HIST 10800 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Rigveda, Indus River, Vedic Period
Document Summary
, one of many indo-european pastoral nomadic groups, settled in the plain of the indus. The area provided them with iron ore, allowing them to make axes and tools. The geography, however, resulted in slow progress, as it was difficult to clear the jungles. The vedas was composed of four books, containing religious texts; they cover ritual, sacrifice, hymns, healing, incantations, allegories, philosophy, and problems of everyday life; originally, it was passed down orally. The vedas was so important that historians call the period from 1500 to 1000 b. c. e. the vedic age. The most important collecton was the rig veda, containing hymns to gods. It revealed that the aryans were a vigorous people, and were great conquerors. Also, their society was hierarchal, and dominated by males. Aryans were different from people of the indus valley as aryans did not leave behind written records, had a caste system, left behind few artifacts, and had a religion based on the vedas.
