and today we're going to talk about India, which is hard because:

A. I only have 10 minutes,

Mr. Green, Mr. Green!

I don't have time for you today, Me-From-the-Past,

B. When we study history we tend to study unified polities that we can label like "The

Roman Empire" or "China" or "Beliebers,"

and this emphasis on unity tends to

C. lead to labels that mask a lot of historical difference, like for instance "Europe," which

is such a weird and nebulous word that we don't even know what it means.

Plus D, no offense Europe, but there are not many histories more complex than India, and...

E. a lot of what we know about Indian history comes from British historians, who both used

and embodied the phrase "historical bias,"

all of which F. makes it very unfortunate that we only have 10 minutes. But we'll do

our best! Okay, we're gonna make this like Voldemort's soul and split up into eight parts.

[music intro]

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Part 1: The Vedas. So as you no doubt remember, the Indus Valley was one of the earliest cradles

of civilization,

But that original civilization basically disappeared sometime after 1750 BCE.

Then there was a long period of Aryan migration, and by Aryans we do not meet like prehistoric

Nazis, we mean people from the Caucasus who migrated down into the Indo-Gag gig gag gi-

Stan, can you just spell it for me? Thank you.

We know about these Aryans primarily because they left behind religious texts, the earliest

of which is called the Vedas.

The Vedas are also the earliest texts of what will come to be known as Hinduism, although

it wasn't known as Hinduism then. And they're responsible for tons of stuff, but we only

have 10 minutes so let's just cut to part 2, The Caste System.

The caste system is one of India's most enduring and fascinating institutions. Let us read

from one of the Vedas about Purusha, the universe-pervading spirit.

When they divided Purusha, in how many different portions did they arrange him? What became

of his mouth, what of his two arms? What were his two thighs and his two feet called?

His mouth became the Brahmin, his two arms were made into the (ksatriya); his two thighs

the vaisyas; from his two feet the shudra was born.

So this section gives a divine explanation for the caste system.

Brahmins -- who as Purusha's mouth speak (to the gods) are at the top.

Kshatriyas -- from Purusha's arms became the warriors, as you no doubt know if you've ever

attended my gun show.

Vaisyas -- the merchants and artisans who provide money for the priests and the warriors

came from Purusha's thighs.

Because everybody knows that the thighs are the money makers. And the Shudras -- are at

the bottom.

They're the feet, the laborers and farmers who are the foundation of the social order.

Also, the rest of us stand on them.

The caste system becomes much more complicated than this, but that basic division into 4

classes remains throughout much of Indian history.

In spite of the efforts of many reformers whom we'll be meeting in future episodes of

Crash Course. The Caste System is he foundation for another big concept in Hinduism, Part

3: Dharma.

Dharma is basically one's role in life and society and it is defined primarily by birth

and by caste.

The whole idea is explained nicely by this passage from the Baghavad Gita, where Krishna

is talking to the warrior, Arjuna.

"Having regard to your own duty also, you ought not to falter, for there is nothing

better for a Kshatriya than a righteous battle."

The Baghavad Gita is a section of a much larger epic poem the Mahabaratha which tells the

complicated and long story of a war between two kingdoms.

And we can really see how important dharma is in this passage because Krishna is basically

telling Arjuna that because he is a warrior, a Kshatriya, he must fight.

Even if he's bad at it, for instance if he gets killed, it's still preferable to not

living his dharma. It's better to be a bad warrior if you're a Kshatriya than to be the

world's best baker.

Basically you're better off fulfilling your own dharma poorly than doing someone else's

well.

That leads us to Part 4. Samsara, Moksha, and Karma -- There are both personal and social

reasons for doing your dharma.

Right, the social reason is obvious that dharma and caste combine for excellent social cohesion.

You get the exact right number of bakers and the exact right number of warriors. We could

stand in to implement this system in the United States, actually, where everyone knows we

suffer from a shortage of electrical engineers and a surplus of people who want to be on

reality TV shows.

That would not have happen in ancient India. But, say that your dharma is to scoop animal

dung your entire life,

Why do you keep doing that when you see other lives that at least appear to be far more

fulfilling? That leads us to the concept of Samsara, or the cycle of rebirth often called

reincarnation.

The basic idea is that when you die your soul is transferred to another living thing as

it is being born.

And if you fulfill your dharma, things improve and you get re-born into a higher being. You

don't have to scoop elephant dung anymore.

But the ultimate goal is not to be re-born as a Brahmin. The ultimate goal is to be released

from the merry-go-round altogether. And that release is called moksha.

The law that holds all this together is Karma which is summarized really nicely in the Aranyaka

Upanishad

The doer of good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by

virtuous action, bad by bad action.

The Upanishads, by the way, are later religious texts that began as commentaries on the Vedas,

but later became sacred writings in their own right.

This is a great way to organize a social order from top to bottom. Everyone has a role, and,

because that role has a religious dimension, society stays in balance.

But as a religion, Hinduism has a problem, at least if you want to start an empire; Everyone's

path to "salvation" is individual.

The original Brahmins tried to set themselves up as political leaders, but Hinduism doesn't

really place a premium on worshippers obeying their leaders.

And if you are a leader trying to make your subjects listen to you, that's kind of a bummer.

Which brings us to Part 5. Buddhism.

We can't establish this historically, but according to traditional biographies, our

story begins in the 6th century BCE. Let's go to the thought bubble.

So there was this prince, Siddhartha Gautama, whose father kept him locked away in a palace

because a prophecy foretold that the family would lose the kingdom if he ever left. But

as house arrests go, this was a good one: Siddhartha had great food, great entertainment,

a hot cousin for a wife, etc.

But he suspected there was more to life, so he snuck out of the palace a few times. On

these travels, he encountered an old man, a sick man, and finally a corpse.

Having realized the ubiquity of suffering, Siddhartha left the palace, renounced the

crown and sought out all the holiest men to try to find out how it could be possible that

life would come to such a terrible end.

Eventually Gautama became an ascetic, fasting and meditating for days at a time, hoping

to find enlightenment. And finally, after meditating for about a month under a tree,

it came to him.

Nirvana. No, not that one. Yes, that one. He finally understood the meaning of life

and began teaching it to people who would become his disciples. He had become the Buddha,

which means teacher, and he taught the Four Noble Truths. They are:

1. All life is suffering.

2. The source of suffering is desire. Not just sexual desire, but all wanting of stuff

and prestige.

3. To stop suffering, you must rid yourself of desire.

This sounds simple enough, but if you've ever been dumped by someone, you know that it is

not that easy to just stop desiring.

4. So how do you do it? By following the eight-fold path, which as you might suspect is a set

of eight prescriptions on how to live that we don't have time to talk about but oh wait

look,

ThoughtBubble, you put some learning in our learning so we can learn while we learn.

Thanks, Thought Bubble. So as a religion, Buddhism involves a lot of meditating and

moderation and there aren't that many fun rituals, and if you're a Buddhist monk you

don't get to have power like most holy people do; you have to renounce everything, including

your hair.

And, yes, some of them get to be kung-fu monks, but only in China, where Buddhism eventually

migrated and became a religion with fun rituals and all kinds of great stuff that Siddhartha

Gautama probably wouldn't even have recognized.

But we're not talking about fun populist religion, we're talking about old-skool ascetic Buddhism.

Sure, you might be happy and fulfilled if you follow the eight-fold path, but from everything

we've learned so far, it would appear that humans don't want to be happy and fulfilled

or else they never would've stopped foraging.

But Buddhism was very attractive if you were a low-caste Hindu, because there is no caste

system.

In theory, anyone who follows the 8-fold path and renounces desire can be freed from suffering

and achieve nirvana, maybe even in THIS life.

Instead of having to get re-born for maybe millennia and knowing that each time there

is only a tiny chance that you will end up something awesome, like a honey badger.

By the way, Totally Tangential Part 6 -Did you know the game chutes and ladders has its

origins in ancient India?

They call it Snakes and Ladders. The ladders are steps forward on the path to moksha, and

the snakes take you away from it.

Which reminds me, it's time for the open letter. [scoots to velvet throne, nearly impaled through

temple] That is very close to my head. Wow.

But first let's see what's in The Secret Compartment. Oh look, it's a golf club. Must be so I can

play Disco Golf.

An open letter to Chutes and Ladders:

Dear Chutes and Ladders,

This is Disco Golf. It's a game of skill. My success at Disco Golf is entirely dependent

on whether I am good at Disco Golf.

Now, listen Chutes and Ladders, I remember your game being awesome when I was a kid,

but I have a 2-year-old son myself and I recently bought him Chutes and Ladders and you know

what happened the first time we played? HE BEAT ME.

Chutes and Ladders, this is a child who regularly refers to helicopters as helloflopters.

I don't want to say that he's not my intellectual equal, but I'm potty trained.

You know why he beat me? Because there is NO SKILL INVOLVED IN CHUTES AND LADDERS AT

ALL. IT IS COMPLETELY RANDOM AND CAPRICIOUS AND ARBITRARY AND COLD- JUST LIKE THE UNIVERSE.

I DON'T WANT TO PLAY GAMES THAT ARE LIKE THE UNIVERSE- I WANT TO PLAY GAMES SO THAT I CAN

FORGET WHAT THE UNIVERSE IS LIKE.

Best wishes, John Green

Okay, Part 7: Ashoka. Remember that for most of Indian history, India it was not one unified

place. It was tons of different principalities and city-states and everything else.

But India did experience indigenous political unification twice, first under the Mauryan

Dynasty in the 3rd century BCE.

And then again under the Gupta Dynasty from the 300's to the 500's CE, but we're not going

to talk about that because it bores me.

Right now we're interested in one particular leader from the Mauryan Dyanasty, Ashoka.

Because Ashoka attempted to rule through quasi-Buddhist principles from 269 to 232 BCE.

So Ashoka was initially a warrior who ended up expanding the empire that his grandfather

started. And Ashoka experienced this conversion to Buddhism after he saw his own army devastate

the Kingdom of Kalinga, something I bring up primarily so that I can say Kingdom of

Kalinga.

Stan, is there anyway we can write a song a song about that, like, Kingdom of Kalinga

/ I'm sorry you got destroyed... [laughs]

So, Ashoka built stupas, (stoopas?) Hold on...

Could he have said that any more pretentiously? [straightens posture to mimic] Stupas.

So Ashoka built stupas, these mound-like monuments to the Buddha, all over his kingdom to show

his devotion.

And he also put up pillars throughout his empire that proclaimed his benevolent rule

and said he was going to rule through something he called dhamma, which according to one of

the pillars went like this:

proper behavior towards servants and employees, respect for mother and father, generosity

to friends, companions, relations, Brahmans and ascetics, and not killing living beings.

So those are not individualistic goals like we see in Hinduism; they're relational goals,

like we're gonna see next week when we study Confucianism.

And that's one of the reasons why Ashoka's empire wasn't actually very Buddhist because

ultimately Buddhism isn't that concerned with the order of the world. Buddhism argues that

the fulfillment of the self will lead to the order of the world.

In the end, Ashoka's empire didn't outlast him by much, and soon enough Buddhism declined

in India, almost to the point of extinction.

Part 8: The Big Finish. So as anyone who has ever practices yoga knows, Hinduism is the