7. The Early Vedic Period

Original Home and Identity

• The Aryans spoke the Indo-European languages, and are believed to have lived somewhere in the area east of the Alps in the region known as Eurasia.
• Their earliest life seems to have been pastoral, agriculture being a secondary occupation and didn't lead a settled life, and although they used several animals, the horse played a crucial role as its swiftness enabled them and some allied peoples to make successful inroads into Western Asia about 2000 B.C.
• On their way to India the Aryans first appeared in Iran, where they lived for a long time. The Rig Veda is the book about Aryans in India which is similar to the oldest text in Iranian language, Avesta.
• They arrived in India a little earlier than 1500 B.C., and settled in Eastern Afghanistan, Punjab and fringes of western UP.
• Possibly they used socketed axes, bronze dirks and swords. Some rivers of Afghanistan such as Kubha, the river Indus and its 5 branches are all mentioned in Rig Veda. The whole region in which they settled is called the land of Seven Rivers.
• They came to India in several waves and came in conflict with the local inhabitants called the dasas, dasyus etc. The Aryan chief was soft towards dasas but hostile to dasyus as the term Dasyuhatya is repeatedly mentioned in the Rig Veda.

 

Tribal Conflicts

• The Aryans were involved in 2 types of conflicts: first, they fought with the Pre-Aryans and secondly, they fought among themselves.
• Divided into 5 tribes called panchajana, with Bharatas and Tritsu the ruling Aryan clans. There is a mention of battle between the Bharatas on one hand and the other 10 kings on the other known as the Battle of Ten Kings fought on the river Purashni (same as Ravi).
• The Sudas won establishing the supremacy of the Bharatas, later the Bharatas joined hands with the defeated Purus and formed a new ruling tribe called Kurus, who combined with the Panchalas ruled the upper Gangetic basin where they played an important part in later Vedic times.

 

Material Life

• The Rig Vedic people possessed better knowledge of agriculture, used wooden ploughshare and were acquainted with sowing, harvesting and threshing and knew about the different seasons.
• The cow seems to have been the most important form of wealth, even wars were fought for the sake of cows. They occupied pieces of land but it didn't form an well established type of private property.
• The Rig Veda mentions such artisans such as the carpenter, the chariot-maker, the weaver, the leather maker, the potter etc. But it is doubtful whether they were acquainted with oceans or seas or trade.
• At any rate they didn't live in cities, possibly they lived in some kind of fortified mud settlements which still awaits to be identified.
• Recently at Bhagwanpura in Haryana, the late Harappan period pottery of Painted Grey Ware is found which coincided with the Rig Vedic phase and also a 13 roomed mud house along with cattle bones.

 

Tribal Polity

• The tribal chief was called rajan, a hereditary post, there were several tribal assemblies such as sabha, samiti, vidhata, gana etc.
• The king was assisted by a few functionaries known as purohit and war was fought by the senani who used spears, axes, swords etc.
• The officer who enjoyed authority over the pasture ground is called vrajapati and led the heads of families called kulpas, or the heads of the fighting hordes called gramanis, to battle.
• It was a tribal system of govt. With a strong military and no civil system or territorial administration because people were in a stage of perpetual expansion, migrating from one area to another.

Tribe and Family

• Kinship is the basis of social structure, and a man was identified by the clan to which he belonged as can be seen in the names of Rig Vedic kings.
• In early Vedic times, the term used for family was indicated by griha which was a large joint unit obviously patriarchal headed by the father and the birth of the son was desired.
• The institutions of marriage was established, although symbols of primitive practices survived and there were some cases of polyandry too.
• There practice levirate and widow remarriage and there were no child marriages as the marriageable age in Rig Veda seems to have been 16-17.

 

Social Divisions

• The Rig Veda shows some consciousness of the physical appearance of people in north-western India in about 1500-1000 B.C.
• Varna was the term used for colour and it seems that Aryans were fair and indigenous inhabitants dark in complexion. This discrimination may have partially given rise to social orders.
• Gradually the tribal society was divided into 3 groups- warriors, priests and the people on the same pattern as Iran, the fourth division called Sudra appeared towards the end of the Rig Vedic period.
• Since the economy was mainly pastoral, tribal elements in society were stronger and social divisions based on collection of taxes or accumulation of landed property was absent.
• The Society was still tribal and egalitarian.

 

Rig Vedic Gods

• Every people discovers its religion in its own surroundings. The Aryans found it difficult to explain the advent of rains, the sun or the moon etc. So they personified these natural forces and looked upon them as living beings to whom they gave human or animal attributes.
• Most important was Indra- the god of rain and have 250 hymns devoted to him in Rig Veda. Then was Agni(fire god) to him 200 hymns were devoted.
• In Vedic times Agni acted as an intermediary between the gods and the people as the oblations offered in Agni were carried to the Gods in the form of smoke to the sky.
• Varuna personified water who was supposed to uphold the natural order and whatever happens in the world was thought to be the reflections of his desire.
• There are also some female divinities such as Aditi and the Ushas who represented the appearance of the dawn but they were not prominent in the time of the Rig Veda.
• The dominant form of worshipping the gods was through the recitation of prayers and offering of sacrifices. Offerings of vegetables, barley etc. Were made to gods.
• But in Rig Vedic times the process was not accompanied by any ritual or sacrificial formulae. They just worshipped gods for their spiritual uplift or for ending the miseries of existence. They asked only for praja, pasu, food, wealth, health etc.