Indian Religions and culture
Religion
Buddhism
Literature
Buddhism
- New trends inspired Indian art such as Buddha carvings made out of stupas which is a mounded stone structure built over holy relics.
- It was one of the two most important religions.
- Buddhism teaches that desire causes suffering and that humans should overcome desire.
- Buddhists thought that everyone should reach a state of peace, also known as nirvana.
- Many thought of Buddha as a god but he didn't want people to worship him as one.
- Two doctrines were:
- Mahayana which offered salvation to all and allows popular worship
- Theravada, also called the Hinayana, which focuses on the strict spiritual disciple originally advocated to Buddha
- Compared to Buddhism, Hinduism was more complex.
- Those who weren't priests had less connection to the religion and its Gods
- Three important Gods and Goddesses were:
- Brahma, the creator of the whole world
- Vishnu, the preserver of the world
- Shiva, the destroyer of the world
- The two most popular are Vishnu and Shiva.
Literature
- A great, famous Indian writer was Kalidasa.
- He was known for his story Shakuntala. It was about a gril who falls in love and marries a middle-aged king. After they separate, a curse prevents the King from ever noticing his wife ever again. (Please see video below.)
- In Maduri, a south Indian city, became a site of writing academies.
- It was very important to Indian culture.
- There were acting groups of both men and women actors who would travel all around South India and acting and dance for people
- Sailors would use the stars to help guide them to where they wanted to go which made astronomy very important
- The people made calendars that were based on the cycles of the sun that had seven days a week and also divided each into days and into hours.
- The people used lunar eclipses to figure out that the Earth was round.
- They also figured out the calculation of pi and the solar year.
- Indian was very rich in spices.
- The Romans were upset about how the amount of money that was going to India for spices.
- India imported from Africa for ivory and gold and exported cloth.
- The trade with Roman decreased as trade with Southeast Asia increased.
- Trading lead to banking. A banker would loan money to merchants and would charge them for interest.
- Indian culture would spread all around because Indian merchants would travel a lot.
- The culture effected the style in art, architect and especially in Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesian Islands.
- The traders brought Indian religions to new areas. Buddhism influenced China and other Southeaster Asian countries.