From the geographical data provided in the Rigveda we can analyse the course of the Aryan expansion in North India. It is a reasonable presumption that the geographica’ names which figure prominently or frequently in these hymns indicate regions which were familiar to their authors, and were scenes of the early activities of the Aryans.
Names less prominent or frequent might be either outside settlements of the Aryans or the border regions inhabited by non-Aryans. For instance, when the early Rigvedic hymns were written the focus of Aryan culture was the region between the Yamuna and Sutudri (Sutluj), and along the upper course of the river Saraswati.
The latter river is now an insignificant stream, losing itself in the desert of Rajasthan, but then it flowed broad and strong. The Rigvedic poets knew the Himalayas, but not the land south of the Yamuna, and they did not mention the Vindhyas.
In order to ascertain the extent of the Aryan settlements in the period of the Rigveda, we should, therefore, consider the references to mountains, rivers, localities, tribes and kingdoms contained in the hymns. Courses of rivers, especially in the Punjab have considerably changed in the course of the last three or four millennia.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Their names have also varied in different times. There is, therefore, some difference of opinion with regard to the identifications of the rivers mentioned in the Vedic Texts. The same is the case regarding the location of the various tribes and countries. But inspite of these difficulties, it is possible to form a fair idea of the geographical data figuring in the Vedic texts.