World History I

Chapter 8: Empires and Visionaries in India
600 BCE-600 CE

37: Wed, Jan 21, 2026

Please post in the forum for the day a short essay in response to this question:

Unique to Indian culture is the caste system, which became the basis of identity for the individual in his community across religious boundaries, surviving changes in rulers and empires. Why was this system able to endure the many changes in India over this period? Consider:

• How did the caste system arise? What need or needs did it originally fulfill?
• How did each of the different religious traditions (Brahmanism, Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism) expand or limit the caste system?
• How do different empires (Aryan, Mauryan, Kushan, Guptan) modify the caste system to suit their own purposes?
• Modern Americans especially are likely to see the caste system in an entirely negative light. What might have been some of its strengths?

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