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Vedic Age
Expansion of Aryans into India
1. The treaty between Hitties and Mitannis dating to 1400 BC refers to Indra, Mitra, Varuna and Nasatya and curiously omits Agni and Soma -
the important gods in Rig Veda.
2. The earliest Aryans livedin the region ofEAfghanistan,NWFP,Punjabandfringes of WUP.AfghanR.Kubah and some other rivers are also
mentioned in Rig Veda. Yamuna is referred to as twin of Ganga and Sutlej was associated with Beas - so neither were tributaries of
Saraswati. They chose Punjab plains because they were now semi arid (due to climate change) and ideal for pastoral activities.
3. The river Saraswati is identified as R. Harakhwati or the present R. Helmand flowing in
Afghanistan.ThenameSaraswatiwastransferedfromheretoIndia.
4. In the Later Vedic Age, they moved to doab region. The 10 tribes battle mentioned in Rigveda talks about some tribes (Agra, Yakshu,
Shigru) which resided in the doab region. The Kurus occupied Delhi and the upper portion of the doab, the Panchala occupied middle
doab.InWUP,theycameupagainstOCPcultures.
5. The Panchala kingdom consisted of modern districts of Barely, Badaun and Farukhabad.
6. Towards the end of later Vedic age, they moved further east into E UP and N Bihar. Here they had to fight people using "black and red"
pottery.
7. We know about this expansion in the later vedic period because the PGW sites excavated show a thickness of 1 to 3 meters indicating a
settlement of 1 to 3 centuries and were not preceded by any habitation.

Economic Life
Early Vedic Age
1. Theyknewaboutagriculture,sowing,threshing,ploughingetc.Butperhapstheyuseditonlytogrowfodderandwereprimarilypastoralists.

Later Vedic Age

1. The importance of agriculture grew so much that even kings didn't hesitate in taking to plough. Eg. Janak and Balram. It was only later that
agriculture came to be banned for higher varnas as its relative importance diminished and urbanization grew.

Politico-admin Life
Early Vedic Age
1. The head of a large pastoral ground was called vrajapati and he led kulapas (head of family) and
graminis(headoffightinghordes)intothebattle.
2. In the beginning, the gramini was just the head of a small tribal fighting unit. But as the unit settled, he became the head of the village and in
course of time, became identical to vrajapati.
3. By and large it was a tribal form of government with strong militaristic elements. The civil character of the administration was missing
because people were constantly moving as pastoral nomads.

Social Life
Evolution of Varna System
1. The term "vaishya" emerges from the vis or the mass of tribal people. Vis was the unit above "gram" and below "jana".
2. The unequal division of war booty (with more going to the chief) and influence of religion / knowledge led to the stratification of the
societyintowarriors,priestsandrest(vis).

Women
1. In vedic age, the widow merely had to do a symbolic self immolation act at the death of her husband and it may have been a sign of status.
Later on this was cited as the origin of sati with some tweaking of the practice in the religious texts.
2. Things had not settled down yet. There are many variants of marriages among pandavas only - endogamy, monogamy, polygamy, polyandry
and cousin marriage (Arjun and Subhadra).

Education
1. The method of grammar and memorization of vedas was not simple and was fine tuned to making the composition almost unalterable
(hymns had to be uttered in the right manner) and thus contributing to the supremacy of brahmans.
2. Education was open to only twice born and the curriculum was such that it was useful only for brahmans. Hence the supremacy of
brahmans.

After Life Philosophy

1. Life after death was envisaged in terms of either punishment (you go to the house of clay) or reward (you go to the world of fathers). The idea of
transmigrationofsoulwasinitiallyvagueandwasdevelopedonlylater.
2. Upanishadsencouragedthephilosophythatsoulswererebornintoalifeofsorroworjoydependingupontheirdeedsinthepreviouslifeandnothing
couldbechangednow.Thiswasthenfittedintothecastehierarchy(highercastemeansgooddeedsandlowercastemeansbaddeeds).Upanishads
alsoencouragedrenunciation.

SacrificesasRitualandSocialExchange
1. Therewereoccasionswhenthebardscomposedeulogiesontheexploitsofthechiefsandwererewardedwithgifts.Graduallyitbecameritualizedwith
hymnsandelaboratesacrificescominguptobestowlegitimacytothekinginexchangeforgifts.Graduallythepriestsbegantoconferdivinityonthe
kingsbytherituals.Sacrificesthusbecameaninstrumentofapowerstrugglebetweenthekingandthepriestwiththepriesteventuallywinning.These
ceremoniesinitiallybegantoenhancethestatusofthekingbutgraduallybecamenecessaryforhimtoclaimanylegitimacy.
2. In these ceremonies he was supposed to donate all his wealth either in the preparation of the sacrifice, or at the end of the sacrifice among the
brahmansandotherpeople(includingcraftsmen)andwhateverremainedhadtobedestroyed.Thisdonationnaturallykeptacheckonthewealthof
the king and hence large states couldn't come up and thus helped in maintaining the supremacy of the brahmans. Further, it was held that such
donationwasawayofearningevenmorewealthandthuslegitimizedtheextractionofevenmorewealthfromthevisbytheking(hencethestatement
theking(laterreplacedbykshatriya)eatsthevis).Onlylateronwhentheagricultureproductionbecamesomuchthatitwasnotpossibletoexhaustthe
wealthinthesacrificethatthekingswereabletoaccumulatewealthandlargekingdomsbegantobefounded.
3. Thissituationledtoareactionofsomekshatriyasagainstthebrahmans.ThusitcomesasnosurprisethatthefoundersofJainismandBuddhismwere

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bothkshatriyasortheideasintheupanishadsquestioningthesacrificesallcamefromkshatriyas.Alsotherepublicswerecontrolledbykshatriyasonly
whodidn'tconfertothebrahmanicaltraditionsandritualsandinturnwerecondemnedbythebrahmans(whochampionedthecauseofmonarchy).
4. Thiswasextendedtoothersaswellandthepatronofthesacrificewasnowsupposedtogiveadakshina.Thestatusofthepatrondependeduponhow
elaboratesacrificesheconductsandhowmuchdakshinahegives.Soonitwasheldthatafractionofthebenefitfromthesacrificealsoaccruestothe
patron.Anykindofmaterialbenefit(likeproperty,sonetc.)hadtobeprayedforandthisfurtherincreasedthepowerofbrahmans.
5. Graduallyevenmorespectacularsacrificeswereevolvedandnowonlythehighercastescouldparticipateinthem.Thussacrificesworkedtoreinforce
thesocietaldivisions.RItualsalsomeantaredistributionofresourcesandthuscontributedtosocialinequalities.
6. Asthesacrificesbegantogrowmoreelaborate,priestshadtospecializeincertainfunctionandthisledtocreationofclassesamongthepriestsaswell.
7. TheworshipofagniandsomawerecentraltoIndianandIranianreligions.Vedicsacrificesalsoproducedtheknowledgeofmathematicsandanatomy.
Alsotheincreasedimportanceofagnimeantthatinsteadofburials,deadbegantobecremated.
8. Thedasaswereridiculedinthevedasfornotpracticingritualsandinsteadpracticingfertilitycults.Thegrowingcomplexitiesandexclusionsoftherituals
finallyledtoalternatephilosophiesandsects.

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