Editing History of India (section)

==== 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}}