| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Arjuna | A warrior who felt discouraged when going into battle and took advice from his chariot driver without knowing that he was Krishna, an incarnation of the Indian deity Vishnu |
| Aryans | Indo-European speaking nomads who entered India from the Central Asian steppes between 1500 and 1000 BCE and greatly affected Indian society |
| Asceticism | The idea of self denial, self sacrifice, even self mutilation that was done to communicate with the gods and began to take the place of sacrifice in ancient India |
| Atman | The individual soul |
| Ashoka | A ruler of the Mauryan Empire who converted to Buddhism |
| Avatar | An incarnation of a god |
| Bodhisattva | A person who has attained enlightenment but who has postponed nirvana in order to help others achieve enlightenment |
| Brahmins | The priestly caste who led ceremonies |
| Brahman | In Hinduism he was the Universal Soul, and in the trinity of gods in Hinduism he was the Creator |
| Buddhism | A religion that was started by Siddhartha Gautama, whose purpose was to stop suffering |
| Bodhi | Means wisdom; this is achieved when worldly matters are abandoned, and is the source of the term Buddhism. This is a key step on the way to nirvana |
| Chandragupta Maurya | King, founder of the Mauryan Empire |
| Caste | India's rigid social system in which all members of that society are assigned by birth to specific ranks and inherit specific roles and privileges |
| Dharma | Duty |
| Dravidian | A language; people who speak it mainly live in Southern India and were probably pushed there by the Aryan invasions |
| Ganges | A river in India that flows into the Bay of Bengal; in Hinduism, it is known as a sacred river |
| Harappan | A civilization that based itself on the Indus River |
| Hinduism | The main religion in India, it emphasizes reincarnation, based on the results of the previous life, and the desirability of escaping this cycle. Its various forms feature both asceticism and the pleasures of ordinary life, and in encompasses a multitude of gods as different manifestations of one ultimate reality |
| Indus | A river in Pakistan that flows into the Arabian Sea |
| Jainism | A religion that branched off from Hinduism and was founded by Mahavira; its belief is that everything has a soul, and its purpose was to cleanse the soul. Some were extreme aesthetics. |
| Jati | Sub castes; were groups of people within each caste that worked together for one economic function |
| Karma | Consequences of actions that determine your reincarnation |
| Kautilya | Political advisor to the Mauryans |
| Krishna | In Hinduism, the seventh incarnation of the god Vishnu |
| Kshatriya | The warrior caste |
| Law of Manu | A book in which the rules for social behavior were written down; Manu is the mythical founder of India |
| Maharaja | An Indian King or prince that was ranked higher than a raja |
| Mohenjo-Daro | A city in the Harappan civilization that is located on the Indus River |
| Monsoon | Strong winds that change with the seasons. These symbolize the great god Indra. |
| Mahavira | An extreme aesthetic who founded the religion Jainism and thought of several Hindu concepts, such as karma, in a very concrete way |
| Mahabharata | One of the two Sanskrit epics of Ancient India. It is the longest epic poem in the world. It is translated as "Great India" and is primarily about wars. |
| Moksha | In Hinduism, it is seen as the liberation of the soul from the body |
| Nirvana | The Buddhist belief of the extinction of desire and individual consciousness, also spiritual enlightenment |
| Pariahs | The name of the group of people outside the caste system; they were the contained the outcasts of society and untouchables, were not considered a part of Indian society or the caste system |
| Raja | The title given in India to a king or prince |
| Ramayana | A Hindu epic written in Sanskrit that describes the adventures of the king Rama and his queen |
| Rigveda | A Veda, which was a sacred writing of Hinduism that contained a collection of Hindu poems and hymns that were used for religious reasons |
| Rock Chambers | A room or building carved out of the side of a cliff. They were used for religious ceremonies and houses to monks and wandering ascetics |
| Samsara | The Hindu cycle of death and rebirth; in Buddhism means rebirth |
| Sanskrit | An Indo-European language that was the language of the Vedas |
| Sati | A ritual that required a woman to throw herself on her late husband's funeral pyre or burn herself. This was done gladly and if a woman didn't comply with this she would be disgraced. |
| Shiva | An important Hindu deity who in the trinity of gods was the Destroyer |
| Siddhartha Gautama | Founder of Buddhism who achieved enlightenment of the meaning of life while sitting under a tree and later preached his conclusions that came to be known as Buddhism |
| Stupas | Religious buildings that originally housed Buddha relics. These developed into familiar Buddhist architecture |
| Sudras | The second lowest of the five castes in the Indian social system and were not twice born; consisted of peasants and artisans which was most of the Indian population |
| Syncretism | Mixed source belief (religions that are a blend of two or more) |
| Upanishads | Commentaries on the Vedas that are considered sacred texts in the Hindu religion |
| Untouchables | The name of the group of people in the caste system that were the outcasts of society; were not considered part of Indian society or the caste system, also called pariahs |
| Vaisya | The third highest caste that was made up of merchants and commoners, twice born |
| Vedas | Sacred texts in the Hindu religion, they are a set of four collections of hymns and religious ceremonies transmitted by memory through the centuries by Aryan priests |
| Vishnu | A Hindu god who, in the trinity of gods, is the Preserver |
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