LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ancient India: Peoples
built 167 days ago
Funerals in Ancient India were opportunities for people to gather together and demonstrate kinship. When a death was announced – the death of an important enough person, that is – then drummers would at once hired to send out a distinctive rhythm that would spread throughout the village and beyond. Neighbours and relatives would start to congregate at the house of the deceased, wailing and letting down their hair to show their distress. People had no conception of the stiff upper lip which says that it is better to show no emotion in times of stress. Indeed, widows in particular were expected to be completely inconsolable and to scream, wail, tear their clothes and make other signs of distress. Widows were, depending on the time and place... expected to throw themselves onto their husband’s funeral pyre.
Source:
In ancient India there developed a social system in which people were divided into separate close communities. These communities are known in English as caste. The origin of the caste system is in Hinduism, but it affected the whole Indian society. The caste system in the religious form is basically a simple division of society in which there are four castes arranged in a hierarchy and below them the outcast. But socially the caste system was more complicated, with much more castes and sub-castes and other divisions. Legally the government disallows the practice of caste system but has a policy of affirmative discrimination of the backward classes.
Source:
To account for the common origin of Indo-European languages, several nineteenth- century European scholars hypothesized that in ancient times an invasion of India from Europe, by a people who spoke the original Indo-European language -- an "Aryan" invasion--must have occurred. In typical Eurocentric arrogance, they assumed, without any evidence, that the Aryans came from outside India. Principal among these "scholars" were Max Muller and Monier-Williams, both committed to denigrating India's cultural heritage in order to persuade Indians to convert to Christianity.
Source:
Indian culture is an ancient and dynamic entity, spanning back to the very beginnings of human civilization. Beginning with a mysterious culture along the Indus River and in farming communities in the southern lands of India, the history of the sub-continent is one puncuated by constant integration with migrating peoples and with the diverse cultures that surround India. Placed in the center of Asia, Indian history is a crossroads of cultures from China to Europe, and the most significant Asian connection with the cultures of Africa.
Source:
This project will take students through the landforms of Ancient India to find out why these ancient people settled where they did. Students will research the lifestyle and culture in Ancient India. Students will come to understand why these people chose where and how they lived, and the importance of water on their lives.
Source:
All societies are riddled with inequalities and the customs of ancient India present themselves as models of inegalitarian hierarchies, both by defining social classes and by oppressing women. Fortunately for the people of that time, the realization of the system did not rigidly enforce the rules, which were written down. Nevertheless, the confining system gave rise to two other distinct groups within Indian history: the Jains and the Buddhists, both of whom spoke out against the inequality of Hindu social theory.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Peoples