Vedic Age - Early Vedic Period (Aryan Age) - Notes

Vedic Age (1500 BC to 600 BC)
Early Vedic Age (1500 BC to 1000 BC)

Part -1st
Ancient history
Useful for UPSC, SSC, Railways and various competition exams
By - Sumit Choudhary
Introduction
❖ After the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization, another glorious civilization
flourished in India. The people who were responsible for the evolution of this
civilization called themselves Aryas or Aryarns.
❖ Arya’ literally means the man of ‘noble character’, and the “free-born”. They
belonged to the group of people known as Indo-Europeans. They entered into
India from the north-west.
❖ They spoke the Indo-European languages from which modern languages like
Sanskrit, Persian, Latin, Greek, Celtie, Gothic have developed. Originally, the
Aryans seem to have lived somewhere in the area east of the Alps, known as
Eurasia.
Geographical location of Aryans
❖ The Aryans appeared in India a little earlier than 1500 B.C. The earliest Aryans
settled down in eastern Afghanistan, Punjab, and fringes of Uttar Pradesh. The
Rig-Veda mentioned the names of some rivers of Afghanistan such as the river
Kubha, and the river Indus and its five branches. The earliest settlements of
Aryans were confined to the valleys of the river Sindh and its tributaries and of
the Saraswati and the Drishadvati.
❖ Though they were confined mainly in Punjab, yet their outer settlements reached
to the banks of the Ganga and the Yamuna. They named that region Madhya
Desa. Gradually they occupied the whole of Uttarapatha, the loan between
Himalayas and the Vindhyas and from the western seas to the east were called as
Aryavarta.
The Vedas
❖ The Vedas form the oldest literary works of the Aryans and occupy a very
distinguished place in the history of the world literature.
❖ Vedas have been looked upon as the revealed words of God by millions of Hindus.
In course of many centuries Vedas had grown up and was orally handed down
from generation to generation.
❖ The Vedas were probably authored during 1800 BC and 600 BC. It consists of
three successive classes of literary production.
The Vedas
❖ The Samhitas or Mantras—these are collections of hymns, prayers, charms,
litanies, sacrificial formulas.
❖ The Brahmanas—a kind of Primitive theology and philosophy of Brahmanas.
❖ The Aranyakas and Upanishads—they are partly included in the Brahmanas or
attached thereto and partly exist as separate work. They contain philosophical
meditations of the hermits and ascetics on soul, God, world & man.
(i) The Rigveda Samhita:
• A collection of hymns. It has ten mandalas with a total of 1028 ‘Suktas’
or ‘stutis” for the worship of gods like Indra, Surya, Agni, Yama, Varuna
Ashwini, Usha etc.
(ii) Samaveda Samhita:
• A collection of songs mostly taken from Rig Veda. It contained 1549
stutis. A special class of priests known as “Udgator” were to recite its
hymns.
(iii) Yajur Veda Samhita:
A collection of sacrificial formula. It has 40 mandals. There are two distinct
forms of Yajur Veda namely. “Sukla Yajur Veda” and “Krishna Yajur Veda”.
The “Sukla Yajur Veda” contains the genesis while the “Krishna Yajur Veda”
describes the “Vasya” or the philosophy.
(iv) Atharva Veda Samhita:
A collection of songs and spells. It has twenty mandalas with 731 ‘stutis’. It
deals with magic, hypnotism, enslavement through mantra. It is regarded
on a lower level than the other three Vedas. These four samhitas formed
the basis of four Vedas.
Rig Vedic Polity
❖ The chief was the protector of the tribe or Jana.
❖ However, he did not possess unlimited powers as he had to reckon with the tribal
assemblies.
❖ Sabha, Samiti, Vidhata and Gana were the tribal assemblies. Of these, Vidhata
was the oldest. These assemblies exercised deliberative, military and religious
functions.
❖ The two most important assemblies were Sabha and Samiti. Samiti was general in
nature and less exclusive than Sabha.
❖ There were a few non-monarchical states (ganas), whose head was Ganapati or
Jyestha.
Rig Vedic Society & Social Division
❖ The family was essentially patriarchal and birth of a son was desired.
❖ Rashtra (kingdom) had not come into existence
❖ The word ‘Varna’ is used in the Rig Veda with reference to only the Aryan or Dasa
having, respectively, fair or dark complexion, but never with reference to the
Brahmana or Rajanya (Kshatriya).
❖ Quadruple division of society made its formal appearance only at one place in the
Tenth Mandala of Rig Veda (Purushasukta hymn). The term Shudra is mentioned
for the first time here in the Tenth Mandala of Rig Veda.
❖ The Ashrama system had not developed fully till the Later Vedic Period.
Caste System
❖ In the early Vedic age there was no caste system. Member of same family took to
different arts, crafts and trades. People could change their occupation according
to their needs or talents.
❖ There was hardly any restriction in intermarriage, change of occupation.
❖ There, was no restriction on taking of food cooked by the sudras.
❖ A late hyman of the Rig-Veda known as Purushasukta refers to four castes. But
many scholars reject the theory that caste system existed in Rig Vedic age.
❖ According to them Purushasukta is a late hymen and caste system was never rigid
and hereditary.
Rig Vedic Gods
❖ The early Vedic religion was naturalistic. Evidently, there was neither temples
nor idols.
❖ The mode of prayer was recitation of mantras.
❖ Sacrifice was offered for Praja (children), Pasu (cattle) and Dhana (wealth) and
not for spiritual upliftment or against misery.
Position of Women
❖ Women attended Sabha and Vidhata in Rig Vedic times.
❖ Women held respectable positions in society. They could attend tribal assemblies.
They took part in sacrifices along with their husbands. There are not examples of
child marriage and the marriageable age for girls was 16 to 17 years.
❖ We also get evidence of widow remarriage and practice of Niyoga (levirate) in
which a childless widow would co-habit with her brother-in-law until the birth of
a son.
❖ Monogamy was the established practice. However, polygamy and polyandry were
also known.
Occupation
❖ Agriculture and animal husbandry.
❖ Weaving was also important occupation. We learnt about weavers of wool and
cotton together with the workers in the subsidiary industries of dying and
embroidery.
❖ The carpenters built houses, chariots, wagons and supplied household utensils
and furniture.
❖ Then there were blacksmiths who supplied fine needles and razors to the sickles,
ploughshares, spears and swords.
❖ The gold smiths made ornaments like ear-rings, bangles, necklaces, bands etc.
❖ The leather-workers made bow-strings and casks for holding liquor.
❖ The physicians cured diseases. The priests performed sacrifices and composed
hymns and taught them to the disciples.
Trade and Commerce
❖ There were trade and maritime activity.

❖ There was probably commercial intercourse with Babylon and other countries in
Western Asia.
❖ The principal media of trade was barter. Cow was used as unit of value. Gradually
pieces of gold called “mishka” were used as means of exchange.
❖ Trade and commerce was regulated and managed by a group of people called
“Pani”.
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Vedic Age (1500 BC to 600 BC)

Early Vedic Age (1500 BC to 1000 BC)

❖ There were trade and maritime activity.

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