Chapter 3 Reading Guide Flashcards

49376853	Alexander the Great	successor of Philip II; successfully conquered Persian Empire prior to his death; attempted to combine Greek and Persian cultures; allowed important Indian contacts with Hellenistic; established a small border state called Bactria	0
49376854	Monsoon	seasonal winds crossing Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia; during summer, bring rains to hot, dry places in India; favorable=good harvest (critical for farming)	1
49376855	Aryans	Indo-European nomadic pastoralists who replaced Harappan civilization; militarized society; Sanskirt language	2
49376856	Sanskirt	the sacred and classical Indian language; first literary language of Aryan culture in India	3
49376857	Mahabharata	Vedas; Indian epic of war, princely honor, love, and social duty; written down in the last centuries BCE; previously handed down in oral form; tells of real/mythical battles	4
49376858	Ramayana	one of the great epic tales from classical India; traces adventures of King Rama and his wife, Sita	5
49376859	Upanishads	later books of the Vedas; contained sophisticated and sublime philosophical ideas; utilized by Brahmans to restore religious authority; religion/mysticism	6
49376860	Varnas	clusters of caste groups in Aryan society; four social castes - Brahmans (priests), warriors, merchants, and peasants; beneath the 4 Aryan castes was a group of socially untouchable dasas	7
49376861	Untouchables	lowest classin Indian society; performed tasks that were considered polluting; street sweeping, removal of human waste, and tanning	8
49376862	Indra	chief deity of the Aryans; depicted as a colossal, hard-drinking warrior God of thunder and strength	9
49376863	Chandragupta Maurya	founder of Maurya dynasty; established firsrt empire in Indian subcontinent; first centralized government since Harappan civilization; governmental bureaucracy; National Postal System	10
49376864	Mauryan Dynasty	first ruler was Chandragupta Maurya; unified much of the entire subcontinent; large armies with thousands of chariots and elephant borne troops; developed a substantial bureaucracy with a postal service; autocratic government	11
49381597	Ashoka	grandson of Chandragupta Maurya; completed conquests of Indian subcontinent; converted to Buddhism and sponsored spread of new religion throughout his empire	12
49390061	Dharma	the caste position and career determined by a person's birth; Hindu culture required that one accept one's social position and perform occupation to the best of one's ability in order to have a better situation in the next life	13
49390062	Guptas	dynasty the succeeded the Kushans in the 3rd century CE; built empire that extended to all but the southern regions of Indian subcontinent; less centralized than Mauryan Empire; claimed divine rule; demanding system of taxation; established universities	14
49390063	Guru	Brahman who served as a teacher for the princes of the imperial court of the Guptas	15
49390064	Shiva	the Brahman, later Hindu, god of destruction and reproduction; worshipped as the personification of cosmic forces of change	16
49390065	Vishnu	the Brahman, later Hindu god of sacrifice; widely worshipped	17
49390066	Reincarnation	the successive attachment of the soul to some animate form according to merits earned in previous lives; believed that castes were based upon previous lives and that if you fulfilled your duties, you would move up in the next life	18
49390067	Buddha (Siddhartha Guatama)	creator of major Indian and Asian religion; born in 6th century BCE as son of local ruler among Aryan tribes located near Himalayas; became an ascetic; found enlightenment under bo tree; taught that enlightenment could be achieved only by abandoning desires for all earthly things	19
49390068	Nirvana	the Buddhist state of enlightenment; a state of tranquility	20
49390069	Stupas	stone shrines built to house pieces of bone or hair and personal possessions said to be relics of the Buddha; preserved Buddhist architectural forms	21