Indian Geography
Name the two great river valleys of India.
the Indus and the Ganges
The prehistoric invaders of India called themselves Aryans, which means
the Nobel People
. The _______________ are the highest caste in Indian society; the _________________ are the lowest class.
The Brahmins and The Pariahs
__________________ is a religion started by an Indian prince who believed that desire is the root of sorrow, worship of the gods is useless, and the key to happiness is right thinking and good conduct.
Buddhism
The Aryan word for caste (varna) means
Color
The Indian subcontinent is divided by four geographic divisions. Please name two of them.
The mountainous north
the fertile river valley plains
the Deccan Plateau
the costal plain (Tamil Nadu)
What Muslim empire ruled Hindu India for about two hundred years?
The Mughal Empire
The Bhagavad Gita is a long poem about the lessons the hero Arjuna learned from the god __________________.
Krishna
Name two Indian religions that believe in reincarnation.
Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism
The Hindu belief in ______________ holds that when a person dies, his soul is reborn into another creature.
reincarnation
Today, into what three modern countries is the Indian subcontinent divided?
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
What was the last empire to rule a unified India?
The British Empire
Where was the first ancient civilization in India built?
along the lands drained by the Indus River
What Indian religious thinker taught that it is useless to believe in the gods, and that right thinking and conduct take away sorrow, which is caused by desire?
Buddha
The _________________ are the highest caste in Hindu society. What is the lowest caste?
Brahmin,
The lower caste is the Pariah, or the caste of the untouchables.
All the cities of the _________________ civilization appear to have been abandoned around the same time.
Indus Valley (or Harappa)
What was the first empire to unify most of the Indian subcontinent? What empire came after it?
The Mauryan Empire, the Gupta Empire followed
Through whose efforts did India gain its independence in 1948?
Mohandas Gandhi
What is reincarnation?
Reincarnation is the belief that the soul is reborn into another creature after death.
The Indian “golden age” of leisure, learning, and courtly life took place under which group?
Gupta Dynasty
The ruined cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro were built by
the Dravidians
The ________________, who invaded India and established an empire in 1526, claimed to be descendants of Genghis Khan.
The Mughals
A company called the __________________ruled the subcontinent until the __________________took over the rule of India around 1800.
East India Company
The British
Who was the first missionary to bring the Christian faith to the west coast of India (in the first. century A.D.) ? What is the name of the Indian Church he is said to have founded?
St. Thomas the Apostle, The Mar Thoma Church
The sacred scriptures of ancient Hindu Indian society are called the __________________.
the Vedas