Early Vedic period (1500 BC – 1000 BC)
Iron Discovered in this period, so this period is also known as “Iron Age”
The Aryans started invading India from 1700 BC first settled in Punjab and later spread to eastern part of India, the early life of Aryans was patriarchal; agriculture was secondary occupation which played an important role in their lives.
Early Vedic period (1500 BC – 1000BC)
- Vedic literature (Rig Veda)
Early vedic period - Polity
- Society
- Economy
- Religion
- Other aspects of this Period
The word ved means knowledge. There are 4 vedas
Rig Veda (Early one)
- Collection of 1028 Hymns mostly prayers to God, used at the time of performing prayers and scarifies to gods
- The book has been divided into 10 chapters called as mandalas, of these chapters 2-7 are old and 1, 8, 9, 10 are NEW
- Rig Veda has many things in common with “Zend Avesta(Persian Book)”
- Ten mandals are highly important from the examination point of view. And have been asked in previous prelims papers.
Political organization
In the above diagram everything regarding the political organizations was clearly explained. The green and underlined termed are highly important from exam point of view and this diagram also makes you clear to remember and understand.
- The society was divided called as Tribe or janas, contains many no.of villages and the head of village is called “Gramani”
- Villages clusters(groups) are called as Vis and the head of the group are called as Vishpati
- The kings powers controlled by councils “sabha and Samithi”
- King is assisted by Senanai(commander in Chief) and purohitas(to take decisions on important matters)
- The kings primary duty is to protect the cows of the tribes. As the cow is the main economy aspect of that time, many battles were fought to gain over the control of “COWS” The cow has much importance at that time
Society and social organization
The golden period of Indian history. The primary unit of the society is family which was also called as“Kula”, patriarchal family structure was prevalent (patriarchal : male the Head of the Family) and the head of the family is called by the term “Grihapati”.
Women has equal status to men as they were allowed to educate and develop in intellectual and other aspects, no child marriages and even no Sati system (Burning of women alive along with Husband dead body in the funeral).
Society was classified based on the profession not religion as
- Brahmins: Who are engaged in teaching and Preaching
- Kshatriyas: Rulers and Administrators
- Vaishyas: Practices Agriculture
- Shudras: Any Professions
Economy:
The important economic aspect of this period is the “COW”, all the battles that were fought was for getting control over the Cows, this is referred to as “gavisthi” and the terms relating to cow are Gau– Cow, Goptai-Protector of Cows or Rajan, Godhuli –measure of time, Gavyuti – measure of Distance
Secondary occupation was agriculture. Barter System(Exchange system of goods and service) was prevalent at this time
Religion
Rig vedic people believed in nature worship like fire, water etc, and not in erecting temples or idol worship, they performed yajnas in open areas.
Soma was considered to be the god of plants and an intoxicating drink was named after him.
The 9th mandala of rigveda, i.e., soma mandala is attributed to soma.
As we see in rigveda reference of many gods were made, agni, indra, soma and many others
Other Significant aspects of this period
Aryans have the knowledge of the Indian rivers as we see the names of the rivers are mentioned in their literature as follows
| S. No | Rig vedic Names of Rivers | Present Names |
| 1 | Sindhu | Indus |
| 2 | Vitasta | Jhelum |
| 3 | Askini | Chenab |
| 4 | Parushni | Ravi |
| 5 | Vipas | Beas |
| 6 | Sutlej | Sutudri |
| 7 | Gomati | Gomai |
| 8 | Krumu | Kurram |
| 9 | Ghaggar | Drishadvati |
| 10 | Suvastu | Swati |
| 11 | Kubha | Kabul |
| 12 | Naditara | Saraswathi |
| 13 | Sadanira | Gandak |
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