Transcript Brief History of India and the novel Siddhartha

A Brief History of India and
The Ramayana
Mrs. Holt
English I
2015
The Story of India
The Story of India
• The Story of India
– 6 part series by PBS and BBC
– Starring Michael Wood
– Full Documentary
India - Facts
• Southern Asia,
bordering the
Arabian Sea and
the Bay of Bengal,
between Burma
and Pakistan
• 7th Largest Country
in the World
• 2nd most populated
country in the world
– 1.2 billion
Climate and Terrain
• Climate varies from
tropical to temperate
• Terrain varies
– Himalayan Mountains
– Ganges River, rolling
plains
– Deccan Platue ,
upland plain
• Monsoons
– Seasonal wind pattern
of warm, moist air from
the southwest and
cold dry air from the
northeast colliding
Politics
• Republic of India
• Bharatiya Ganarajya
(Baharat)
• Capital New Delhi
• Federal Republic
• Gained
Independence from
UK on 15 August 1947
• Prides itself on being
worlds largest
democracy
Religion
•
•
•
•
•
•
Hindu 80.5%,
Muslim 13.4%,
Christian 2.3%,
Sikh 1.9%,
other 1.8%,
unspecified 0.1%
(2001 census)
Language
• English enjoys the status of subsidiary official
language but is the most important language for
national, political, and commercial
communication;
• Hindi is the most widely spoken language and
primary tongue of 41% of the people;
• 14 other official languages:
– Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati,
Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese,
Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit;
– Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken
widely throughout northern India but is not an official
language (2001 census)
• Hello - Namaste
History
Sanskrit
• The Aryan people were
farmers from Central Asia
who arrived in India
around 1500 B.C.
• They spoke Sanskrit, one
of the world's oldest
known languages.
• The Vedic Scriptures,
writings that form the
basis of the Hindu religion,
were written during the
Aryan reign.
Literature
• Ramayana
– Valmiki, 4-5th century BCE
– The Ramayana is one of the two great
epics of Hinduism, the other being the
Mahabharata. It depicts the duties of
relationships, portraying ideal characters
like the ideal father, the ideal servant, the
ideal brother, the ideal wife, and the ideal
king.
– Rama, Sita, Ravana
Hinduism
Origins
• Hinduism had its origins
in the religious beliefs
of the Aryan people
who settled in India after 1500 B.C.
• Vedas
– collections of hymns and religious
ceremonies that were passed down orally
through the centuries by Aryan priests and
then eventually written down
– Veda is revealed and as such does not
originate at a particular time in history but
is eternal and of divine origin
God and the Soul
• Brahman
– Single force in the universe
– a form of ultimate reality or God
• Atman
– The individual self
– The duty of the individual self is to seek
Atman
– By doing so, the self would merge with
Brahman after death
Pantheon of Gods
• Most ordinary Indians could not easily relate
to these ideals and needed a more concrete
form of heavenly salvation
• It was probably for this reason that Hindu
religion came to have a number of humanlike gods and goddesses
• Many Hindus regard the multitude of gods as
simply different expressions of the one
ultimate reality, Brahman.
• The various gods and goddesses give ordinary
Indians a way to express their religious feelings
Three Chief Gods
Brahma – the Creator
Siva – The Destroyer
Vishnu – the preserve
Literacy Lesson: Vishnu
Ramayana
Lesson Essential Question
• Are characters realistic or
exaggerated?
• What is the relationship between the
genre and the story it tells?
• How dies this work compare to similar
works?
Knowledge and Skills
• Look for connections among ideas
and identify causes and effect,
comparisons and contrasts.
• Analyze the features that contribute to
the style of the work, including the use
of regional speech or culture.
Ramayana - Characters
Rama and Sita
Ramayana - Characters
Hanuman
Ravana
Background
• As an adult, Ramana is about to inherit the
throne from his father when evil plots results in
his banishment from the kingdom.
• For 14 years, he wandered in exile with his
wife, Sita, and his brother; Lakshmana.
• During this time, Site is kidnapped by the evil
giant Ravana, chief of a group of rakshasas,
or demons.
– His names means “He who makes the universe
scream.”
• Rama set out to rescue Sita with the help of
Hanuman, the monkey god, and a huge
battle ensues.
Reading: the Ramayana
• Read the except from the Ramayana
on page 861 in the textbook.
• Answer the Literary Analysis questions
and the Archetype questions on page
865.