Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Civilization #20 - The Proto-Buddhists of the Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilization

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Civilization #20 - The Proto-Buddhists of the Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilization

Okay, so good morning. We finished the Bronze Age today with the Indus Valley Civilization. So we've done Egypt, we've done Mesopotamia, now we're doing the Innes Valley Civilization. And today I'm going to look at three questions, okay? First of all, what is it that makes the Indus Valley civilization distinct or different from other civilizations? Second is, why did they decline? They reached their peak about 2,600 to 1900 BCE. and then for the next three to four hundred years they declined and ultimately disappeared okay why did it happen the last question is what is their legacy what's your contribution to development of western civilization okay all right so let's look at business civilization to do so we need we need to first understand the world at this time and it's about 2,500 to 2000 BC, okay? This is what we call the middle bronze age because most people

were using bronze for weapons for tools. So over here is Egypt and as we discussed by far Egypt is the wealthiest most advanced civilization in the Bronze Age. Over here across the Red Sea is Arabia and even though Arabia isn't really discussed that much in world history it's so significant because it's part of the trading network okay so the Arabia it's many nomads who take goods from Mesopotamia over to Egypt and then into the Mediterranean which access all of Europe this is Sumer, which is the beginning of the Mesopotamalian civilization. Okay?

Up here is Anatolia, the Lavant. And then the Inis Valley civilization is over here. And today it would cover the countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwest India. What makes Innes Valley civilization important is it's really by the coast, which allows it to access Mesopotamia and Egypt. Okay? Meaning during the Bronze Age, these three civilizations, Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and the Inos Valley civilization were heavily interconnected through trade. And the Inos Valley civilization, what was unique to the Middle Valley civilization, what was unique to the

to them are certain products, for example, indigo dye, which was really sought after in Mesopotamia and in Egypt. Their handicrafts, their jewelry, were also very famous throughout the world. They usually traded with Sumer and Egypt by trading with the Gulf State nations of Bahrain, and Oman, and Dubai.

And they actually had a colony by the Persian Gulf. This civilization was so good at trading that we believe they even traded with China, which is pretty far away, but their ships were huge and they were very good navigators. As the bronze jades developed over time, bronze was in heavy demand,

and the main components of bronze are copper and tin. Tin is mainly found in the mountains of Afghanistan over here, okay? Which meant the indigenous valley civilization start to now expand over to Afghanistan in order to access the tin trade. So tin was really sought after, but there was also another stone called Lapis Lazula, which is really sought after by the Egyptians for its spiritual and spiritual and, aesthetic qualities okay and over here um because of the trade with Afghanistan then would start to develop into Anatolia and Mesopotamia okay and as well because of this trade in Afghanistan neutralizing it started to develop as well

and they're not as advanced as large as the three major ones but they're still pretty advanced. So for example, up here is what we call the Oxus Valley Civilization. The technical term used by archaeologists are the Bactrian Marjian archaeological complex. You don't have to know this, okay?

It's called BMAC. What makes visualization important is it interacts with the steps people, called the Androlyneau. culture. So as you can see, the United Civilization, through its partners, the Uxas Valley Civilization, and its colonies over here,

now trade with the entire world. There's no piece of the Western world that in its valley civilization does not touch. Does that make sense? So this is a world, about 2,500 to 2,000 B.C.E. It's a world that's heavily interconnected. And there are two major sources of demand. The Egyptians are extremely wealthy, and they want these valuable jewelry and handagrass for their burials. That's one source of heavy demand. The main source of demand is actually Mesopotamia, where the city-states of Sumer are fighting wars against each other. And in wars, bronze makes a huge difference, because bronze armor,

It's much more stronger than copper armor. So these two places are driving the man, and as such, the Indian Valley civilization is growing wealthy through trade. Does that make sense? Any questions so far before I continue? Okay, so even though the indigenous valley civilization is connected with Egypt and Mesopotamia, it's a radically different civilization.

So the first thing that makes Indian civilization interesting is it's a huge area. It's actually in terms of size larger than Egypt and Mesopotamian combined. It has a population at its peak about 5 million people. So this is a huge area. What's really interesting is we have found no evidence of any... organized warfare in this region during this time. The reason why is this region is connected through trade. Okay?

So what we have found is five major urban centers in the indigenous value civilization. And these urban centers, you can consider it to be what we call value adding processing centers. Okay, these are urban centers. that specialized in taking raw goods, like metals and agricultural products, and turning them into finished products,

like jewelry, handicrafts, to be shipped, to be traded with mainly Mesopotamia, but also Egypt, and possibly China as well. It also goes north to the Oxus Valley civilization, which then trades with the step people, the end of culture, okay? What we know as the Yamaya people. So this trade network, it's very, very complex.

And everyone is involved in some capacity in this trade network. So that's the first thing that's interesting about the indigenous values civilization. They trade internally, peacefully. They trade externally peacefully as well. We have absolutely no evidence that they ever had organized warfare. We have absolutely no evidence that they have any intention of organized warfare, meaning we have not found any weapons. We have found tools.

We found hunting weapons. We have not found like maybe armor and helmets. Okay? Yeah. Yeah, great question. So how do we know there's no organized warfare? So we know there's long organized warfare in Mesopotamia and other places. because of what we have dug up.

So we look at cities, we see parts of the city that have been built on top off or destroyed, meaning there might have been some fires or there might have been some warfare. But with these five urban centers that we've dug up, we have found them pretty intact, meaning they were not built on top of or they were not destroyed during the when they were around.

So that's the first major project. piece of evidence. The second major piece of evidence is we've dug up their graves. So if you look at maybe the civilizations of the Andrew Novel culture or Mesopotamia, they tend to bury warriors with their weapons. Okay, so, you know, helmets and armor. But when we fuck up the IVC culture people, first of all, we don't find a distinct cast of warriors. Also, we don't find any helmets or armor or weapons okay so that's what led us to believe they don't engage in organized warfare but there's also evidence to suggest our evidence is not solid okay the first piece of evidence is they don't bury

their dead these people don't have a tradition of burying their dead some are buried okay but they but not everyone is buried second of all we don't know where they buried their dead we assume they buried their dead in the cities, but that may not be true. Okay? So the evidence leans towards they were peaceful civilization, but as we dig up more and more over time, we may discover this was not true, okay?

But right now the evidence suggests they were peaceful. And also what's really important about the IVC, the NIST Valley civilization is this is a new discovery. We've only known about them for the past 100 years. So what's interesting is the Indians themselves never knew they existed. It was the British who discovered these cities and saw the work in archaeology to start to reconstruct their civilization. Okay? All right, but thanks for the question.

Okay, so as I said, the first thing that's interesting about their civilization is it was relatively peaceful, compared with what's happening. Mesopotamia. The second thing that was interesting for us is, and surprising is, for a very large civilization, they are egalitarian. Meaning in Mesopotamia, when we look at these old cities, Er and Uric, there were these huge palaces and temples which suggested a culture of power in the priesthood and in the king. Okay, but when we look at these five urban centers of the IBC, there are no palaces, there are no temples, okay? In fact, these cities are extremely well designed. There are these walls around the city, and then as you go into the city, you're able to access every single part of the city. But if you were to go into a city, say, in Sumer, if you go into the city, you're only able to access the temple or the palace.

Okay, so authority is centralized in Sumer, whereas authority is sort of decentralized in the IVC. Now here's a question. If we know, if we suspect they are not engaged in warfare, why do they have walls? There are a lot of walls inside these cities. Why are there walls? Can anyone guess? Okay, customs, taxes, okay? Meaning, this is, again, a value-added,

adding process center, and the way they survive economically is by collecting tolls and customs on people who trade. And the way they collect taxes is, when you enter the city, you have to go to the customs house, and then you pay whatever is required of you. is required of you, and you can access a city. And that's the way they centrally controlled

the economy and trade in the IBC. These cities are amazing. These are the first people to invent the seat toilet, the private seat toilet. This is about the year 2,800 BCE. So when you go into these cities, you'll find that in private homes, everyone has a private toilet and then the thesis is put into a sewage system and the water flushes it out okay that's that's pretty amazing

these are people who are very concerned about the well-being of all its citizens so when we look at skeletal remains through DNA analysis we've discovered the the majority of the people ate about the same high quality of food There wasn't these disparities between people, as you would find in other civilizations. At least half the people, we think, live past the age of 55. That was an amazing achievement back then. In terms of innovation, they have reservoirs. They also have public baths.

They also had really amazing things called wind towers. I'm not sure if you've studied these wind towers, But they're basically air conditioners. What they do is these are high towers, and there is a hole on top, right? So what happens is, the higher the air is, the cooler it is, right? So this wind that's cool gets trapped into the wind tower.

It comes down, and it pushed out the hot air from the other side. And this is what cools the houses. in the summer. This is a pretty advanced technology. Another really cool thing about the IBC is, even though it covers a huge area, they have standardized weights and measurements.

They have standardized weights and measurements. Which means that every brick that they have is the same size. Which means that their buildings, their structures, are extremely stable and resilient. That's why 5,000 years later, we still have their cities intact.

You can actually go to the cities and live in them. That's how stable the technology was. So this is a pretty advanced civilization. Unfortunately, we don't know what their writing system is. So if they had writing, And we can't know for sure if they had writing. It was like Chinese in an ideogrammic language, meaning it is not phonological.

The spoken language is not the same as the written language. In other words, it is impossible for us to decipher their written language. We don't have that many artifacts of writing. We have seals with characters. written on them, but we don't have anything else. And the reason could be, if you look at Egypt, they use papyrus. And papyrus is stable or it keeps in a dry Egyptian air. If you look at Samarian culture, Mesopotamistian culture, they use cannaeiform on clay tabitch,

which keeps forever, okay? But if they had a writing system and they did write, it would be on palm leaves, which degrades very easily in the jungle. here. So we don't have access to their writing. This is problematic because without access to the writing, we don't have access to their religion. We don't know what the religion is. And one thing that you've learned in this class that's very important is religion or mythology. It is the operating system of the culture. It is the collective consciousness, the collective worldview that gives life to their

culture. It explains why they do what they do do and unfortunately we don't know their religion but so it's a complete mystery to archaeologists to scholars as to why this very advanced civilization was very peaceful and very egalitarian we can only speculate all right any questions so far before I continue okay so I'm gonna speculate as to why they were peaceful in a egalitarian so what so again the key is the religion what is their religion because that will give us clues as to their mentality their value system right we know that the Mesopotam people their religion

focus on struggle and achievement we know that the Egyptians their religion focus on the afterlife okay this life that we live is What's important is not the here and now. What's important is what happens afterwards. That's why the Egyptians built a pyramid. That's why they focus so much on funeral rights and on burial goods. So there had to be religion in the IBC that was different from the belief system in Sumer in Egypt that made it into a peaceful and a gathering civilization. All right. So what is this religion and why were they different?

My speculation is this. The key is to understand that this is a civilization based on trade. And they've been traders ever since they were born as a culture, meaning they were trading for at least 7,000, 8,000 years before they became a civilization. And if you're a trader, first of all, you're able to access the entire world. So we know for a fact they traded with Sumer and the Persian Gulf states because we have we have artifacts from the IBC in these places. Okay, we know for a fact we can speculate it. They also trade it with Egypt and with China just based on their technology and their trade networks. So this is a civilization based on trade and as as traders they're able to see what

what's going on in Mesopotamia and Egypt. They know they built the pyramids in Egypt. They know there's massive warfare in Sumer. And I would think that if you were a traitor and you saw these things, you wouldn't be impressed, okay? In fact, you might be disgusted, especially by the warfare in Mesopotamptainia.

This idea called the dialectic, right? And I think this is a very important idea for us to appreciate. how history is often driven by the idea of the dialectic. So an example that we have in today's world is, you look at Japan and China, okay? These are two rathly different societies that are next to each other.

And the question then is, why are they still different? I think the answer is because Japan knows China very well. And a lot of cultural practice, Japan developed over, over the centuries, happen in response to what they see as failings or successes in Chinese culture. Another example that Doug will appreciate is Canada and the United States. The United States is probably the most belligerent nation

in the world, okay? They cannot get their hands off anything. And then you go north, Canada, and you know, can the United States share the world's longest border? Basically, Canadians are cousins of the... of the Americans, okay? I mean, like, there's really no difference.

We speak the same language, with the same cultural practices. But while Americans are the most belligerent nation ever in human history, Canadians invented peacekeeping. Okay, the idea like nations should strive

for mediation and peace. And I think a lot of Canada, a lot of Canadian values, especially its political system, is in response to what it believes to be failings and successes in the American model. You also have New Zealand and Australia. So there are many different examples of the dialect that going on in our global political systems. And I believe that's what happened with the IVC, where these traders saw what's happening in Egypt and saw what happened in Mesopotamia,

and they were kind of disgusted, especially by all the other people. this warfare in Mesopotamia. Okay? Warfare back then was pretty awful. And so in Mesopotamia, the way they fight is they fight with these clay bullets. Okay? And you take a slings shot and you throw it at someone. And these things kill, they hurt.

So think of David and Goliath. Okay? And if you're a traitor, you know, you'll see. You know, you'll see this warfare going on. You'll see people being beheaded. And why are they doing this? They're doing it in the name of God. Every city-state has a patron god that it believes it must defend and honor and protect.

And whenever there's a dispute, it's because they feel their God has been dishonored by another city-state. So they go to war and they kill each other. And again, if you're a traitor and you see this, you don't think this is a good thing. And you go to Egypt and you see these pyramids, and these pyramids are, again, extremely impressive. But at the same time, you also see the consequences of these pyramids, which is just massive inequality, massive corruption, just massive waste. So I think that by trading with these two civilizations and other civilizations, it reinforces the deep cultural values of the IVC people. and it basically compels them towards peace and egalitarianism. That's what I believe happened.

Now, there are other arguments. For example, maybe these people are just genetically peaceful and egalitarian. But I've made the argument in this class that from the onset of early human history, we were peaceful and egalitarian people. but different geographic circumstances change our outlook. So, for example, the people in the steps, who we call the Anaya people, because of the grasslands, because it is such a poor and rugged and unforgiving environment,

they're forced to be cattle ranchers. They're forced to engage in calibrating. And over time, their culture became very aggressive, expansionist, and opportunistic. Opportunistic just means, they'll do whatever it needs to survive. If they face a, they'll trade with people, if that's what benefits them, they'll kill people if that's what benefits them.

They are not that moral, okay? They're very opportunistic. And I remember, as I said, these people with their cultural values would go in and conquer all of Europe in about 200, 300 years, okay? And they were called the Anaya people. Back in the steps, these Yanai people continue to evolve over time, and over time, they became even more aggressive, more expansionist, and more opportunistic.

Eventually, the Mongols, Gangans, Kongan, and Mongols, will come from the civilization. So that's my argument to you. It's my speculation. It is because of their interaction of other cultures that convinced them to pursue a peaceful and egalitarian lifestyle. Now there are still inequalities in IBC. We know there are classes. We know there's wealth inequality.

But relative to Mesopotamia and Egypt, it was a relatively peaceful and egalitarian society. Okay? questions before I continue okay so the question is where they invaded the IVC okay because as we discussed in previous classes well you're peaceful in a gathering society we know that old Europe okay before the amni invasion was a peaceful in a gathering society you will eventually get invaded by other cultures okay and for the longest time there was a theory out there first proposed by basically the Nazis,

okay, called the Indo-Aryan invasion. The idea is you have these white people sweep into India, conquer the people, and introduce civilization to the Indians. Okay? This is called the Indo-Aryan invasion. Even though this theory has been discredited, there is a slight, kernel of truth to this theory okay which I will explain to you okay so let me explain this theory and what happened so you have the IVC which is a very

advanced civilization the problem of the civilization is their entire economy is basically based on trade right now we know in about there's something called the 4.2 kilo year event which is which is basically a massive climate change around the world. And the four two-point year killer event brought basically an end to the Egypt Old Kingdom. Right? It also brought an end to what we call the Acadian Empire in Sumer.

A man named Sargon of Akkad conquered all of Sumer and built the Akkadian Empire. And because of this drought, because of climate change, his empire collapsed. So in other words trade networks that the obviously heavily dependent on start to collapse. And as a result, there are cities now which are dependent on trade start to depopulate meaning a lot of people start to return to the farms where they are from. They start also migrating to the rest of India, to the Ganges.

Okay? As well, because of this climate change, the IVC itself is being affected heavily. Okay, so there's drought, the rivers are drying up. Remember, like the Indus Valley civilization, it's called the Inis Valley Civilization, because it's dependent on the Indus River, among other rivers, okay? So there are some drought issues.

Also, what we learned in this class is, Over time, all civilizations face eternal tensions. Okay? And these eternal tensions can be divided into two major tensions. The first tension is a conflict among the classes, okay? So the idea of elite overproduction, you have too many people striving for limited status, right? And the conflict is mainly between upper nobility

and lower nobility. And so here in the IBC, we can imagine the conflict might be between these families that are large training houses against families that are small training houses. Or it can be like internally among the families. But there's going to be some social tension going on. The other social tension that we discuss is the idea of rat utopia. Where, and it's basically conflict between the old and the young.

Again, the problem the IVC is you have too many old people living for too long, which means less opportunities arise for achievement for the young. And that creates conflict as well. So what we believe that it also is that during this time there was massive social tension within the IVC. And some people would even say it was a revolutionary time. when old customs and old moors were being overgrown okay because of climate change the people in the individual culture now are forced to leave the steps because the steps

are no longer suitable for their lifestyle okay so they push into the oxen value civilization and over time they will assimilate it into themselves okay so um the idea here is this is not an intentional invasion, okay? It's not like you have a general, you're an army, and they go into the Oxen's Valcivilization, and then they conquer it, okay? It's more opportunistic, where at first you're trading, and as the Oxus Valis Civilization declines

because of trade networks, because of the decline in trading networks, they will start to come in and push out the people. And again, the culture of these people, it's very aggressive, So there are two strategies that they were employed. The first strategy is they might wipe out villages, okay? These villages are depopulated anyway.

They come in and they wipe everyone out, which means they kill everyone. The second strategy is to come in, they'll kill all the men and marry all the women. Okay? And again, this is a gradual process of assimilation, cultural conquest. But it's not a military invasion. Does that make sense? Now, after the general culture and the oxis culture merge, this creates a new civilization,

a new culture called Proto-Indo-Iranian. Why is it called that? Because now what they will do is they'll go south to the Iranian plateau and they will become eventually the Persian people. And they will invent a new religion that becomes a great world religion called Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism comes from this merger of the Proto-Iranian culture into the Iranian plateau. This is a process we call synchronization, by the way.

Syncrotization, where two major religions merge and share the same gods. There are three distinct characteristics of the the proto-Indo-Iranian culture that becomes salient in the new Zoroastrian religion okay the first is the use of a ritual drink called Soma okay Soma again you don't have to know this but I'm just telling you the cultural impact okay Soma is comes from the proto-Indo-Indo-Iranian culture second is the worship of fire okay fire rituals fires are used heavily in the religious practice, okay?

And as we know, Zoroastrism does use a lot of fire rituals. The last is a horse sacrifice, meaning that warriors are buried with their horses. And so this is an emphasis on the warrior culture of these people. Okay? So that's what happens in Iran. They become the Persian people.

We will discuss the Persian people at a later point, okay? Not now, but I just want you to know this is what happened. These people will also push into the IBC. And over time, and this is a process that takes about 500 years, they'll push out the indigenous people, okay? And then the indigenous people move into South India, where they merge with the folk culture, the animism of the local people there, okay?

And guys, what's amazing about this is this process will create two major world religions that are still influential today. The first we know as Hinduism. Hinduism is the merger, the synchronization of proto-Indo-Indo-Iran religion with the local IBC religion. And as the IBC pushes south, this will create a new religion. called Buddhism, okay? All right? But Buddhism is just the major one. There are others that are being created as well

through this process, right? The others are being Jainism and Shigism. And again, these are the major ones, that are still with us today. Like basically, this process created thousands, tens of thousands of new religions. All right?

So this is what happened. It's not a military conquest, it's not an invasion, But it's a process of, you can argue, cultural genocide, okay? Where new people come in, and over time, because they are an aggressive, expansion, opportunities, and culture, they will eventually take over the culture. Okay? Mainly by marrying the local woman, because the people who come in are basically males, okay? They will marry the local woman, and they will either kill or enslave the local men.

And this is where we get the caste system from in India. So this is a more subtle explanation of the Indo-Iran invasion theory. And this is what scholars today accept happen. And again, what's really important is to avoid generalizations and simplifications, because this is a process that took about 300 years, 40 years, and there are different strategies employed by different people. somebody was peaceful, someone was violent. It was a mix.

It's hard for us to generalize. But the overall general effect is the creation of Hinduism and Buddhism, which now are the two major world religions. Okay, any questions? But thanks for the question, Nicol. Any more questions? Before I move on? Actually, you can ask, because I'll have some time to rest.

Yep, that's right. Yep, yep. Okay, so that's a great question, Doug. Okay, so when you trade, there's always a problem of piracy and beneditary, right? So how do you protect yourselves against that? Okay, we know, like, Mesopotamia became violent because it was being surrounded by violence, right? The nomads in Arabia, the nomads in the Zagos mountains were all pretty violent people. You had to be, because to survive, you have to be aggressive.

and opportunistic. So how is it the IVC was able to be peaceful, yet the same time trade? And the solution is they set up colonies and trade partners in order to facilitate trade. Okay, so we know, for example, they traded heavily with the oxygen civilization. There were lots of trade agreements, long-term trade agreements.

We also know they had a colony within the Oxus Valley civilization. We know they traded heavily with a place called Dilman, which is now modern-day Barat. So these are their main training partners. And so you would think they're training partners with the ones who are responsible for local security. We can also suspect they also went to other places as well

to seek new training partners. What's important about this world is, this is still a relatively peaceful, world. There's tremendous violence in Sumer, but that's still rare, right? And there's some unique characteristics about Sumer that make it a violent people. But in this world, and this is about 5,000 years ago, people are still relatively peaceful. Organized warfare is still new and rare in the human experience. And that's why I think the experience in Mesopotamia was so shocking because the idea that you could sack a city the idea that you could kill

hundreds of people at one time that's like breaking a massive culture taboo okay so I think culturally speaking people at this time prefer to trade rather than to fight and because they've been training for such a long time we're talking like you know they start maybe trading about 7,000000 6000 BCE they have a lot of trading networks around the world they have partners you can trust basically okay any more questions before I continue yeah I'm actually moving into Buddhism okay and but any more questions before I continue okay so the last thing I want I want to discuss is what is the legacy of the IBC they were a great civilization

are they completely lost to us what is your contribution to Western civilization so the legacy of Egypt or the We know Egypt because of the pyramids. The legacy of Mesopotamia are many. They invented a lot of things like writing, cuneiform. Also, they introduce world literature, the epic of Gilgamesh. What I want to argue now is the legacy of the IBC is in their spiritual practice, their spiritual values.

So, if you look at Hinduism, it's very different from Zoroastrianism. And that's kind of strange because they're both proto-Indo-Iranian religions, right? But let's look very quickly at Hinduism. Hinduism believes the reality we live in is false. Okay? The real reality is called Brahmin, the true, absolute reality. So we live in this false reality. As we live in this false reality, we collect karma.

Karma is basically just an accounting of your good deeds and your bad deeds. And guess what? Throughout your life, you're going to accumulate more bad deeds than your good deeds. And your karma means your soul, called the Atman, is stuck here. Because the Brahmin, it's pure. You can only return to Bradman to heaven if you're a pure person. So it will take many lifetimes for you to cleanse your soul, your Atman in order to return to a Bradman. This process of cleansing your soul is what they call Dharma, okay?

Dharma, the right path. If the Dharma, over thousands of lifetimes, if your Dharma is great time, if your Dharma is correct if you achieve Dharma you will achieve what's called Moksha which is basically liberation Moksha releases you your soul from the physical world and also you return to the Brahmin where you will live eternally in paradise okay that is the one of the basic ideas of Hinduism another really important idea of Hinduism is this entire process is being meditated or sorry mediated or gate keep by priests called bramins okay so you think being a good

person is enough no it's not you have to listen to the bradman because only the brahman understands Dharma okay and depending on who you are your Dharma will be different so in Hinduism there's a hierarchy okay at the very top are of of course the priests the bradmen because they have access to spiritual knowledge below them are the warriors and the kings and then below them are the farmers and the merchants who keep the economy running and that at the very bottom are the servants and the laborers okay now what's what's really interesting about the system is this system can be different

by the color of one's skin, right? Because remember, the pro-Indo-Iranians, they have white skin. The IVC culture, the people who call the pro-Divinians, no, sorry, the pro-Jarvanians, they have darker skin. So the IVC people of the lower class don't intermix with the

proto-Indo-Iranians. And so basically the pro-Indo-Indo-Iranians accumulated and centralized power through the idea of Hinduism. They're the priest class. So that's a basic theory of Hinduism. And again, Hinduism is extremely complex religion. I don't want to oversimplify it, but I have no choice because I want to explain the differences, okay?

So in this system, who's really unhappy now? In this system? Which group of people are very upset? with this system can you guys can you can you guys echo can you can you apply what we've learned in this semester and answer the question all these four groups who's unhappiest and who who most wants change or revolutionary change the lower the low nobility and who's a lower lower nobility in this system the kings okay doesn't make sense the kings actually in the system are the low nobility

the upper nobility of the Brahmins It because it's the Brahmins who control access to the Brahmin. So the kings must obey the priests. So the kings aren't happy with this. And so from this conflict, you have the creation of Buddhism, right? Remember, Suhata Kottama, who is considered the first Buddha, he was actually a prince before he became the Buddha. And the man most responsible for spreading Buddhism in India

and around the world, His name is Shoka, he was the king, the emperor of the Moran Empire. And he was the one who institutionalized Buddhism as state religion, who sponsored missionary projects to China, to Greece, to Egypt. So these rulers don't like Hinduism because they see the Brahmin class as a threat to their power. So Buddhism follows this system except for one major difference. You don't need the Brahmans to access Nirvana.

You don't need the Brahmans to access spiritual enlightenment. You can do it by yourself through spiritual guidance by monks. That's a major difference. As you can see, Buddhism is, in many respects, a revolutionary religion to all. overfrow the power of the Brahmin class. In response to Buddhism, what did the Brahmins do? Do you guys know? They create the caste system, okay?

After the rise of Buddhism, Hinduism started to implement what we call today the caste system, which is to say these classes must separate from each other. They are not allowed to intermingle. not even allowed to touch each other they're not even allowed to eat each other's food okay these people at the very bottom are what we're to call to the untouchables in this system was developed by the Hindu priest that Brahmans in response to a threat of Hinduism now over time because Hinduism like the proto-Iranian

people are aggressive expansionist opportunistic they will defeat Buddhism in this struggle okay and the one way one really important way they defeat Buddhism is by adopting most of Buddhism's practices, okay? So like yoga meditation and also nirvana, okay? The Hindu rams will adopt whatever is popular in Buddhism. Another thing that the Hindu priest will do is they will start basically assimilating other religions as well. So most Indians, throughout its history, believed in their local folk lord gods, right?

Eventually, all these gods will be assimilated into the Hindu hierarchy. That's why you have like a million gods in the Hindu religion, okay? Because they were all over time assimilated into the hierarchy. And obviously, these gods are lesser gods. The higher gods, the Holy Trinity, are Brahmin gods. All right, so now's a chance for Doug to ask his question about Buddhism before you continue. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

Yep. Yeah. Okay, great question. So what is the IVC religion, the portal religion? Okay. I want to make an argument. And again, it's speculation. It's a very strange argument.

most scholars probably will not agree I think the religion of the IBC is proto-Buddhism and the reason why is if you look at Zoroastrianism and you look at proto-Indo-Iranian the religion there are a lot of similarities okay and pro-Zoroastro-oam actually fits into the larger proto-Indo-European religion framework when you look at Hinduism you've got this strange idea you believe in karma Dharma reincarnation impermanence Brahma the ultimate reality like this is not part of the proto

Indo-European religion in anywhere okay so at the same time Hinduism Buddhism Jainism and shikism all share this fundamental belief in the world that this world is a false reality. It's a reality created by our false beliefs. And if we learn to tame our emotions, if we learn to see the underlying reality governing all human structure,

then we will be released from this world, okay? Now, where would that come from? That must have come from the IBC, because there will be no other place. Also, it explains why these religions have such huge followings in India. in India, right? They don't have any followings anywhere else.

Okay? Hinduism is basically localized to India. So it's Chineseism, so shikianism. So they are appealing to a fundamental sense of the world among Indians. They're basically appealing to nostalgia, right? And where is this nostalgia from? It must be from the IVC. Okay? So I would make that argument.

I would believe, I would best that if we're able to construct the religion of the IBC, the proto-religion, we would see a proto-Buddism, the beginnings of Buddhism. It would be very different, because Buddhism evolved over thousands of years, but the underlying assumptions about the world, basically the idea of oneness, okay? The idea of false reality. I think these two ideas would be very apparent. in the IVC as they are apparent now in all four major Indian religions Hinduism Buddhism Judaism Judaism and Chikism okay you want to continue or no no no no I'm finished but like like you do want to respond to my argument okay and any are you

guys falling along does this make sense to you guys in fact I would argue that we as humans fundamentally have a nostalgia for these two ideas. Oneness and false reality, okay? Because if you look at the West, if you look at us today, there are two ideas that are the most powerful today in Western civilization. The first idea is Plato's Allegory in the Cave. Right? The idea that we live in a shadow world.

and the truth is out there, but we have to seek it. It's a very powerful idea, right? And it's very similar, by the way, to the idea is found in Hinduism and Buddhism, okay? The idea is the first powerful idea. And then the second powerful idea is the idea of the second coming. The return of Jesus.

Because what does the return of Jesus signify? It signifies paradise on earth. It signifies the destruction of our current reality, and the replacement of a new reality that creates oneness, completeness, and wholeness on earth. So in many ways, this is very similar to what the Indians are proposing as well. So what this is saying is, at a fundamental level, everyone has nostalgia for a distant past. And what is this distant past? The distant past is the idea of animism.

So remember, 10,000 years ago, 20,000 years ago, we were in the Ice Age, we were hunter-gatherers. And the way we saw the world was very different from the way we see the world today. Back then, if you were a hunter-gatherer, you could only think you were the same as the tree, or as the animal. It's the idea of oneness. We're no different. We're all part of the life cycle. We're all part of mother nature, the mother goddess. We also believe we inhabit different realities at the same time, right?

We live in this world, which is the material reality. We're also inhabiting the spiritual reality as well. And what we do spiritually matters a lot more than what we do materially, okay? So we can hunt and kill animals as long as we pay the proper respects to the animals we kill. As long as we contribute spiritually to the cycle of life and death. So I think that's where Buddhism comes from. It comes from animism. This Buddhism became reinforced and became much more concrete because it was excessive.

experiencing a reality in Mesopotamia in Egypt that was abhorrent to the people experiencing. War goes against a human experience. Inequality and corruption in ways goes against the human experience. We fundamentally believe this to be evil and wrong. So that is my argument about the IBC. Any questions? Any comments? Okay, that's a great question. Do I believe that human nature is fundamentally benevolent?

I don't believe human nature is benevolent. I believe humans naturally seek a spiritual understanding of the world. I think humans want to know why. Why are we here? Where are we going? Where do we come from? We want to know why. Why?

We're also curious. We want to explore the world. So I think trade is not a new invention. I think it's a very inherent thing to human nature. I think the idea of globalization, this was a globalized world like 5,000 years ago, okay? Extremely sophisticated, complex, globalized world. So I think that's what makes us fundamentally human. And you could say this is a good thing or a bad thing.

And I would say, well, it depends on a certain thing. circumstance, right? But I think what drives us as humans is our curiosity and our imagination. That's what I think being human is. And sometimes this is a good thing. Sometimes this is a bad thing, okay? Sometimes in the IVC, this will lead to peace and egalitarianism. But this also is what drives the idea of the second coming which is what's driving the conflict in the Middle East today. Okay? So it depends on the conduct. It depends on the circumstance.

If this curiosity, this imagination, is channeled effectively, then I think that's a good thing. If it's channel opportunistically, then it's a bad thing. Okay, but thanks for the question. Any more questions? Okay. So this end are branch age unit, okay? So we looked at the three major branched civilizations.

Egypt, Mesopotamia, and IVC. Next class, we'll start the Bible, okay? The Hebrew Bible. All right.