Vedic Culture History

Vedic Religion The Vedic period religions laid the foundation of the religious practices that are continued till date in modern India. These religions arose from the sacred scriptures that were composed during the Vedic period. These scriptures founded the very base of Hinduism in India. The scriptures that talk of the various religious practices are basically the four Vedas namely Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda.

Vedic Culture The Vedic period has been broadly classified into two categories: the Early and Later Vedic Periods. This has been done according to the way the transition in the style of culture and society took place. The Vedic period society developed rapidly as time passed by. In Vedic age, culture and society developed from the crude form to the refined form as more and more people came to settle and started to contribute their own ideas to reform the society.

History is the study of past events. It helps us to understand those processes that enabled the early humans to successfully conquer their environment and develop the present day civilizations. It is not just a study of battles and kings as is normally understood by some. It is an analysis of society, economy and cultural trends over a long period as reflected in available sources. A historian tries to evaluate different situations over a long period and asks questions as to why certain events happened and what was their impact on society at large? Every new evidence or a fresh interpretation of existing evidence by different scholars helps in enriching our knowledge about the past. A historian differentiates between fact and fiction. However , myths which are based on oral tradition of a society may contain memories of past happenings. The historian’s job is to ascertain the fact through cross checking of different historical evidence. In this lesson you will learn how India’s ancient past was constructed with the help of large varieties of historical evidence and their interpretation.

For an overall knowledge of the past, students are to be made aware of various aspects of society, called THEMES. These themes enable us to learn about developments in different spheres – social, economic, religious, political and cultural. The developments in these spheres are so much interlinked that they often break the boundaries between them, for example when the pastoral society of the early Vedic Age got transformed into settled agricultural society in the later Vedic Age, the political system changed as a consequence. The king who was earlier known as Gopati (lord of cattle) in pastoral society became Bhupati (lord of land) with the development of agricultural economy. And with that the wars began to be fought for acquiring more land instead of cows. The kings gradually became powerful and kingship hereditary. So, we notice that changes in different spheres are related to each other an they often influence major developments. In this course material you will learn about the development in the fields of art, architecture, caste system, science and economy, technology and also about the rise and growth of various religious sects and rituals.