Vedic Period -1 (History) - UPSC MCQ

• All statements are correct

Aryan Culture

• Texts for Traits of Aryan Culture: The principal traits of Aryan culture are set out by Vedic, Iranian, and Greek literary texts and cognate terms found in the protoIndo-European languages. The Rig Veda is assigned to roughly 1500 BC, although the later additions might be as late as 1000 BC. The earliest parts of the Zend-Avesta are roughly attributed to 1400 BC.
• The Horse, its Domestication and Diffusion : The horse is regarded as an indispensable trait of the Aryan culture, for it plays a crucial role in the life of the early IndoEuropeans. In its various forms, the term asva (horse) occurs 215 times in the Rig Veda; no other animal is mentioned so frequently. The Indo-Europeans widely used horse-drawn chariots. Aryans succeeded everywhere because they possessed chariot driven by horses & possibly with coats of mail & better armory. They also introduced these things for the 1st time in west Asia & India.
• The pit-dwelling can also be associated with the Aryan culture, and may have originated in cold conditions.
• The practice of pit-dwelling prevailed in Burzahom near Srinagar in Kashmir and also in Haryana. This may be due to the Central Asian influence on the borders of Kashmir.
• Cremation developed as an Aryan trait. Its practice is supported by the Vedic, Avestan, and Homeric texts.
• Animal sacrifice was an important Aryan ritual. However, given its almost universal practice among pastoral tribal people, it is difficult to make much of it. Animal sacrifice may have prevailed among many tribal peoples, but the horse sacrifice was typical of the Indo-Europeans, particularly of the Vedic people.
• Though two hymns are devoted to the horse sacrifice in the tenth book of the Rig Veda, the later Vedic texts transform the sacrifice into asvamedha. Animals may have been sacrificed in pre-Vedic times in the subcontinent, but despite cut marks found on the bones, it cannot be said that the horses were killed for religious purposes.

Cattle Rearing and Agriculture :
1. Agriculture was well known to pre Aryans & ploughshare is 1st mentioned in early part of Rig Veda but agriculture was perhaps used to produce fodder only.
2. However, there are so many references to the cow and the bull in the Rig Veda that the Rig Vedic people can be called a predominantly pastoral people.
3. Most of the wars were fought for the sake of cows as the term for war in Rig Veda is Gavishthi i.e. search for cows (Hence cows seems to have been most important wealth).
4. The Rig Vedic people may have occasionally occupied pieces of land for grazing, cultivation, and settlement, but land did not form a well-established type of private property.
Social Differentiation :
1. The factor that contributed most to the creation of social divisions was the conquest of the indigenous inhabitants by the Indo-Aryans.
2. The dasas and the dasyus, who were conquered by the Aryans, were treated as slaves and shudras. The Rig Veda mentions the arya Varna and dasa Varna (Varna was the term used for colour).
3. Unequal distribution of the spoils of war created social inequalities, and this aided the rise of princes and priests at the cost of the common tribal people.
4. However as the economy was mainly pastoral and not food producing, the scope for collecting regular tributes from the people was very limited.
5. The tribal elements in society were stronger and social divisions based on the collection of taxes or accumulation of landed property did not exist, and thus the society was still tribal and egalitarian.

The Earliest Tribal Assembly – Vidhata
Vidatha appears for 122 times in the Rig-Veda and seems to be the most important assembly in the Rig Vedic period. Vidatha was an assembly meant for secular, religious and military purpose.

• The Purus were a clan, or a confederation of clans, mentioned many times in the Rigveda. RV 7.96.2 locates them at the banks of the Sarasvati River. There were several factions of Purus, one being the Bharatas. Purus rallied many other groups against King Sudas of the Bharata, but were defeated in the Battle of the Ten Kings (RV 7.18, etc.). One of the major tribal confederations in the Rigveda.
• The Tritsus are a sub-group of the Puru who are distinct from the Bharatas mentioned in Mandala 7 of the Rigveda (in hymns 18, 33 and 83). Under king Sudas they defeated the confederation of ten kings with the help of the Bharatas at the Battle of the Ten Kings.

The Rig Vedic and Avestan languages are essentially the same, with very minor differences in grammar. They share a common vocabulary in the fields of mythology, ritual, culture, and religious practices.

During the vedic civilization, Aryans developed Rigveda, which describes about the” Sapta Sindhu ” the seven rivers of NW India , traced from east to west as Sarasvati, Satadru (Sutlej), Vipasa (Beas), Parosni (Ravi) , Asikni (Chenab) Vitasta (Jhelum) and Sindhu (Indus).

Certain checks existed on the powers of the king. For example, all the textbooks on statecraft recommended that the king should listen to the counsel of his ministers. The public opinion was another effective check on the authority of the king.

• The early Vedic period was therefore characterized by women's glorious role in education.
• In early Vedic family affairs, women who enjoyed both their autonomy and their role as wives were considered to be ardhangini (better half) and sahadharmini (equal partner). There was no sati system or early marriage.
• But from enjoying free and esteemed positions in the Rig-Vedic society, women started being discriminated against since the Later-Vedic period in education and other rights and facilities.
• Self-immolation refers to the ascetic practice in Buddhism of voluntarily terminating one's own life or offering parts of one's own body usually by setting oneself ablaze.

The Brahmanas, it is well known, form our chief, if not our only, source of information regarding one of the most important periods in the social and mental development of India.
They represent the intellectual activity of a sacerdotal caste which, by turning to account the religious instincts of a gifted and naturally devout race, had succeeded in transforming a primitive worship of the powers of nature into a highly artificial system of sacrificial ceremonies, and was ever intent on deepening and extending its hold on the minds of the people, by surrounding its own vocation with the halo of sanctity and divine inspiration.

• The most important source is the Vedas. Veda means "knowledge". The Vedas are neither any individual religious work nor a collection of definite number of books compiled at a particular time.
• The Vedic literature had grown in the course of many centuries and was handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. It consists of three successive classes of literary creations. Some of these still exist, but many have been completely lost forever.

The hymns of the Vedas are attributed to rishis, pious Hindus have always laid stress upon their divine origin. Thus, the Vedas are called apaurusheya (not created by man) and nitya (existing in all eternity) while the rishis are known as inspired seers who received the mantras from the Supreme deity.

The Vedas : A collection of hymns, prayers, charms, litanies and sacrificial formulae. There are four Vedas, namely:
RigVeda - A collection of hymns
Samveda - A collection of songs mostly taken from Rig Veda
Yajurveda - A collection of sacrificial formulae
Atharvaveda - A collection of spells and charms
The Vedas formed the earliest segment of Vedic literature and amongst the Vedas, RigVeda is the oldest.

The political structure of RigVedic India may be traced in the following ascending order :
The Family (kula)
The Village (grama)
The Clan (vis) The People Uana)
The Country (rashtra)

• The Brahmanas are primarily a digest incorporating myths, legends, and the exposition of rituals in the Vedas and in some cases philosophy. Each Vedic shakha (school) has its own Brahmana, many of which have been lost.
• A total of 19 Brahmanas are extant at least in their entirety: two associated with the Rigveda, six with the Yajurveda, ten with the Samaveda and one with the Atharvaveda. Additionally, there are a handful of fragmentarily preserved texts. They vary greatly in length; the edition of the Shatapatha Brahmana fills five volumes of the Sacred Books of the East.

• From the names of rivers, mountains and regions mentioned in RigVeda we have a clear idea of the geographical area in which RigVedic people, who called themselves Aryans, lived. The Nadisukta hymn of the Rig Veda mentions 21 rivers which include the Ganga in the east and the Kubha (Kabul) in the west.
• All rivers like the Yamuna, Saraswati, Sutlej, Ravi , Jhelum and Indus located between the Ganga and Kabul rivers are mentioned not arbitrarily but serially beginning from the east i.e. Ganga to the west i.e. Kubha.
• In the north, the RigVeda mentions the Himalayas and Mujavant mountains. It also mentions ocean (samudra) in connection with rivers Sindhu and Saraswati falling into ocean. The ocean is also mentioned in the context of foreign trade.
• The RigVedic geography, therefore, covers present-day western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, whole of Pakistan and south Afghanistan.