Oldest book in the world- Rigveda

OLDEST BOOK IN THE WORLD- THE RIGVEDA

  • There are four Vedas-
    • The Rigveda
    • The Samaveda
    • The Yajurveda
    • The Atharvaveda

THE RIGVEDA:

  • The oldest Veda is the Rigveda.
  • Composed about 3500 years ago.
  • The Rigveda was composed in the north-west of the subcontinent.

  • Includes more than a thousand hymns, called Sukta or ‘well said’
  • Hymns/ Sukta are in praise of various Gods and Goddesses.
    • Agni- The God of Fire
    • Indra- A Warrior God
    • Soma- a Plant from which a Special drink was prepared.
  • These hymns were composed by sages(rishis)

  • Priests taught students to recite and memorise each syllable, word, and sentence with great care.
  • Most of the hymns were composed, taught and learnt by men.
  • A few were composed by women
  • The Rigveda is in old or Vedic Sanskrit ( different from today’s Sanskrit).
  • The Rigveda was recited and heard rather than read.
  • It was written down several centuries after it was first composed.
  • And printed less than 200 years ago.

SANSKRIT AND OTHER LANGUAGES:

The mother language- Sanskrit

‘MATR’-SANSKRIT

‘MA’- HINDI

‘MOTHER’- ENGLISH

INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE FAMILY—--SANSKRIT—--

  • INDIAN LANGUAGES
    • ASSAMESE
    • GUJARATI
    • HINDI
    • KASHMIRI
    • SINDHI
  • ASIAN LANGUAGES
    • PERSIAN
  • EUROPEAN LANGUAGES
    • ENGLISH
    • FRENCH
    • GERMAN
    • GREEK
    • ITALIAN
    • SPANISH

Cattles, horses & Chariots, people

CATTLE, HORSES AND CHARIOTS

  • Many prayers are there in Rigveda for
    • Cattle
    • Children especially for sons
    • Horses
  • Reasons for their prayers:
    • Horses yoked to chariots —-used in battles
  1. To capture cattles
  2. For land
  • For pastures(for animals)
  • cultivation(for growing hardy crops as barley)
  1. For water
  2. To capture people
  • Wealth obtained from the battles
    • Some kept by the leaders
    • Some given to the priests
    • Used for the performance of Yajnas/ Sacrifices in which offerings were made into the fire
  1. Meant for Gods and Goddesses
  2. Offerings included ghee, grain, and in some cases animals
  • The rest distributed amongst the people
  • Mostly men took part in wars
  • No regular army but assemblies held
    •  People met
    • Discussed matters of war and peace
    • Chose leaders, who were brave and skillful warriors

PEOPLE- WORDS TO DESCRIBE THEM

Several ways to describe people:

  • In terms of their work
  • The language they speak
  • The place they belong to
  • Their family
  • Their communities
  • Their cultural practices

Some words used to describe people in The Rigveda:

  • Two groups described in terms of their work
    • The Priests- called Brahmins
      • performed various rituals
    • The Rajas
  1. Did not have capital cities, palaces or armies
  2. Did not collect taxes
  3. Sons did not automatically succeed fathers as rajas
  • Two words used to describe the people or the community as a whole
    • Jana ( still use in Hindi and other languages for people)
    • Vish (the word vaishya comes from vish)
  • Several Vish or Jana mentioned by name
    • The Puru Jana or Vish
    • The Bharata Jana or Vish
    • The Yadu Jana or Vish
  • Sometimes described as
    • Aryas
      • Who composed hymns
    • Dasa / Dasyus
      1. People not performed sacrifices
      2. Spoke different languages
      3. Later Dasas means Slave
      4. Often captured in wars
      5. Treated as the property of the owners
      6. Make them do whatever owners wanted

megaliths, Social differences, burial site - Inamgaon

MEGALITHS - SOCIAL DIFFERENCES

Megaliths: Stone boulders, literally big stones

  • Megaliths were carefully arranged by the people to mark burial sites.

  • The practice of erecting megaliths began about 3000 years ago.
  • It was prevalent
    •  throughout the Deccan
    •  South India
    •  in the north-east
    •  Kashmir
MEGALITH SITES
  • CIST: have port-holes used as an entrance

                      CIST

  • Some megaliths can be seen on the surface other megalithic burials are underground
    • Indications that there were burials beneath
      • Sometimes a circle of stone boulders
      • A single large stone

COMMON FEATURES OF THE BURIALS:

  • The dead buried with distinctive pots
    • Red ware
    • Black ware
  • Tools and weapons of iron
  • Skeletons of horses
  • Horse equipment
  • Ornaments of stone and gold

Iron equipment found from megalithic burials

SOCIAL DIFFERENCES:

  • Archaeologists think that the personal belongings were kept along the skeletons in the burials
  • Sometimes more objects were in one grave than the others which shows the social differences amongst the people of that time.
    • In Brahmagiri, one skeleton was buried with
      • 33 gold beads
      • 2 stone beads
      • 4 copper bangles
      • 1 conch shell
    • Other skeleton have only few pots
  •  Some were rich,others poors, some chiefs and others followers.
  • Some burial spots meant for certain families- more than one skeleton
    • People of the same family buried in the same place but in different periods
    • Those who died later, their bodies brought into the graves through the portholes
    • Stone circles or boulders served as Signposts to mark the burial sites.
    • So that people could return to the same place whenever they wanted to.

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