Ancient India
Bust found at Mohanjero-Daro - front view How does this compare with busts found in Mesopotamia? |
Bust found at Mohanjero-Daro - rear view The quality of the carving is very high. See what a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City says about it |
Read:
- Duiker/Spielvogel: pp. 37-63.
- Christian: pp. 283-332.
- Reilly, vol. I, pp. 69-86, 189-201 (William McNeill, "Greek and Indian Civilization"; from the "Rig Veda: Sacrifice as Creation"; from the "Upanishads: Karma and Reincarnation"; from the "Upanishads: Brahman and Atman"; from the Bhagavad Gita: "Caste and Self"; "Svetasvatara Upanishad"; Buddhism: "Gotama's Discovery"; "The Buddha's First Sermon")
Study guide for the readings in Reilly for Week 4.
There is no class on Thursday, January 31.
Written Assignment 4: Due on email by Sunday, 6 pm, January 27. In a few paragraphs, answer this question:
- What were the chief features of the Harappan civilization, and in what ways was it similar to and/or different from the civilizations that arose in Egypt and Mesopotamia?
Among the major problems that we have in understanding ancient Indian society and culture are: a) while Harappan civilization had developed a writing system, as had the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians, no one has yet figured out how to read it; and b) the archeological and physical record of Harappan society is far sparser than those of Egypt and Mesopotamia. We'll talk about these two problems in class this week - along with the larger question that they raise - just how do we learn about the distant past? And how much of the past can we discover, recover, reconstruct, understand?
A couple of interesting new items on the controversy in California over the teaching of ancient Indian history in their public schools:
"India History Spat Hits U.S."
"Defending the Faith: New Battleground in Textbook Wars"
"Indus River Script"
An interesting and full site on Harappan Civilization
An article which denies the Aryan Invasions - and one which supports a modern "Indian nationalist view" of this past.
A web site on Ancient Indian History with a "nationalist" viewpoint.
Laws of Manu - full site
Rig Veda - an example - "Afford Him Easy Access, Earth" - a funerary hymn
Maps
Comparative Chronologies