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
- To capture cattles
- For land
- For pastures(for animals)
- cultivation(for growing hardy crops as barley)
- For water
- 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
- Meant for Gods and Goddesses
- 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
- The Priests- called Brahmins
- Did not have capital cities, palaces or armies
- Did not collect taxes
- 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
- People not performed sacrifices
- Spoke different languages
- Later Dasas means Slave
- Often captured in wars
- Treated as the property of the owners
- Make them do whatever owners wanted
- Aryas
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
- 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
- Indications that there were burials beneath
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
- In Brahmagiri, one skeleton was buried with
- 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.