VEDIC AGE

Political Organization

Monarchial form, tribe was known as Jan and its King as Rajan. He was the leader in battle and protector of tribe. His office was not hereditary and was selected among the clan’s men. The Rajan was not an absolute monarchy, for the government of the tribe was in part the responsibility of the tribal councils like Sabha, Samiti, Gana and Vidhata. Even women attended sabha and Vidhata.

Many clans (Vish) formed a tribe. The basic social unit was the Kula or the family and Kulpa was the head of the family.

The king was assisted by a number of officers of which purohita wasthe most important. Next important functionary was the Senani (leader of the army), although there was no regular or standing army.

The Aryans succeeded everywhere because they possessed chariots driven by horses.

There was no regular revenue system and the kingdom was maintained by the voluntary tribute (Bali) of his subjects and the booty won in battle.

Villages were headed by Gramini who used to represent village in sabha and samiti. Later, Gramini was handed over the charge of Vrajapati also (an officer who enjoyed authority over the pasture ground).

Social Life:

When the Aryans entered India there was already a class division in their tribal structure.

As they settled among the dark aboriginals, the Aryans seem to have laid greater stress than before on purity of blood, and class divisions hardened, to exclude those dasas who had found a place in the Aryan society, and those Aryans who had intermarried whit the dasas and adopted their ways.

Gradually, the tribal society got divided into three groups Warriors, Priests and Commoners. Later, the fourth dasas or shudra was also added.

The term Varna was used for color, the Aryans being fair, the dasas dark.

Family was the basic unit of society. The family was patriarchal in nature. But women enjoyed equal power with men. Marriage was usually monogamous and indissoluble, but there are few instances of polyandry, levirate and widow=marriage. There are no examples of child-marriage. The marriageable age seems to have been 16 to 17.

Aryans were fond of Soma, Sura, Food and Dresses. Soma was drunk at sacrifices and its use was sanctified by religion.

The Aryans love music, and played the flute, lute and harp. There are references to singing and dancing, and to dancing girls. People also delighted in gambling. They enjoyed chariot racing. Both men and women wore ornaments.   

  

The Vedic Literature

The word Veda comes from the root vid, i.e. to known, signifying knowledge. The Sanskrit root vid also appears in the Latin Videre ‘to see’. The Vedas are said to been passed on from one generation to the next through verbal transmission and are, therefore, also known as Shruti (to hear) or ‘Revelation’.

          Categories:

The Term ‘Vedic Literature’ means the four Vedas in their Samhitas and the allied literature based on or derived from the Vedas. We classify the Vedic literature into the following categories:

1.      The four Vedas, i.e. the Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva and their Samhitas:

2.    The Brahmanas attached to each Samhita:

3.    The Aranyakas: and

4.    The Upanishads

The Vedas

 

Rig-veda

The Rigveda

 Of the four Vedas (the Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvada), the Rig veda is the oldest religious  text in the world, and, therefore, is also known as ‘the first testament of mankind’. It must have been composed around 1700 BC. The first three Vedas are collectively known as Trayi or ‘Trio’. Initially, the Vedas were learnt by heart and then passed on from the teachers to the disciples until they were properly edited, written down and commented in South India during the second half of the fourteenth 14^th century AD. The last hymns were probably composed between 1500 and 1200 BC. The Rigveda is neither a historical nor a heroic poem but is mainly a collection of hymns by a number of priestly families. These were recited at the time of sacrificial rites and other rituals with utmost devotion. The Rigveda contains 1017 (1028, including 11 hymns of the Valakhilya recession) hymns (sukta) and is divided into ten mandals. The first and the tenth mandalas are said to have been added later as their language differs slightly from the other eight mandals. The tenth mandala contains the famous Purushasukta which explains that the four Varnas (Brahmana, Kshartiya, Vaishya and Shudra) were born from the mouth, arms, thighs and feet of the Primeval Being Bramha (Purusa).  Second to seventh mandal are earliest and are also called as family books. They are attributed to Gristsamada, Visvamitra, Vasudeva. Ambast. Bhardwaj, Vashishtha. Kanva and Angiras. The tenth mandal is dedicated exclusively to Soma. The famous Gyatri mantra comes from the third mandal.

 

Gyatri-mantra

Mandalas – 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

Deities – Agni, Indra, Soma, Usha, Maruts, Ashvins, Rbhus, Pushan. Rudra, Mitra, Varuna, Aryaman, Apam Napat.

Demons- Susna, Dasas, Danu, Danavas.

River – Sapta Sindhu, Nadistuti, Sarasvati, Sindhu Saryu, Rasa.

Rishi – Vishvamitra, Vamadeva, Atri, Angiras, Bharadvaja, Vasishta,

    Dirghatamas

The Samaveda

 

Sama-veda

The Samaveda derived from the root Saman, i.e. ‘melody’, is a ‘collection of melodies’. It has 1603 verses (Aundh edition) but except 99 all the rest of the hymns have been borrowed from the Rigveda. A lesser number of verses are found in certain other editions. In them we have 1549 verses and of these only 78 are not found in the Rigveda. These were meant to be sung at the time of Soma sacrifice by the Udgatri Priests.

The Yajurveda

Yajur-veda

The Yajurveda is a ritual Veda. It prescribes the rituals for performing different sacrifies. It was the manual of the Adhvaryus who prepared the ground and the altar, offered the sacrificial victims and poured out the libations. Two distinct forms of this Veda have come down to us. In the oldest, the instructions about rituals are mingled with the verses from the Rigveda. The chief recension of this is that taught by a school of teachers called the Taittiryans. At a later date other scholar called the Vajasaneyins separated the explanatory matter from the verse to be recited and hence were called ‘white’ (Shukta) Yajurveda, the other being called the ‘black’(Krishna) Yajurveda. Yajurveda contains the oldest prose literature of the Indo-Europeans.

The Atharva veda

 

Atharva-veda

The Atharva Veda is entirely different from the other three Vedas and is chronologically the last of the foru. It is important and interesting as it describes the popular beliefs and superstitions of the humble flok. For a very long time it was not included in the category of the Vedas. The Satapatha-Brahmana used the term trayi-vidya for the Rig.Sama and Yajur Vedas. The Atharva veda is found in two recensions, the Saunakiya and Paippalada. It is now considered as one of the four Vedas. It is divided into 20 Kandas (books) and has 711 hymns – most of which tells how to ward off the evil spirits.

Suktas

suktas

The hymns of the Vedas are also called Suktas: a term derived from su-uktas, i.e. ‘that which is well or properly recited’. This term is used for a vedic hymn as a whole as distinguished from a richa or single verse.

Raskhan biography

Raskhan

Raskhan

Introduction

Syed Ibrahim Ras khan (born 1548 AD) was a Muslim poet of Pathan origins, who was a devotee of Lord Krishna. He is known to have lived in Amroha, India. Raskhan was his pen name in Hindi.

There are many poets of poetry, such as Surdas, Kumvandas, Parmanand Das, Krishnadas, Nanddas, Meerabai, among the songs of Krishnabhakti – poets  in Hindi literature. Among them, the place of the exclusive Krishna-devotee Muslim poet Rakshan ji is the best. You were soft hearted, earthly people. That is why after taking birth in Delhi; he kept himself away from the pride of Rajlipa and Raj-Vance. It is presumed that they were overwhelmed with the Krishna-love of Gopio after studying the Srimad Bhagwat's Persian experience, and had also humble themselves in the devotion of Lord Krishna.

Srimad-Bhagwat-gita

There was a difference of opinion among scholars about the birth of the poet Rakshan ji - time, education - initiation, liveliness, demise - time etc. You had died around 1618 AD. It is presumed that in Gokul you had adopted the initiation of devotion from Goswami Vithalnath ji. It is also well known that the Rambhakta poet Goswami Tulsidas Ji had narrated Raskhan the story of 'Ramcharitmanas' on the banks of the river Yamuna first. All the equipment related to your adoration and all the places, such as Gokul, Govardhan, Vraj, Vrindavan etc, are very dear to Rakshan ji.

Govardhan-hill

Four compositions of love poem Raskhana are considered to be authentic.

'Suzan - Raskhana', 'Premwatika', 'Danilila', etc. Your poetry - language is the language, in which the ease, the sweetness and the glittering grace are everywhere. You have used more than Doha, Kabit and Saivaya Chhanda

So the name of the poet Raskhan (Ras ki Khan) has become completely meaningful.

Ramcharit-manas

The Premavatika consists of fifty-three verses, most of which deal with the nature of true spiritual love, using the love between Radha and Krishna as a model. 

Works

·        प्रेमवाटिका / रसखान (दोहा-गुटका)

·        सुजान-रसखान /

·        कुछ प्रतिनिधि रचनाएँ

·        मानुस हौं तो वही /

·        या लकुटी अरु कामरिया /

·        सेस गनेस महेस दिनेस /

·        धूरि भरे अति सोहत स्याम जू /

·        कानन दै अँगुरी रहिहौं /

·        मोरपखा मुरली बनमाल /

·        कर कानन कुंडल मोरपखा /

·        मोरपखा सिर ऊपर राखिहौं /

·        गावैं गुनी गनिका गन्धर्व /

·        संकर से सुर जाहिं जपैं /

·        प्रान वही जु रहैं रिझि वापर /

·        रसखान के दोहे / रसखान

·        आवत है वन ते मनमोहन /

·        जा दिनतें निरख्यौ नँद-नंदन /

·        बैन वही उनकौ गुन गाइ /

·        सोहत है चँदवा सिर मोर को /

·        कान्ह भये बस बाँसुरी के /

·        नैन लख्यो जब कुंजन तैं /

·        फागुन लाग्यौ सखि जब तें /

·        मोहन हो-हो, हो-हो होरी / रसखान

·        गोरी बाल थोरी वैस, लाल पै गुलाल मूठि /

·        खेलत फाग सुहाग भरी /

·        ब्रह्म मैं ढूँढयो पुराण गानन /

·        जेहि बिनु जाने कछुहि नहिं /

·        आयो हुतो नियरे रसखानि /

·        आवत है बन ते मनमोहन /

·        आगु गई हुति भोर ही हों रसखानि

·        गाई दहाई न या पे कहूँ /

·        एक समै जमुना-जल में सब मज्जन हेत

·        अधर लगाइ रस प्याइ बाँसुरी बजाई /

·        कीगै कहा जुपै लोग चवाब सदा /

·        आज भटू मुरली बट के तट /

·        आई सबै ब्रज गोपालजी ठिठकी /

·        दानी नए भए माँबन दान सुनै /

·        नो लख गाय सुनी हम नंद के /

·        लाडली लाल लर्तृ लखिसै अलि /

·        मोर के चंदन मोर बन्यौ दिन दूलह हे अली /

·        आवत लाल गुलाल लिए मग /

·        इक और किरीट बसे दुसरी दिसि /

·        यह देखि धतूरे के पात चबात /

·        बेद की औषद खाइ कछु न करै /

·        कंचन मंदिर ऊँचे बनाई के /

·        प्रेम अगम अनुपम अमित / 

VEDIC AGE

VEDIC-AGE

Vedic-age

In India, the founder or creators of the Vedic culture – which was diametrically opposed to the Harappan civilization – were Aryans, probably an immigrant people, whose first arrival in India is dated between 2000 and 1500 BC. After settling in India the Aryans composed a series of religious hymns, which were eventually compiled into a text known as Rigveda. Our knowledge of the Aryans in India during this earliest period is based primarily on this work. The great German scholar Max Muller who initially believed that Aryans belonged to a race, later detracted and declared emphatically that the term “Aryans, in scientific language, is utterly inapplicable to race. It means language and nothing but language…..” In 1786, Sir William Jones, in his famous address to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, tried to prove a definite relation between the Vedic Sanskrit and some of the principle languages of Europe and Asia such as Greek, Latin, Gothic, Celtic, Lithuanian, German, Persian etc. The scholars have given a common name ‘Indo-European’ to this group of languages and the people speaking them were known as the Indo-Europeans or Indo-Aryans. On this basis it has been surmised that the people who spoke the common language and shared the common home, dispersed or emigrated to various parts of the world, including India.

Indus valley civilisation

 Indus valley Civilization

Indus valley Civilization

(2500-15000 BC)
From the beginning of the 4^th millennium BC the individuality of the early village cultures began to be replaced by a more homogenous style of existence. By the middle of the 3^rd millennium, a uniform culture had developed at settlements spread across nearly b500,000 square miles, including parts of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Baluchistan, Sindh and the Makran coast. It was a highly developed civilization and derived its name from the main river of that region – Indus. The cities were far more advanced than their counterparts in pre historic Egypt, Mesopotamia or anywhere else in Western Asia.

Important Discoveries

Year            Site                           Discovered by
1921            Harappa                  Dayaram Sahni
1922           Mohenjodaro         R.D. Banerjee
1927            Sutkagendor          R.L Staine
1931            Chanhudaro           N.G.Majumdar
1953            Rangpur                  M. Vats
1953            Kalibangan             A. Ghosh
1955-56     Ropar                       Y.D. Sharma
1957            Lothal                      S.R. Rao
1972-75      Surkotada               I. Joshi
1973-74      Banwali                   R. S. Bisht
      
       After the partition of India most of the well known Harappa sites – Mohenjodaro, Harappa, went to Pakistan, leaving only two outposts, Kotla Nihang Khan near Ropar on the Sutlej in Punjab, and Rangpur on the Bhadar in Kathiawar Gujarat, within the territory of India. However, the excavations prior to 1947 had not achieved a satisfactory picture of the development of the cities, and in the absence of radiocarbon dating no absolute chronology was obtained. It was only after partition that planned surveys were undertaken in India to locate more sites. A. Ghosh undertook the exploration of the valleys of the dried up Saraswati (Ghaggar) and its tributary, the Drishadvati (Chautang) in Ganganagar, North Rajasthan and discovered about 25 Harappan sites. A number of sites have been reported indicating contacts with the Harappan culture in Afghanistan and the contiguous regions of Soviet Central Asia. Nausharo was excavated by Jarrige in 1993 and reached at some important conclusions regarding transition from early period to mature phase. Thus many of the earlier views have been altered because of recent studies based on sophisticated research tools and methods of investigation.
 

Harappan-seal

Extent

The explorations, excavations and researches have shown that the Harappan civilization was not confined to the Indus valley along as postulated by Marshall. Although the Central zone of these civilization lie in Sind and Punjab, mainly in the Indus valley, it spread southward and eastward from here covering Punjab, Haryana, Sind, Baluchistan, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Western Uttar Pradesh and Northern Maharashtra. In Precise terms the civilization extended from Suktagendor, on the seaboard of South Baluchistan (Makran Coast) in west to Alamgirpur, in the upper Ganga-Yamuna Doab in western U.P., in the east, and from Manda in Jammu in North to Bhagatrav in Narmada estuary (Kim estuary, Gujarat) in the south. The entire area of the Harappan civilization is triangular in form and accounts for about 1,299,600 sq km and as such was the largest amongst the ancient civilizations. The actual distance from northern site to the southern is over 1,100 km and form west to east over 15,50 km.

Nomenclature

There are two names that have been applied to ancient India’s first phase of conurbation Harappan civilization or Indus civilisation. The first of these is drived from and academic tradition which uses a type specimen, or site, as the basis for nomenclature in archaeology. Since the mounds adjacent to the modern village of Harappa were the first locality where the remains of this civilization were first identified, the name Harappan fits such a system perfectly. The second name Indus civilization is used interchangeably. Firstly because it refers to precisely the same cultural, chronological and geographic entity and secondly because it started from the river valley of the Indus river and the largest concentration of settlement sites are located along the course of this river. Sir John Marshall was the first scholar to use this term. The term Harappan civilization, conjures up a notion that the civilization began at a site which best represents the  ancient urban system of South Asia.
          The Indus civilization belongs to the protohistoric period since it represents a phase in which people had developed a scrip has not been deciphered as yet despite repeated attempts. So it in agreed that the Indus civilization belonged to Bronze Age, generally associated with city formation.

Origin and Evolution:

Harappa

The discovery of India’s first and earliest civilisation posed a historical puzzle as it seemed to have suddenly appeared on the stage of history, full grown and fully equipped. The Harappan civilisation till recently showed no definite signs of birth and growth. The puzzle could largely be solved after the extensive excavation work conducted at Mehrgarh near the Bolan Pass between 1973 and 1980 by two French archaeologists Richard H. Meadow and Jean Francoise Jarrige.

According to them, Mehrgarh gives us an archaeological record with a sequence of occupations. Archaeological research over the past decades has established a continuous sequence of strata, showing the gradual development to the high standard of the full-fledged Indus civilisation.

These strata have been named pre-Harappan, early Harappan, mature Harappan and late Harappan phases or stages. By reviewing the main ele­ments of the rural cultures of the Indian sub-continent the origin of the Indus civilisation can be traced. Any Pre-Harappan culture claiming ancestry to the Indus civilisation must satisfy two conditions. The first condition is that it must not only precede but also overlap the Indus culture.

The second is that the essential elements of the Indus culture must have been anticipated by the Proto-Harappan (Indus) culture in its material aspects, viz, the rudiments of town planning, provision of minimum sanitary facilities, knowledge of pictographic writing, the introduction of trade mechanisms, the knowledge of metallurgy and the prevalence of ceramic traditions.

The different stages of the indigenous evolution of the Indus can be documented by an analysis of four sites which reflect the sequence of the four important stages or phases in the pre-history and proto-history of the Indus valley region.

The sequence begins with the transition of nomadic herdsmen to settled agricultural communities as per the evidence found at the first site i.e. Mehrgarh near the Bolan Pass. It continues with the growth of large villages and the rise of towns in the second stage exemplified at Amri. The Amri people did not possess any knowledge of town-planning or of writing. The third stage in the sequence leads to the emergence of the great cities as in Kalibangan and finally ends with their decline, which is the fourth stage and exemplified by Lothal. Amri, Kot-Dijian and Kalibangan cultures are stratigraphically found to be pre-Harappan.

The pre-Harappan culture of Kalibangan in Rajasthan is termed as Sothi culture by Amalananda Ghosh, its excavator. The Harappan were owed certain elements such as the fish scale and pipal leaf to the Sothi ware.

The four Baluchi cultures, viz, Zhob, Quetta, Nal and Kulli, undoubtedly pre-Harappan, also have some minor common features with the Indus civilisation, and cannot be considered as full-fledged proto-Harappan cultures.

The culture of Northern Baluchistan is termed as ‘Zhob’ culture after the sites in the Zhob valley, the chief among them being Rana Ghundai. This culture is characterised by black and red ware and terracotta female figurines. Nal culture is characterised by the use of white-clipped ware with attractive polychrome paintings and the observance of fractional burial.

The characteristic pottery of the Quetta culture is the buff-ware, painted in black pigment and decorated with geometrical designs. Apart from the painted motifs such as the pipal leaf and sacred brazier, some pottery shapes are common to the Harappan and Kulli cultures. All these pre-Harappan habitations preceding the phase of the Harappan civilization shows evidences of people living in houses of stone and mud-brick.

Similarities were found in the cultural traditions of the diverse agricultural communities living in the Indus region in the ‘early Indus period’. During the urban phase these little traditions were fused into one great tradition.

How­ever, even in the ‘early Indus period’, use of similar kinds of pottery terracotta mother goddess, repre­sentation of the horned deity in many sites show the way to the emergence of a homogenous tradition in the entire area.

The people of Baluchistan had already established trading relations with the towns of the Persian Gulf and Central Asia. Kulli, situated on the southern foothills of the Baluchi mountains near the Makran coast, occupies an important position on the trade route between the Persian Gulf and the Indus Valley.

Thus, the available evidence suggests that the Harappan culture had its origin in the Indus valley. And even within the Indus valley, several cultures seem to have contributed to evolve the urban civilisation. There is no evidence to suggest that the Indus people borrowed anything substantial from the Sumerians. It is thus difficult to accept Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s assumption that “the idea of civilization came to the Indus valley from Mesopotamia”.

Sources of Materials

Materials                                Source
Gold                                        Afghanistan, Persia Karnataka
Silver                                                Afghanistan, Iran
Copper                                    Baluchistan & Khetri (Rajasthan)
Tin                                          Afghanistan, Central Asia
Agates                                     Western India
Chalcedony                             Saurashtra
Lead                                        Rajasthan South India, Afghanistan
Lapis – Lazuli                         Badakashan (N. Afghanistan)
Turquoise                               Central Asia, Iran
Amethyst                                Maharashtra
Jade                                        Central Asia
Carnelian                                Saurashtra

Script and Language 

pictograph

Harappan script is regarded as Pictographic since its signs represent birds, fish and a variety of human forms. The script was boustrophedon. Written from right to left in one line and then from left to right in the next line. The number of signs of the Harappan script is known to be between 400 and 600. The language of the Harappans is still unknown and must remain so until the Harappan script is deciphered.

Pottery

pottery

Harappan Pottery is bright or dark red and is uniformly sturdy and well baked. It is chiefly well made, and consists of both plain and painted ware, the plain variety being more common.
Harappan people used different types of pottery such as glaze, polychrome, incised, perforated and knobbed. The glazed Harappan pottery is the earliest example of its kind in the ancient world. On the whole, Harappan pottery was highly utilitarian and character, though the painted remarkable artistic touch.
Seals
They are the greatest artistic creations of the Indus people. Most commonly made of steatite (soft stone).

Ø The technique of cutting and polishing these seals with white luster was a unique invention of the Harappans.

Ø The majority of the seals have an animal engraved on them with a short inscription. Unicorn is the animal most frequently represented on the seals.

Burial Practices

Three forms of burials are found at Mohenjodaro, viz. complete burials. Tractional Burials (burial of some bones after the exposure of the body to wild beasts birds) and Post – cremation burials. But the general practice was extended inhumation, the body lying on us bak, with the head generally to the north.

Religion

pasupati shiva

The chief male deity was the Pashupati Mahadeva (Proto-Siva), represented in seals as sitting in a yogic posture on a low throne and having three faces and two horns. He is surrounded by four animals (elephant, tiger, rhino and buffalo), each facing a different direction, and two deer appear at his feet. The chief female deity was the Mother Goddess, who has been depicted in various forms. There is sufficient evidence for the prevalence of Phallic Worship. Numerous stone symbols of female sex organs (yoni worship), besides those of the phallus, have been discovered.
The worship of fire is proved by the discovery of fire altars at Lothal, Kalibangan and Harappa.
Indus people also worshipped Gods in the form of trees (papal, etc)and animals (unicorn etc), Further they believed in ghosts and evil forces and used amulets as protection against them

Decline

After 2000 BC, the Indus cultures slowly declined and gradually fade out. Some ascribe this to the decreasing fertility of the soil till account of the increasing salinity, caused by the expansion of the neighboring desert. Other attribute it to some kind of depression in the land, which caused Hoods. Still other point out that the Aryans destroyed it. According to some scholars, decline to trade, particularly oceanic trade with the Sumerians, must have contributed partly in the decline. Even though there are various theories for the downfall of this civilization, the most accepted version is that of ecological destruction.

Major Sites

Harappa                                 The great Granary
Mohenjodaro                          The Great Bath
Kalibangan                             Ploughed, Fire alter
Chanhudrao                            Ink pot, Shell- ornament
Banwali                                   Clay Bangles, Statue of mother Goddess
Surkotada                               Fortified town, remains of Horse.
KotDiji                                    Wheel, Streets, Toys
Ropar                                      Rectangular mud brick
Dholavira                                Hemmed in the Citadel
Lothal                                     Dockyard, rice husk.