Source: http://edu.glogster.com/media/5/26/2/60/26026096.jpg
I. Activating Prior Knowledge
Signs of prosperity or economic health can help historians to call a time period a golden age. Historians might look for the existence of a merchant class or the productivity of trade. Fa-hsien's writings give us a firsthand look into ancient India and its economy.
II. Setting A Purpose for Reading
Culture includes such things as art, celebrations, and social classes. What facts does Fa-hsien give about various aspects of Indian culture during this golden age?
III. Reading the Text (Read, Re-Read, and Read Again)
The people are numerous and happy; they have not to register their households, or attend to any magistrates [officials] and their rules; only those who cultivate [farm] the royal land have to pay a portion of and vie [compete] with one another in the practice of benevolence [kindness] and righteousness.
STOP! Can you answer this question? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
According to Fa-hsien, what group of people pay "taxes"?
Every year on the eighth day of the second month they celebrate a procession of images.. They make figures of divas [goddesses], with gold, silver, and lapis lazuli [a type of gem] grandly blended and having silken streamers and canopies hung out over them.. The Heads of the Vaisya [merchant] families in them [kingdoms of India] establish in the cities houses for dispensing charity and medicines. All the poor and destitute in the country, orphans, widowers, and childless men, maimed people and cripples, and all who are diseased, go to those houses, and are provided with every kind of help, and doctors examine their diseases. They get the food and medicines that their cases require, and are made to feel at ease; and when they are better, they go away of themselves.. In the city there are many Vaisya elders and foreign merchants, whose houses are stately and beautiful. The lanes and passages are kept in good order.
STOP! Can you answer this question? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
What opinions does Fa-hsien express about India?
Source: http://info.teachtci.com/resources/ha/AWH/primarysources/AWH_T5Primary.aspx
IV. Personal Reflection – Select one of the following options to write a response.
Option 1 - Response: Fa-hsien describes ancient India as "prosperous." What evidence about the health of India's economy can be drawn from
Fa-hsien's writings? Give at least three pieces of evidence.
Option 2 - Response: Are these pieces of evidence verifiable? Verifiable information is information that can be proven by examining another source. Unverifiable information is information that can not be proven by examining other sources.
Option 3 - Response: How useful are Fa-hsien's records to historians studying about India during its golden age? Do his writings really prove anything. Explain.
V. Peer Reflection - Read three classmates’ response and respond to what they have written.
I. Activating Prior Knowledge
Signs of prosperity or economic health can help historians to call a time period a golden age. Historians might look for the existence of a merchant class or the productivity of trade. Fa-hsien's writings give us a firsthand look into ancient India and its economy.
II. Setting A Purpose for Reading
Culture includes such things as art, celebrations, and social classes. What facts does Fa-hsien give about various aspects of Indian culture during this golden age?
III. Reading the Text (Read, Re-Read, and Read Again)
The people are numerous and happy; they have not to register their households, or attend to any magistrates [officials] and their rules; only those who cultivate [farm] the royal land have to pay a portion of and vie [compete] with one another in the practice of benevolence [kindness] and righteousness.
STOP! Can you answer this question? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
According to Fa-hsien, what group of people pay "taxes"?
Every year on the eighth day of the second month they celebrate a procession of images.. They make figures of divas [goddesses], with gold, silver, and lapis lazuli [a type of gem] grandly blended and having silken streamers and canopies hung out over them.. The Heads of the Vaisya [merchant] families in them [kingdoms of India] establish in the cities houses for dispensing charity and medicines. All the poor and destitute in the country, orphans, widowers, and childless men, maimed people and cripples, and all who are diseased, go to those houses, and are provided with every kind of help, and doctors examine their diseases. They get the food and medicines that their cases require, and are made to feel at ease; and when they are better, they go away of themselves.. In the city there are many Vaisya elders and foreign merchants, whose houses are stately and beautiful. The lanes and passages are kept in good order.
STOP! Can you answer this question? If not, go back and re-read the passage.
What opinions does Fa-hsien express about India?
Source: http://info.teachtci.com/resources/ha/AWH/primarysources/AWH_T5Primary.aspx
IV. Personal Reflection – Select one of the following options to write a response.
Option 1 - Response: Fa-hsien describes ancient India as "prosperous." What evidence about the health of India's economy can be drawn from
Fa-hsien's writings? Give at least three pieces of evidence.
Option 2 - Response: Are these pieces of evidence verifiable? Verifiable information is information that can be proven by examining another source. Unverifiable information is information that can not be proven by examining other sources.
Option 3 - Response: How useful are Fa-hsien's records to historians studying about India during its golden age? Do his writings really prove anything. Explain.
V. Peer Reflection - Read three classmates’ response and respond to what they have written.
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