Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Chapter 8, Lesson 2, Arrival of the Aryans (pp. 229-234)
I. Who Were the Aryans?
B. The Indo-Europeans left their homeland around 2000 B.C. and migrated
throughout Europe, Asia, and India.
C. Aryan beliefs and daily life were described in Vedas, a collection of sacred
hymns and poems, passed down orally from generation to generation.
II. What Do the Vedas Reveal?
B. Divisions within classes were called castes. People did not change castes.
C. The Aryans worshipped divine beings or gods, and priests became very powerful
in their society.
III. What Remains Today of Aryan Ways?
B. Many people in modern India still follow the caste system created by the
Aryans thousands of years ago.
C. Religion is the most lasting heritage of the Aryans.
Lesson at a Glance Outline
A. According to one theory, the Aryans were part of a larger seminomadic group we now call the Indo-Europeans.
A. As the Aryans and the Indus Valley people combined cultures, they ended up with a
four-class system.
A. Sanskrit, the language spoken by the Aryans, is the root of Hindi, one of the
most common languages of modern India.
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