavalry of elephants.
Although the Macedonians won the battle, they paid a heavy price. Many men were killed, and Alexander’s troops refused to go any farther-to Alexander’s dismay (and fury).
Porus actually fared better than before the battle with Alexander. Alexander was so impressed with Porus that he gave Porus back his kingdom and more land conquered by Alexander to govern for Alexander. Porus promised to faithfully rule for Alexander, and he never broke his word.
Alexander had several Indian princes swear allegiance to him, including a young Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Mauryan Empire.

B. Greek Influence on India

As was his habit, Alexander founded Greek cities all along his empire. The few Greeks that settled in Alexander’s land in India brought with them the cultural influences of the Hellenistic Age.
The Greeks did not have much influence on the Indians. Alexander’s successors had no control over his Indian territory. Emperors of the Mauryan Empire did keep relations with the Seleucid kings, however.
The Greeks greatest impact was probably in art. The realism of Greek art began to appear in northern Indian statues around this time.

The Mauryan Empire 320 – 180 B.C.

A. Chandragupta Maurya (MOH ree ah)

Chandragupta founded the Mauryan Empire. He came from an elite family of the warrior caste. His dynasty ruled for 140 years.
Chandragupta ruled for decades (roughly 320 – 301 B.C.), by first seizing power from another king in the Ganges region (northeastern India), and used that region as a power base for conquering the entire Indus region. His key aim was to conquer territory that controlled important trade routes. Controlling these trade routes made his empire rich and powerful.
The Mauryan Empire had a sophisticated government with several bureaus in charge of running the empire.
The Mauryan capital was Pataliputra (pah TAH lee put rah)
Pat