Aryans without caste - 3

........The people who came to India developed a culture which was to dominate this mammoth land for thousands of years. These people known as Indo-Aryans developed their own scriptures. However, these scriptures are not known outside India. The oldest of these scriptures are four Vedas. The oldest is Rig Veda then come Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. These Vedas are most sacred and most ancient


Among Vedas the Rig Veda is the oldest one and written in old Sanskrit similar to Sanskrit of Avesta or Indo-Iranians. The word Veda is derived from word “vidit” which means “told”. This actually means that the Veda are word of god and hence immutable. Another word for Vedas is “shrutis” which means “heard”. The Vedas, the word of God, were heard by the Rishis from the God himself in the solitude of forests. The Rishis did not compose the earliest of scriptures; they heard them from God and they merely remembered them verbatim. The other major scriptures are Brahmans, Puranas, Dharma Shastras and epics of Mahabharat and Ramayana.

The period during which the Vedas were composed is roughly divided into two phases. First phase is called Rig Vedic period during which Rig Veda was heard and second phase is called later Vedic period during which other three Vedas were heard. The Rig Vedic period is taken to be from 1500 BC to 900 BC and later Vedic period is taken to be from 900 BC to 600 BC. There are two main differences between these two periods. First is that the language used in Rig Vedic period is old Sanskrit which is similar to the Sanskrit of Avesta, the language of Indo-Iranians – the separated brothers of Indo-Aryans. The Sanskrit used in later Vedas is different. The second important difference is the importance of agriculture in Aryan society. The agriculture in Rig Veda plays a little role. It is indeed a critical factor. The most important thing was the cattle stock in this period. The villages or tribes were always moving from one place to another. The economy was pastoral in nature involving a lot of movement from one place to another, in search of new pastures and avoiding the attacks from other tribes. The attacks were mainly to capture the cows. On the other hand the economy in later Vedic period is agricultural based which almost changed everything. This was characterized by the settled life in villages and joining of different tribes in bigger units. In this period the importance of cattle stock declined. The Varna system was developed under the aegis of agriculture in later Vedic period. It is significant to note that in Rig Veda the absence of agriculture is matched by the absence of Varna system......