VEDIC PERIOD (1500-500 BCE)

                                                                    VEDIC AGE

 The Vedic period OR Vedic age (c. 1500 – c. 600 BCE) is the period in the history of the Indian subcontinent intervening between the end of the urban Indus Valley Civilization, and a second urbanisation which began in 600 BCE. It gets its name from the Vedas The Vedas were composed and orally transmitted by speakers of an Old Indo-Aryan language who had migrated into the north western regions of the Indian subcontinent early in this period. The associated Vedic culture was tribal and pastoral until c. 1200 or 1100 BCE, and centred in the Punjab. It then spread eastward to the Ganges Plain, becoming more agricultural and settled. The Vedic period saw the emergence of a hierarchy of social classes and later of monarchical, state-level polities.

ORIGIN

The early Vedic age is historically dated to the second half of t
he second millennium BCE. Historically, after the collapse of the INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION which occurred around 1900 BCE, groups of INDO-ARYAN  PEOPLE MIGRATED  and started to inhabit the northern INDUS VALLEY The INDO-ARYAN represented a sub-group that diverged from other INDO-IRANIAN TRIBES at the ANDRONOVO HORIZON before the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE,  The Indo-Iranians originated in the SINTASH CULTURE, from which arose the subsequent ANDRONOVO HORIZON The Indo-Aryans migrated through the adjacent BACTRIA-MARGIANA area (present-day northern AFGANISTAN) to northwest India, , followed by the rise of the Iranian YAZ-CULTURE at  1500 BCE, and the Iranian migrations into Iran at 800 BCE.

The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to the 2nd millennium BCE. After the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which ended c. 1900 BCE, groups of Indo-Aryan peoples migrated into north-western India and started to inhabit the northern Indus Valley.

The knowledge about the Aryans comes mostly from the RIGVEDA-SAMHITA i.e. the oldest layer of the VEDAS which was composed .1200–1000 BCE. They brought with them their distinctive religious traditions and practices. The Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesised PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN RELIGION and the Indo-Iranian religion. Funeral sacrifices from the Sintashta-culture show close parallels to the sacrificial funeral rites of the RIGVEDA while, according to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the ZERAVASHAN RIVER (present-day UZBEKISTAN) and (present-day) Iran. It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements" which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices" from the BACTRIA MARGIANA CULTURE including the god INDRA and the ritual drink SOMA.

INDO-ARYAN MIGRATION

Foreigners from the north are believed to have migrated to India and settled in the Indus Valley and Ganges Plain from 1800-1500 BCE. The most prominent of these groups spoke Indo-European languages and were called Aryans, or “noble people” in the Sanskrit language. These Indo-Aryans were a branch of the Indo-Iranians, who originated in present-day northern Afghanistan. By 1500 BCE, the Indo-Aryans had created small herding and agricultural communities across northern India.

These migrations took place over several centuries and likely did not involve an invasion, as hypothesized by British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler in the mid-1940s. Wheeler, who was Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1944 to 1948, suggested that a nomadic, Indo-European tribe, called the Aryans, suddenly overwhelmed and conquered the Indus River Valley. He based his conclusions on the remains of unburied corpses found in the top levels of the archaeological site of Mohenjo-daro, one of the great cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, whom he said were victims of war. Yet shortly after Wheeler proposed his theory, other scholars dismissed it by explaining that the skeletons were not those of victims of invasion massacres, but rather the remains of hasty burials. Wheeler himself eventually admitted that the theory could not be proven.

THE EARLY VEDIC PERIOD (1500-1200 BCE)

The Rigveda contains records of contentions between the Aryas, Dasas, and Dasyus. It depicts Dasas and Dasyus as individuals who don’t perform penances. It also depicts the decrees of divine beings (avrata). Their discourse is portrayed as Mridhra. Mridha could mean delicate, tasteless, threatening, disdainful, or oppressive. Different modifiers that depict their physical appearance are dependent upon many translations. Asko Parpola interfaces the Dasas and Dasyus to Iranian clans Dahae and Dahyu. It also accepts that Dasas and Dasyus were early Indo-Aryan workers. They may have shown up into the subcontinent before the Vedic Aryans. Bronkhorst has contended that the Ganges Plain was commanded by a related yet non-Vedic Indo-Aryan culture.

Records of military clashes between the different clans of Vedic Aryans are likewise depicted in the Rigveda. Generally outstanding of such clashes was the Battle of Ten Kings. This battle may have occurred on the banks of the stream Parushni. The fight was battled between the clan Bharatas against a confederation of ten tribes. The Bharatas lived around the upper locales of the waterway Saraswati. The Purus, their western neighbors, lived along with the lower areas of Saraswati. Different clans stayed north-west of the Bharatas in the district of Punjab.

Division of the waters of Ravi could have been an explanation behind the war. The confederation of clans attempted to immerse the Bharatas by opening the dikes of Ravi. Yet Sudas rose successfully in the Battle of Ten Kings. Purukutsa, the head of the Purus, was executed in the fight. The Bharatas and the Purus converged into another clan, the Kuru, after the war.

THE LATER VEDIC PERIOD (1200-500BCE)

After the twelfth century BCE, as the Rigveda had taken its last structure. The Vedic culture is related to the Kuru-Pancala locale. But They were not by any means the only Indo-Aryan individuals in northern India. They progressed from semi-traveling life to settled horticulture in north-western India. Possession of horses stayed a significant need for Vedic pioneers and a leftover of the roaming lifestyle. This brought about exchange courses past the Hindu Kush to keep up this. Because horses required for rangers and penance couldn’t be reproduced in India.

The Gangetic fields had stayed beyond the field of play to the Vedic clans due to thick woodland spread. After 1000 BCE, the use of iron tomahawks and furrows got broad This helped in clearing the forest part. This empowered the Vedic Aryans to broaden their settlements. They went as far as to the western region of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab. Many of the old clans blended to frame bigger political units.

The Vedic religion was additionally evolved with the rise of the Kuru realm. Thus we have strict writing and building up of the Śrauta ritual. It is related to the Painted Gray Ware culture. But this didn’t extend east of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab. It contrasted from the related, yet extraordinary, the culture of the Central Ganges district. This was related to the Northern Black Polished Ware and the Mahajanapadas of Kosala and Magadha.

SOCIETY

Rig Vedic society was relatively egalitarian in the sense that a distinct hierarchy of socio-economic classes or castes was absent. However, political hierarchy was determined by rank, where rajan stood at the top and dasi at the bottom. The words Brahamana and Kshatriya occur in various family books of the Rig Veda, but they are not associated with the term varna. The words Vaishya and Shudra are absent.

Vedic civilization is the civilization of ancient India in which Vedas were formed. Indian scholars believe that this civilization has come to an endless tradition. According to Western scholars, a community of Aryans came to India about 2000 BC and with the arrival of this civilization, some people started to believe that some people had started from around 7000 BC today. Generally, most scholars consider the period of Vedic civilization in the middle of 2000 BC to 600 BC, but many remains of Vedic civilization have been found in the remains of new archeological excavations, due to which modern scholars such as David Frayle, Telgiri, BB Lal, S. R. Rao, Subhash Kak, Arvindo have started believing that Vedic civilization was started in India and the composition of Rigveda has been 4000-3000 BC. Because there is no evidence from the archaeological excavation of Aryans coming to India. In this period the foundation of the present Hindu religion was laid, which is still in existence.

In addition to the Vedas, many other Sanskrit texts were also composed in this period. The creation of Vedanga Sutra has been done to organize these Vedic Grantht has of Mantra Brahmana Granth and Upanishad. Anant Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Purananyaki were composed which have been known as the source of knowledge of this period. The rise of the infinite Charvak, Tantikonda, Buddhism and Jainism also present.

Historians believe that the Aryans used to live mainly in the plains of northern India, which was the main center of the Aryan civilization. In this period northern India (including modern Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal) was divided into several Mahajanapadas.....