Short notes on Evidence for Settlements and Spread of Archaeological

There are textual sources from which information may be derived about the period following the Indus Civilization, so these narratives are considered sis the beginnings of history.

Archaeological evidence for the material culture of the late second and early first millenniums is clear, and can at times be used as cross-evidence for what is said in the texts.

However, confusion arises because there is a large number of a text with varying narratives and dating from dif­ferent times, all regarded as referring to the begin­nings of history.

There are the epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana, and the Puranas, all of which began as oral traditions, were memorized, though infor­mally, embellished over time, and given their present textual form sometime in the early first millennium AD.

The texts that came to be considered the Vedic corpus were contemporaneous with the second mil­lennium BC, though they too began as an oral tradition; however, they were memorized with greater precision and formality than was the case with the narratives of the Puranas and the epics.

Among the literary sources the foremost are the four Vedas, namely Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva. Derived from the Sanskrit word vid, to know, the Vedas are basically hymns and prayers offered by different groups of people.

They were meant to be recited, learnt and transmitted orally and were therefore not written down when they were com­posed. That is why they are called Samhitas. They were composed over a period of few centuries, which are somewhat difficult to identify.

Anyway relative dating in the context of these Samhitas has led scholars to believe that the Rigveda represents a period approximately between 1500 and 1000 BC.

The Rigveda is considered to be the earliest collection of hymns and this, together with the Later Vedas, help us in understanding the beginning and subsequent development of the Vedic Age.

This understanding is needed because of the belief that the Aryans composed the Vedas and were a civilizing influence in the Indian subcontinent. However, an analysis of the Rigveda does not indicate a very advanced material culture.

In fact, the material traits considered characteristic of Indian civilisation were already present in non-Vedic cultures represented in different parts of India.

Furthermore, when the Rigveda is compared with the other Vedas, it is found that significant changes occurred in the Vedic society itself. It would therefore appear that there was no fixed cultural pattern which could be termed Vedic culture or Aryan culture.

There are ten books or Mandalas in the Rigveda, of which books II to VII are the oldest and relate to the Early Vedic Age. The rest of the books are later additions. The total number of hymns is 1028.

These hymns are of eight and ten verses respectively, which were recited by priest-styled hotris or reciters. There are altogether 10,600 verses.

The old hymns are chiefly to be found in the Family Books (II-VII), each of which is ascribed to a particular family of seers (rishis) Gritsamada, Visvamitra, Vamadeva, Atri, Bharadvaja and Vashistha.

Book VIII is ascribed to the Kanvas and Angirases. Book IX is dedicated to Soma. The latest parts of the collection are to be found in Books I and X.

The religious hymns of the Rigveda provide such insights into various aspects of an early society as would never be available in archaeological evidence.

Those hymns provide valuable information on the nature of economy, social organisation, kingship and political set up along with the prevailing religious and cosmological beliefs. What is known from the Rigveda is of immense use in understanding the nature of Indian society of the time.

The tenth Mandala of the Rigveda is a later addition, and the Sama, Yajur and Atharva Vedas are usually regarded as works composed during the Later Vedic phase.

The Samaveda, regarded as the well-spring of Indian music, is a book of prayers and chants from the Rigveda, modified and given musical forms for the express purpose of singing them during the rituals.

Elaborating upon the forms of the ritual, the Yajurveda hymns are also a commentary on the social and political milieu of the times. The Atharvaveda depicts the folk traditions of the age with a litany of the popular religion.

It tells us about the socio- religious conditions of the commoners. The Vedas or rather the Veda Samhitas are followed by Brahmanas which are further commentaries on the Vedas.

They explain the leitmotif of the rituals, their social and religious significance and, in the process, describe the Vedic society with exceptional clarity.

Scholars believe that the core of the ideas in the two Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the philo­sophical beliefs and concepts endowed in those two great literary works have their beginning in the Later Vedic Age.

The geographical spread of that period, as described in the later Vedas, is the Upper and Middle Ganga basin along with some other areas. This is also the locale of the two epics, their centre stages and their theatres of action.

However, there is nothing to endorse the historical truth of the stories narrated in the epics. Over centuries both the epics were modified and added on to reach their present shapes.

So, the times and the people and the events are made of many strands and it would not be correct to look for an exact reflection of the Later Vedic Age in the epics.

The period assigned to the Later Vedic Age is 1000-600 BC and many tribes and clans were men­tioned in the literary sources of that time. In view of this, archaeological evidence found in the areas for the period concerned cannot be attributed to a particular clan or tribe.

Nonetheless, an agricultural community flourished in the area during roughly the same period. The characteristic pottery of the period is PGW, an examination of the culture of which would reflect the material conditions of the Later Vedic Age.

More than 700 such sites have been excavated, extending from the dry bed of the river Ghaggar in Bahawalpur and northern Rajasthan to the watersheds of the rivers Indus and Ganga and the Ganga-Yamuna doab.

Its eastern limit is Sravasti, while other important centres of PGW culture are Ahichhatra, Atranjikhera, Kurukshetra, Hastinapur and Jakhera.

Dated from 2000-1400 BC, the Banas culture of Rajasthan could have reached the Ganga Valley in about 800 BC, and the people of this BRW culture could also be linked to the period of 1000- 600 BC.

Most of the hymns of the Rigveda were probably composed in the country around the River Sarasvati, now lost in the sands of Rajasthan.

The Indo-Aryan occupation of Afghanistan and the Punjab is proved by the mention in the Rigveda of the rivers Jaxartes, Kabul, Swat, Kurram, Gumal, Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.

The Himalayas were well known, but the Vindhyas were unknown. Thus we can safely conclude that the Aryan settlements were confined to Eastern Afghanistan, modern Pakistan, Punjab and parts of modern Uttar Pradesh.

The major part of this area was known as the land of Sap la Sindhu (the Indus and its five tributaries and the Sarasvati.)

When the hymns were written, the focus of Aryan culture was the region between the Yamuna and the Sutlej (the region was referred to as Brahmavarta), and along the upper course of the River Sarasvati.

To the east the Aryans had not expanded far beyond the Yamuna, and the Ganga is mentioned only in a late hymn. Narmada finds no mention.

In the Later Vedic period (1000-600 BC), the Aryans spread out from their early settlements (in Afghanistan and Punjab) to the Ganga-Yamuna Doab. Towards the east, the Aryans penetrated into Kosala, Kashi, Videha, Magadha, Anga, etc.

The Kurus and Panchalas were the leading Aryan tribes. References to the Andhras and the Pulindas indicate the emerg­ing Aryan contact with the south. In the beginning they cleared the land by burning; later with the use of iron tools which became common by 1000-800 BC.

Archaeologists have excavated parts of a few sites of this period, such as Hastinapur, Ahichhatra, and Kausambi.

The town of Hastinapur was almost completely destroyed by flood at the end of its existence, and little remains but sherds of painted grey pottery, a few copper implements, and traces of houses of unbaked bricks.

Kausambi has produced similar pottery, a little iron, and remains of a well- made city wall faced with burnt brick.

The journey east of the “Vedic Aryans” inferred from the literary sources is not, however, supported by archaeology. In fact, archaeology does not sup­port any single culture, as whole, shifting or moving eastwards.

However, both Vedic literary sources and archaeology refer to a society which knew how to use iron. Iron objects were found in most of the PGW sites, radio carbon testing of which from Atranjikhera, Noh, Jodhpura, etc., sites suggests that iron was introduced around 1000-800 BC in the Gangetic plain.

Ayas, which may refer to iron, is mentioned in the Rigveda, even though archaeologi­cal evidence relates it to the Later Vedic Period. There is corroboration of this in the later Vedas.

For instance, Yajurveda mentions syarna ayas while the Brahmanas refer to Krishna ayas, a black metal which could be iron.

Anyway, the exploitation of iron ore in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal and Punjab and subse­quently in South Bihar was an indigenous phenom­enon, while recent diggings have established the use of iron in the south as well. So, there is nothing to support the view that iron technology was introduced by “migrant Aryans”.

While the Aryans had by now expanded far into India, their old home in Punjab and North-West was practically forgotten.

Later Vedic literature mentions it rarely and then usually with disparagement and contempt, as an impure land where the Vedic sacrifices were not performed. It may have been once more invaded by the Indo-Iranian tribes who did not follow the orthodox rites.