SOURCE: IGNOU
• The Rigveda is considered to be earliest
collection of hymns available, and so, we shall start by examining the Rigveda
for an understanding of the Early Vedic period.
• Rigveda are compared with the contents of Later
Vedas and allied texts, it becomes clear that significant changes took place in
the Vedic society itself. This means that there was no fixed cultural pattern
which can be called Vedic culture or Aryan culture.
• The concept of an "Aryan", as stated before, cannot be equated with any
particular type of pottery. It also does not have any ethnic or racial
significance. The 'Aryan' is, therefore, at best a vague concept, related to
linguistic similarities between people.
ECONOMY:
• The Early Vedic society was pastoral, cattle
rearing being the dominant occupational activity.
• A pastoral society relies more on its animal
wealth than agricultural produce.
• Cattle was the chief measure of wealth and a
wealthy man who owned many cattle was called 'gomat'.
• A daughter is called duhitr or one who milks
the cows.
• Kinship units are labelled as gotra.
• The terms used for conflicts and battles in this
period were gavishti, gavesana, gavyat, etc.
• The former literally means 'to search for cows'.
• The Panis, who. were the enemies of the
Vedic people, are stated in the Rigveda to have hidden their wealth, mostly
cows, in the mountains and forests.
• The Vedic god Indra was invoked to release these
cattle. This reference suggests that cattle raids were common. The raja or the
chief is called the 'gopati' or one who protects cows.
• In the Rigveda, Godhuli is used as a term
for a measure of time. Distance is called gavyuti.
• Compared to the very substantial linguistic
evidence for cattle rearing in the Rigveda, agricultural activities find very
few references. Most of the references to agriculture are of a later date.
Apart from 'Yava' or barley, no other grains are mentioned.
• The Early Vedic people did not use iron
technology.
• Copper, with which they were familiar, did not
have as much value in agricultural operations as iron implements.
• Fire was used to burn down the forest cover and shifting agriculture was practised.
• The evidence of pastoralism as well as shifting
cultivation suggests that the people were either nomadic or semi-nomadic.
• There was no concept of private property based on
land-ownership.
SOCIETY:
• The Early Vedic Society was a tribal society, in
which social relations based on kinship ties were predominant.
• The society was not divided according to caste
lines, and even the rajas (kings), the purohitas (priests), the artisans etc.
were parts of the clan networks.
• Inter-tribal conflicts were frequent
• Tribal conflicts, as mentioned earlier, were
related to cattle raids, cattle thefts etc. The chief of the tribe was the raja
or the gopati. He was the leader in battle and the protector of the
tribe. His office, was not based on heredity, but he was selected from amongst
the clansmen.
• The warrior category was the "rajanya".
• Tribe (Jana), Tribal Unit (Vis),
Village (Grama), Family (Kula), Head of the family (Kulapa).
• The basic social unit was the Kula, or the family,
and the Kulapa i.e. 'one who protects the family' denoted the eldest male
member or the head of the family.
• Society was patriarchal. The birth of a son was
the common desire of the people.
• The importance given to the male members is
reflected in the hymns, where the desire for a son is a constant prayer.
• Even though society was patriarchal, women had
also important position in it.
• They were educated and they had access to the
assemblies. There are also instances of women who composed hymns.
• They had a right to choose their partners, and
could marry late. However women were always thought to be dependent on their
fathers, brothers or husbands. Education was imparted orally, but the tradition
of education was not very well developed in this period.
POLITY:
• The tribal polity was not completely egalitarian.
• A division is found in the Rigveda itself, which
is seen in references of two groups-the Rajanyas, or those who fought the
wars, and are credited to be the senior linegage, and the rest of the clansmen
or the vis, who formed the junior lineage. None
of the groups occupied a distinct social hierarchy.
• The clans held large yajnas or sacrifices to
help the warrior groups in the wars. In these yajnas the officiating priest or
the prohita acted as the mediator between his clansmen and the gods. He also
invoked the gods' blessings for the
tribal chief, for his success in the wars.
• But with the growing incidence of conflicts and
fights, yajnas or sacrifices also became important and the purohita assumed a
special status in the society.
• the 10th book of the Rigveda contains the "Purusha-Sukta"
hymn,and in the Later Vedic texts we find evidence of the superior rajnaya
groups,assuming the status of the Kshatriya-a separate varna by
itself.
• These developments took place after 1000 B.C. This
does not mean that the society was stagnant during our period of study. In fact
it was changing slowly but surely leading to the development, in the Later
Vedic phase, of a complex socio-political structure.
• Tribal assemblies e.g. the Gana, Vidatha, Sabha and Samiti
are mentioned in the Rigveda.
• The Sabha may have been the council of select clan
members and the Samiti perhaps comprised the whole clan.
• These assemblies performed the functions of the
government and administration and were also involved in the selection of the
raja from amongst the clansmen. They thus kept the power of the warriors in check.
• Early Vedic Society was governed by tribal values
and norms and was largely egalitarian.
RELIGION:
• The religious ideas of the Vedic people are
reflected in the hymns of the Rigveda.
• They venerated the natural forces around them
(like wind, water, rain, thunder, fire etc.) which they could not control, and
invested nature with divinity conceived in human forms, which were mostly masculine
• Very few female deities were venerated.
• The religion thus reflected the patriarchal
society and was that of primitive animism.
• Indra was the god of strength, who
was invoked to destroy the enemies. He was the god of thunder and was the
rainmaker who was asked periodically to release the water. He could not be
vanquished. Thus thunder and rain (natural phenomena) were related with
strength, which was personified in a masculine form, represented in the god
Indra.
• Agni, next in importance to Indra,
was the god of fire. He was considered to be an intermediary between heaven and
earth i.e., between gods and men.Fire destroyed dirt and germs, and hence Agni
was considered to be pure.
• Varuna personified water, and he was
the upholder of the natural order of the universe.
• Yama was the god of death and had an
important place in the Early Vedic religious belief.
• There were many other gods e.g. Surya, Soma (also
a drink), Savitri, Rudra etc., and hosts of celestial beings like Gandharvas,
Apsaras, Maruts to whom prayers and hymns were addressed in the Rigveda.
• The ritual of sacrifice also led to the growth and
development in the knowledge of mathematics and animal anatomy. Elementary
mathematics was necessary to make the calculations which were required to
establish the positions of various objects in the sacrificial area.
• Also, the frequent sacrifices of animals led to a
knowledge of their anatomy.
• Gods were not worshipped for the spiritual
upliftment of the people, nor for any other abstract philosophical concept, but
were invoked to grant material gains.
• Animal sacrifice is rampant in the pastoral society,
where the older animals who can no longer produce milk or meat, or used for
breeding purposes,
• Thus the Vedic religion reflected the patriarchal
pastoral society and was materialistic in perspective.
Bali:
Tributes and prestations paid to the victorious chiefs by the defeated groups.
Kinship:
Relationship by blood.
Nomad:
Member of a tribe that wanders from place to place and who has no fixed home.
patriarchy:
Male dominated family or tribe,
Semi-sedentism:
Settlers who do not settle in a place permanently and move to a new settlement.
Animism:
The attribution of a soul to natural objects and phenomenon.
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