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Main article: Vedic Civilisation See also: Vedas and Indo-Aryans A map of North India in the late Vedic period. The Vedic period is characterised by Indo-Aryan culture associated with the texts of Vedas, sacred to Hindus, which were orally composed in Vedic Sanskrit. The Vedas are some of the oldest extant texts in India[26] and next to some writings in Egypt and Mesopotamia are the oldest in the world. The Vedic period lasted from about 1500 to 900 BCE,[27] laying the foundations of Hinduism and other cultural aspects of early Indian society. In terms of culture, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age in this period.[28] Vedic society[edit] Historians have analysed the Vedas to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain.[28] Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west.[29][30] Vedic people believed in the transmigration of the soul, and the peepul tree and cow were sanctified by the time of the Atharva Veda.[31] Many of the concepts of Indian philosophy espoused later like Dharma, Karma etc. trace their root to the Vedas.[32] The swastika is a major element of Hindu iconography. Early Vedic society consisted of largely pastoral groups, distinct to Harappan urbanisation having been abandoned.[33] After the time of the Rigveda, Aryan society became increasingly agricultural and was socially organised around the four varnas, or social classes. In addition to the Vedas, the principal texts of Hinduism, the core themes of the Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata are said to have their ultimate origins during this period.[34] The Mahabharata remains, today, the longest single poem in the world.[35] The events of Mahabharata happened in a later period than Ramayana. In fact, there are references of Ramayana in Mahabharata.[36] The early Indo-Aryan presence probably corresponds, in part, to the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture in archaeological contexts.[37] Sanskritization[edit] Main article: Sanskritization Since Vedic times, "people from many strata of society throughout the subcontinent tended to adapt their religious and social life to Brahmanic norms", a process sometimes called Sanskritization.[38] It is reflected in the tendency to identify local deities with the gods of the Sanskrit texts.[38] The Kuru kingdom[39] corresponds to the Black and Red Ware and Painted Grey Ware cultures and to the beginning of the Iron Age in northwestern India, around 1000 BCE, as well as with the composition of the Atharvaveda, the first Indian text to mention iron, as śyāma ayas, literally "black metal." The Painted Grey Ware culture spanned much of northern India from about 1100 to 600 BCE.[37] The Vedic Period also established republics such as Vaishali, which existed as early as the 6th century BCE and persisted in some areas until the 4th century CE. The later part of this period corresponds with an increasing movement away from the previous tribal system towards the establishment of kingdoms, called mahajanapadas. |
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