A Little History of the World

This chapter shifts focus entirely, leaving behind the Western societies detailed in past chapters and moving to “the opposite end of the world” during the same time period (51). First, Gombrich describes a powerful and wealthy city in the Indus River valley of India called Mohenjo Daro. At the same time that Sumerians ruled the city of Ur, around 2500 B.C, this city had workshops, granaries, canals, and drains. We did not even know of its existence until the 1920s. Though we still know very little about the people who built Mohenjo Daro, we know that the later inhabitants, invaders, are the ancestors of the people who live in that region today. When most of the region came under the power of these invaders, they kept a distance from those they had conquered by developing a system of class division, called the caste system, that persists in India today.

Turning to Indian religion, Gombrich describes it as a oneness with life and all divinity. Indian priests frequently meditated, sitting silently and reflecting on their deities and the essence of the world. One of these holy men, Gautama, lived around 500 B.C. A hermit from society, he meditated until he reached understanding and managed to free himself from suffering.