PERSIAN Chart
AP World History

Culture/Civilization: India Date:

POLITICAL
• Leaders, Elites
• State Structure
• War
• Diplomacy, Treaties
• Courts, Laws -Mauryan Empire founded by Chandragupta and he expanded empire himself w/ successors Bindusara and Ashoka until it included entire subcontinent.
-Legend has it that a Machiavellian Brahmin guided Chandragupta
-Ashoka converted to Buddhism after he was shaken by carnage in brutal wars in the south. Buddhist gov’t policies stored in edicts inscribed on rocks and pillars.
-Mauryan empire collapsed in 184 B.C.E. and northern India fell to political fragmentation including rule of Shakas, Scythians, and Kushans.
-Andrha dynasty established state in Deccan.
-Southern India divided among three Tamil kingdoms: Cholas, Pandyas, and Cheras.
-Gupta Empire began w/ kingdom of Magadha. Rulers brought northern and central India into control but not south.
-Guptan provincial governors made their posts hereditary and subordinate kingdoms.
-Guptan empire did not have sufficient military, leading them to rely on dazzling dependents for gifts and favors.
-Gupta empire fell in 550 C.E. b/c of financial burden due to defense against Huns.
-Harsha briefly reunited northern India, but soon fell into political fragmentation.
-Pallavas and Cholas were warrior kingdoms in the south during Gupta period.

ECONOMIC
• Type of System
• Technology, Industry
• Trade, Commerce
• Capital/Money
• Types of Businesses -Staple of Ganges is rice.
-Stable crops elsewhere are wheat, barley, and millet.
-Iron tools used around 1000 B.C.E. to chop trees and cultivate land in Ganges Valley.
-Pataliputra supported by 25% tax on agricultural products and state monopolies on mines, shipyards, and arms makers/dealers.
-Political fragmentation of northern India led to artisan and merchant guilds playing dominant role.
-Guptas also controlled iron, established monopolies, and collected 25% tax.
-Gupta India linked to outside world by trade networks. Best trade with SE and E Asia.

RELIGIOUS
• Holy Books
• Beliefs, Teaching
• Conversion
• Sin/Salvation
• Deities -Jainism founded by Mahavira (540 – 468 B.C.E.).
-Jains practiced nonviolence. (some even went naked and starved to death)
-Less extreme followers pursued careers that did not require them to kill anything.
-Siddhartha Gautama founded Buddhism.
-Buddha means enlightened one; taught the “Four Noble Truths” and the Eightfold path that led to enlightenment.
-Some Buddhist followers vowed to celibacy, nonviolence, and poverty.
-Buddhist goal was to achieve nirvana (release from birth, death, rebirth cycle)
-Followers organized themselves into monasteries and nunneries and created a hierarchal religion, worshipping Buddha.
-Two Buddhist schools: Mahayana = new beliefs, Theravada = original teaching.
-New religions (above) pressured to reform old Vedic religion.
-Reformed Vedic religion required intense personal devotion, fertility rituals, symbolism of southern Dravidian cultures, and elements of Buddhism.
-Vishnu (preserver) and Shiva (destroyer) became the main deities.
-Puja (service to deity) and pilgrimage along with temples and shrines were the basis of Hindu worship. Ganges river became popular pilgrimage site.
-Religious duties depended on individual.
-Hinduism became main religion in India. Buddhism was too strict and did not appeal to the common person as much as Hinduism did (because Hinduism had deities whom they could connect to directly).
-Varna and Jati rationalized by belief in reincarnation; each individual has an atman (immortal spirit) that they will be reborn into after death.
-Karma determined reincarnated person’s class.
-Vedic religion: emphasized worship of male beings through sacrifice.
-Brahmin priests focused on religious knowledge and practice and refused to write to maintain their position as the center of religious knowledge.
-Gupta period was mainly Hindu, but also tolerated other religions.

SOCIAL
• Family
• Gender Relations
• Social Classes
• Inequalities
• Life Styles -First immigrants to India came from Indus valley and were organized in patriarchal families.
-Oral tradition of Arya tribes tell of struggle between Dasas tribes and themselves, whom they pushed into southern region of India.
-Struggle between two tribes led to development of varna (social class). Classes organized as follows: (1) Brahmin (priests and scholars), (2) Kshatriya (warriors), (3) Vaishya (merchants), (4) Shudra (peasant/laborer).
-Untouchables was a class for those who did the more unsanitary work.
-Four varna divided into groups called jati, each of which had regulations concerning the four groups’ interaction with each other.
-People who did not like the social hierarchy of the Brahmins withdrew into forests where they pursued salvation through yoga, special diets, or meditation. The sought moksha (liberation from birth, death, and rebirth)
-Women lost right to inherit and own property and to participate in rituals in Guptan empire.
-Women were also treated like lowest varna, married young, and if they became a widow sometimes had to burn herself on husband’s funeral pyre.

INTELLECTUAL
• Art, Music
• Writing, Literature
• Philosophy
• Math & Science
• Education -Period of political fragmentation also known by writings of the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
-Guptan mathematician invented Arabic numerals and concept of zero.
ARTS
• Art, Music
• Writing, Literature

NEAR: GEOGRAPHY
• Location
• Physical
• Movement
• Human/Environment
• Region -Mountains to the north
-Indus and Ganges Basins
-A peninsula
-Vindhya Mts. And Deccan plateau divide peninsula from basins and mountains
-Indian peninsula and Ganges Valley have subtropical climate and much rainfall.
-Indus Valley is dry and agriculture relies on irrigation.
-Geographical diversity made it hard for unification.
-Kingdom of Magadha – core of Mauryan Empire.
-Magadha Kingdom has strategic location and had plenty of agriculture and iron resources.
-Mauryan government made capital at walled and moated Pataliputra.

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