KEY IDEAS

1. Indo-Aryan nomads entered India and mixed with the locals.

2. Vedas teach us about the Aryan religion and customs.

3. A caste system separated Indians into groups based on birth and occupation.

ORIGINS

1500 BC: Aryan (noble) people lived in the Indus Valley.

They mixed with the locals who adopted Aryan language and religion.

They brought a polytheistic religion with them and they described their beliefs in songs called hymns and scriptures known as Vedas.

THEORIES

1. They were nomadic warriors who invaded and defeated locals.

2. Original inhibitors of India. This is because they would have described their origins in their Vedas if not.

3. Nomadic herders in what is now Afghanistan and central Asia who entered and spread over a long period of time.

Aryans created Vedas that were sacred hymns that described their religion and society.

Priests memorized and chanted theses hymns in Sanskrit, which is a relative to English and the origin of many Indian languages.

Most known Veda: Rig Veda, it includes over 1000 hymns praising the Aryan gods.

ARYAN LIFE

Nomadic herders that raised sheep, cattle, horses, and goats.

Cattle was especially important because it provide food and clothing.

Later, Aryans moved to the Ganges plains where they took up farming.

Villages→ slowly→ cities

They loved music, dance and chariot races.

GROWTH

Aryans were divided into clans, each clan had a cheif.

clans joined to become a republic and powerful leaders made themselves kings.

By 500BC more than a dozen kingdoms had been made in the Ganges Plains.

CASTE SYSTEM

social pyramid

Castes could not mix or move up rank.

Castes were organized by jatis (jobs) and varnas (religious staus).

Men in the highest Varna were considered twice born (physical, then, after studying the Vedas, spiritual)

1) Brahmins: Priests

2) Kshatriyas: Rulers and warriors

3) Vaishyas: Landowners, bankers, merchants

4) Sudras: Domestic jobs like farming, labor, or serving.

5) Dalits: (Meaning untouchable) did dirty jobs no one else wanted to do.

CASTE SYSTEM ^^

Limited people’s freedom because one’s life was fixed from the moment they were born.

Some believe it brought stability becuase everyone focused on their jobs allowing Indian goods to become famous.

Since 1950, the Castes system was made illegal, and evidence of this is that India’s 10th president was a Dalit.