26 Facts About Vedic period

The Vedas contain details of life during this Vedic period that have been interpreted to be historical and constitute the primary sources for understanding the Vedic period.

Around c –1000 BCE Vedic culture spread eastward to the fertile western Ganges Plain.

The second half of the Vedic period was characterised by the emergence of towns, kingdoms, and a complex social differentiation distinctive to India, and the Kuru Kingdom's codification of orthodox sacrificial ritual.

The end of the Vedic period witnessed the rise of true cities and large states as well as sramana movements (including Jainism and Buddhism) which challenged the Vedic orthodoxy.

Vedic period saw the emergence of a hierarchy of social classes that would remain influential.

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Vedic period religion developed into Brahmanical orthodoxy, and around the beginning of the Common Era, the Vedic period tradition formed one of the main constituents of "Hindu synthesis".

Vedic period religion was further developed with the emergence of the Kuru kingdom, systematising its religious literature and developing the Srauta ritual.

The Vedic period estates were four: Brahmin priests and warrior nobility stood on top, free peasants and traders were the third, and slaves, labourers and artisans, many belonging to the indigenous people, were the fourth.

Kuru Kingdom, the earliest Vedic period "state", was formed by a "super-tribe" which joined several tribes in a new unit.

End of the Vedic period is marked by linguistic, cultural and political changes.

The later Vedic period texts fixed social boundaries, roles, status and ritual purity for each of the groups.

The variety of households of the Vedic period era gave way to an idealised household which was headed by a grihapati.

Early Vedic period Aryans were organised into tribes rather than kingdoms.

Vedic period was aided by several functionaries, including the purohita, the senani (army chief), dutas (envoys) and spash (spies).

The Middle Vedic Period is characterized by a lack of cities; Bellah compares this to early state formation in ancient Hawaii and "very early Egypt, " which were "territorial states" rather than "city-states, " and thus "it was the court, not the city, that provided the center, and the court was often peripatetic.

The period of the Upanishads, the final phase of the Vedic era, was approximately contemporaneous with a new wave of state formations, linked to the beginning of urbanization in the Ganges Valley: along with the growth of population and trade networks, these social and economic changes put pressure on older ways of life, setting the stage for the Upanishads and the subsequent sramana movements, and the end of the Vedic Period, which was followed by the Mahajanapada period.

Economy in the Vedic period was sustained by a combination of pastoralism and agriculture.

However, philological evidence indicates that ayas in the Rigveda refers only to copper and bronze, while iron or syama ayas, literally "black metal", first is mentioned in the post-Rigvedic Atharvaveda, and therefore the Early Vedic Period was a Bronze Age culture whereas the Late Vedic Period was an Iron Age culture.

Texts considered to date to the Vedic period are mainly the four Vedas, but the Brahmanas, Aranyakas and the older Upanishads as well as the oldest Srautasutras are considered to be Vedic.

Mode of worship was the performance of sacrifices which included the chanting of Rigvedic verses (see Vedic period chant), singing of Samans and 'mumbling' of sacrificial mantras (Yajus).

Vedic period people believed in the transmigration of the soul, and the peepul tree and cow were sanctified by the time of the Atharvaveda.

Main deities of the Vedic period pantheon were Indra, Agni, and Soma and some deities of social order such as Mitra–Varuna, Aryaman, Bhaga and Amsa, further nature deities such as Surya (the Sun), Vayu (the wind) and Prithivi (the earth).

Around the beginning of the Common Era, the Vedic period tradition formed one of the main constituents of the "Hindu synthesis".

Vedic period religion survived in the srayta ritual, whereas ascetic and devotional traditions like Yoga and Vedanta acknowledge the authority of the Vedas, but interpret the Vedic period pantheon as a unitary view of the universe with 'God' seen as immanent and transcendent in the forms of Ishvara and Brahman.

Reconstruction of the history of Vedic period India is based on text-internal details, but can be correlated to relevant archaeological details.

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Black and red ware, and the surrounding culture, began its spread during the neolithic Vedic period and continues until the early medieval Vedic period in India, as well as being found in parts of West Asia and Egypt.