Chapter 3: India and Indianization Flashcards
Vedas
What/Who:
- Large body of religious texts
- Based on secret oral teachings provided by gurus (spiritual teachers)
- Heavily emphasises rituals (e.g. sacrifice)
When:
- 1500 BCE
Why important IR/Significance:
- Followers known as Aryans
- Teaches us about rituals like kings sacrificing horses
- One of the only things that we know about the Indo-European’s but
they followed the Vedas
Ashvamedha
What/Who:
- Ritual from the Vedas
- Horse sacrificing
- Political ritual
- Concerned the Kings’ right to rule
- In short: A horse is allowed to run around freely for a year (accompanied by one of the king’s followers). If the horse roamed off in an enemy’s lands, the territory had to be occupied by the kind. The enemy was free to challenge the horse its protector to a duel. If they killed the horse, the king would lose his power to rule. If the horse was still alive after a year, it would return to the king’s court, bathed, decorated and then sacrificed. At the end of the ritual, the king would be considered the undisputed ruler of the land that the horse had covered.
When:
- During the Vedic India period
- New-age Hindu spiritualists revived this ritual with a statue of a horse
Why important IR/Significance:
- Teaches us about the Eurasian landmass
Janapada
What/Who:
- Nations
- Ethnic groups and tribes on the plains of the Ganges River
When:
- First millennium BCE
Why important IR/Significance:
- Later became Mahajanapada
Mahajanapada
What/Who:
- Great Nations
- A reduced form of the Janapada
- 16 major ones
- The courts of each one of them became centres of scholarships,
visited by wandering teacher eager to offer advice
When:
- 600 BCE
Why important IR/Significance:
- Revolution idea
- There was competition among these 16
- That leads to forced protection from each state from its neighbours
- This required in its turn more powerful armies
- This needed a more powerful economic base
- And more efficient machinery
- Etc.
Mahabharata (& Ramayana)
What/Who:
- Great epic poems
- Recounts the story of the dynastic struggle over the throne of a kingdom in northern India
- 1.8 million words (!)
- Principal figure is Krishna (god of compassion, tenderness, love, the
embodiment of universal being)
- Relevant battle concerns not political power but the moral struggles of human life
When:
- Late Vedic period
- 500 - 200 BCE
Why important IR / Significance:
- To this day still regularly performed in India with sleep and food breaks
for the audience and the cast as it is really long
- Has had a profound influence on Indian culture
Arthashastra
What/Who:
- Book
- (secret) Manual on statecraft
- Written by Kautilya, an adviser to the king
- = a mirror of princes
- Politics → ruthless game of power, the king has to lie, deceive, torture, imprison and kill its subjects. Even friends and family members are targets. One should always be suspicious.
When:
- Third century BCE
Why important IR / Significance:
- Gave the leaders of the mahajanapadas political advice
- Only text of the Vedic period which does not deal with religious of
philosophical matter
Jainism
What/Who:
- Religion
- Doctrine of Ahisma (=non-violence)
- turned them into vegetarians
- Preaches universal love, non-attachment to worldly possessions
- Emphasizes the importance of devotional practices
When:
- 5th century BCE
Why important IR / Significance:
- Later, the principle of Ahisma inspired Mahatma Gandhi (leader of Indian independence movement)
- 4 à 5 million Jains living in India today
Buddhism
What/Who:
- Religion
- A “middle way”
- Buddha = the awakened one
- No notion of a god
- No separate social classes or castes
- Enlightenment: being released from suffering and from our notion on its self. This way we don’t have to be reborn
When:
- Founded by Sidharta Gautama (prince) in the 5th century BCE
Why important IR / Significance:
- Today 500 million followers
Buddhas of Bamiyan
What/Who:
- Bamiyan = valley in central Afghanistan
- 2 gigantic Buddhas statues
- Largest standing Buddhas in the world
- Now destroyed by Taliban government
When:
- Build: 6th century CE
- Destroyed: march 2001
Why important IR / Significance:
- Example of the eclectic blend of cultural influences: they were Indian
but were wearing Greek clothing
- To the Taliban, they were “idols” + they were angry that the international community allocated funds for maintaining them while the Afghans themselves were starving
Pillars of Ashoka
→ Ashoka the Great = a ruthless king that then renounced violence and converted to Budhism, he then started many projects to improve the lives of the poor, aged, and widowed
What/Who:
- Pillars all over the empire
- Explained Ashoka his politics and aspirations
- Express his promise to rule his people with compassion and benevolence, renouncing violence, making sure every one of his subjects was well-fed and happy
- Also making sure that everybody knew who their ruler was
- BUT the problem was that in general, the people could not read
- Fixed this by putting an officer next to every pillar. This officer then also heard if something was wrong and could then tell the Kings court to fix it → Politics?
When:
- 268-232 BCE
Why important IR / Significance:
- Still 33 in existence
- He used local languages, not Sanskrit
- Show foreigners and locals his power/communication
Ark of the Covenant
What/Who:
- Gold covered wooden chest
- Containing the stone tablets with the original version of the Ten Commandments
Kama Sutra
What/Who:
- Known as a sex manual, but it is so much more
- Manual on how to lead a complete, long and satisfying life
- Discusses ex, nature of love and the requirements of family life
- Author Vatsyayana, a philosopher
- Main idea:
- Young → seek bodily pleasures
- Later → concentrate on spiritual matters in order to escape
the cycle of rebirths
- Man and women in close embrace symbolizes liberation = Moksha
When:
- 2nd or 3rd century BCE
Why important IR / Significance:
- Today in India: pornography = illegal, prostitution = legal
Nalanda
What/Who:
- Buddhist monastery complex
- Center of Buddhist learning → oldest university
- Teached Vedas, logic, Sanskrit grammar, medicine, fine arts,
astronomy, mathematics, politics, epistemology
- First educational centre that conducted entrance exams
When:
-x
Why important IR / Significance:
- Helped pave the way for modern universities
- SInce 2014 reopend, in the hope that it will contribute to the economic
development of Bihar where it is located, as it is one of India’s poorest regions
Mahout
What/Who:
- The elephant keeper
- Elephants were used for war
- Elephantry = a cavalry equipped with elephants instead of horses
When:
- Early as the 4th century BCE until today
Why important IR / Significance:
- Important for battles
Thaipusam
→Kavadi aattam = burden dance, known as an endurance test by which the devotees demonstrate the power of their fate. Attracting mostly young men
What/Who:
- Religious festival celebrated by the Tamil community in India and by Tamil diaspora worldwide
- Celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and wisdom over ignorance
- Perform the kavadi aattam (= burden dance) where they bring offerings to their God
- Offerings: milk that they hang with hooks on their bodies (bloody)
When:
-x
Why important IR / Significance:
-X
