1100-900 BCE : Populating Gangetic plains in Northern India
Vedic people move further south and east towards the Ganga-Yamuna plains from upper Punjab areas. First time reference to Doab (area between two rivers) in Vedas. The vedic people prefers to settle down close to rivers with an increased shifting to rice over wheat as crop. Increased rice cultivation in the fertile plains of the rivers leads to more community intervention given the more sophisticated nature of the farming. First specialization of people or social classes emerges potentially as proto-classes. Likely it was an after effect of this need for specialization that Mandala 10 of RV was composed, especially the Poem of the Primeval man (No definite proof, only conjectures) It divides the society into four varnas / classes of people based on what specialization each needs to take up, ideally.
Horses are now becoming rarer - first of all no Indian bloodlines, importing from beyond Hindu Kush or from other Western pastoral regions logistically more difficult. Secondly, the Vedic people are increasingly settling down in permanent structures unlike their older times as pastoral society. Horses graze differently than cows. Horses bite off the grass very close to the grass's roots whereas cows eat with their tongues, biting off the grass much higher up. Hence typically the horses uproot the soft grass species growing in northern India. This means horses need to be moved longer and longer each day. However, permanent settlements means the Vedic people cannot move along with horses finding new pasture lands every week / month- hence the decreased fodder availability leads to reduced number of horses in general. This puts paid to the older horse sacrifices. It soon becomes a privilege reserved for the well to do, especially the kings. At the same time, importance of cow to the newly settled agricultural society increases.
The rice cultivation aided by alluvial plains of northern India helps to create unprecedented surplus - the kinds never seen before by the Aryans. This surplus helps in building cities. By 900 BCE, both Kausambhi (banks of Yamuna, 60km before its confluence with Ganga) and Varanasi, further east on the bank of Ganga emerges as key cities.
Another big societal change was mining of Iron ore especially in eastern Gangetic plains in today's Bihar. The earliest evidence for smelted iron in India dates to 1300 to 1000 BCE. Copper and/or Bronze was present even previously (referred to even in RV and copper-bronze metallurgy in Indus Valley Civilization is archaeologically proven), but now Iron tools come into existence helping to clear forests and create better weaponry.
800-600 BCE : Composing Brahmanas (Still part of Sruti scriptures)
It was in this context, scholars relooked at Vedas and started writing prose based commentaries on each of the veda samhitas. These were called Brahmanas - from root brih in Sanskrit, meaning expand/grow. Hence these were expanding the Vedas, in the sense of providing more context, explanations, adding folklore/myths and making abstruse vedas more open for understanding. Brahmanas uses a Sanskrit that is significantly different from the ones used in earlier Vedas.
Each of the four vedas had one or more explanatory Brahmans attached as follows;
RV - 2
YV - 2
SV- 11
AV - 1
Vedic people move further south and east towards the Ganga-Yamuna plains from upper Punjab areas. First time reference to Doab (area between two rivers) in Vedas. The vedic people prefers to settle down close to rivers with an increased shifting to rice over wheat as crop. Increased rice cultivation in the fertile plains of the rivers leads to more community intervention given the more sophisticated nature of the farming. First specialization of people or social classes emerges potentially as proto-classes. Likely it was an after effect of this need for specialization that Mandala 10 of RV was composed, especially the Poem of the Primeval man (No definite proof, only conjectures) It divides the society into four varnas / classes of people based on what specialization each needs to take up, ideally.
Horses are now becoming rarer - first of all no Indian bloodlines, importing from beyond Hindu Kush or from other Western pastoral regions logistically more difficult. Secondly, the Vedic people are increasingly settling down in permanent structures unlike their older times as pastoral society. Horses graze differently than cows. Horses bite off the grass very close to the grass's roots whereas cows eat with their tongues, biting off the grass much higher up. Hence typically the horses uproot the soft grass species growing in northern India. This means horses need to be moved longer and longer each day. However, permanent settlements means the Vedic people cannot move along with horses finding new pasture lands every week / month- hence the decreased fodder availability leads to reduced number of horses in general. This puts paid to the older horse sacrifices. It soon becomes a privilege reserved for the well to do, especially the kings. At the same time, importance of cow to the newly settled agricultural society increases.
The rice cultivation aided by alluvial plains of northern India helps to create unprecedented surplus - the kinds never seen before by the Aryans. This surplus helps in building cities. By 900 BCE, both Kausambhi (banks of Yamuna, 60km before its confluence with Ganga) and Varanasi, further east on the bank of Ganga emerges as key cities.
Another big societal change was mining of Iron ore especially in eastern Gangetic plains in today's Bihar. The earliest evidence for smelted iron in India dates to 1300 to 1000 BCE. Copper and/or Bronze was present even previously (referred to even in RV and copper-bronze metallurgy in Indus Valley Civilization is archaeologically proven), but now Iron tools come into existence helping to clear forests and create better weaponry.
800-600 BCE : Composing Brahmanas (Still part of Sruti scriptures)
It was in this context, scholars relooked at Vedas and started writing prose based commentaries on each of the veda samhitas. These were called Brahmanas - from root brih in Sanskrit, meaning expand/grow. Hence these were expanding the Vedas, in the sense of providing more context, explanations, adding folklore/myths and making abstruse vedas more open for understanding. Brahmanas uses a Sanskrit that is significantly different from the ones used in earlier Vedas.
Each of the four vedas had one or more explanatory Brahmans attached as follows;
RV - 2
YV - 2
SV- 11
AV - 1
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