ARYANS ANCIENT INDIA

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ARYANS ANCIENT INDIA

The Aryan History in India which is commonly referred as the Vedic Civilization is termed as the Rig Vedic Period which was between 1700- 1000 BC . The name Rig Vedic , referrers to the religious praise poems called the Rig Veda ' that are the oldest forms of Indian Literature

The Aryans were a legendary tribal and nomadic people that lived in the hostile steppe of far Euro-Asia and could barely scratch a living . The Aryans were fierce and war like and were equally

tough . They referred to themselves as noble ' or superior ' which was a word that was coined from the Indo-European word of ar ' which meant 'noble . They variably used this term to distinguish or differentiate themselves from the territories that they conquered . They viewed themselves as very superior compared to others thus had to maintain this identity by being fierce and tough , indeed they were bad news for the southern Asians

The warlike nature of the Aryans plus the fame of conquering people has earned them a preserve in the Vedic Religion which forms the basis of Hinduism . This is greatly depicted in the Rig Vedas which are various collections of praises to gods where Indra (one of the gods ) is depicted as a conquering god , one who smashes cities and slays enemies

The Aryans were nomadic in nature and settled first in the Indus valley after penetrating India coming through from the north-west . Most of the Aryan population was concentrated along the Ganges floodplain . This was unlike the Harappa culture that was dying by the time they arrived This area that they initially occupied was deeply forested

The Aryan civilization was characterized by war like activities thus never had an opportunity to build permanent cities or states they never had time to even build granaries and never spared any time to develop any form of writing . They organized themselves into Jana ' which more or less represented a tribal kinship unit . Initially this setup was based on kinship but slowly evolved to be geographically based setup this was brought about by the quick spread of the tribes that formed the basis of the jana . The jana ' was overseen or ruled by a war chief . Soon afterward the jana ' became a nation or a janapada ' and the jana-rajya ' which was a tribal kingdom became a national kingdom that was called a jana-rajyapada . These concepts were deeply ingrained in the Indian culture to the extent that contemporary Indian still looks him /herself from the territory he /she has come from . This fact has played a significant role in defining major territories in modern India that have contrasting languages and culture

The raja ' and a council ruled the tribal group and within each jana ' there was a chief priest who presided over a religion that focused much on sacrifices to the gods . The Aryans in the initial setup classified themselves into two distinct social classes , the commoners ' and the nobles . However , eventually they added a...