Indian subcontinent

- The landmass that includes what is now India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

Monsoons

- Seasonal winds in monsoons that blow dry air across the country.  Then, in the middle of June, the winds shift.  Spring monsoons blow from the southwest carrying moisture from the ocean in great rain clouds.

Khyber Pass

- The path that was believed to have brought Northern Migrants in to the Hindu Kush Mountains, into India.

Harappa

- One of the largest cities in the Indus, that archaeologists have found many ruins of.  Indus Valley civilization is sometimes called Harappan civilization, because of the many archaeological discoveries made at the site.

Mohenjo-Daro

- Another one of the largest cities in the Indus, where many archeological discoveries were made.

City planning

- One of the most remarkable achievements of the Indus Valley people was their sophisticated city planning.  The people of the Indus laid out their cities on a precise grid system.  Cities featured a fortified area called a citadel, which contained the major buildings of the city.

Grid system

- A precise system in which the Indus people used to lay out their cities.

Indus seals

- Stamps and seals made of carved stone were probably used by Indus merchants to identify their gods.  These show that the Indus people conducted long-distance trade.

Great Bath

-The earliest public water tank in the ancient world. This tank was most likely used for special religious functions where water was used to purify people.  The “Great Bath” was located in Mohenjo-Daro. 

Vedas

- The Aryans sacred literature, that left a fairly reliable picture of Aryan life.  The Vedas are four collections of prayers, magical spells, and instructions for performing rituals.

Rig Veda

Rig Veda- The most important part of the collections of the Vedas.  The Rig Veda contains 1028 hymns, all devoted to Aryan gods.

Dasas

- The name that Aryans referred to the Indians they found, which means dark, referring to their skin.

Indra

- The thunder god that the Aryans believed in.

Agni

- The fire god that the Aryans believed in.

Brahmin

- Brahmins were priests, who were considered the highest social class.

Shudras

- Non- Aryan laborers or craftsmen that formed a forth-social group.  Shudras did work that Aryans did not want to do.  This is very similar to today with illegal immigrants, how they do work that Americans do not want to do.

Varna

- Skin color, which was a distinguishing feature of the social class system.  The four major groups came to be known as the varnas.

Castes

- Much later- in the fifteenth century A.D.—explorers from Portugal encountered the social system varnas and called these groups Castes, instead of varnas.

Untouchables

- Those who were the most impure because of their work (butchers, gravediggers, collectors of trash) lived outside of the caste structure.

Mahabharata

- One of the great epics of India, which reflects the struggles that took place in India as the Aryans moved relentlessly south.

Asceticism

-The doctrine that a person can attain a high spiritual and moral state by practicing self-denial.

Atman

- An individuals deepest self

Brahman

- The universal essence

Moksha

- Through meditation or study, ascetics hoped to experience their true identity and realize their oneness with Brahman, this was what they called Moksha.

Upanishads

- The texts of the Ascetics.

Samsara

- The idea of rebirth that people will die again and again.  Once you have reached moksha, samsara (the cycle of rebirth) with be broken.

Karma

- Karma is the measure of how one performs one’s dharma (duty, role), and karma determines what a person will be born in future lives.

Dharma

- Somebody’s duty or role.  If done properly, they will receive good karma.

Jainism

 -An Indian religion that believes in non-violence, and follows the Doctrine of Maybe.

Jiva

- Mahavira taught that everything in existence is alive with a quality he identified as jiva.  A jiva is something like a soul.  No creator of god made the jivas, billions of jivas have always existed.

Ahimsa

- Non-injury to any living thing

Jina

- A person who has absolute control over his senses.

Vira

Siddhartha Gautama

- The founder of Buddhism

Enlightenment

- Wisdom that Siddhartha wandered through the forests of India seeking.

Enlightened One

- The meaning of the name Buddha, which is the reason that Siddhartha Gautama was known as the Buddha.

Four Noble Truths

-The four main ideas that Buddha had understood in his enlightenment.

Eightfold path

- A sort of staircase for the Buddha, those who were seeking enlightenment had to master one step at a time.

Middle Way

-The Noble Eightfold Path- Right views, Right resolve, Right speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. This is the Middle Way. The Middle way is mainly just the inbetweeness of the two extremes, neither too glamorous or too self-deprived.

Nirvana

- The Buddha’s word for release from selfishness and pain.

Sangha

- The first disciples who heard the Buddha’s first sermon were the first monks admitted to a sangha, or Buddhist religious order.  At first sangha was a community of Buddhist monks and nuns. However, sangha eventually referred to the entire religious community.

Three Jewels

- The religious community, together with the Buddha and the dharma (Buddhist doctrine or law), make up the “Three Jewels” of Buddhism.

Stupas

Hinduism.

- A total way of life that tries to offer something for everyone regardless of gender, personal qualities, varna, or class.

Dharma

- A person or thing’s responsibility they need to fill in order to receive good karma.

Artha

- One of a person’s goals to achieve in a lifetime.  Artha has to do with survival, power, and wealth.  On the personal level, artha includes getting rich and becoming important.

Kama

- One of a person’s goals to achieve in a lifetime.  Kama means pleasure and all kinds of delights.  Kama includes good food, good drink, joyful

Moksha

- Moksha involves recognizing that one’s real self has nothing to do with the part one is playing; one’s real self is identical with the oneness of the whole universe.

Guru