Indo-Aryan arrival and the Early and Later Vedic polity, economy, society and religion
Indo-Aryan Migration and Identity
The Basics
Harappan urban life had faded into rural settlements by about 1500 BCE. A new group calling themselves Arya appear in the hymns of the Rig Veda. Arya is a linguistic and cultural term, not a racial one. It means kinsman or noble. It describes speakers of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Iranian family, itself part of the larger Indo-European language family. The original homeland of these speakers has been debated for two centuries. Proposed homelands range from the Arctic to Tibet to India itself. Many historians favour an origin in the Central Asian steppes, especially the Andronovo culture of the second millennium BCE, though this remains debated.
The Indo-Aryans who settled in the Sapta-Sindhu, the land of the seven rivers in Punjab and eastern Afghanistan, did not write. Instead they composed and memorised sacred hymns, carefully preserved by families of priests across generations. This oral literature is the Veda, from the root vid, meaning knowledge. It is the earliest surviving literature of India.
At the start of this period, the Indo-Aryan tribes who composed the Rig Veda lived in the Sapta Sindhu region, the land of the seven rivers in Punjab and its surroundings. There was no king ruling a territory, only a chief called the rajan, who led a jana, or tribe. The rajan's main jobs were to protect his people, lead them in war, and protect and increase the tribe's cattle, so he was also called gopa or gopati, lord of the cattle. Historians differ on whether his position was hereditary or chosen by the clan, but he was not an all-powerful monarch. He had to work with tribal assemblies and could not act alone.
Early Vedic tribes fought over chiefship and grazing grounds. They needed wealth to survive and to reward chiefs and priests. This wealth was overwhelmingly cattle.
In the Early Vedic age, women lived within a patriarchal and patrilineal household, but the restrictions of later times had not yet hardened. Women such as Ghosha, Apala, and Vishpala are named in the Rig Veda as a poetess, a woman who tended her father's fields, and a warrior who fought despite losing a leg in battle. A small number of hymns, about twelve to fifteen out of over a thousand, are attributed to women sages, and women received the upanayana and could attend assemblies like the sabha and the vidatha alongside men. Marriage came after puberty, usually around sixteen or seventeen, and hymns speak of girls choosing their own husbands, of widow remarriage, and of levirate unions, while child marriage, sati, and purdah are absent.
At the end of the Rig Vedic age, power still rested with tribal chiefs. They led in battle but were checked by assemblies like the sabha and samiti. This could not last once tribes settled permanently in the Ganga-Yamuna doab. Wars began over land and tribute, not just cattle.
The Later Vedic kings needed real resources to back their growing power. Bali had become compulsory tribute. But tribute could only grow if the economy beneath it grew too. So the story of kingship is really the story of a changing countryside.
In early Rig Vedic times, Brahmana and Kshatriya were respected groups. Membership was not fixed by birth. The words Vaishya and Shudra did not even exist in the family books. This loose, egalitarian tribal order could not survive. Chiefs became kings, and the economy began producing a surplus.
Later Vedic texts place the Kuru and Panchala kings in the upper Ganga-Yamuna doab. They describe kings performing sacrifices and ruling settled subjects. But these texts alone give no secure dates or physical picture of their world.
By around 600 BCE, Later Vedic society was dominated by priests performing elaborate sacrifices for kings of the period, but this very dominance began to trouble thoughtful people, both Brahmanas and Kshatriyas.