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The Aryans and the Vedic Civilisation - Part 1
1.0 Introduction
The people of the Indian sub-continent have always speculated, debated and wondered about the exact events that took place thousands of years ago, that brought (or did they) the so-called ‘Aryans’ to this region.
The people of the Indian sub-continent have always speculated, debated and wondered about the exact events that took place thousands of years ago, that brought (or did they) the so-called ‘Aryans’ to this region.
Aryans spoke the Indo-European languages, which are current in changed forms all over Europe, Iran and the greater part of the Indian subcontinent. Originally the Aryans seem to have lived somewhere in the Steppes (grasslands), stretching from Southern Russia to Central Asia. Certain names of animals such as goats, dogs, horses, etc., and names of certain plants such as pine, maple, etc., are similar to one another in all the Indo-European languages. These common words indicate the fauna and flora of EurAsia. They show that the Aryans were acquainted with rivers and forests. Curiously enough, common words for mountains exist only in a few Aryan languages although the Aryans crossed many hills. Their earliest life seems to have been mainly pastoral, agriculture being a secondary occupation. The Aryans did not lead a settled life, with the result that they could not leave behind any solid material remains. Although the Aryans used several animals, the horse played the most significant role in their life. Its swiftness enabled them and some allied peoples to make successful inroads into West Asia from about 2000 B.C. onwards.
2.0 Original Home and Identity
On their way to India, the Aryans first appeared in areas where the Indo-Iranians lived for a long time. We know about the Aryans in India from the Rig Veda, which is the earliest specimen of the Indo-European languages. It is a collection of prayers offered to Agni, Indra, Mitra, Varuna and other gods by various families of poets or sages. It consists of ten mandalas or books, of which Books II to VII form its earliest portions. Books I and X seem to have been later additions. The Rig Veda has many things in common with the Zend Avesta, which is the oldest text in the Iranian language. The two texts use the same names for several gods and even for social classes. Some Aryan names mentioned in the Kassite inscriptions of about 1600 B.C. and the Mitanni inscriptions of the fourteenth century B.C. found in Iraq suggest that from Iran a branch of the Aryans moved towards the west.
A little earlier than 1500 B.C. the Aryans appeared in India. There are no clear and definite archaeological traces of their advent. Possibly they used socketed axes, bronze dirks and swords, which have been discovered in North-Western India. The earliest Aryans lived in the geographical area covered by eastern Afghanistan, Punjab and fringes of Western Uttar Pradesh. Some rivers of Afghanistan such as the river Kubha, and the river Indus and its five branches are mentioned in the Rig Veda. The Bindhu, identical with the Indus, is the river par excellence of the Aryans, and is repeatedly mentioned
Another river mentioned is the Sarasvati, now lost in the sands of Rajasthan; the area represented by it is covered by the Ghaggar river. Possibly the Aryans obtained copper from the Khetri mines of Rajasthan. The whole region in which the Aryans first settled in India is called the Land of the Seven Rivers.
The Aryans came to India in several waves. The earliest wave is represented by the Rig Vedic people; who appeared in the subcontinent in about 1500 B.C. They came into conflict with the indigenous inhabitants called the dasas, dasyus, etc. Since the dasas are also mentioned in the ancient Iranian literature, they seem to have been a branch of the early Aryans. The Rig Veda mentions the defeat of Sambara by a chief called Divodasa, who belonged to the Bharata clan. In this case the term dasa appears in the name Divodasa. Possibly the dasyus in the Rig Veda represent the original inhabitants of the country, and an Aryan chief who overpowered them was called Trasadasyu. The Aryan chief was soft towards the dasas, but strongly hostile to the dasyus. The term dasyuhatya, slaughter of the dasyus is repeatedly mentioned in the Rig Veda. The dasyus possibly worshipped the phallus and did not keep cattle for dairy products.
2.1 Tribal conflicts
We know little about the weapons of the adversaries of the Aryan peoples, although we hear of many defeats inflicted by India on the enemies of the Aryans. In the Rig Veda, Indra is called Purandara which means that he was ‘the breaker of forts’. But we cannot identify the forts held by the pre-Aryans; some of them may have been late Harappan settlements. The Aryans succeeded everywhere because they possessed chariots driven by horses and introduced them for the first time into West Asia and India. The Aryan soldiers were probably equipped also with coats of mail (varman) and better arms.
The Aryans were engaged in two types of conflicts - first they fought with the pre-aryans and secondly, they fought amongst themselves. Intra-tribal conflicts rocked the Aryan communities for a long time. Divided into five tribes called PanchaJana, the Aryans fought amongst themselves and sometimes enlisted the support of the non-Aryan peoples for the purpose. The Bharatas and the Tritsu were the ruling Aryan clans, and they were supported by priest Vasishtha. The country Bharatavarsha was eventually named after the tribe Bharata, which appears first in the Rig Veda. The Bharata ruling clan was opposed by a host of ten chiefs, five of whom were heads of Aryan tribes and the remaining five of non-Aryan peoples. The battle that was fought between the Bharatas on the one hand and the host of ten chiefs on the other is known as the Battle of Ten Kings. This battle was fought on the River Parushriri, identical with the River Ravi, and it gave victory to Sudas and established the supremacy of the Bharatas. Of the defeated tribes, the most important was that of the Purus. Subsequently the Bharatas joined hands with the Purus and formed a new ruling tribe called the Kurus. The Kurus combined with the Panchalas, and they together established their rule in the upper Gangetic basin where they played an important part in later Vedic times.
3.0 Material Life
We can form some idea of the material life of the Rig Vedic Aryans. They owed their success in India to their use of horses, chariots and also possibly some better arms made of bronze of which we have very little archaeological evidence. When they settled in the western part of the subcontinent, they possibly used copper supplied by the Khetri mines in Rajasthan. The Rig Vedic people possessed better knowledge of agriculture. The ploughshare is mentioned in the earliest part of the Rig Veda though some consider it an interpolation. Possibly this ploughshare was made of wood. They were acquainted with sowing, harvesting and threshing, and knew about the different seasons. Agriculture was also well known to the pre-Aryans who lived in the area associated with the Vedic people.
In spite of all this, there are so many references to the cow in the Rig Veda, that it seems the Rig Vedic Aryans were dominantly a pastoral people. Most of their wars were fought for the sake of cows. The term for war in the Rig Veda is gavishthi or search for cows. The cow seems to have been the most important form of wealth. Whenever we hear of gifts made to priests they usually consist of cows and women slaves and never of land. 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
The Rig Veda mentions such artisans as the carpenter, the chariot-maker, the weaver, the leather worker, the potter, etc. This indicates that they practised all these crafts. The term ayas used for copper or bronze shows that metal-working was known. But we have no clear evidence of the existence of trade. It is doubtful whether the Aryans or the Vedic people were acquainted with sea or ocean, because the word samudra mentioned in the Rig Veda mainly denotes a collection of water. At any rate the Aryans did not live in cities; possibly they lived in some kind of fortified mud settlements which still wait to be identified satisfactorily by the archaeologists.
Recently a site called Bhagwanpura has been excavated in Haryana and three sites in Punjab, and in all these cases Painted Grey Ware has been found along with 'late Harappan' pottery. The date assigned to the Bhagwanpura finds ranges from 1600 B.C. to 1000 B.C., which is also roughly the period of the Rig Veda. The geographical area of these four sites also coincides with that of a good portion of the area represented by the Rig Veda. Although Painted Grey Ware has been found at all these sites, iron objects and cereals are absent. We may, therefore, think of a pre-iron phase of the PGW which coincided with the Rig Vedic phase. It is interesting to note that at Bhagwanpura a thirteen-roomed mud house has been discovered. This might indicate either a house for a large extended family or for a tribal chief. Cattle bones have been found in good quantity in all these sites.
4.0 Tribal Polity
The administrative machinery of the Aryans in the Rig Vedic period worked with the tribal chief in the centre, because of his successful leadership in war. He was called rajan. It seems that in the Rig Vedic period the king's post had become hereditary. However, the chief or the king did not exercise unlimited power, for he had to reckon with the tribal organizations. We have traces of election of the King by the tribal assembly called the samiti. The king was called the protector of his tribe. He protected its cattle, fought its wars and offered prayers to gods on its behalf.
Several tribal or the clan-based assemblies such as the sabha, samiti, vidacha, gana are mentioned in the Rig Veda. They exercised deliberative, military and religious functions. Even women attended the sabha and vidacha in Rig Vedic times. But the two most important assemblies were the sabha and the samiti. These two were so important that the chiefs or the kings showed eagerness to win their support.
In the day-to-day administration, the king was assisted by a few functionaries. The most important functionary seems to have been the purohita. The two priests who played a major part in the time of Rig Veda are Vasishtha and Vishvamitra. They inspired the tribal chiefs to action and lauded their exploits in return for handsome rewards in cows and women slaves. The next important functionary seems to be the senani, who used spears, axes, swords, etc. We do not come across any officer concerned with the collection of taxes. Probably the chiefs received from the people voluntary offerings called bali. Presents and spoils of war were perhaps distributed in some Vedic assemblies. The Rig Veda does not mention any officer for administering justice. But it was not an ideal society. There were cases of theft and burglary, and especially we hear of the theft of cows. Spies were employed to keep an eye on such unsocial activities. The titles of the officials do not indicate their administration of territory. However, some officers seem to have been attached to territories. They enjoyed positions of authority in the pasture grounds and settled villages. The officer who enjoyed authority over the pasture ground is called vrajapali. He led the heads of the families called kulapas, or the heads of the fighting hordes called gramanis to battle. In the beginning, the gramani was just the head of a small tribal fighting unit. But when the unit settled, the gramani became the head of the village, and in course of time he became identical with the vrajapati.
The king did not maintain any regular or standing army, but in times of war he mustered a militia whose military functions were performed by different tribal groups called vrata, gana, grama, and sardha. By and large it was a tribal system of government in which the military element was strong. There was no civil system or territorial administration because people were in a stage of perpetual expansion, migrating from one area to another.
4.1 Tribe and family
Kinship was 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 several Rig Vedic kings. People gave their primary loyalty to the tribe, which was called Jana. The term Jana occurs at about 275 places in the Rig Veda, and the term Janapada or territory is not used even once. The people were attached to the tribe, since the territory or the kingdom was not yet established.
Another important term which stands for the tribe in the Rig Veda is vis; it is mentioned 170 times in that text. Probably the vis was divided into grama or smaller tribal unit meant for fighting. When the gramas clashed with one another it caused samgrama or war. The most numerous varna of Vaishya arose out of the vis or the mass of the tribal people.
The term for family (kula) is mentioned rarely in the Rig Veda. It comprised not only mother, father, sons, slaves, etc., but many more people also. It seems that family in early Vedic phase was indicated by the term griha, which frequently occurs in this text. In the earliest Indo-European languages one word is used for nephew, grandson, cousin, etc. This would mean that differentiation in family relationships leading to the setting up of separate households had not proceeded far, and the family was a very large joint unit. It was obviously a patriarchal family headed by the father as was the case in the Roman society. It seems that several generations of the family lived under the same roof. Because it was a patriarchal society, the birth of a son was desired again and again, and especially people prayed to the gods for brave sons to fight the wars. In the Rig Veda no desire is expressed for daughters, though the desire for children and cattle is a recurrent theme in the hymns.
Women could attend assemblies. They could offer sacrifices along with their husbands. We have an instance of five women who composed hymns although the later texts mention twenty such women. Obviously the hymns were composed orally, and nothing written belongs to that period.
The institution of marriage was established, although symbols of primitive practices survived. We hear of a proposal made by Yami, the twin-sister of Yama, for establishing love relations, but the offer is resisted by Yama. We have some indications of polyandry. For instance, the Maruts are stated to have enjoyed Rodasi, and the two Ashvin brothers are represented as living with Surya, the daughter of the sun god. But such instances are not too many. Possibly they indicate matrilineal traces, and we have a few examples of sons being named after their mother, as in the case of Mamateya.
We also notice the practice of levirate (a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obliged to marry his brother's widow) and widow remarriage in the Rig Veda. There are no examples of child-marriage, and the marriageable age in the Reg Veda seems to have been 16 to 17.
4.2 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 the Aryans were fair and the indigenous inhabitants dark in complexion. Colour may have provided the identity mark for social order but its importance has been exaggerated by those Western writers who belive in racial distinctions. The factor which contributed most to the creation of social division was the conquest of the indigenous inhabitants by the Aryans. The dasas and the dasyus, who were conquered by the Aryans, were treated as slaves and shudras. The tribal chiefs and the priests acquired a larger share of the booty and they naturally grew at the cost of the common people, which created social inequalities in the tribe. Gradually the tribal society was divided into three groups - warriors, priests and the people - on the same pattern as in Iran. The fourth division called the shudras appeared towards the end of the Rig Vedic period, because it is mentioned for the first time in the tenth Book of the Rig Veda, which is the latest addition.
We repeatedly hear of slaves who were given as gifts to the priests. They were mainly women slaves employed for domestic purpose. It is clear that in Rig Vedic times slaves were not used directly in agriculture or other producing activities.
In the age of the Rig Veda divisions based on occupation had started. But this division was not very sharp. We hear of a family in which a member says: "I am a poet, my father is a physican and my mother is a grinder. Earning livelihood through different means we live together…" We hear of gifts of cattle, chariots, horses, slaves, etc. Unequal distribution of the spoils of war created social inequalities, and this helped the rise of princes and priests at the cost of the common tribal people. But since economy was mainly pastoral and not food-producing, the scope for collecting regular tributes from the people was very limited. We do not find gifts of land and even those of cereals are rare. We find domestic slaves, but not the wage-earners. Tribal elements in society were stronger and special divisions based on collection of taxes or accumulation of landed property was absent. The society was still tribal and largely egalitarian.
4.3 Rig Vedic Gods
Every people discovers its religion in its surroundings. The Aryans found it difficult to explain the advent of rains, the appearance of the sun and the moon, and the existence of the rivers, mountains, etc. So they personifled these natural forces and looked upon them as living beings to whom they gave human or animal attributes. We have a large number of such divinities in the Rig Veda, which is full of hymns composed in their honour by the poets of various families. The most important divinity in the Rig Veda is Indra, who is called Purandara or breaker of forts. Indra played the role of a warlord, leading the Aryan soldiers to victory against the demons. Two hundred and fifty hymns are devoted to him. He is considered to be the rain god and thought to be responsible for causing rainfall. The second position is held by Agni (fire god) to whom 200 hymns are devoted. Fire played a significant part in the life of primitive people because of its use in burning forests, cooking, etc. The cult of fire occupied a central place not only in India but also in Iran. In Vedic times Agni acted as a kind of intermediary between the gods on the one hand, and the people on the other. The oblations offered to Agni were supposed to be carried in the form of smoke to the sky, and thus transmitted to the gods.
The third important position is occupied by Varuna who personified water. Varuna was supposed to uphold the natural order, and whatever happened in the world was thought to be the reflection of his desires. Soma was considered to be the god of plants, and an intoxicating drink is named after him. The Rig Veda has a large number of hymns, which explain the methods for preparation of this drink from plants that have not been satisfactorily identified so far. The Maruts personify the storm. Thus we have a large number of gods, who represent the different forces of nature in one form or another, but are also assigned human activities.
We also find some female divinities such as Aditi, and Ushas who represented the appearance of the dawn. But they were not prominent in the time of the Rig Veda; in the patriarchal set-up of the period the male gods were far more important than the female.
The dominant mode of worshipping the gods was through the recitation of prayers and offering of sacrifices. Prayers played an important part in Rig Vedic times. Both collective and individual prayers were made. Originally every tribe or clan was the votary of a special god. It seems that prayers were offered to gods in chorus by the members of a whole tribe. This also happened in the case of sacrifices. Agni and Indra were invited to partake of sacrifices made by the whole tribe (Jana). 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. At this stage the magical power of the word was not considered so important as it came to be in later Vedic times. Why did people worship gods in time of the Rig Veda? They did not worship gods for their spiritual uplift or for ending the miseries of existence. It seems they asked mainly for praja (children), pashk (cattle), food, wealth, health, etc. This is perfectly understandable!
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