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India vocabulary
Ancient India vocabulary words
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Monsoon | winds that mark the seasons in India |
Citadel | a strong central fortress built on a brick platform |
Raja | a prince who ruled an Indo-Aryan state |
Indo-Aryans | nomadic people that migrated from north of the Black and Caspian Seas |
Vedas | a great work of Indo-Aryan religious literature |
Sanskrit | the Indo-Aryan language |
Vedic Age | the period of India's history from 1500 to 1000 B.C. |
Brahmins | special priest who were very important to the Indo-Aryan society |
Epics | long poems |
Caste System | complex form of social organization that began to take shape after the Indo-Aryan migration |
Varnas | distinct social classes within the Indian Caste system |
Monism | belief in the unity of god and creation |
maya | Hinduism belief that the world we see is an illusion |
Reincarnation | the belief in the rebirth of the soul |
Nirvana | perfect spiritual peace |
Upanishads | the written explanation of the Vedic religion |
Bhagavad Gita | the last 18 chapters of the Mahabharata it stresses the idea of proper coduct in the varna |
Siddhartha Gautama | founder of Buddhism, known as "Buddha" or "The Enlightened One" |
Chandragupta Maurya | established the Mauryan empire |
Asoka | Chandragupta's grandson who sent Buddhist missionaries throughout Asia |
Chandra Gupta II | ruled from 374-415 A.D., society prospered and progress was made in the arts during his reign |
polygamy | cutstom of men having more than one wife |
Suttee | a practice of widows committing suicide by throwing themselves on top of their husband's flaming funeral pyres |
Inoculation | practice of infecting people with a mild form of a disease to protect them from serious illness |
Panchatantra | fables from the Guupta period |
Nalanda | famous Buddhist university |
Aryabhata | mathematician, one of the first people known to have used algebra and solved quadratic equations |