5th century(?)

5th century(?) Bhagwan Narasimha statue from Changunarayan Vishnu temple in the Changu village, Bhaktapur, Nepal. A fifth century stone inscription in the temple proclaims it as one of the oldest shrines of the Kathmandu Valley. The temple has some of the best examples of stone, wood, and metal craft with murtis for all dashavatara and of Viratvishnu/Mahavishnu. link

Narasimha, sculpted during the Sena Dynasty of Bengal (12th century CE), now in the National Museum of India in Delhi. Photo of September 1990.And of course, the most famous Narasimha of Hampi:

Narsinhapur town of MP, located near Itarasi on Mumbai-Howrah railway line, gets its name from the 18th century shrine constructed by Jat kings, dedicated to Bhagwan Narasimha. LinkAnd also Narsimhawadi town of Maharashtra...has an ancient shrine to Bhagwan

Narasimha... see this image In the most beautiful Chamba valley of Himachal Pradesh, is not so accessable town Bharmaur. Here is a complex known as Chaurasi Mandir - having 84 temples in one complex - dedicated mainly to Narasimha, Shiva (Mani Mahesh), Ganesh and Lakshami. Deserves separate description later. See image.

Ancient India Guide for Teachers and Parents

Ancient India Guide for Teachers and Parents

One way to think about India is as the center of the Eurasian continent, placed midway between East and West. You might ask the children to find which things about India come from the west (large-scale stone sculpture, Indo-European language, alphabetic writing), and which things come from the east (chickens, chess, paper, silk). Or, they could discuss what things India passed to the west (chess, paper, "Arabic" numerals, cotton, bananas) and what things India passed to the east (large-scale stone sculpture, Buddhism, cotton).

Another way to think of India is to compare Indian stories like the Ramayana with stories they know better. Which story elements are the same? Which are different?

Or you could discuss the caste system - what would it be like to be born into a particular caste? Who would like this system? Who would not like it? How would a system like that get started? Is there anything like that in American society?

Finally, please check out our brand-new this year section on Indian architecture - hard to find anywhere else! A good way to use this would be to do a timeline of Greek and Roman and medieval architecture along with Indian architecture and see what things are happening where - first buildings? first stone roofs? first religious buildings? Or, compare Indian architecture to Indian history on a timeline.

POINT OF INQUIRY

Indian science and mathematics

From the time of the Harappans to the time of the Islamic conquests, Indian scientists and mathematicians were leaders in many different fields. They especially stood out in mathematics and engineering.

The Harappans in 2500 BC had a sewage system at their city of Mohenjo-Daro, and carefully laid out, straight streets. So even though we can't read their writing, we know that the Harappans understood a lot of geometry.

A severe climate change halted development at Harappa around 2000 BC. The Aryan invasion of 1500 BC also seems to have stopped scientific advances for a while, but it did bring military advances to India in the form of horse-drawn war chariots. Around 800 BC, when the Aryans in northern India learned to smelt iron from the Assyrians in West Asia, this gave them another military advantage.

Around 500 BC, thanks to Persian influence, the city of Taxila (in modern Pakistan) became a great scientific center. Atreya, a great botanist (plant specialist) and doctor, was working at Taxila about this time. Around the 300's BC, Indian farmers seem to have been using water wheels to lift water for irrigation - the earliest water wheels in the world.

By 250 or 200 BC, under Mauryan rule, Indian scientists were the first in the world to be smelting iron with carbon to make steel.

In the 600's AD, Indian mathematicians may have been responsible for inventing the numeral zero, and the decimal (or place) system (or it is possible that they got this idea from Chinese mathematicians). This made it a lot easier to add and multiply than it had been before. Indian mathematical ideas soon spread to West Asia and from there to Africa and Europe.

Indian advances in iron-working led to some new ideas in the 1000's and 1100's AD. First, Indian architects were the first to use iron beams to replace wooden beams for building big temples. Second, Indian blacksmiths discovered a kind of iron that made a very strong and flexible kind of steel, called wootz steel.

Indian People

Castes were the central feature of people's identities in ancient India. Beginning soon after the Aryan invasion, people in India began to divide everyone into one of five groups, or castes. Caste gave some people special rights and privileges that other people did not have. The castes are described in the Rig Veda. There were really four castes, and then the lowest group had no caste, and were known as Untouchables. Below the untouchables were the slaves.

Untouchables usually did the worst jobs, like cleaning up people's poop from the gutters, or collecting garbage.

The lowest of the castes was the shudras - the servants and farmhands who did not own their own business or their own land, and who had to work for other people. But gradually a lot of land-owning farmers fell into this caste, too. Probably the largest number of people belonged to this caste.

Above them were the vaishyas, or farmers and traders, who owned their own farms or businesses. There were a lot of them, too.

Above these were the Kshatriya, or warriors. There were not very many Kshatriyas. A lot of them were in the army, or leaders in other ways. Women could not be warriors, but they could be Kshatriyas anyway.

The most powerful caste was the Brahmans, the priests and leaders. There were only a few of them. Only Brahman men were allowed to go to school, or to teach in schools (Brahman women could not go to school).

There were also a lot of smaller groups within these castes. People who came from different castes could not eat together. Usually people from one caste did not marry or make friends with people from another caste.

Picyure of the day...

Meteorologists test a helium balloon carrying a radiosonde, a recording instrument, planning to track its movements with a surveying instrument called a theodolite, 1920s.

A radiosonde, which came into use in the 1920s and 1930s, was and is a small boxy instrument sent aloft to measure temperature, humidity, and air pressure. Carried by a balloon, this one sent continuous signals while its movements were traced to determine wind direction and speed. When the balloon burst, the radiosonde parachuted back to Earth.

POWER STAR REAL ""GUTS""