What was the first Indian civilization?

Question

If I remember from last year's world history class, the first civilizations were the Sumerians, the Egyptians, the Chinese, and a mysterious Indian civilization. My questions are what is this lost Indian civilization referred to as today, why was it lost, and how similar was this ancient culture to today's Indian Hindu culture?

Answer 1

athabaskan indians first acclimated to the north american continent and it's hunting possiblities!!they probably had to develop new ways of hunting as their sucesses made game more and more scarce!!the atl-atl,the bow and arrow ,the stone tipped lance ,throwing sticks and sling were all the devises that they needed!!the throwin of untried stones even worked!!traps and subtrefuge,blind canyon drives of herding fleeing animals,and driving herding animals over cliffs all worked to their advantage and were part and parcel of their repetoire!!decoys were made to draw ducks into effective range for nets and throwing sticks,bolas and the like!!some from an extinct lake in neveada date to 16,000 years bpe!!mammoth were hunted as were other animals like sloths and eohippus!!folsom points were named after a kill site used by early hunters in the continental united states!!their lance points and scapers exhibit a much more than utilitarian workmanship in their manufacture!!new dna evidence shows a very surprising finding ;that little can connect the coast chumash indian dna to the indians farther inland and only one individual so far analysed from archaeologic remains was found east of the rockies!!where did the algonquins come from then and the civilized tribes of the american southeast???if they didn't originate in asia where did they originate???new and exciting fields of research are opening up!!!

Answer 2

The harrapa civilization.

Answer 3

A major change in the interpretation of Indian history has been a questioning of an older notion of Oriental despotism as the determining force. Arising out of a traditional European perspective on Asia, this image of despotism grew to vast proportions in the 19th century and provided an intellectual justification for colonialism and imperialism. Its deterministic assumptions clouded the understanding of early interrelationships among Indian political forms, economic patterns, and social structures.

A considerable change is noticeable during this period in the role of institutions. Clan-based societies had assemblies, whose political role changed with the transformation of tribe into state and with oligarchic and monarchical governments. Centralized imperialism, which was attempted in the Mauryan Period (c. 325–185 BC), gave way gradually to decentralized administration and to what has been called feudalistic pattern in the Post-Gupta Period—i.e., from the 7th century AD. Although the village as an administrative and social unit remained constant, its relationship with the mainstream of history varied. The concept of divine kingship was known but rarely taken seriously, the claim to the status of the caste of royalty becoming more important. Because conformity to the social order had precedence over allegiance to the state, the idea of representation found expression not so much in political institutions as in caste and village assemblies. The pendulum of politics swung from large to small kingdoms, with the former attempting to establish empires—the sole successful attempt being that of the Mauryan. Thus, true centralization was rare, because local forces often determined historical events. Although imperial or near-imperial periods were marked by attempts at the evolution of uniform cultures, the periods of smaller kingdoms (often referred to as the Dark Ages by earlier historians) were more creative at the local level and witnessed significant changes in society and religion. It was also these small kingdoms that often boasted the most elaborate and impressive monuments.

The major economic patterns were those relating to land and to commerce. The transition from tribal to peasant society was a continuing process, with the gradual clearing of wasteland and the expansion of the village economy based on plow agriculture. Recognition of the importance of land revenue coincided with the emergence of the imperial system in the 4th century BC; and from this period onward, although the imperial structure did not last long, land revenue became central to the administration and income of the state. Frequent mentions of individual ownership, references to crown lands, numerous land grants to religious and secular grantees in the Post-Gupta Period, and detailed discussion in legal sources of the rights of purchase, bequest, and sale of land all clearly indicate that private ownership of land existed. Much emphasis has been laid on the state control of the irrigation system; yet a systematic study of irrigation in India reveals that it was generally privately controlled and that it serviced small areas of land. When the state built canals, they were mainly in the areas of the winter and summer monsoons and where village assemblies played a dominant part in revenue and general administration, as, for example, in the Cola (Chola) kingdom of South India.

The urban economy was crucial to the rise of civilization in the Indus Valley (c. 2600–2000 BC). Later, the 1st millennium BC saw an urban civilization in the Ganges Valley and still later in coastal South India. The emergence of towns was based on administrative needs, the requirements of trade, and pilgrimage centres. In the 1st millennium AD, when commerce expanded to include trade with western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, and Central and Southeast Asia, revenue from trade contributed substantially to the economies of the participating kingdoms, as indeed Indian religion and culture played a significant part in the cultural evolution of Central and Southeast Asia. Gold coins were issued for the first time by the Kusanas and in large quantity by the Guptas; both kingdoms were active in foreign trade. Gold was imported from Central Asia and Rome and later perhaps from eastern Africa because, in spite of India's recurring association with gold, its sources were limited. Expanding trade encouraged the opening up of new routes, and this, coupled with the expanding village economy, led to a marked increase of knowledge about the subcontinent during the Post-Mauryan Period. With increasing trade, guilds became more powerful in the towns. Members of the guilds participated in the administration, were associated with politics, and controlled the development of trade through merchant embassies sent to places as far afield as Rome and China. Not least, guilds and merchant associations held envied and respectable positions as donors of religious institutions.

The structure of Indian society was characterized by caste. The distinguishing features of a caste society were endogamous kinship groups (jati) arranged in a hierarchy of ritual ranking, based on notions of pollution and purity, with an intermeshing of service relationships and an adherence to geographic location. There was some coincidence between caste and access to economic resources. Although ritual hierarchy was unchanging, there appears to have been mobility within the framework. Migrations of peoples both within the subcontinent and from outside encouraged social mobility and change. The nucleus of the social structure was the family, with the pattern of kinship relations varying from region to region. In the more complex urban structure, occupational guilds occasionally took on jati functions, and there was a continual emergence of new social and professional groups.

Religion in early Indian history did not constitute a monolithic force. Even when the royalty attempted to encourage certain religions, the idea of a state religion was absent. In the main, there were three levels of religious expression. The most widespread was the worship of local cult deities vaguely associated with major deities, as seen in fertility cults, in the worship of mother goddesses, in the Sakta-Sakti cult, and in Tantrism. Less widespread but popular, particularly in the urban areas, were the more puritanical sects of Buddhism and Jainism and the bhakti tradition of Hinduism. A third level included classical Hinduism and more abstract levels of Buddhism and Jainism, with an emphasis on the major deities in the case of the first and on the teachings of the founders in the case of the latter two. It was this level, endorsed by affluent patronage, that provided the base for the initial institutionalization of religion. But the three levels were not isolated; the shadow of the third fell over the first two, the more homely rituals and beliefs of which often crept into the third. This was the case particularly with Hinduism, the very flexibility of which was largely responsible for its survival. Forms of Buddhism, ranging from an emphasis on the constant refinement of doctrine, on the one hand, to an incorporation of magical fertility cults in its beliefs, on the other, faded out toward the end of this period.

Sanskrit literature and the building of Hindu and Buddhist temples and sculpture both reached apogees in this period. Although literary works in Sanskrit continued to be written and temples were built in later periods, the achievement was never again as inspiring.