The Vedas are monuments of the sacred literature of the Indian group of the Aryans (Indo-Aryans). In terms of language and mythology, they are closest to the Iranian Avesta. The word "veda" itself is akin to the Russian word "to know", that is, "to know" (we are talking, of course, about secret, sacred knowledge). Four main collections of the Vedas have survived with countless texts of commentaries adjoining them, mainly of ritual content. The latter make up late Vedic literature.
The oldest of the Vedas, the Rig Veda (literally, the Veda of hymns), contains mainly praise to the Aryan gods. Her favorite hero is the god Indra, who performs his main feat: with a thunderous weapon - a vajra, he strikes the demon Vritra, formless and terrible, holding the heavenly waters (the latter are like herds of cows). After the victory won by Indra, streams of water flow, the cows run to the watering place. Universal Chaos gives way to the cosmic Order - and so on until the end of a new cycle, when the demon must again be defeated by the light god, racing in a chariot with a vajra in his mighty hand. In the mythology of the Avesta, there is a character named Verethragna (literally - “the one who kills Verethra,” that is, Vritra). Consequently, the whole myth of Indra and Vritra is of general Aryan origin.
Of the great Indo-Aryan gods, one should also name the wise judge Varuna, who keeps the cosmic Truth - Rita (full correspondence of the Avestan Arta). Among the Indo-Aryans, the god Yama is associated with the underworld - the son of the solar Vivaswant (he corresponds to the Avestan Yima, the son of Vivahvant). Indo-Aryan gods and their earthly worshipers fall into ecstasy after the ritual of drinking a hallucinogenic drink - soma (an analogue of haoma among the Iranians).
Comparison of the Rig Veda with the Avesta shows that the basis of both religious poetry belongs to the era of the unity of the Aryans, that is, to the time before their division into Iranians and Indo-Aryans and the arrival of the latter to the territory of Hindustan.
Judging by the Vedic literature, the Indo-Aryans led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, raising cattle and staying in one place only until the pastures were depleted. Their material life was not difficult, therefore archaeologists still find it difficult to determine the traces of their movements. Social relations among the Aryans were patriarchal: unlike the inhabitants of Harappa, there are almost no female characters in the huge pantheon of Indo-Aryans.
Since the Aryans themselves lived in wagons or fragile huts, they did not build temples for their gods, nor did they have their images - idols. The hymns of the Rig Veda reflect individual anthropomorphic features of the gods, but these are rather purely poetic images ("the mighty hands of Indra", "the golden hair of the sun god"). Deities were perceived in a rather abstract way. Sacrifices were performed on the fire of the altar, and the gods were fed, inhaling smoke from burnt meat, butter, milk, barley or wheat.
Two social categories occupy a special place in the Rig Veda. The first is the rishis (seers), mystically "seeing" hymns with which they should glorify this or that god. These rishis trace their ancestry to the brahmana priests, who utter Vedic incantations during the sacrifices to the gods. The second category is tribal chiefs who are at the head of their tribesmen at the time of military clashes over herds of cattle and fat pastures. They fight in horse-drawn chariots. Vedic kings are tribal leaders, but not sole rulers. There is no one-man command in the Vedic pantheon either. At the moment of sacrifice to any god, he is called the main one, but only because they are honored at a holiday dedicated to him.
From the mentions of the Indus tributaries, local flora and fauna, it has been established that the main part of the Rig Veda was formed in the northwestern part of India. Monuments of late Vedic literature, created in the first half of the 1st millennium BC. e., are localized to the east, and the later the monument, the closer to the lower reaches of the Ganges. Therefore, it can be assumed that at this time the Indo-Aryans gradually mastered the whole of Northern India.
Promotional video:
The tribes that lived in the Ganges basin before the Aryans were partially pushed back to less convenient territories. Here they have been preserved for a long time as small islands in a sea of peoples who spoke Indo-Aryan dialects. But the bulk of the aborigines have undergone cultural and linguistic assimilation.
At the same time, the newcomers also had to learn a lot from the local residents, for example, in the field of economic activities corresponding to the local nature and climate. Horses, to which the Aryans attached great importance (including symbolic importance), do not breed in humid tropics. It is impossible to roam with herds of cattle in the jungle of the Ganges Valley. The main cereal crop here is not barley, but rice. Rice farming, on the other hand, requires a strong settled lifestyle. Fighting the jungle with iron axes (and this is already the era of the Iron Age!) And cultivating solid soils with a shovel and a plow with an iron share, the Indians, who spoke Indo-Aryan dialects (by blood, they were not always direct descendants of the creators of the Rig Veda), mastered the Ganges valley. Their villages were united into small states, usually created on the basis of one tribe. The leader turned into a local prince and built a wooden fortress for himself and his squad.
Since late medieval literature is mainly devoted to the interpretation of rituals, it is about this side of the life and culture of the Indians that can be judged in general. For the hereditary brahmana priests, sacrifice was seen as the driving force of the entire universe: the sacrifice placed in the fire of the altar turns into smoke; smoke ascending into the heavens becomes rain; rain, pouring down on the ground, gives birth to grain; the priest throws the grain into the altar fire. This is how the cycle of sacrifice takes place, and the brahmana priest appears as the protagonist of the cosmic movement. Only he knows what formulas should be pronounced during the sacrifice, what manipulations to perform, how to address the gods. If the entire ritual is performed strictly according to the rules, the gods simply cannot refuse the donor's request. It seems that the gods themselves are just puppetsmanipulated by a brahmana.
The creators of late Medieval literature are confident in the unity of the universe. Everything in the world is just various transformations of the victim. Moreover, they are strict determinists, for even the gods, according to their ideas, do not have free will. The gods are obliged to act if a brahmana urges them to do so by his ritual and magical means.
Brahman has many privileges. No one should oppress him, insult or subject him to corporal punishment: otherwise, the sacrifice will be in vain: the gods will not accept it. In addition, it is simply dangerous to offend a brahmana, for in anger he can burn the whole world. The knowledge of the brahmanas is passed on from generation to generation in their midst, and moreover in oral form, so that the sacred text does not fall into the hands of an uninitiated and is not subjected to ritual pollution. The learned brahmana is surrounded by boy disciples who until their youth live in his house, serve their teacher-guru and memorize a huge amount of texts from his words (if you translate these Vedic monuments into printed form, you get many thousands of pages). At the same time, the language in which the texts to be memorized were created and continued to be created is a special, "purified" (Sanskrit). It was not subject to change and therefore more and more differed from the living, spoken languages in which the population spoke.
The second closed hereditary group after the Brahmans (the Indians called such groups the word "varna") were the Kshatriyas - tribal princes and the nobility surrounding them. For the late Vedic time, the motive of glory is the leading one. The leaders with their squads constantly attacked the neighbors. The captured prey, however, they did not accumulate, but spent on lavish multi-day sacrifices and festivities with plentiful treats. The king-leader thus accumulated fame: new followers flocked to him, and he again went for the booty. The ultimate goal for him was "the conquest of the universe" - the guarantee of heavenly bliss.
The third estate-caste category (varna) included full-fledged community members - vaisyas, independent householders engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture.
All three first varnas had the right to participate in the Vedic cult and to read the Vedic texts. They received this right primarily by birth, but this was not enough. Boys of six or seven years old were brought by their father to the guru, who performed the initiation ceremony: he recited Vedic incantations and hung a special sacred thread over their shoulders. From that time on they were considered to have passed the "second birth", "twice born".
On the contrary, the representatives of the fourth varna - the sudras - could under no circumstances undergo the ceremony of the "second birth" and join the Vedic cult. All strangers and incompetent people were considered Shudras - those who worked for another as a farm laborer or servant, as well as artisans, since the craft was considered a kind of service labor. The formation of the caste-estate system, of course, began even before the appearance of the Indo-Aryans in India. Judging by the Avesta, their Iranian counterparts had similar social institutions.
In India, the doctrine of karma (deeds, merit) is linked to the caste-class system. According to the ideas prevailing at that time, after death, a living being does not disappear at all, but only reborn, takes on a different form in accordance with what his actions were in the previous existence. Having earned the best birth, an animal is born as a man, a sudra as a brahmana, a brahmana as a god (gods are also a kind of living beings, and therefore they are not free from the law of karma).
Each group of living entities is a jati (literally "birth"). There are jati (breeds) of cattle, jati (types) of plants, jati (castes and varnas, that is, as it were, subspecies and types) of people. The very fact of birth indicates belonging to a particular caste-class group. The question of a caste change for an Indian is as meaningless as the question of whether a cow can give birth to a pig or whether a sheep can become an elephant.
A. Vigasin