7-2+notes

7-2 Notes on Indian Religion and Culture:

Mahayana: Those who accepted the new doctrines were part of mahayana. Theravada: Those who accepted Buddha's original teachings were part of Theravada. Stupas: Mounded stone structures that were built over holy relies. Buddhists walked over the paths circling the stupas as a way of meditation. silk roads: Were called silk roads because traders used them to bring silk from China to Western Asia and then on to Rome.
 * Bold Words:**

Shiva: destroyer of the world Vishnu: preserver of the world Brahma: creator of the world Kalidasa: India's best writer. Shakuntala was his most famous piece of writing about a girl and king who fall in love and then get separated. The king is cursed by a spell in which he can never remember what the girl looks like. Aryabhata: calculated the value of pie, length of the solar system, described more than 1,000 diseases, and 500 medical plants.
 * Key People:**

Buddhism and Hinduism change: Buddhism- Teaches that desire causes suffering and to over come suffering you must go through the eightfold path.
 * Key Events:**
 * Hinduism- polytheistic religion that blended many Aryan beliefs with the many gods and cults of their diverse people.

-A more popular form of Buddhism-
 * Each person could reach Nirvana by letting go of desires
 * Buddha was seen as a god. Individual people could chose to become bodhisttavas and give up nirvana and reach for good works and self- sacrifice to save humanity.
 * Mahayana & Theravada
 * Mahayana & Theravda inspired artists to make statues of buddha to worship. Rich buddhist merchants paid for the stupas.

-A Hindu Rebirth-
 * Priests could only have direct connection with religion
 * Monotheism started growing and started to believe in mainly 3 gods. The most popular two were Vishnu & Shiva.

Achievements of Indian Culture:
 * India grows in science, art, literature and math

-Literature and the Performing Arts-
 * Kalidasa and the play about the king and the girl. He's plays are famous because of how skillfully written they are and emotional.
 * Southern India has good literature
 * Drama was famous and women and men would travel for shows

-Astronomy, Mathematics, and Medicine- - Sailors used stars for position at Seas - astronomy grew - Indians adapted western methods of keeping time due to Greek invaders - Used calenders of the sun instead of the moon and split weeks into days and hours
 * Trade spurred Science
 * Gupta Empire knew astronomy really well and guessed that the earth was round based on the shadow of a lunar eclipse.
 * India's mathematics are the most advanced in the world. They created the decimal point and the number 0. (Aryabhata)

The Spread Of Indian Trade:
 * India's rich in natural resources like- spices, diamonds, sapphires, gold, pearls and beautiful woods

-Overland Trade, East and West-
 * Invaders helped to expand India's trade to new regions
 * Central Asian Nomads told Indian's about the silk roads
 * Indians learned that they could make a profit as middlemen on the silk road. The set trading stations up at the oases.

-Sea trade, East and West-
 * Sea trade expanded for example: in order to bring good from India to Rome they used coastal routes around the rim of Arabian Sea and up the Persian Gulf.
 * India exported cotton cloth for African Ivory and gold. Traded with Arabia for dates and horses. Chinese and Southern Asia Islands traded with india as well like parrots, elephants, and India silk.

-Effects of Indian trade-
 * Bankers would lend money to merchants and charge them interest on loans. Depending on how risky the business was, interest rates varied.
 * Indian merchants went to live elsewhere and brought Indian culture with them which spread to parts of Asia.
 * Indian religions were brought to Hinduism and Buddhism