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History 8 India Ancient India Workbook

6. This is a 1938 tourist poster for Travancore, which is mainly in what is now Kerala along the southwestern shore of India. What can you tell about the geography and climate of this region from the poster alone?

From the Travancore tourist poster you can tell that it is in a mountainous area with lush fertile land. In the background there are mountains but the main part of the poster seems to be taken in a valley since there are only some hills. The river is calm and at a steady flow so they must be on flat ground, supposedly near the coast. The boat indicates that the poster must be in an Asian culture because those boats are rarely found anywhere else. The architecture also seems to indicate an Asian influence. The poster is taken in a tropical climate. The grass is green and there is a lot of vegetation surrounding the river. There is obviously rain because the vegetation is green and fertile and the river is not low. There are palm trees, indicating that the place in the poster is near a beach. The man on the boat does not have a shirt, so the place must be relatively hot.

Manuel page 168

Picture: SJS Wiki

Mary Ann Enerson

7. Historians say many of India’s older traditions and beliefs survived more in southern India than in the north. Why do you suppose that was so?

In about 1750 B.C., a new foreign society began to migrate from the north, beyond the Himalayas, into India. These people began to infiltrate India, settling in the Indus Valley. These people were called the Aryans. They were a tough, warlike people who lived a difficult life north of the Himalayas before migrating into India. Their religious systems were based on war, and their chief god enjoyed war. They were also apparently very good at it, as they conquered much of Persia. After settling in India, they eventually expanded to the Ganges floodplain. They liked this area because the Ganges River is much less prone to severe flooding than the Indus, and the Aryans crowded this area. Since they infiltrated through the north, any memory of Harappan civilization in the north was wiped out. The Aryans created their own population in the north, and this essentially painted over the old Indian civilization in the north of India. However, in the south, the Aryans did not infiltrate the area so profusely, therefore memories and traces of Harappan civilization were not erased entirely. This is why more traces of old Indian civilization are found in the south, where the Aryans did not infiltrate, and in the north, where they replaced the old Indian civilization.

Sources: CF Manual pg. 152

-Noah Garcia

8. What else about the geographical features of southern India might explain why it was able to stay more isolated from outside influence than other regions of India?

Southern India is a peninsula, so it could only be accessed from the outside by boat, or the outsiders would have to come through northern India. Also bordering this peninsula and shielding it from the east and west are the Eastern and Western Ghats, respectively. These geographical features would have made southern India very hard to get to, and therefore, it stayed isolated from outside influence.

Sources: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1342 http://www.ecoindia.com/ghats/eastern.html http://www.freeworldmaps.net/asia/india/map.html