This is a paper reflecting on the Aryan scrapbook. By: Elijah
The Aryan civilization is a semi-nomadic Indo-European/ Indo-Iranian culture. Aryans invaded India in 1500 BC and conquered and controlled most of North/ Central India. The Aryan people are split into numerous social classes, called castes. They lived in wood and straw single room huts and live in villages called ganas. Each gana had a Rajah that ruled and defended the village, and was repaid in food and items. The Aryan people had a polytheistic religion, and the Brahmin castes were the priests. Their religion became the basis for Hinduism, as it is today. They also were the people who brought the Iron Age into India. The Aryan civilization is important to world history because of its flourishing religion that evolved into Hinduism, and for bringing the Iron Age to India.
The illustrations used in this book were based off of five specific categories. For the religion, I picked a couple of the chief gods, as well as some objects with a religious use. An interesting item from this section would be the soma mushroom, because it is pretty funny that during religious rituals, the priests would literally get high on hallucinogens. For the daily life section, I focused on either stuff they used or did on a daily basis, such as food, iron tools, houses, trade, and chariots. I think it is interesting that they traded on the Khyber Pass, because that was also the invasion point that they used to conquer most of India. On the literature section, I tried to not only focus on what they wrote, but also how they wrote it. I mentioned some of the great epic poems, holy books, their written language, as well as a quote from the Ramayana that I found very interesting. In the caste portion, I tried to explain the different castes as well as the vital roles that each of them played. I found it interesting that the priests were higher in ranking than the rulers (Brahmin class is higher ranked than the Kshatriya class). For the postcard page, I placed my premade postcards into a pocket on the page. I thought this would be interesting because a postcard goes into more cultural and informational depth than a simple picture ever could.
I have learned a lot by studying the Aryan civilization. I found it surprising that the Aryans brought the Iron Age to India, and created the basis for Hinduism, because I would have thought I’d have heard about them before, outside of Hitler. I also found it interesting that the Aryan people were white skinned. This is surprising because you tend not to think of Indians as Caucasian, but you have to remember that they came from Europe and into India. Finally, I found it interesting that they created Sanskrit. I would have liked to experience the Aryan civilization. It seems like a very structured and interesting culture with a rich literary basis, as well as a flourishing religion. If I had the chance, I would love to experience the Aryan culture because of its impressive literature, thriving religion, interesting social classes, nomadic village structure, and Iron Age technology.