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Created by Shaunak Ghosh
Explain how Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam shaped societies and states in South and Southeast Asia from c. 1200–1450. You’ll connect trade networks to religious diffusion, then use concrete cases (Khmer/Angkor and Malacca) to argue how belief and legitimacy helped rulers build and maintain power—using AP-style reasoning language.
8 modules • Each builds on the previous one
Build the geographic and network context for c.1200–1450: Indian Ocean trade, overland connections, port cities, and how networks transmit ideas and institutions. This sets up why belief systems could spread and reshape societies and states.
Explain Hindu core ideas (dharma, karma, samsara, moksha), major traditions (bhakti), and how practices (temple patronage, pilgrimage, ritual) shaped social structures and legitimacy in South and parts of Southeast Asia.
Cover Buddhist core ideas and institutions with emphasis on the period’s dominant Southeast Asian forms (Theravada) and how monasteries, merit-making, and kingship patronage shaped communities and political authority.
Explain how Islam expanded into South and Southeast Asia via conquest, trade, and Sufi networks, and how Islamic law, scholarship, and community structures reshaped societies while also blending with local cultures.
Synthesize how Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam interacted in South and Southeast Asia through syncretism, layered religious practice, and state tolerance/intolerance. Emphasize how diffusion creates hybrid culture rather than simple replacement.
Explain how new Hindu and Buddhist states in South and Southeast Asia used religion to build legitimacy, integrate populations, and organize resources—showing continuity, innovation, and diversity (e.g., temple complexes, divine kingship, administrative patronage).
Explain how states other than Hindu/Buddhist—especially Islamic states in South and Southeast Asia—formed and maintained power, balancing imported Islamic institutions with local political realities (Delhi Sultanate; Malacca and other sultanates).
Practice explaining how belief systems shaped societies and how states formed/maintained power using AP reasoning moves: continuity/change, comparison, and the continuity/innovation/diversity lens, supported by specific evidence from c.1200–1450 South and Southeast Asia.
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