Editing History of India (section)

=== Vedic period (c. 1500 – 600 BCE) ===
{{Main|Vedic period|Historical Vedic religion|Vedas}}
{{See also|Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan migrations}}

Starting {{circa|1900&nbsp;BCE}}, [[Rigvedic tribes|Indo-Aryan tribes]] moved into the [[Punjab]] from [[Central Asia]] in several [[Indo-Aryan migration theory|waves of migration]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Stein|first=Burton|author-link=Burton Stein|editor-last=Arnold|editor-first=David|year=2010|title=A History of India|edition=2nd|publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]]|place=Oxford|isbn=978-1-4051-9509-6|page=47|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QY4zdTDwMAQC}}</ref>{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=31}} The [[Vedic period]] is when the Vedas were composed of liturgical hymns from the Indo-Aryan people. The Vedic culture was located in part of north-west India, while other parts of India had a distinct cultural identity. Many regions of the Indian subcontinent transitioned from the [[Chalcolithic]] to the [[Iron Age]] in this period.{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=255}}

The Vedic culture is described in the texts of [[Vedas]], still sacred to Hindus, which were orally composed and transmitted in [[Vedic Sanskrit]]. The Vedas are some of the oldest extant texts in India.{{sfn|Antonova|Bongard-Levin|Kotovsky|1979|p=51}} The Vedic period, lasting from about 1500 to 500&nbsp;BCE,<ref>{{cite book|last=MacKenzie|first=Lynn|date=1995|title=Non-Western Art: A Brief Guide|url=https://archive.org/details/nonwesternartbri00mack|url-access=registration|publisher=Prentice Hall|page=[https://archive.org/details/nonwesternartbri00mack/page/151 151]|isbn=978-0-13-104894-2}}</ref><ref>Romila Thapar, ''A History of India: Part 1'', pp. 29–30.</ref> contributed to the foundations of several cultural aspects of the Indian subcontinent.

==== Vedic society ====
[[File:Rigveda MS2097.jpg|thumb|right|An early 19th century manuscript in the [[Devanagari]] script of the [[Rigveda]], originally transmitted orally<ref>{{cite book|last=Staal|first=Frits|author-link=Frits Staal|year=1986|title=The Fidelity of Oral Tradition and the Origins of Science|publisher=[[North Holland Publishing Company]]}}</ref>]]

Historians have analysed the Vedas to posit a Vedic culture in the [[Punjab]], and the upper [[Indo-Gangetic Plain|Gangetic Plain]].{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=255}} The [[Peepal]] tree and cow were sanctified by the time of the [[Atharva Veda]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Singhal|first1=K. C.|last2=Gupta|first2=Roshan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hoXqCmo-Xs8C|title=The Ancient History of India, Vedic Period: A New Interpretation|date=2003|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors|isbn=81-269-0286-8|location=New Delhi|oclc=53360586|pages=150–151}}</ref> Many of the concepts of [[Indian philosophy]] espoused later, like [[dharma]], trace their roots to Vedic antecedents.<ref>{{cite book|last=Day|first=Terence P.|date=1982|title=The Conception of Punishment in Early Indian Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fjo2gk2tBK8C|location=Ontario|publisher=[[Wilfrid Laurier University Press]]|pages=42–45|isbn=978-0-919812-15-4}}</ref>

Early Vedic society is described in the [[Rigveda]], the oldest Vedic text, believed to have been compiled during the 2nd millennium BCE,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Duiker|first1=William J.|author1-link=William J. Duiker|last2=Spielvogel|first2=Jackson J.|author2-link=Jackson J. Spielvogel|year=2018|orig-year=First published 1994|title=World History|publisher=Cengage|edition=9th|pages=44, 59|isbn=978-1-337-40104-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Nelson|first=James Melvin|title=Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality|year=2009|url=https://archive.org/details/psychologyreligi00nels|url-access=limited|page=[https://archive.org/details/psychologyreligi00nels/page/n91 77]|publisher=Springer}}</ref> in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent.<ref>{{cite book|last=Flood|first=Gavin Dennis|author-link=Gavin Flood|title=An Introduction to Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpIWhKnYmF0C&pg=PA37|date=13 July 1996|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0-521-43878-0|page=37}}</ref> At this time, Aryan society consisted of predominantly tribal and pastoral groups, distinct from the Harappan urbanisation which had been abandoned.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285248/India/46837/The-appearance-of-Indo-Aryan-speakers|title=India: The Late 2nd Millennium and the Reemergence of Urbanism|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|access-date=12 May 2007}}</ref> The early Indo-Aryan presence probably corresponds, in part, to the [[Ochre Coloured Pottery culture]] in archaeological contexts.{{sfn|Reddy|2003|p=A11}}<ref name="Witzel1989">[[Michael Witzel]] (1989), ''Tracing the Vedic dialects'' in ''Dialectes dans les litteratures Indo-Aryennes'' ed. [[Colette Caillat|Caillat]], Paris, 97–265.</ref>

At the end of the Rigvedic period, the Aryan society expanded from the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent into the western [[Ganges]] plain. It became increasingly agricultural and was socially organised around the hierarchy of the four ''[[Varna (Hinduism)|varnas]]'', or social classes.{{sfn|Samuel|2008|p=43, 48, 51, 86–87}} This social structure was characterised by the exclusion of some indigenous peoples by labelling their occupations impure.{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|pp=41–43}} During this period, many of the previous small tribal units and chiefdoms began to coalesce into [[Janapada]]s (monarchical, state-level polities).{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=200}}

==== Sanskrit epics ====
{{Main|Mahabharata|Ramayana}}
{{see also|List of historic Indian texts|List of Hindu texts}}
[[File:Kurukshetra.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Manuscript illustration of the [[Battle of Kurukshetra]].]]

The Sanskrit epics ''Ramayana'' and ''Mahabharata'' were composed during this period.<ref>{{cite book|author=Valmiki|author-link=Valmiki|url=https://archive.org/details/ramayanaofva01valm/page/23|title=The Ramayana of Valmiki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume 1: Balakanda|date=10 April 1990|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|isbn=978-0-691-01485-2|editor-last1=Goldman|editor-first1=Robert P.|editor-link1=Robert P. Goldman|location=Princeton, New Jersey|page=[https://archive.org/details/ramayanaofva01valm/page/23 23]|editor-last2=Pollock|editor-first2=Sheldon|editor-link2=Sheldon Pollock}}</ref> The ''Mahabharata'' remains the longest single poem in the world.<ref>Romila Thapar, ''A History of India Part 1'', p. 31.</ref> Historians formerly postulated an "epic age" as the milieu of these two epic poems, but now recognise that the texts went through multiple stages of development over centuries.{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|pp=18–19}} The existing texts of these epics are believed to belong to the post-Vedic age, between {{circa}} 400&nbsp;BCE and 400&nbsp;CE.{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|pp=18–19}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brockington|first=J. L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HR-_LK5kl18C&pg=PA26|title=The Sanskrit epics, Part 2|publisher=Brill|year=1998|isbn=978-90-04-10260-6|volume=12|page=21}}</ref>

==== Janapadas ====
{{Main|Janapada}}
{{See also|Battle of the Ten Kings|List of ancient Indo-Aryan peoples and tribes}}
[[File:Late Vedic Culture (1100-500 BCE).png|thumb|right|Late Vedic era map showing the boundaries of [[Āryāvarta]] with Janapadas in northern India, beginning of Iron Age kingdoms in India – [[Kuru (kingdom)|Kuru]], [[Panchala]], [[Kosala]], [[Videha]] ]]

The [[Iron Age India|Iron Age]] in the Indian subcontinent from about 1200&nbsp;BCE to the 6th century BCE is defined by the rise of Janapadas, which are [[realms]], [[republics]] and [[monarchy|kingdoms]]—notably the Iron Age Kingdoms of [[Kuru (kingdom)|Kuru]], [[Panchala]], [[Kosala]] and [[Videha]].<ref>{{cite book|title=A Sanskrit reader: with vocabulary and notes|last=Lanman|first=Charles Rockwell|author-link=Charles Rockwell Lanman|year=1912|orig-year=First published 1884|publisher=[[Ginn & Co.]]|location=Boston|url=https://archive.org/stream/sanskritreaderwi00lanmiala#page/158/mode/1up|oclc=633836|quote="''... jána, m. creature; man; person; in plural, and collectively in singular, folks; a people or race or tribe ... cf. γένος, Lat. genus, Eng. kin, 'race' ...''"}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Pedigree: The Origins of Words from Nature|last1=Potter|first1=Stephen|author-link1=Stephen Potter|last2=Sargent|first2=Laurens Christopher|year=1974|publisher=Taplinger Publishing Company|isbn=978-0-8008-6248-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8SNDAAAAIAAJ|quote=''... *gen-, found in Skt. jana, 'a man', and Gk. genos and L. genus, 'a race' ...''}}</ref>

The [[Kuru Kingdom]] ({{circa}} 1200–450 BCE) was the first state-level society of the Vedic period, corresponding to the beginning of the Iron Age in north-western India, around 1200–800&nbsp;BCE,<ref>{{cite book|title=Marvels and Mysteries of the Mahabharata|last=Basu|first=Abhijit|publisher=Leadstart publishing|year=2013|page=153|isbn=978-93-84027-47-6}}</ref> as well as with the composition of the [[Atharvaveda]].<ref name="Witzel 1995">{{cite journal|last=Witzel|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Witzel|year=1995|title=Early Sanskritization. Origins and Development of the Kuru State|url=https://crossasia-journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/ejvs/article/view/823/913|journal=Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies|volume=1|issue=4|pages=1–26|doi=10.11588/ejvs.1995.4.823|access-date=20 November 2018|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407172825/https://crossasia-journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/ejvs/article/view/823/913|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Kuru state organised the Vedic hymns into collections and developed the [[srauta]] ritual to uphold the social order.<ref name="Witzel 1995" /> Two key figures of the Kuru state were king [[Parikshit]] and his successor [[Janamejaya II|Janamejaya]], who transformed this realm into the dominant political, social, and cultural power of northern India.<ref name="Witzel 1995" /> When the Kuru kingdom declined, the centre of Vedic culture shifted to their eastern neighbours, the Panchala kingdom.<ref name="Witzel 1995" /> The archaeological [[Painted Grey Ware culture|PGW]] (Painted Grey Ware) culture, which flourished in north-eastern India's [[Haryana]] and western [[Uttar Pradesh]] regions from about 1100 to 600&nbsp;BCE,{{sfn|Reddy|2003|p=A11}} is believed to correspond to the [[Kuru Kingdom|Kuru]] and [[Pañcāla|Panchala]] kingdoms.<ref name="Witzel 1995" />{{sfn|Samuel|2008|p=48}}

During the Late Vedic Period, the kingdom of [[Videha]] emerged as a new centre of Vedic culture, situated even farther to the East (in what is today Nepal and [[Bihar]] state);<ref name="Witzel1989" /> reaching its prominence under the king [[Janaka]], whose court provided patronage for [[Brahmin]] sages and [[Indian philosophy|philosophers]] such as [[Yajnavalkya]], [[Aruni]], and [[Gārgī Vāchaknavī]].<ref>H.C. Raychaudhuri (1950), ''Political History of Ancient India and Nepal'', Calcutta: University of Calcutta, p. 58</ref> The later part of this period corresponds with a consolidation of increasingly large states and kingdoms, called ''[[Mahajanapadas]]'', across Northern India.