Transformation from Rig Vedic Period to Later Vedic Period

Transformation from the Rig Vedic Period to the Later Vedic Period

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The Rig Vedic civilisation began to change as time passed. The Later Vedic period started from 1000 BC and continued up to 500 BC. In this age, the Aryans began expanding their land territory, and also conquered non-Aryans, who began to live with them in their society. As their land territory grew, the king’s powers began to increase. By the end of the Later Vedic age, the Aryans had expanded their territory past the Vindhyas in the south, up to the Gangetic Valley in the north. The most important change of this period was the introduction of the caste system, which did not exist in the Rig Vedic period.

Everyday Life in the Later Vedic Period

Compared to the Rig Veda Samhita, Later Vedic literature reveals a greater complexity in political organisation, social life, and economic activities.

Agriculture

• Agriculture increased in importance. Cereals such as barley (yava), wheat (godhuma), and rice (vrihi) are mentioned, along with several references to agricultural operations such as sowing, ploughing, reaping, and threshing.
  • The Atharva Veda has charms to ward off pests, and to avert drought — reflecting the anxieties that farmers must have had.
• Land was occupied by extended families, and the clan seems to have exercised general rights over land. The institution of private property in land had not yet emerged.
  • The household was the basic unit of labour.
  • Slaves were not used for productive purposes to any significant degree, and there are no words for hired labour.
• Hymns in praise of gifts (dana-stutis) in the later books of the Rig Veda refer to generous presents of cows, horses, chariots, gold, clothes, and female slaves, made by kings to priests.
  • This indicates the items valued in society, the concentration of wealth in the hands of rulers, and the relationship and exchanges between kings and priests.
• The earliest references to the gift of land occur in Later Vedic texts, though the attitude towards this practice was still ambivalent.
  • The Aitareya Brahmana suggests that the king should gift 1,000 pieces of gold, a field, and cattle to the Brahmana who anoints him.
  • Yet the same text tells us that when king Vishvakarman Bhauvana wanted to make a gift of land as dakshina to his Brahmana priest Kashyapa, the earth goddess herself appeared before him, and said that no mortal should give her away.
  • A similar story occurs in the Shatapatha Brahmana, in the context of the performance of the sarvamedha sacrifice.

The Beginning of Iron Use

• The earliest literary references to iron in the Indian subcontinent are found in Later Vedic literature.
  • The terms krishna-ayas, shyama, and shyama-ayas (the black or dark metal), in the Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda, clearly refer to this metal.
• There are indications of the use of iron in agriculture.
  • The Taittiriya Samhita (5.2.5) of the Black Yajur Veda mentions ploughs driven by 6, or even 12, oxen — these must have been heavy, and may have been made of iron.
  • The Atharva Veda (10.6.2–3) mentions an amulet “born of a ploughshare, smitten away with a knife by a skilful smith.” The reference to the smith, and the fact that iron is definitely known in the Atharva Veda, suggest that this ploughshare was made of iron.
  • In the context of implements used in the Ashvamedha sacrifice, the Shatapatha Brahmana (13–2.2.16–19) connects iron with the peasantry. Elsewhere, the same text (13–3.4.5) connects this metal with the “subjects,” or people (praja).
• Early Buddhist texts, belonging to c. 600–200 BCE, contain several references to iron.
  • The Suttanipata refers to many objects — a goad, stake, ball, and hammer — made of ayas.
  • Especially important is a simile mentioning a ploughshare that has grown hot during the day, and which “splashes, hisses, and smokes in volumes” when thrown into water — apparently a reference to the process of quenching iron objects.
  • The term ayovikara kushi, in Panini’s Ashtadhyayi, has been translated as “iron ploughshare.”
• All these references suggest that, between c. 1000 BCE and 500 BCE, the use of iron in agriculture had become prevalent in the Indo-Gangetic divide, and the upper and middle Ganga valley.

Artisans, Crafts, and Occupations

• Later Vedic texts mention various kinds of artisans, such as carpenters, chariot-makers, bow-and-arrow makers, metal workers, leather workers, tanners, and potters.
• There is a long list of crafts and occupations among the victims in the Purushamedha sacrifice, described in the Vajasaneyi Samhita (30) and the Taittiriya Brahmana (3.4):
  • This includes the doorkeeper, charioteer, attendant, drummer, mat-maker, smith, ploughman, astrologer, herdsman, maker of bowstrings, carpenter, wood-gatherer, basket-maker, jeweller, vintner, elephant-keeper, and goldsmith.
• Vocations mentioned in other Later Vedic texts include those of the physician, washerman, hunter, fowler, ferryman, servant, barber, cook, boatman, and messenger.

Transport and Trade

• Wagons drawn by oxen were probably the most frequent mode of transport.
  • Chariots (rathas) were used for war and sport, and people rode on horses and elephants.
  • Boats are mentioned, though it is not clear whether they were used for riverine or sea travel.
• The extent of trade is not certain. Exchange was still via barter, since there is no clear reference to coinage.
  • The general milieu that can be gathered from the texts is a rural one, although towards the end of the period, there are traces of the beginnings of urbanism — the Taittiriya Aranyaka uses the word nagara, in the sense of a town.

Education and Learning

• Although only philosophical and religious texts of the time have survived, these allude to other branches of learning.
  • The Chandogya Upanishad (7.1.2) gives a list of subjects of study, including the Veda, itihasa, purana, spiritual knowledge (brahma-vidya), grammar, mathematics (rashi), chronology (nidhi), dialectics (vakovakya), ethics (ekayana), astronomy, military science, the science of snakes, and knowledge of portents (daiva).
• Later Vedic texts only indicate how sacred knowledge was imparted. Great importance was attached to the relationship between teacher and pupil, and to oral instruction.
  • The Shatapatha Brahmana refers to the upanayana ceremony, which initiated the young boy into brahmacharya — the stage of celibate studenthood.
  • Education, of whatever kind, seems to have been largely restricted to elite males.

Leisure and Recreation

• The leisure pastimes mentioned in Later Vedic texts are similar to those referred to in the family books of the Rig Veda.
  • Chariot racing and dicing were popular, as were music and dancing.
  • Lute players, flute players, conch blowers, and drummers are mentioned, as are musical instruments such as the cymbals (aghati), drums, flutes, lutes, and a harp or lyre with 100 strings (vana).
  • The term shailusha, mentioned among the victims in the Purushamedha in the Vajasaneyi Samhita, may mean an actor or dancer.
  • The Yajur Veda mentions a vansha-nartin (pole-dancer or acrobat).

Food, Dress, and Ornaments

• As for the food people ate:
  • Apupa was a cake mixed with ghee, or made out of rice or barley.
  • Odana was made by mixing grain variously with milk, water, curds, or ghee; beans, sesame, or meat were sometimes added.
  • Karambha was a porridge made of grain, barley, or sesame.
  • Rice was sometimes fried, or else cooked with milk and beans.
  • Yavagu was a gruel made out of barley.
  • Milk products, such as curds, sour milk, and butter, were consumed.
  • Meat was eaten on special occasions, such as when honouring guests.
  • There are references to an intoxicating beverage called sura. The soma plant had become difficult to obtain, so substitutes were allowed.
• People wore woven cotton clothes.
  • Clothes made of woollen thread (urnasutra) are also frequently mentioned, and were probably made of sheep’s wool or goat’s hair.
  • There is mention of turbans and leather sandals.
  • Ornaments such as the nishka were worn around the neck, and jewels or conch shells were worn as amulets, to ward off evil.
  • The Brahmana texts frequently mention the prakasha — either an ornament of metal, or a metal mirror.

Gender and the Household

• The household was an important institution — not only for its own members, but also for the larger social and political units of which it was a part. A series of household rituals legitimised the householder’s control over the productive and reproductive resources of the household.
• In Later Vedic literature, the variety of household forms of earlier times gave way to an idealised griha unit, headed by the grihapati.
  • Only a married man, accompanied by his legitimate wife, could become the yajamana in a sacrifice.
  • Marriage (vivaha) was important for the continuation of the patrilineage.
  • Relations between husband and wife (pati and patni), and between father and son, were hierarchically organised.
  • Women came to be increasingly identified in terms of their relations with men — words such as stri, yosha, and jaya were closely associated with wifehood and motherhood, actual or potential.
• The grihapati had control over the productive resources of the household unit, and the reproductive potential of his wife.
  • This control was maintained by a domestic ideology, which clearly laid down the structures of dominance and subordination within the family.
  • The productive resources of the household were transferred from father to son, and rituals such as the agnyadheya emphasised the importance of ties with patrilineal ancestors (pitris).

Marriage

• The Grihyasutras, the earliest of which go back to this period, give lists of six or eight types of marriage.
  • Later Vedic texts refer to marriage by capture, and to a woman choosing her own spouse.
  • Polygyny was more prevalent than polyandry — kings could have any number of wives and concubines.
  • The Aitareya Brahmana (3.5.3.47) states that, even though a man may have several wives, one husband is enough for one woman. The Maitrayani Samhita refers to the 10 wives of Manu.
• A woman was married not only to a man, but into a family.
  • There are references, in a Later Rig Vedic hymn and in the Atharva Veda, to the practice of a widow marrying her younger brother-in-law.
• Later Vedic ideas and ceremonies of marriage are reflected in a complex hymn in the tenth Mandala, often referred to as the Surya-sukta (Surya hymn) (Rig Veda 10.85).
  • This hymn suggests that the bride was simultaneously considered a precious asset, and a stranger with destructive potential.
• The marriage ceremonies seem to have been largely confined to the bride, groom, and their immediate families.
  • In the marriage hymn in the Atharva Veda (14.1–2), the priest is assigned a more prominent role in neutralising the dangerous potential of the bride, and in ensuring her incorporation into her new home.

Praise, Exclusion, and Restriction

• Women are praised and exalted in some places in Later Vedic texts.
  • The Shatapatha Brahmana (5.2.1.10) states that the wife is half her husband, and completes him.
  • The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (6.4.17) mentions a ritual for obtaining a learned daughter.
• On the other hand, women were generally excluded from the study of the Vedas.
  • Although their presence as wives was required in the shrauta sacrifices, they could not perform such sacrifices independently, in their own right.
  • Later texts even introduce the possibility of an effigy of gold or grass in place of the wife.
  • Most of the samskaras (except, of course, marriage) did not apply to them.
• In such crucial respects, the position of a woman — no matter what her varna — was indeed similar to that of a Shudra. In fact, the later Dharmashastra equation between women and Shudras goes back to the Vedic texts.

Menstrual Taboos and Docility

• Later Vedic texts reflect the idea that a woman’s menstrual blood is dangerous and polluting (Smith, 1991).
  • A menstruating wife is not supposed to participate in sacrifices — the sacrifice has to be postponed, or performed without her.
  • The Taittiriya Samhita reflects other taboos as well — it was considered inappropriate to talk to, sit near, or eat food cooked by a menstruating woman.
  • According to this text, when Indra killed Vishvarupa, son of the god Tvashtri, he transferred one-third of the stain of killing a Brahmana to women — this “stain” is said to have taken the form of women’s menstrual periods (Taittiriya Samhita 2.5.1).
• Women were clearly expected to conform to a docile role.
  • The Shatapatha Brahmana (10.5.2.9) states: “A good woman is one who pleases her husband, delivers male children, and never talks back to her husband.”
  • According to the same text (4.4.2.3), women own neither themselves nor an inheritance.
• The Atharva Veda (1.14.3) describes a life of spinsterhood as the greatest curse for women, and deplores the birth of daughters (6.11.3).
  • The Aitareya Brahmana (7.15) describes a daughter as a source of misery, and states that only a son can be the saviour of the family.
  • The desire for sons is borne out in many hymns; a gestation rite called the pumsavana was prescribed to ensure the birth of a male child.
  • The Atharva Veda contains charms for changing a female foetus into a male one.
• The Maitrayani Samhita (4.7.4) says: “Men go to the assembly, not women.”
  • Women appear as gifts and commodities of exchange — for instance, in the references to rajas gifting their daughters to win over sages.
  • The only form of ritual gift-giving or exchange that women could be part of was giving the first alms to the brahmachari, who was supposed to begin his stint by begging from his mother, or his teacher’s wife.
• The increasing social differentiation and the emergence of a state were accompanied by an increasing subordination of women.

Women’s Work and Notable Individual Women

• References to women’s work in Later Vedic texts include tending cattle, milking cows, and fetching water.
  • There are also the vayitri and siri (female weaver), peshaskari (female embroiderer), bidalakari (female splitter of bamboo), rajayitri (female dyer), and upalaprakshini (woman corn-grinder).
  • The Shatapatha Brahmana mentions women carding wool.
• Apala is described in the Rig Veda (8.80) as having taken care of her father’s fields.
  • Vishpala (Rig Veda 1.112.10 and 1.116.5) was a woman warrior who lost a leg in battle, and there are references to other women warriors, such as Mudgalini and Vadhrimati.
  • A few women — Gargi and Maitreyi — participated in philosophical debate with Upanishadic sages.

Religion, Ritual, and Philosophy

• Later Vedic literature contains a variety of ideas on creation.
  • The Purusha-sukta describes creation as the result of a primordial sacrifice, while other hymns describe creation as emanating from the sun, or from Hiranyagarbha (the golden embryo).
  • A hymn to the god Vishvakarman (10.81) imagines the creator god as an artisan — a sculptor, smith, woodcutter, or carpenter — and as the first sacrificer and the sacrificial offering.
  • The Nasadiya hymn, in Book 10 of the Rig Veda Samhita, offers one of the most abstract and profound explorations of the mysteries of creation.
• In the family books of the Rig Veda, certain gods were brought together by invoking them in the same sacrificial rituals. In the later parts of the text, some hymns emphasised the connections among them.
  • There are 40 hymns in the Rig Veda addressed to Vishvadevas — “all the gods.”
  • Some hymns speak of the various gods as manifestations of the same divine being.
    • Thus, Rig Veda 1.164 points out the differences in the names Agni, Indra, and Vayu, and goes on to assert that there is one being, whom the poets speak of as many (ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti).

The Sacrificial Ritual of the Brahmana Texts

• The Brahmana texts reflect a situation where sacrifices had become longer, more elaborate, and expensive.
  • The sacrifice is presented as the act that created the world, and its correct performance was seen as necessary to regulate life and the world.
  • While some sacrifices involved the participation of just one priest, others involved many more, and the ritual specialists were extremely important.
  • The god Prajapati, most closely identified with sacrifice, is the most important deity in the Brahmanas.
• The agnihotra was a simple domestic sacrifice, to be performed daily by the head of a dvija household, morning and evening.
  • It involved pouring oblations of milk, and sometimes vegetal substances, into the fire, to the god Agni.
  • There were also periodic new-moon and full-moon sacrifices, and those performed at the beginning of the three seasons.
  • There were even grander, longer, more elaborate sacrifices, involving the participation of many different ritual specialists along with their assistants — these must have been performed by wealthy people and kings.
  • The yajamana underwent a diksha (consecration) before the sacrifice, and had to follow a number of rules until its completion.
  • The dakshina was an important part of the sacrifice, and as sacrifices became longer and more complicated, it too became larger and larger.
• A number of complex sacrificial rituals were associated with kingship:
  • The Vajapeya sacrifice was connected with the attainment of power and prosperity, and also contained a number of fertility rites — it included a ritual chariot race, in which the rajan raced against, and defeated, his kinsmen.
  • The Ashvamedha was a sacrifice associated with claims to political paramountcy, and incorporated several fertility rites as well.
  • The Rajasuya was the royal consecration ceremony. Apart from a number of agrarian fertility rites, it included a ritual cattle raid, in which the rajan raided the cattle of his kinsmen, and also a game of dice, which the king won.
    • At a larger, symbolic level, in the Rajasuya, the king was presented as standing at the centre of the cyclical processes of regeneration of the universe (Heesterman, 1957).

The Upanishads

• The word “Upanishad” (literally, “to sit near someone”) is usually understood as referring to pupils sitting near or around their teacher. Alternatively, it could mean “connection” or “equivalence” — the Upanishads constantly suggest connections and equivalences between things.
  • The knowledge to be imparted and absorbed was no ordinary knowledge. It was all-encompassing, the key to liberation from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth — something that could only be taught to select, deserving pupils.
  • It was difficult to explain, and even more difficult to comprehend. It was revealed through discussion, debate, and contest among seekers, using a variety of devices — stories, images, analogies, and paradoxes.
• The oldest Upanishads are in prose; the later ones are in metre.
  • The Brihadaranyaka and Chhandogya are among the earliest.
  • The Upanishads and Aranyakas deal with similar things, and the distinction between the two categories of texts is not always clear — for instance, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is considered both an Aranyaka and an Upanishad.
  • While the early Upanishads belong to the period c. 1000–500 BCE, many others are of a later period.
• These texts mark the first clear expression of certain key ideas and practices associated with Hindu and other Indian philosophical and religious traditions.
  • These include the concepts of karma, rebirth, and the idea that there is a single, unseen, eternal reality underlying everything.
  • The Upanishads also deal with the practices of meditation and yoga.
• Considering that the Upanishads were the work of many different people, living in various parts of north India over many centuries, it is not surprising that they do not contain a single, cohesive, uniform system of ideas.
  • They deal with many issues, but are especially concerned with the two fundamental concepts of atman and brahman (not to be confused with the god Brahma). A major concern of Upanishadic thought is to explore and explain their meaning and mutual relationship.

Brahman

• The word brahman comes from the root brih, meaning “to be strong or firm.” (The word occurs in the Rig Veda; atman does not.) It means something that grants prosperity — a vital force that strengthens and animates.
  • In the Upanishads, there are many efforts to describe brahman, and the fact that the texts have difficulty explaining it is not surprising.
  • The Kena Upanishad (2.1) asserts that the gods themselves were unable to understand brahman, and even those who think they have understood it do not.
  • The Taittiriya Upanishad (3.1.1) states that brahman is that from which all beings are born, by which they are sustained, and into which they enter on death. Brahman is the eternal, imperishable reality in the universe.
  • In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (3.8.11), the sage Yajnavalkya tells Gargi that the imperishable brahman “sees but can’t be seen, thinks but can’t be thought of, perceives but can’t be perceived.”
  • The Mundaka Upanishad (1.1.7) explains that, just as a spider spins and gathers its web, just as plants grow upon this earth, and just as head and body hair grow from a living person, so does everything in this world arise from the imperishable brahman.
  • Later Upanishads speak of brahman as a god.

Atman

• If brahman is the ultimate reality pervading the universe, the atman is the ultimate reality within the self of an individual — that is, the imperishable essential self.
  • The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (3.7.23) describes it as the knowing subject within us, which “sees but is not seen, hears but is not heard, comprehends but is not comprehended, knows but is not known.”
  • In the Chhandogya Upanishad (3.14.2–3), the atman is described as lying deep within the heart — smaller than a grain of rice, barley, or mustard seed, smaller even than a millet grain or millet kernel. Paradoxically, it is also described as larger than the earth, the intermediate region, and the sky, larger than even all the worlds put together.

Maya

• The word maya occurs in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad — scholars disagree on whether this idea, or something similar, is present in earlier Upanishads as well.
  • Maya, often translated as “illusion,” can be interpreted in other, different ways — it can mean ignorance (avidya), the inability to realise oneness with brahman, or the creative power of ishvara (god), from the human point of view.

Death, Rebirth, and the Path to Liberation

• The idea of a cycle of death and rebirth is present in both the Brahmanas and the Upanishads.
  • The Shatapatha Brahmana states that those who do not perform the sacrificial rites correctly will be born again and suffer death again.
  • It also speaks of a world where material pleasures are enjoyed by those who perform the sacrifices, and of a hell where evil-doers are punished.
  • The same text refers to the dead as having to face two fires — good people pass through, while evil-doers perish in the flames. A person is born again after death, and is punished or rewarded for their deeds.
• Some of the Upanishads explain the doctrine of transmigration.
  • Death and rebirth are connected with ignorance and desire, and deliverance can be attained through knowledge.
  • The Upanishads refer to three worlds — the worlds of humans, ancestors (pitris), and gods. Those who will be reborn go, after death, to the world of the fathers, while those destined for immortality go to the world of the gods.
• The goal of Upanishadic thought is the realisation of brahman.
  • Liberation (moksha, mukti) from the cycle of samsara could only be achieved through such knowledge. This knowledge (jnana) could not be obtained through mere intellectual exertion — it was knowledge of an inner, intuitive, experiential kind, that could only come upon the seeker as a sort of revelation, transforming them instantaneously.
  • Later Upanishads, such as the Shvetashvatara, point towards yogic meditation as a means of realising brahman — the performance of sacrifices and following an ethical code of conduct were, on this view, of no use towards this end.
    • In the Chhandogya Upanishad (3.8.11)*, Yajnavalkya tells Gargi that even if a man were to make offerings, perform sacrifices, and indulge in austerities for thousands of years, it wouldn’t amount to anything.
    • The same text (2.23.1) states that people who performed sacrifices, recited the Veda, gave gifts (dana), devoted themselves to austerities (tapa), and led a celibate life of studenthood in their teacher’s house, studying the Veda — all these people gain worlds earned by merit. A person steadfast in the knowledge of brahman, on the other hand, attains immortality.

(Note: this passage is attributed to the Chhandogya Upanishad in the source; the dialogue between Yajnavalkya and Gargi more commonly appears in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, but the attribution here follows the source text.)

Vedanta and Later Interpretations

• In later times, there were many different interpretations of Upanishadic thought, which came to be known as Vedanta (literally, “end of the Veda”; also known as Uttara Mimamsa).
  • Upanishadic thought reflects different ideas about atman, brahman, and the world, and statements such as tat tvam asi (“you are that”), aham Brahmasmi (“I am brahman”), and brahma-atma-aikyam (“unity of brahman and atman”) can be interpreted in different ways.
• The Bhagavad Gita combined certain aspects of Upanishadic philosophy with a doctrine advocating righteous action.
• One of the most influential interpretations of the Upanishads was that of the 9th-century thinker Shankara.
  • According to Shankara’s monistic Advaita Vedanta (non-dualist Vedanta), the Upanishads tell us that there is only one single, unified reality — brahman — and everything else is not fully real.
• However, there is also a pantheistic strand in Upanishadic thought, which identifies the universe with brahman. There is also a theistic strand, which visualises brahman as a god who controls the world.
  • Given the diversity and complexity of Upanishadic ideas, it is not surprising that later thinkers interpreted them in very different ways.

The Relationship Between the Upanishads and Sacrifice

• The Upanishads are often seen as anti-sacrifice and anti-Brahmana.
  • The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states that the performance of sacrifice leads to the world of the fathers (pitriyana), but knowledge leads to the world of the gods.
  • Upanishadic knowledge is, in several places, associated with kings or Kshatriyas. There are references to Brahmanas being instructed in the knowledge of brahman by kings such as Ajatashatru, Ashvapati, and Pravahana.
    • In the Chhandogya Upanishad (1.8–9), Pravahana tells Uddalaka Aruni that this knowledge has never, until the present, been in the possession of a Brahmana.
    • In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (3–4), Yajnavalkya’s ideas are contradicted by Brahmanas, but received with enthusiasm by king Janaka.
• However, the fact that the Upanishads were included in the Vedic corpus, as part of shruti, should caution us against stretching this argument too far.
  • There are connections between the ideas of the Upanishads and early Vedic texts. Furthermore, the Upanishads do not reject sacrifice; rather, they employ the vocabulary of sacrifice to new ends.
  • Ritual is re-described symbolically and allegorically. The link between humans and the cosmos is not the ritual itself, but knowledge of the forces symbolically represented in the ritual. Knowledge of this symbolic meaning becomes more important than the performance of the ritual itself.
  • An example of this is the re-description of the Ashvamedha yajna in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
    • In this re-description, the various parts of the horse’s body are identified with different parts of the cosmos — his head is dawn, his eye is the sun, his breath is the wind, and his mouth is fire. The horse and the horse sacrifice thus take on new, symbolic meaning.
  • Nevertheless, although ritual was not rejected, the emphasis had certainly shifted to the attainment of a new kind of knowledge.

Popular Beliefs and Practices

• The Brahmanas were manuals for sacrificial priests, while the Upanishads reflect an esoteric quest for a special kind of self-knowledge.
  • Although some of the ideas in these texts may have had a wider circulation, the Brahmanas, Upanishads, and Aranyakas cannot be described as texts reflecting popular beliefs and practices.
• The Atharva Veda, on the other hand, contains a number of charms and spells — for wealth, children, prosperity, health, and the like — reflecting the concerns of ordinary people. It also has hymns dealing with marriage and death.
  • Although considered the latest Veda, from the point of view of language and form, some of the ideas and practices reflected in this text are clearly very old.

The End of the Later Vedic Period

• The Later Vedic period came to an end at around 500 BC. Towards the end, the Vedic people started spreading from the Doab region to Videha in the north, and Koshala in the east.
• In the northern region of Bihar, and the eastern region of UP, the Vedic people came up against people who used black-and-red earthen pots and copper implements.
  • In the western region of UP, the Vedic people came up against people who used pots of red or ochre colour, along with copper implements.
  • The Vedic people also came across Munda speakers.
• The Vedic people faced many opponents as they expanded; however, they succeeded in their quest for expansion, since they used horse-drawn chariots and iron weapons.
  • Also, their opponents did not occupy a very large area, and were small in number.

Conclusion

The Later Vedic period started from 1000 BC and continued up to 500 BC. The Vedic people started expanding their land territory in this period. By the end of the Later Vedic age, the Aryans had expanded their territory past the Vindhyas in the south, up to the Gangetic Valley in the north. Also, one of the important events of this period was the use of iron.

A timeline of the Later Vedic age can be summarised as follows:

Taken together, the transformation from the Rig Vedic to the Later Vedic period reflects a civilisation moving decisively away from its mobile, pastoral, tribal origins — towards a settled, iron-using, agrarian society, marked by growing social stratification (most visibly in the tightening subordination of women and the crystallisation of caste), an increasingly elaborate and expensive sacrificial religion, and, ultimately, in the Upanishads, a profound philosophical turn inward, from the performance of ritual towards the pursuit of knowledge, and the realisation of the unity of atman and brahman. This transformation, still incomplete and uneven by 500 BC, nonetheless laid the essential social, economic, and intellectual foundations on which the sixteen mahajanapadas — and the wider civilisation of early historical India — would very shortly be built.