The three cities of India's First Civilisation

As the first civilisation of India, referred to as the Indus Valley or Harappan that existed from 2,600 B.C.E, this civilisation combined 3 major cities for a period that lasted for 100 years from 2600 - 1900 BCE. This period is known as the ‘Harappan Culture Integration Era’. The three major cities combined were Mohenjo-Dara, Harappa and Lothal.


These cities are located in modern Pakistan, and below is a brief outline of the importance of each city.



Mohenjo-Daro
•Mohenjo-Daro is one of the large settlements of the Indus Civilisation and the largest of the Harappan cities
•Mohenjo-Daro is protected by great fortifications and walls












•Social organisation and religious beliefs of Mohenjo-Daro remain anonymous; however, a small limestone figure from Mohenjo-Daro depicts a thick-lipped, bearded man staring at the world through slitted eyes. He seems to be meditating.
•However, by 1,800 B.C.E, the city of Mohenjo-Dara was abandoned. It is known that the city had become decentralised by then. A theory is that the river dried up, so there was no water, hence there was a population movement due to environmental changes.
•After 1,800, the Aryans from the North moved into Mohenjo-Dara. The Aryans are the modern Indians and Pakistan people today.

Harappa
•Harappa was also one of the large settlements of the Indus Civilisation, now modern Pakistan
•Harappan civilisation collapsed after 2000 BCE, and Harappa was abandoned (inhabitants were separated into village communities) due to disease such as malaria which led to population movement

Lothal
•Lothal was a vital and thriving trade centre trading beads, gems and valuable ornaments with West Asia and Africa.
• The people of this city, Lothal were responsible for the earliest-known portrayals of realism in art and sculpture, telling some of the most well-known fables of today
•The people of this city also pioneered the study of stars and advanced navigation—2000 years before the Greeks.
•For the next 4000 years, their techniques and tools they pioneered were still useful for bead-making and in metallurgy (study of the physical and chemical behaviour of metallic elements and the technology of metals such as metalworking).

Is Buddhism a Religion?

After yesterday's class I was thinking and kept coming back to the point that Buddhism is not a religion but a way of life. If this is correct, and I am not doubting that, why is it compared as a religion then?

A Brief History of India

Hello All

Based on last weeks readings 'A Brief History of India' by Welsh (2006). I have been requested to post my timeline dating from 1000 BC (Before common era) commencing from the agrian civilisations of the Indus valley to 700 AD (common era) when British Imperialism emerged triumphant over the great Mogul empire which unified much of the north and south of India.

Please note: to view the timeline please click on the image below, to enlarge it in a new window.

Hanuman a Hindu deity who is an ardant devotee of Rama

Hanuman is from an ape like race living in the forest. He aids Rama in the struggle against the demon King Ravana. His adventures are much celebrated in a variety of religious and cultural traditions, particularly in Hinduism. He is often the subject of worship according to some traditions.Hanuman is a Hindu deity, who is an ardant devotee of Rama. He is from an ape like race living in the forest. He aids Rama in the struggle against the demon King Ravana. His adventures are much celebrated in a variety of religious and cultural traditions particularly in Hinduism, so much so that he is often the subject of worship according to some traditions.

Hanuman birth resulted from Anjana experience in worshipping Lord Shiva. The King of Ayodhya was performing an offering to the gods for a wish to have children. As a result he received a portion of sacred pudding from the gods to be shared by his three wives. But a kite snatched a crumb of the pudding and dropped it while flying across the forest, where Anyana was praying. The wind delivered the falling pudding into Anjana's outstretched hands, who ate it. Hanuman was born to her as a result.

While Rama is searching in the forest for his abducted wife, Sita, he meets Hanuman. They become life time friends, and Hanuman helps him to find his wife.

The Famous Silk Road

The Silk Road extends from Southern Europe through The Arabian Peninsula, Somalia, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Java-Indonesia, and Vietnam until it reaches China. Land routes are red, water routes are blue.

The Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe.

The Silk Routes were important paths for cultural, commercial and technological exchange between traders, merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from Ancient China, Ancient India, Ancient Tibet, Persia and Mediterranean countries for almost 3,000 years. It gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade, a major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive trans-continental network, which began during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE).

Extending 4,000 miles, the routes enabled people to transport goods, especially luxuries such as slaves, silk, satin and other fine fabrics, ,other perfumes, spices, medicines, jewels, glassware as well as serving as a conduit for the spread of knowledge, ideas, cultures and diseases between different parts of the world such as Ancient China, Ancient India (Indus valley, now Pakistan), Asian Minor and the Mediterranean. Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the great civilisation of China, India, Egypt, Persia, Arabia and Rome and in several respects helped lay the foundations for the modern world.

Trouble Accessing E-Reserve?

I believe a lot of you are having trouble accessing the "Caste, Kings and the Hindu World Order" from the library catalogue.

Here are the links for all three parts:-

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Hopefully this will solve the problem. Remember you will need to enter your ID number without the s and your full DOB as your PIN.

Tuesday's class now starts at 12.30

Hey guys,
Our Tuesday class starts from 12.30 to 3.00

history of Indian cricket

Cricket has its very own history associated with its existence in the country. The oldest reference to the sport in India can be dated back to 1725 when some sailors played a match at a seaport in Kutch. By the year 1792, the Calcutta cricket had been formed, and also another Cricket club had been formed at Seringapatam by the year 1799.

It was marked by a match played between Madras and Calcutta in the year 1864 that began the first class cricket. The first foreign team in India was in 1889- 90 when the English team arrived in India. The captain of the team was George Vermon, which eventually was the first foreign cricket team to arrive in India, though the matches played in Australia aren’t called first class cricket match.
In 1892- 93 two matches had been played between the European team and Persees team at Bombay; which is now called Mumbai, and Poona; now known as Pune. This was considered to be the beginning of First class cricket in the country. After this, the first four matches were played between an English team led by Hawke and all the India team between the 26th and 28th of January 1893.

In 1960 the Indian Cricket team proved its strength. During this decade, the team defeated New Zealand and stretched the matches with teams such as Pakistan and England to a draw. In the 1970’s the Indian cricket team got one of its most enchanting possessions. The 1990’s decade of Indian cricket was the most memorable time of all. It would surely be none other than the same of Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin Tendulkar is still playing for the team India and is considered to be one of the all time greatest of the world cricket. He simply surplus every other record and the story still remains on. Apart from Sachin, some other wonderful Cricket players such as Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly and Javagal Srinath became a part of the Indian Cricket team in the decade of 1990’s, and paid their involvement in getting the Indian team confirming several international championships during the period.

India’s remarkable victory against Pakistan got the cricket fans extremely content over the game once again. This was India’s first victory against Pakistan after a gap of 24 years. With this victory India has come to the 4th place in the latest Rankings, the picture on the rigthe is a picture of their trophy.

Cricket has overshadowed all other games like Hockey, the national game of India. The past 75 years have seen India produce some talented cricketers like Pali Umrigar, C K Nayudu, Lala Amarnath, Mohinder Amarnath, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Bishan Singh Bedi, Sandip Patil, G R Vishwanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, S Venkataraghavan, K Srikkanth, Ajit Wadekar, Nari Contractor, and many more.

Ganguly; who was the best cricket player decided to retire. India’s one of the best captains, said that he will retire from the cricket after the India-Australia Series that is going to be held this month. Ganguly has brought many successes to Indian Cricket and India. Ganguly made India to be in the World Cup finals for the Second time. His enthusiastic sporting action and his aggressive nature in the field made a new style in the world of Cricket.

For the past two years, after stepping down from Indian Captain Ganguly was not treated properly and he was denied at all occasions. He was dropped from the Indian team for several times. But the Dada came back strongly with his bat and showed the World that he is still fit to play International Cricket, even though his handful performances for India, due to some Internal Politics going on in Indian Cricket has made him to proclaim his retirement.

All cricketers around the world have praised Ganguly’s decision to retire. Ganguly said that he want to leave the Cricket with a winning knock for his team. This might be the best situation for Ganguly to retire as many youngsters are promising into the world of Cricket. When history speaks about Ganguly, no one can forget his celebration at lord after winning the NatWest series against England. History will never forget Sourav Ganguly and his contribution to Indian Cricket.

History of India - First civilisation of the Indus Valley

Early Civilisation of the Indus Valley, also known as the Harappan civilisation

•The Indus Valley or Harappan was the very first civilisation of India from 2,600 B.C.E. It was located in modern Pakistan, and had three main cities:
*Mohenjo-Dara
*Harappa
*Lothal
•In 2,600 B.C.E Indus writing began, which is about 1,500 years after the first earliest writing of Egypt and Iraq (3000-2000 B.C.E)
•From 2600 – 1900 BCE, the Indus Civilisation combined, this period lasted for 100 years and is called the ‘Harappan Culture Integration Era’, where all the three cities were combined, Mohenjo-Dara, Harappa and Lothal.

Trading
•The Indus Valley civilisation traded with the middle east, such as the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria
•India is one of the major sources for special stones and materials. They traded in luxury goods, specialising in stones and jewelleries. These luxury goods indicate that the Indus Valley Civilisation was wealthy
•The civilisation and culture was at its height in 2,100 B.C.E where it traded directly with Iraq, such as wood, gold and stones.
•It was also wealthy from large agricultural surpluses from wheat, barley and cotton, combined with marine trade with the Middle Eastern countries.

Social Structure
•They had a very sophisticated culture and different social structure from the Middle East
*In the Middle Eastern countries, the social structure was very rigid and hierarchical
•Indus Valley society was highly centralised and it was ruled by a small group of people
•The Indus Valley was a middle-class with a lot of community supervision.
•It was a river culture because the area had a good supply of water

Indias Growing Economy

In 2009, India's nominal GDP stood at US$1.243 trillion, which makes it the eleventh largest economy in the world. Although if Purchase Power Parity (PPP) is taken into account, India's economy is the fourth largest in the world at US$3.561 trillion. India also has the worlds second largest labour force with 516 million people. Agriculture counts for 28% of India's GDP, while services make up 54%, and industrial 18% GDP.

Their major agricultural products include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, tea, sugarcane, potatoes; cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry, and fish. And their major industries include textiles, telecommunications, chemicals, food processing, steel, transport equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, computer software.

India currently exports petroleum products, textile goods, gems and jewelry, software products, engineering goods, chemicals, and leather. They also import crude oil, machinery, gems, fertilizer, and chemicals. Tata Motors, part of India's largest corporate group Tata, will also be one of the largest car manufactures in the world.

Regardless of India's economic growth a 2005 World Bank Report stated that 42% of Indian people are underweight and that the country ranks 2nd in the world for their number of children suffering from malnutrition.

http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/0,,menuPK:476823~pagePK:64165236~piPK:64165141~theSitePK:469372,00.html

Ganga River