Which sentence best supports the topic sentence, “Indian merchants traded goods throughout many continents and nations”?

“[1] Along with spices, cotton cloth, carpets and jewelry, achievements of the Gupta Empire were traded all over the world. [2] Sea and land trade routes connected India with Central Asia, Arabia and Europe. [3] Indian merchants traded for Arabian horses, Chinese silk and even Roman gold!”

Which sentence best supports the topic sentence, “Written Ancient Indian history was recorded religious text”?

“[1] Knowledge about the Aryans comes from part of The Vedas, which is made up of four sacred texts written in Sanskrit (ancient writing of India). [2] The Vedas is one of the oldest existing texts written in any Indo-European language. [3] It was written over a period of 500-600 years and remains a religious text for Hinduism today”

Which sentence best supports the topic sentence, “One of the goals of Buddhism is to create relative peace among its followers”?

“[1] According to Buddha, following an Eightfold Path by conducting a life of discipline, mindfulness and meditation will lead a person to enlightenment, a state of inner peace. [2] Buddhists believe that nirvana is the highest state that someone can attain, meaning a person’s individual desires and suffering go away. [3] At this point, they will no longer be reincarnated to earthly suffering”

Which sentences best support the topic sentence, “King Ashoka initiated a major religious change in Ancient India”?

“[1] The Battle of Kalinga was one of the bloodiest battles ever fought in Indian subcontinent. [2] Led by Ashoka, Kalinga was plundered and destroyed. [3] Over 100,000 people were killed on the Kalinga side. [4] King Ashoka switched to Buddhism after seeing the destruction that Mauryan expansion caused. [5] From that point, he strived to maintain Buddhist values of love, peace and nonviolence”

Which sentence(s) above support(s) the topic sentence, “One social class in Ancient India had a worse lifestyle than servants”?

“[1] The top of the social hierarchy were the Brahmans, or priests. Next were army warriors and rulers called Kshatriyas. [2] Commoners including merchants, artisans and farmers were called Vaisyas. [3]Lastly, the Sudras or Kshadras were unskilled laborers and servants. [4] Outside of the four main varnas were a group called Pariahs. [5] They were forced to live outside of the villages”

“Through karma, people create their own destiny through everyday actions, words, and thoughts that help or hurt them in the future. Reincarnation is the idea that after death, the souls of humans and animals alike can be reborn into a lower caste, or social class. The cycle of death and rebirth can be broken when all of a person’s karmas have been purified or resolved through conduct, meditation, and other Dharma (religious duties)” (Hinduism Reading and Worksheet, 2).

Based on the information in the passage, you can conclude that Hindus:

According to the Golden Age of India, “From 320 to 550 CE, much of India experienced a time of peace. With this peace came advancements in mathematics, medicine, science, technology, engineering, art, literature, logic, astronomy, religion, and philosophy. Some of these advancements were made even before those in Europe and Egypt. One of the Gupta’s great scholars was Aryabhata. He is attributed with developing the concept of zero and using a decimal numbering system, a system that uses ten symbols, 0-9” (2).

What could you predict from the excerpt?

According to the Herodotus: Greek Reports on India (430 BCE), “Beyond them [the Eastern Indians], the whole country is desert on account of the sand...They who dwell in the marshes along the river live on raw fish, which they take in boats made of reeds, each formed out of a single joint. These Indians wear a dress of sedge, which they cut in the river and bruise; afterwards they weave it into mats, and wear it as we wear a breast-plate” (III, 98).

What could you infer from the primary source excerpt?

“Each [Aryan] tribe was led by a raja or chief. Aryan hymns, songs and poems depict the people as delighted in waging war and raiding each other’s herds of cattle. As a nomadic herding civilization the Aryans traded cattle as both food and a type of currency. After all, cattle proved to be a valuable food source providing milk, meat and butter. In fact, the Aryans considered the animal so sacred that eventually a ban was placed on eating meat” (Ancient India Stations, 8).

What could you conclude from the excerpt?

“This social system determines one’s place in society by one’s birth. The caste or jati is the group of people that comprise a singular social class (referred to as varnas). The people were prohibited to marry outside of their caste. They lived in communities with each other and did not mingle with others outside their group” (Ancient India My School Caste Assignment, 1).

What could you conclude from the excerpt?

“Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, desires that all religions should reside everywhere, for all of them desire self-control and purity of heart. But people have various desires and various passions, and they may practice all of what they should or only a part of it. But one who receives great gifts yet is lacking in self-control, purity of heart, gratitude and firm devotion, such a person is mean” (Edicts of Asoka, Edict 7).

What could you infer from the primary source excerpt?