• World’s second most populous nation
• Seventh largest in area, 3,000 km wide
• Shoreline of about 7,000 km
• India and Bharat are both official names.
(1,200,000,000 population)

FACTS:
• Early settlers called their land “Bharat
Varsha” or “Bharat”.
• During medieval times, it was known as
“Hind.”

FACTS:
• Earliest Indian civilization grew up in
the Indus Valley from 4000 to 2500
BC.
• 1500 BC --- Aryan invaders entered
India.
• Hinduism and the Caste system were
the foundations of the Indian society.

C
A
S
T
E
S
y
s
t
e
m

Strive to
know the
truth
BUDDHISM
Resolve to
resist evil.
Say nothing
to hurt
others.
Respect life,
morality,
and
property.
Engage in a
job that does
not injure
others.
Practice
proper forms
of
concentration
Strive to free
their mind of
evil.
Control their
feelings and
thoughts.

Main
topographic
regions
Himalayan
Mountain
System
Northern
Plains
Peninsular
India

HIMALAYAS
-Form parts of India’s borders
• WEST --- Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tibet
• EAST --- Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet
• Topographically complex and divided into
prominent elongated valleys and
mountain ranges
• Highest mountain --- Karakoram Range

NORTHERN PLAINS
• Part of a vast lowland extending across the
subcontinent from Pakistan in the west to
Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) in the
east
• Bordered on the north by foothills of the
Himalayas, south of the Bramaputra basin,
south of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, east of the
Brahmaputra, and in the rest of India by the
Ganges.

LANGUAGES
• More than 200 languages are spoken
• Linguistic diversity provides an important key
to understanding Indian civilization.
• Most important are the Indo-Arab branch of
the Indo-European group and the Dravidian
language group.

• 4th most widely
spoken
language in the
world
• Language of
30% of the
population
HINDI
(official
language)

HINDUISM
BUDDHISM
JAINISM
SIKHISM

GREAT PEOPLE :
MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI
• Leader of the Indian Nationalist movement
• Known as Mahatma (great soul)
• Pioneered on civil disobedience or the
philosophy of nonviolent confrontation
• Born on October 2, 1869, Porbandar

FACTS:
• Mostly written in Sanskrit
(oldest extant Aryan language)
• A small portion was written in
Prakrit (vernacular form of
Sanskrit)

PERIODS OF LITERATURE
VEDIC
• 1500 BC-200BC
• Principally religious
and lyric
SANSKRIT
• 200 BC-present
• Many types of literature
achieved distinction

RELIGIOUS WORKS
• Oldest sacred literature is
found in the four Vedas.

RIG VEDA
SAMA VEDA
ATHARVA VEDA
YAJUR VEDA

• RIG VEDA --- an anthology of 1028 hymns
to various gods
• SAMA VEDA --- (Book of Chants) liturgies,
mostly repetitions of hymns in the Rig
Veda
• ATHARVA VEDA --- (Prayer Book)
additional many prose formulas
• YAJUR VEDA --- (Book of Spells)
incantations, notions about demonology
and witchcraft

PROSE
• Commentaries on the Vedic
hymns BRAHMANAS
• Collection of 108 discourses
on the Brahman religion UPANISHADS
• Often unintelligible treatises
concerning rituals SUTRAS

EPICS
• Mahabharata --- written by Vyasa
• Longest poem in the world
• About 200,000 lines, nearly 8 times as
long as the Iliad and the Odyssey
• Greatest epic of India
• Circa 500 BC

EPICS
• Ramayana --- written by Valmiki
• Circa 500 BC to 200 AD
• About 96,000 lines, in seven
books

DRAMAS
• The Toy Clay Cart --- attributed to King
Sundra; has three acts; a courtesan saves
the life of a merchant because of his
former kindness and generosity
• Sakuntala or the Fatal Ring --- attributed
to Kalidasa (the Hindu Shakespeare)

TALES
• The Jatakas --- imaginative legends concerning
the 550 births of Buddha and his early life
• The Panchanatantra --- (Five Books); probably
intended as a manual of instruction for kings’
sons
• The Hitopdesa --- (Book of Good Counsels),
forty-three tales
• The Sukasaptati --- (Seventy Stories of a
Parrot) fairy tales

POETS
• Kalidasa --- leading lyricist famous for
a large number of poems of
sentiment; India’s foremost Sanskrit
dramatist and poet
• Javadeva --- author of the
Gitagovinda (love-making of Krishna)

• Rabindranath Tagore --- Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1913
• Famous collection--- Song
Offerings (Gitanjali)
• Wrote 3,000 poems, 2,000 songs,
8 novels, 40 volume essays and
short stories, and 50 plays

Thank you…