Week 12 Extra Credit: Wiki Trail

 

An impression made from the steatite seal. Source

 

 

Shiva

Shiva (/ˈʃiːvə/; Sanskrit: शिव [ɕɪʋɐ], IAST: Śiva, ISO: Śiva, listen (help·info), lit. 'The Auspicious One'), also known as Mahadeva (lit. 'The Great God'),^[9][10][11] is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hinduism.^[12][13]

Pashupati seal

The Pashupati Seal is a steatite seal which was uncovered in the 1928–29 Archaeological Survey of India excavations of the Indus Valley Civilisation site of Mohenjo-daro, then in the British Raj, and now in Pakistan. The seal depicts a seated figure that is possibly tricephalic (having three heads). The seated figure was once thought to be ithyphallic (having an erect penis), an interpretation that has been questioned by many critics and even supporters.^[1] The man has a horned headdress and is surrounded by animals. He may represent a horned deity.^[2]

Dravidian peoples

The Dravidian peoples, or Dravidians, are an ethnolinguistic group originating in South Asia who predominantly speak any of the Dravidian languages. There are around 245 million native speakers of Dravidian languages.^[1] Dravidian speakers form the majority of the population of South India and are natively found in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan,^[2] Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal,^[3] Bhutan^[4] and Sri Lanka.^[5] Dravidians are also present in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates through recent migration. 

Chola art and architecture

The period of the imperial Cholas (c. 850 CE - 1250 CE) in South India was an age of continuous improvement and refinement of Dravidian art and architecture. They utilised the wealth earned through their extensive conquests in building long-lasting stone temples and exquisite bronze sculptures, in an almost exclusively Hindu cultural setting. 

Week 11: Wikipedia Trail

 

 

A Kuru coin, earliest example of coinage in India. Source

 

Hindu deities

I was interested in looking at all of the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. There are a lot! This article mentions the beginning of some of these deities in the Vedic period.

Vedic period

c. 1500 – c. 500 BCE started around the late Bronze Age. This age followed the Indus Valley Civilization, 

and contributed to many incredible innovations. The Kuru Kingdom  followed after.

Kuru Kingdom

Took place in the Iron Age. The Kuru kingdom decisively changed the religious heritage of the early Vedic period, arranging their ritual hymns into collections called the Vedas, and developing new rituals which gained their position in Indian civilization as the srauta rituals,which contributed to the so-called "classical synthesis" or "Hindu synthesis". - wiki

Cemetery H culture

A Bronze Age cemetery found between modern day India and Pakistan. considered by some scholars as a factor in the formation of the Vedic civilization