Buddha and Ashoka: Crash Course World History #6 Buddha und Ashoka: Crashkurs Weltgeschichte #6 Βούδας και Ασόκα: #6 Buda y Ashoka: Crash Course World History #6 Bouddha et Ashoka : Cours accéléré d'histoire mondiale #6 Buddha e Ashoka: Corso accelerato di storia mondiale #6 ブッダとアショーカ：クラッシュコース世界史 第6回 붓다와 아쇼카: 크래시 코스 세계사 #6 Buda ir Ašoka: Pasaulio istorijos kursas #6 Budda i Aśoka: Przyspieszony kurs historii świata #6 Buda e Ashoka: Curso Rápido de História Mundial #6 Будда и Ашока: Краткий курс всемирной истории #6 Buddha ve Ashoka: Crash Course Dünya Tarihi #6 Будда та Ашока: Прискорений курс всесвітньої історії #6 佛陀与阿育王：世界历史速成班#6 佛陀和阿育王世界历史速成第六课

Hi, my name is John Green; you're watching Crash Course World History and today we're Oi, meu nome é John Green; você está assistindo Crash Course World History e hoje estamos

going to talk about India, which is hard because:

A. I only have 10 minutes... A. Só tenho 10 minutos...

Past John: Mr. Green, Mr. Green! João passado: Sr. Green, Sr. Green!

Present John: I don't have time for you today, Me from the Past! João do Presente: Hoje não tenho tempo para ti, Eu do Passado!

B. When we study history we tend to study unified polities that we can label like “The B. Wenn wir Geschichte studieren, neigen wir dazu, einheitliche Politiken zu studieren, die wir als „The B.歴史を研究するとき、私たちは「 B. Quando estudamos história, tendemos a estudar políticas unificadas que podemos rotular como “A

Roman Empire” or “China" or “Beliebers,” and this emphasis on unity tends to: Império Romano" ou "China" ou "Beliebers", e esta ênfase na unidade tende a:

C. lead to labels that mask a lot of historical difference, like for instance “Europe,” C. zu Etiketten führen, die viele historische Unterschiede verbergen, wie zum Beispiel „Europa“ C.たとえば、「ヨーロッパ」など、多くの歴史的な違いを隠すラベルにつながる C. levam a rótulos que mascaram muitas diferenças históricas, como por exemplo “Europa”,

which is such a weird and nebulous word that we don't even know what it means. Plus: これは奇妙で曖昧な言葉なので、それが何を意味するのかさえわかりません。プラス： que é uma palavra tão estranha e nebulosa que nem sabemos o que significa. Mais:

D, no offense Europe, but there are not many histories more complex than India, and... D、ヨーロッパは攻撃的ではありませんが、インドよりも複雑な歴史は多くありません... D, sem ofensa Europa, mas não há muitas histórias mais complexas do que a da Índia, e...

E. a lot of what we know about Indian history comes from British historians, who both used E.インドの歴史について私たちが知っていることの多くは、どちらも使用したイギリスの歴史家から来ています E. Muito do que sabemos sobre a história da Índia provém de historiadores britânicos, que utilizaram

and embodied the phrase “historical bias,” all of which 「歴史的偏見」というフレーズを具体化しました e incorporou a frase "preconceito histórico", todos os quais

F. makes it very unfortunate that we only have 10 minutes. But we will do our best! F.が10分しかないことは非常に残念です。でも頑張ります！ F. torna muito lamentável o facto de só termos 10 minutos. Mas vamos dar o nosso melhor!

Okay, we're gonna make this like Voldemort's soul and split up into eight parts. よし、これをヴォルデモートの魂のようにして、8つの部分に分割するつもりだ。 Ok, vamos fazer isto como a alma do Voldemort e dividi-la em oito partes.

[theme music] 【テーマ曲】

Part 1, The Vedas. So as you no doubt remember, the Indus River Valley was one of the earliest Parte 1, Os Vedas. Como certamente se recorda, o Vale do Rio Indo foi um dos primeiros

cradles of civilization, But that original civilization basically disappeared sometime 文明の揺りかご、しかしその元の文明は基本的にいつか消えた berços da civilização, mas essa civilização original basicamente desapareceu em algum momento

after 1750 BCE. Then there was a long period of Aryan migration, and by Aryans we do not depois de 1750 a.C. Depois houve um longo período de migração ariana, e por arianos não entendemos

mean like prehistoric Nazis, we mean people from the Caucasus who migrated down into the 先史時代のナチスと同じように、私たちはコーカサス出身で、 queremos dizer nazis pré-históricos, queremos dizer pessoas do Cáucaso que migraram para a

Indo-Gag gig gag gi... Stan, can you just spell it for me? Thank you. インドギャグギグギグギ...ありがとうございました。 Indo-Gag gig gag gi... Stan, podes soletrar para mim? Obrigado.

We know about these Aryans primarily because they left behind religious texts, the earliest Sabemos da existência destes arianos principalmente porque deixaram textos religiosos, os mais antigos

of which is called the Vedas. The Vedas are also the earliest texts of what will come de los cuales se llaman los Vedas. Los Vedas son también los primeros textos de lo que vendrá dos quais se chamam Vedas. Os Vedas são também os primeiros textos do que virá a ser

to be known as Hinduism, although it wasn't known as Hinduism then. And they're responsible para ser conhecido como Hinduísmo, embora na altura não fosse conhecido como Hinduísmo. E eles são responsáveis

for tons of stuff, but we only have 10 minutes so let's just cut to: para muitas coisas, mas só temos 10 minutos, por isso vamos passar à ação:

Part 2, The Caste System. The caste system is one of India's most enduring and fascinating Parte 2, O sistema de castas. O sistema de castas é um dos sistemas mais duradouros e fascinantes da Índia.

institutions. Let us read from one of the Vedas about Purusha, the universe-pervading instituições. Vamos ler um dos Vedas sobre Purusha, o que permeia o universo

spirit. When they divided Purusha, in how many different portions did they arrange him? espíritu. Cuando dividieron a Purusha, ¿en cuántas porciones diferentes lo organizaron? espírito. Quando dividiram Purusha, em quantas porções diferentes o organizaram?

What became of his mouth, what of his two arms? What were his two thighs and his two O que é que aconteceu à sua boca, o que é que aconteceu aos seus dois braços? O que eram as suas duas coxas e os seus dois

feet called? His mouth became the Brahmin, his two arms were made into the Kshatriya; pés chamados? A sua boca transformou-se em brâmane e os seus dois braços em kshatriya;

his two thighs the vaisyas; from his two feet the shudra was born. das suas duas coxas os vaisyas; dos seus dois pés nasceu o shudra.

So this section gives a divine explanation for the caste system. Brahmins – who as Assim, esta secção dá uma explicação divina para o sistema de castas. Os brâmanes - que como

Purusha's mouth speak to the gods are at the top. Kshatriyas – from Purusha's arms A boca de Purusha fala com os deuses estão no topo. Kshatriyas - dos braços de Purusha

became the warriors, as you no doubt know if you've ever attended my gun show. Vaisyas se convirtieron en los guerreros, como sin duda sabes si alguna vez has asistido a mi exposición de armas. Vaisyas tornaram-se os guerreiros, como sem dúvida sabem se alguma vez foram à minha exposição de armas. Vaisyas

– the merchants and artisans who provide money for the priests and the warriors came - os comerciantes e artesãos que fornecem dinheiro aos sacerdotes e aos guerreiros vieram

from Purusha's thighs. Because everybody knows that the thighs are the money makers. das coxas de Purusha. Porque toda a gente sabe que as coxas são as que dão dinheiro.

And the Shudras – are at the bottom. They're the feet, the laborers and farmers who are E os Shudras - estão no fundo. São os pés, os trabalhadores e os agricultores que estão

the foundation of the social order. Also, the rest of us stand on them. a base da ordem social. Além disso, todos nós nos apoiamos neles.

The caste system becomes much more complicated than this, but that basic division into 4 O sistema de castas torna-se muito mais complicado do que isto, mas esta divisão básica em 4

classes remains throughout much of Indian history. In spite of the efforts of many reformers As classes sociais permanecem ao longo de grande parte da história da Índia. Apesar dos esforços de muitos reformadores

whom we'll be meeting in future episodes of Crash Course. The Caste System is the foundation

for another big concept in Hinduism,

Part 3, Dharma. Dharma is basically one's role in life and society and it is defined

primarily by birth and by caste. The whole idea is explained nicely by this passage from

the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna is talking to the warrior, Arjuna. “Having regard to

your own duty also, you ought not to falter, for there is nothing better for a Kshatriya tu propio deber también, no debes vacilar, porque no hay nada mejor para un Kshatriya

than a righteous battle.” The Bhagavad Gita is a section of a much larger epic poem the

Mahabharata which tells the complicated and long story of a war between two kingdoms.

And we can really see how important dharma is in this passage because Krishna is basically

telling Arjuna that because he is a warrior, a Kshatriya, he must fight. Even if he's

bad at it – like for instance if he gets killed – it's still preferable to not

living his dharma. It's better to be a bad warrior if you're a Kshatriya than to be

the world's best baker. Basically, you're better off fulfilling your own dharma poorly

than doing someone else's well. That leads us to:

Part 4, Saṃsāra, Moksha, and Karma – there are both personal and social reasons for doing

your dharma. Right, the social reason is obvious that dharma and caste combine for excellent

social cohesion. You get the exact right number of bakers and the exact right number of warriors.

We could stand in to implement this system in the United States, actually, where everyone Wir könnten uns dafür einsetzen, dieses System in den Vereinigten Staaten einzuführen, wo jeder

knows we suffer from a shortage of electrical engineers and a surplus of people who want

to be on reality TV shows. That would not have happen in ancient India. But, say that

your dharma is to scoop animal dung your entire life, why do you keep doing that when you

see other lives that at least appear to be far more fulfilling? ver otras vidas que al menos parecen mucho más satisfactorias?

That leads us to the concept of Saṃsāra, or the cycle of rebirth often called reincarnation.

The basic idea is that when you die your soul is transferred to another living thing as

it is being born. And if you fulfill your dharma, things improve and you get re-born

into a higher being. You don't have to scoop elephant dung anymore.

But the ultimate goal is not to be re-born as a Brahmin. The ultimate goal is to be released

from the merry-go-round altogether. And that release is called moksha. The law that holds

all this together is Karma which is summarized really nicely in the Aranyaka Upanishad. "The

doer of good becomes good. The doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous El que hace el bien se convierte en el bien. El que hace el mal se vuelve malo. Uno se vuelve virtuoso por virtuoso

action, bad by bad action."

The Upanishads, by the way, are later religious texts that began as commentaries on the Vedas,

but later became sacred writings in their own right. This is a really great way to organize

a social order from top to bottom. Everyone has a role, and, because that role has a religious

dimension, society stays in balance.

But as a religion, Hinduism has a problem, at least if you want to start an empire; everyone's Aber als Religion hat der Hinduismus ein Problem, zumindest wenn man ein Imperium gründen will; jeder ist

path to “salvation” is individual. The original Brahmins tried to set themselves

up as political leaders, but Hinduism doesn't really place a premium on worshippers obeying aber der Hinduismus legt nicht wirklich Wert darauf, dass die Gläubigen gehorchen.

their leaders. And if you are a leader trying to make your subjects listen to you, that's

kind of a bummer. Which brings us to:

Part 5, Buddhism. We can't establish this historically, but according to traditional

biographies, our story begins in the 6th century BCE. Let's go to the Thought Bubble. Biographien beginnt unsere Geschichte im 6. Jahrhundert vor Christus. Gehen wir in die Gedankenblase.

So there was this prince, Siddhartha Gautama, whose father kept him locked away in a palace

because a prophecy foretold that the family would lose the kingdom if he ever left. But

as house arrests go, this was a good one: Siddhartha had great food, great entertainment,

a hot cousin for a wife, etc.

But he suspected that there was more to life, so he snuck out of the palace a few times.

On these travels, he encountered an old man, a sick man, and finally a corpse. Having realized

the ubiquity of suffering, Siddhartha left the palace, renounced the crown and sought

out all the holiest men to try to find out how it could be possible that life would come to such a terrible end.

Eventually Gautama became an ascetic, fasting and meditating for days at a time, hoping

to find enlightenment. And finally, after meditating for about a month under a tree,

it came to him. Nirvana. No, not that one. Yes, that one.

He finally understood the meaning of life and began teaching it to people who would

become his disciples. He had become the Buddha, which means teacher, and he taught the Four

Noble Truths. Which are:

1\. All life is suffering. 2\. The source of suffering is desire. Not just sexual desire, but all wanting of stuff and prestige. 3\. To stop suffering, you must rid yourself of desire. This sounds simple enough, but if you've ever been dumped by someone, you know that it is not that easy to just stop desiring.

4\. So how do you do it? By following the Eightfold Path, which as you might suspect is a set of eight prescriptions on how to live that we don't have time to talk about. Because,

oh wait look, Thought Bubble, you put some learning in our learning so we can learn while

we learn. Thanks, Thought Bubble.

So as a religion, Buddhism involves a lot of meditating and moderation and there aren't

that many fun rituals, and if you're a Buddhist monk you don't get to have power like most

holy people do; you have to renounce everything, including your hair. And, yes, some of them

get to be kung-fu monks, but only in China, where Buddhism eventually migrated and became

a religion with fun rituals and all kinds of great stuff that Siddhartha Gautama probably

wouldn't even have recognized.

But we're not talking about fun populist religion, we're talking about old-school

ascetic Buddhism. Sure, you might be happy and fulfilled if you follow the Eightfold

Path, but from everything we've learned so far, it would appear that humans don't

want to be happy and fulfilled or else they never would've stopped foraging.

But Buddhism was very attractive if you were a low-caste Hindu, because there is no caste

system. In theory, anyone who follows the Eightfold Path and renounces desire can be

freed from suffering and achieve nirvana, maybe even in THIS life. Instead of having

to get re-born for maybe millennia and knowing that each time there is only a tiny chance

that you will end up something awesome, like a honey badger. By the way...

Totally Tangential Part 6, Did you know the game Chutes and Ladders has its origins in

ancient India? They call it Snakes and Ladders. The ladders are steps forward on the path

to moksha, and the snakes take you away from it. Which reminds me, it's time for the

Open Letter.

That is very close to my head. Wow. But first let's see what's in The Secret Compartment.

Oh look, it's a golf club. Must be so I can play Disco Golf.

An open letter to Chutes and Ladders:

Dear Chutes and Ladders,This is Disco Golf. It's a game of skill. My success at Disco

Golf is entirely dependent on whether I am good at Disco Golf. Now, listen Chutes and

Ladders, I remember your game being awesome when I was a kid, but I have a 2-year-old

son myself and I recently bought him Chutes and Ladders and you know what happened the

first time we played? HE BEAT ME.

Chutes and Ladders, this is a child who regularly refers to helicopters as heli-flopters. I

don't want to say that he's not my intellectual equal, but I'm potty trained. You know why

he beat me? Because there is no skill involved in Chutes and Ladders at all. It is completely

random and capricious and arbitrary and cold – just like the universe. zufällig, willkürlich und kalt - genau wie das Universum.

I don't want to play games that are like the universe – I want to play games so that

I can forget what the universe it like.

Best wishes, John Green

Okay, Part 7, Ashoka. Remember that for most of Indian history, India it was not one unified

place. It was tons of different principalities and city-states and everything else. But India

did experience indigenous political unity twice, first under the Mauryan Dynasty in

the 3rd century BCE. And then again under the Gupta Dynasty from the 300's to the

500's CE, but we're not going to talk about that because it bores me.

Right now, we're interested in one particular leader from the Mauryan Dynasty, Ashoka, because

Ashoka attempted to rule through quasi-Buddhist principles. So Ashoka was initially a warrior Ashoka versuchte, nach quasi-buddhistischen Prinzipien zu regieren. Ashoka war also zunächst ein Krieger

who ended up expanding the empire that his grandfather started. And Ashoka experienced

this conversion to Buddhism after he saw his own army devastate the Kingdom of Kalinga,

something I bring up primarily so that I can say Kingdom of Kalinga.

Stan, is there anyway we can write a song a song about that, like, Kingdom of Kalinga/

I'm sorry you got destroyed...

So, Ashoka built stupas, (stoopas?) Hold on...

HowJSay: Stoopah.

John: Could he have said that any more pretentiously? Stupas. John: Hätte er das noch prätentiöser sagen können? Stupas. ¿Podría haberlo dicho de forma más pretenciosa? Stupas.

So Ashoka built stupas, these mound-like monuments to the Buddha, all over his kingdom to show Also errichtete Ashoka überall in seinem Reich Stupas, diese hügelartigen Monumente für Buddha, um zu zeigen

his devotion. And he also put up pillars throughout his empire that proclaimed his benevolent seine Hingabe. Und er stellte in seinem ganzen Reich Säulen auf, die seine wohlwollende Haltung verkündeten.

rule and said he was going to rule through something he called dhamma, which according

to one of the pillars went like this: "proper behavior towards servants and employees, respect zu einer der Säulen lautete wie folgt: "Anständiges Verhalten gegenüber Bediensteten und Angestellten, Respekt

for mother and father, generosity to friends, companions, relations, Brahmans and ascetics, für Mutter und Vater, Großzügigkeit gegenüber Freunden, Gefährten, Verwandten, Brahmanen und Asketen,

and not killing living beings."

So those are not individualistic goals like we see in Hinduism; they're relational goals,

like we're gonna see next week when we study Confucianism. And that's one of the reasons

why Ashoka's empire wasn't actually very Buddhist because ultimately Buddhism isn't

that concerned with the order of the world. Buddhism argues that the fulfillment of the die sich mit der Ordnung der Welt befasst. Der Buddhismus argumentiert, dass die Erfüllung der

self will lead to the order of the world. In the end, Ashoka's empire didn't outlast selbst zur Ordnung der Welt führen wird. Am Ende hat Ashokas Reich nicht überdauert.

him by much, and soon enough Buddhism declined in India, almost to the point of extinction. und schon bald ging der Buddhismus in Indien zurück, fast bis zur Ausrottung.

Part 8: The Big Finish. So as anyone who has ever practices yoga knows, Hinduism is the

most flexible of all the world religions, which is part of the reason it's often described

as polytheistic. The belief that god(s) can take many different forms makes it easy for

Hinduism to assimilate other religious traditions. Which is exactly what happened with Buddhism.

In time the Buddha came to be worshipped as another incarnation of one of the Hindu gods,

and not as a mortal teacher. So in the end, Hinduism, rather than purging the Buddha, enveloped him. y no como un maestro mortal. Así que, al final, el hinduismo, en lugar de purgar al Buda, lo envolvió.

So all this means that while Hinduism has a tremendous amount of variety and flexibility,

its core tenets of samsara, karma, and the caste system have provided a remarkable amount

of cultural and social unity to the Indian subcontinent for millennia.

Fortunately for the Buddha, his teachings migrated East to China. We're gonna make

that same journey next week. I'll see you then.

Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller, our script supervisor is Danica Johnson,

the show is written by my high school history teacher Raoul Meyer and myself. And our graphics

team is Thought Bubble.

Last week's phrase of the week was “Right Here in River City”. If you want to guess

at this week's phrase of the week or suggest future ones you can do so in comments. Also

in comments, please leave your questions and our team will endeavor to answer them.

Thanks for watching Crash Course and as they say in my home town, Don't Forget To Be Awesome.