Previously in the Ancient World... to be absolutely honest, by using the "study guide" I do not recall anything from the second half of chapter four! I am a little disheartened that I retained nothing that I can recall from the last reading. (I will say now, which is after the fact, that I retained way more by doing a narration before attempting the questions from the guide.)
When the king of Kish was collecting tribute from those sailing up and down the Euphrates, and Memphis rose with its white walls in Egypt, the third great civilization of the ancient world was still just a string of fishing villages. It would be a while before India grew up!
Those in India were not list makers, city dwellers, nor did they carve their rulers' face on stone. They didn't put down their achievements for us to read so we don't know a lot about them from this time.
We can however look to the stories told thousands of years later. Though they were told so much later, they were most likely preserving an older tradition. There is one date in particular of interest from these stories: 3102 BC and a king Manu. ("And his age still has four hundred thousand years to go.")
Before 3102 shepherds and nomads traveled to India from Central Asia, through the Khyber Pass, or others may have come over the Himalaya themselves; skeletal remains shows it was just as treacherous then as now.
Coming down, they found warmth and water. The Himalayas acted as a barrier where in the winter it never dropped below fifty degrees. In the summer, the countryside was ablaze with heat. The two rivers (Ganga and Indus) kept it from being a desert. Snow melts from the mountains and runs into both the Ganga, which then runs into the Bay of Bengal, and the Indus. At one point she says there was another river, now long dried, that ran into the Arabian Sea. This caused the current Thar Desert to be just as green as the Sahara had been (read about this in a previous chapter).
After people had grown their first crops in the Mesopotamia and Egypt, others from the north were settling in the hills to the west of the Indus (today called Baluchistan). Villages sprang up along the five branches of the Indus river (called the Punjab- Five Fingers). Other villages formed along the Ganga. There have also been primitive tools like those in Africa of this time suggesting some were brave and made their way to India from there.
But these areas of the south, east, and northwest have long been separated by many barriers. There are mountain ranges and plains. As time passed and the weather warmed, there stretched a vast desert three hundred miles wide. So from the beginning, these civilizations have lived independent of each other.
The villages near the Indus, to the northwest, grew into cities first.
The first houses were built well above the flood line because like in Egypt, water meant life and death.
This brings us to the first king of India. Manu V. (I do not recall his long name.) Before this king there were six semi-divine kings, all with the name Manu, and each with a reign longer than four million years!
According to the story- it can be understood to be myth but like other times, history and myth get intertwined- the seventh Manu (this would be Manu V.) was washing his hands in the river and a fish came up asking for protection from a bigger fish. Manu pitied the fish and saved it.
The fish was safe and to repay Manu's kindness gave him a warning of a flood that would destroy. Manu built an ark and took abroad seven wise sages, known as the Rishis. When the flood past, Manu was in the ark on a mountain and became the first king of India. The Rishis were the seven stars of the Big Dipper. The year was 3102.
However, this story is not set on a real firm foundation. There is less to prove Manu V. was legit, along with the date, though he was around the same time as the Scorpion King; there is more evidence for the Scorpion King. Because Indian history lacks definite dates, the fact that 3102 is rather precise attracts historians into latching onto it. ("being one of such improbable exactitude, it deserves respect." - Keay)
It is certain however that in 3102 villages along the Indus began to grow into towns. There were two-story houses, kiln-cured pottery was made, tools were devised out of copper. They were becoming less vulnerable to the destruction of water.
But even though there was prosperity, it seems that there was a time of decline rather than progress. This part gets a bit confusing because it tells of the ages having a spiritual connection, and the Iron Age was the most wicked of them all. There would be dishonesty, theft, greed, etc. "becoming slaves to their earthly possessions rather than free men who knew how to use the earth."
Based on the fact that these stories were told much later, it is probable that they were reflecting a more modern (she says mature) society where the state of affairs was a bit bleak to start. But they point back to 3102 as the start of the declension, when the villages began to grow into towns.
It was at this time when Manu spoke to the fish.
Looking at the timeline on page 35, it shows that in Egypt Menes (Narmer was king at the same time as Manu V. was the first king of India.
Now some questions from the Study Guide. I have to try to do this without looking at the answers!
Section I: Who, What, Where
Kali Yuga- one of the ages, this one was to be overtaken by the Iron Age, I believe.
I was incorrect! Kali Yuga was the Iron Age.
Vinhya and Satpura- these are mountain ranges in the south of India. Correct!
Section II: Comprehension
Q. Why is the upper end of the Indus River called the Punjab?
A. Because Punjab (pronounced panj-eb?) means Five Fingers, and the Indus River has five branches.
Correct! Except my pronunciation is incorrect: panj-ab
Q. How do we know the people of the Indus Valley participated in trade outside of the valley?
A. Because there have been found semi-precious stones from the north, primitive tools from Africa and other such things.
Somewhat correct- not specific enough. Turquoise and lapis lazuli from Mesopotamia were found in ruins of the Indus settlers.
Section III: Critical Thinking
Passage: The earliest houses in the Indus River valley were built on the river plain, perhaps a mile away from the river, well above the line of the flood. Mud bricks would dissolve in river water, and crops would wash away. (p. 32)
Connection to previous chapters: The Nile River flooded and washed away crops and houses. There was a legitimate fear of the power-destructive as well as regenerative of water. With time they were able to better understand how to plan for the changes by digging canals and filling up reservoirs. By building their houses above the flood line they were able to avoid (mostly) the destructive power.
Page 4, "The people who lived on the southern plain, closest to the Gulf, scratched for survival in a shifting and unpredictable landscape. Once a year, far too much water covered their fields."
Page 13, "The Black Sea overran it's banks and settled into a new bed, forever drowning the villages on its edge; the people who escaped travelled south, and took with them the memory of the disaster."
Page 22, "Thanks to the decreasing rains, the Nile flood had become more moderate; the refugees found that they could manage the yearly inundation, digging reservoirs to hold the water at flood-time, and canals to irrigate their fields in the drier months. They built settlements on the banks..."
Passages from pages 13 and 22 were included in the guide. My initial connection is close to the book's offered for "appropriate answer."
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