Indus River Valley Civilization
Terms
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- Gupta Empire
- A decentralized state system covering most of N India, with provinces (desa) and districts (pradesa). It was materially prosperous, especially in urban areas, and is known as India's 'Classical' or 'Golden' Age, when norms of Indian literature, art, architecture, and philosophy were established, and Hinduism underwent revival.
- Mohenjo-Daro
- A ruined prehistoric city of Pakistan in the Indus River valley northeast of Karachi. Its remains date to c. 3000 B.C.
- Indus River Valley Civilization
- Indian civilizations by rivers
- Karma
- action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation: in Hinduism one of the means of reaching Brahman.
- Siddhartha Gautama
- The original buddha
- Mahabharata
- an epic poem of India dealing mainly with the conflict between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, with many digressions: includes the Bhagavad-Gita.
- Aryan Migration
- a necessary corollary of any model of Indo-European origins that locates the original Indo-European homeland outside the Indian subcontinent.
- Shah Jahan
- 1592?-1666, Mogul emperor in India 1628?-58: built the Taj Mahal.
- Ashoka
- King of India (c.264-238 BC), the last ruler of the Mauryan dynasty. After his invasion of the Kalinga country, he renounced armed conquest and became a convert to Buddhism, which subsequently spread throughout India and beyond. He adopted a policy called dharma (principles of right life), advocating toleration, honesty, and kindness, and had his teachings engraved on rocks and pillars at certain sites. With his death the Mauryan empire declined and his work was discontinued.
- Harappa
- a Bronze Age culture that flourished in the Indus valley.
- Moksha
- freedom from the differentiated, temporal, and mortal world of ordinary experience.
- Vardhamana Mahavira
- a semilegendary teacher, believed to have died c480 b.c., who reformed older doctrines to establish Jainism in its present form: regarded as the twenty-fourth and latest Tirthankara.
- Dharma
- conformity to religious law, custom, duty, or one's own quality or character.
- Vedic Age
- the period in the history of India when the sacred Vedic Sanskrit texts such as the Vedas were composed.
- Chandragupta
- king of northern India 322?-298 b.c. : founder of the Maurya empire.
- Aurangzeb
- 1618-1707, Mogul emperor of Hindustan 1658-1707.
- Mughal Empire
- An important Indian Muslim state (1526-1857), founded by Babur (1526-30). It temporarily declined under Humayun (1530-40), who lost control to the Afghan chieftain Sher Shah (1540-5). His son, Akbar (1556-1605), defeated the Afghan challenge at Panipat (1556) and extended the empire to include territory between Afghanistan and the Deccan. This was a period of religious freedom, in which a policy of conciliation was pursued with the Rajput states. Akbar was succeeded by Jehangir (1605-27) and Shah Jehan (1627-58). Its last great emperor was Aurangzeb (1658-1707), who extended the limits of the empire further S; however, religious bigotry alienated non-Muslim supporters and undermined the empire's unity. The empire disintegrated under Maratha and British pressure. By the mid-18th-c it ruled only a small area around Delhi. Its last emperor, Bahadur Shah II (1837-57) was exiled by the British to Yangon (Rangoon) after the 1857 uprising.
- Nirvana
- freedom from the endless cycle of personal reincarnations, with their consequent suffering, as a result of the extinction of individual passion, hatred, and delusion: attained by the Arhat as his goal but postponed by the Bodhisattva.
- Rig-Veda (Vedas)
- Any of the oldest and most authoritative Hindu sacred texts, composed in Sanskrit and gathered into four collections.
- Upanishads
- Any of a group of philosophical treatises contributing to the theology of ancient Hinduism, elaborating on the earlier Vedas.
- Asceticism
- the doctrine that a person can attain a high spiritual and moral state by practicing self-denial, self-mortification, and the like.
- Varnas/Jatis (caste system)
- a social structure in which classes are determined by heredity
- Ahimsa
- the principle of noninjury to living beings.
- Akbar
- 1542-1605, Mogul emperor of India 1556-1605.
- Sikhism
- A monotheistic religion founded in northern India in the 16th century by the guru Nanak. Sikhism rejects caste distinctions, idolatry, and asceticism and is characterized by belief in a cycle of reincarnation from which humans can free themselves by living righteous lives as active members of society.
- Bhagavad Gita
- a portion of the Mahabharata, having the form of a dialogue between the hero Arjuna and his charioteer, the avatar Krishna, in which a doctrine combining Brahmanical and other elements is evolved.
- Samsara
- the process of coming into existence as a differentiated, mortal creature.
- Ramayana
- an epic of India, one of the Puranas attributed to Valmiki and concerned with the life and adventures of Ramachandra and his wife Sita.
- Atman
- the individual self, known after enlightenment to be identical with Brahman.
- Brahman
- a member of the highest, or priestly, class among the Hindus.
- Four Noble truths and the Noble Eightfold Path
- the doctrines of Buddha: all life is suffering, t he cause of suffering is ignorant desire, this desire can be destroyed, the means to this is the Eightfold Path.the eight pursuits of one seeking enlightenment, comprising right understanding, motives, speech, action, means of livelihood, effort, intellectual activity, and contemplation.