The Aryan Empire

India dominates South Asian history in the period after 1200 ВС. During this period two great empires appeared on the subcontinent. More lasting than the empires were the experiences of the Indian religious leaders, whose followers number in millions in today's world.

About 1500 ВС a new migrating people arrived in India. They called themselves Aryans, the noble ones. They were a part of the great Indo-European explosion of people seeking new homes in Asia and Europe. Originally settling in the lands between the Caspian and Black Seas, they poured into Iran, giving their name to the country. Most continued into India. Their language was Sanskrit. A continuous arrival of more Aryans resulted in the occupation of the whole of northern India.

The Aryan invaders continued to immigrate into India during this age, stamping Indian culture according to their traditions. Unfortunately, the Aryans showed no interest in recording their early history nor did they leave many remains of physical culture. It is from later myths and legends, written down hundreds of years after the events, that historians draw the threads to weave the story of India.

After 1200 ВС the larger Aryan chieftains began to expand their territories at the expense of their smaller, weaker neighbors. Villages where the chieftains made their residence became towns and eventually cities. The promotion of cotton farming and cloth making provided the rulers of these states with the economic basis to expand territories.

War was a constant, both against the indigenous people and against their Aryan neighbors. Little by little several large kingdoms developed, so that by 600 ВС there were 16 nations in the Punjab and the Ganges and Indus plains. Below the Deccan plateau, Dravidians remained untouched by Aryan con­quest, so that a major cultural division existed between the north and the south.

Aryan culture was quite different from that of the Indus Valley people. The Aryans were frontier people who loved horses and cattle and were indifferent to city life. Their chiefs were chosen because of their ability to fight. Their wealth and importance came from the number of cattle they owned and victories they had won. Hunting, gambling, and rustling cattle from neighboring people kept boredom away.

The rulers of the Aryan kingdoms bore the name raja. Some went so far as to claim divine descent. Extensive wooden palaces were their residences, where attendants and royal officials kept their offices. Councils of noblemen consulted with the king on matters of war and peace. They joined the raja in his wars and his hunting expeditions and became his gambling companions.

At these places scribes appeared, not to record the king's activities but to write down the sacred literature of the Aryans. The rajas enjoyed lavish spectacles to entertain themselves and their courts. The peasants provided funds for the festivals, as tax collectors roamed the countryside.

The political history of India during this period cannot be understood without reference to the Aryan religion. While it is best to speak of it in this classical period as Brahmanism, today, after centuries of development, its name is Hinduism. This term, which comes from the Indus River, was unknown until the Muslim invasion of the eighth century AD.

Aryan society was very much structured according to classes. The Aryans would have argued that all men and women are born unequal and that at the very highest level of society were the religious priests, the brahmans. The brahmans were the only ones who knew how to offer sacrific­es to the Indian deities correctly. They alone memorized the long and elaborate chants and prayers that, in their opinion, pleased the gods and kept them favorably disposed toward humans. It is not surprising that during the early years of the classical period, Indra, god of war, was the most popular divinity.

After 600 ВС some of the songs were put into writing possibly for the training of young brahmans. Four collections eventually appeared. They are known as Vedas; the oldest of them is the Rig Veda. There is no agreement on the exact date of composition. But the present text dates only from about the first century AD.

The Rig Veda is a book of songs, containing over a thousand compositions written in a sacred Sanskrit language. The brahmans used these songs to address the many deities who oversaw the universe.

Along with Indra, the primary gods were Agni who gave fire, Varuna who directed the cosmic order, and Vishnu who became incarnate so as to help humans. Over all the other deities stood Brahma. He was the highest god, omnipotent throughout the universe. Religious ceremonies were held out-of-doors in India's warm climate, at altars used for animal sacrifices or for offering libations.

In addition to the Vedas, two great epic poems appeared to supplement them. These were the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. They soon became the major literary works of ancient India. Probably, the first written, the Mahabharata was of moderate length, but over the centuries au­thors kept adding to it, now making it the longest poem in world literature.

Within the Mahabharata there is a section known as the Bhagavad Gita (the Lord's Song). It teaches the major tenets of the Brahman religion.

Notes

Study the following pattern:

India — Indian —an Indian — the Indians.

Indo - is a part of compound adjectives with the meaning:

1.of India; Indian

2.Indian and: Indo-Pakistan border.

Indo-European — of or being a family of languages that includes most of those spoken in Europe, Iran and India (now spread to America and parts of Africa). Other names for Indo-European languages are Indo-Germanic or Aryan. The Indo-European linguistic family includes various groups of languages with Germanic (German, Dutch, Swedish, English, etc.), Romance (French, Portuguese, Spanish, etc.), Slavic (Russian, Polish, Czech, etc.) and many other groups among them. Sanskrit is an ancient language of India from which many modern Indo-European languages are descended.