ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY QUIZ

FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

➡️ FIRST NOBLE TRUTH – There is suffering in this world.

➡️ SECOND NOBLE TRUTH – It forms the basis of Pratitya Samutpada or the Buddhist doctrine of Dependent Origination which states that every suffering has a cause.

➡️ THIRD NOBLE TRUTH – All physical and mental sufferings can stop by extinguishing desires, attachment and cravings.

➡️ FOURTH NOBLE TRUTH – Cessation of suffering can be achieved by following the Eight Fold Path.

Every full moon day is an auspicious day for Buddhists, but the most important of all is the day of the full moon in May, because three major events in the life of the Gautama Buddha took place on this day.

1) BIRTH – the Buddha-to-be, Prince Siddhartha was born in Lumbini on the full moon day in May.

2) ENLIGHTENMENT – After 6 years of hardship, he attained nirvana under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, also on the full moon day of May.

3) DEATH - after 45 years of preaching the four noble truths, he passed away to mahaparinirvana, the cessation of all desires at Kusinara at the age of 80, on the full moon day of May.

Therefore, Buddha Jayanti or
Vesak Day honors the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha.

Bead-making industry of Indus Valley Civilisation

Chanhudaro is an Indus Valley site located 130 km south of Mohenjodaro in Sindh, Pakistan. The settlement was inhabited between 4000 and 1700 B.C. and is considered to have been a centre for manufacturing carnelian beads.

The beads from indus valley civilization are made of various materials such as terracotta, shell, steatite, agate-carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, faience, jasper, onyx and others.

Often the burials of Harappan sites clearly indicate the social stratification based on the artefacts, including beads of exotic raw materials, their number and rarity.

Indus Valley Civilisation (Meluhha) had trade relations with Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations.

Ships from Meluhha docked in Mesopotamian ports. Some Meluhhans settled in Sumer. On the other hand, there is nothing to suggest that people from Mesopotamia reached the Indus Valley, so it is clear that the Harappans conducted the trade between the two civilizations.

Mesopotamian ships sailed the length of the Gulf, as far as the western coast of Magan (Oman), trading directly with Magan and with Dilmun (Bahrain).

Dilmun (Bahrain) operated as a intermediary between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley in some of this trade.

In the early 2nd millennium BC both Harappan and Mesopotamian ships sailed only to Dilmun, which acted as an entrepot between them.

One of the noticeable features of the Dholavira was the complex water management system through many channels and reservoirs, the earliest found anywhere in the world.

All these reservoirs were made completely of stone.

The inhabitants of Dholavira created 16 or more reservoirs for the effective water supply to the city.

Water Management of Indus Valley Civilisation

The Harappans were probably the first to use a planned drainage system in the urban centres and were extraordinarily skilled in the system of water management as they created a complex irrigation and urban water management systems.

1) They had great baths in most of the cities

2) Wells for almost every home

3) Bathrooms and flushed toilets for all houses

4) Public toilets

5) Separate drains for storm water and sewage covered by the terracotta tiles

Water cleansing seemed to be a part of daily ritual across the civilisation. Rain water was stored in the tanks and reservoirs.

The statue is 17.5 cm high and carved from steatite, also known as soapstone. It was found in Mohenjodaro in 1927.

This steatite figure of the bearded man interpreted as a priest or priest-king.
His eyes are a little elongated, and half-closed as in meditation.

An armlet is worn on the right hand and holes around the neck indicate a necklace. He is draped in a shawl coming under the right arm and covering the left shoulder. His shawl is decorated with trefoil patterns. This indicates that the handicraft of embroidery was prevalent in Indus Valley Civilization.

Metals known to the Harappans

Variety of metals such as copper, gold, silver was extensively used by the Harappan metal workers.

Minor metals like tin, arsenic, lead, antimony etc. were used for alloying.

They had also perfected the intricate ciré perdue or lost wax technique of metal casting as early as the third millennium BCE.

But, Iron was not known to the people of Indus Valley Civilisation.

Iron was first used in the later Vedic Period by the Aryans. It was known as shyam ayas means black or dark metal.

In Indus valley civilization, manufacture of polished bronze and copper mirrors goes back to the time between 2800 and 2500 BC.

Bronze and copper mirrors preceded the glass mirrors of today. These mirrors were made as polished reflective surfaces on metals, commonly bronze or copper. They used by the elites amongst the Harappans.