In what ways does ancient indian history show basic unity of india
Answers
The pre-Aryans, the Indo-Aryans, the Greek., the Scythians, the Hunas, the Turks, and others made India their home.
Each ethnic group contributed its mite to the evolution of the Indian social system, art and architecture, language and literature. All these peoples and their cultural traits commingled so inextricably that currently they can be clearly identified in their original for unity
A remarkable feature of ancient Indian culture has been the commingling of cultural elements from the north and south, and from the east and west. The Aryan elements are equated with the Vedic and Puranic culture of the north and the pre-Aryan with the Dravidian and Tamil culture of the south. However, many Munda, Dravidian and oilier non-Sanskritic terms occur in the Vedic texts ascribed to 1500-500 BC.
They indicate ideas, institutions, products, and settlements associated with peninsular and non- Vedic India. Similarly, many Pali and Sanskrit terms, signifying ideas and institutions, developed in the Gangetic plains, appear in the earliest Tamil texts called the Sangam literature which is roughly used for the period 300 BC-AD 600. The eastern region inhabited by the pre-Aryan tribals made its own contribution.
The people of this area spoke the Munda or Kolarian languages. Several terms that signify the use of cotton, navigation, digging stick, etc., in the Indo-Aryan languages have been traced to the Munda languages by linguists. Although there are many Munda pockets in Chhotanagpur plateau, the remnants of Munda culture in the Indo-Aryan culture are fairly strong. Many Dravidian terms too are to be found in the Indo-Aryan languages. It is held that changes in the phonetics and vocabulary of the Vedic language can be explained as much on the basis of the Dravidian influence as that of the Munda.
India has since ancient times been a land of several religions. Ancient India saw the birth of Brahmanism or Hinduism, jainism, and Buddhism, but all these cultures and religions intermingled and interacted. Thus, though Indians speak different languages, practise different religions, and observe different social customs, they follow certain common styles of life. Our country shows a deep underlying unity despite great diversity.
Answer:
Explanation:
India is a case of unity in diversity. We have a long history of assimilation and have been a melting pot of various cultures since the ancient times. The pre-Aryans, Indo- Aryans, the Greeks, the Scythians, the Hunas, the Turks, etcetera, made India their home. Each of these diverse groups contributed its mite to the making of Indian culture. There are commonalities in-spite of such great diversities in the country.
If we look at the various religions, both domestic and foreign, we find that they have many similar characteristics. For example, both the foreign religions of Islam and Christianity, we find caste system embedded in both the religions. We find caste system in the domestic religions as well. The caste system is an Indian invention.
India has a great diversity of languages. But there are many similarities among these diverse languages as well. In the ancient times, Prakrit language was spoken all over India. Later on Sanskrit became the court language in most of the kingdoms of India. We find common terms in Sanskrit and the Dravidian languages, even in the scripts of Sanskrit texts that has been dated to almost 1500 BCE. Many of the terms of the ancient tribal Munda languages find their way into the Sanskrit language.
Even the name of our country as given by foreigners was given to the whole of the Indian sub continent, who viewed all of the land, south of the Himalayas and east of the Indus as a single country. The names are Bharat, Hind and India. The ancient Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, were studied with the same zeal in the Tamil country as in the intellectual centres of Taxila and Benaras.
We even have record of kings like Ashoka, Samudra Gupta, etc who tried to establish their suzerainty over all of the Indian subcontinent.
They were the harbingers of unity over our diverse country.
Thus we see that the glorious past of our country shows that unity is flowing in the 'dna' of India. Our country thus shows a deep underlying unity in spite of great diversity.