| A | B |
|---|
| Sanskrit | the language of India |
| castes | rigid social groups of India |
| Brahmans | top caste |
| rulers and warriors | second caste |
| traders and merchants | third caste |
| servants and serfs | fourth caste |
| untouchables | fifth caste |
| Brahman | great god of Hinduism that permeates everything |
| wheel of life | cycle of rebirths that eventually frees a man's soul from the physical world |
| Gupta Empire | most prosperous Indian empire |
| Vedas | Indian religious literature |
| Hinduism | most prevalent religion in India |
| Chandragupta Maurya | developed the Mauryan Empire |
| Indus | major river in the western part of India |
| Ganges | major river in the eastern part of India |
| Aryans | warlike invaders that conquered the Indus valley |
| Mohjenjo Daro | one of the leading cities of early India |
| Harappa | one of the leading cities of early India |
| Khyber | narrow pass through the Himalayan Mountains |
| Himalayan Mountains | form India's northern border |
| Buddha | "Enlightened One" |
| Siddhartha Gautama | founder of Buddhism; also known as the Buddha |
| Four Noble Truths | central part of Buddhism |
| nirvana | the state which Buddhists believe is absolute peace no longer requiring man to enter the cycle of reincarnation |
| Asoka | most famous Mauryan ruler; promoted Buddhism by sending out missionaries |
| Kalidasa | "Indian Shakespeare" |
| Confucious | taught the importance of maintaining harmony and order in society by developing proper relationships |
| Gobi Desert | separates China from Mongolia; northern boundary |
| Lao-tzu | founder of Taoism |
| Wu Ti | most famous Han ruler; repelled invasion by the Huns |
| Shih Huang Ti | emperor during the Ch'in dynasty; built the Great Wall of China |
| Middle Kingdom | what the Chinese called their land |
| Hwang Ho | Chinese river which was also known as the Yellow River |
| Yangtze | Chinese river which runs through the center of China |
| Himalayan Mountains | China's western boundary |
| Pacific Ocean | China's eastern boundary |
| ancestor worship | became the leading religion in China |
| characters | 65,000 of these may represent complete ideas, words, or syllables |
| K'ung Fu-tzu | "the Master"; Confucious |
| Japan | youngest of the Asian civilizations |
| Japan | a nation of four main islands and many smaller ones |
| Taika reforms | changed Japan to a centralized government |
| samurai | Japanese warriors |
| shogun | "great general" |
| Jimmu Tenno | first Japanese emperor |
| Prince Shotoku | made Buddhism the favored religion of Japan |
| Yoritomo | first to receive the title of shogun |
| Bushido | unwritten military code of Japan |
| Shintoism | native religion of Japan, "way of the gods" |
