The Indo Aryan civilization in India

 

Much has been written and debated about the origins of the Aryans who came to India after the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization which came to an end around 1500 BCE. While some scholars favour the out of India origin of the Indo Aryans others favour that the Aryans originated in India. The word Aryan comes from the Sanskrit word ‘arya’ which means the noble ones. The Aryans migrated from their ancestral homes in central Asia corresponding to modern Russia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan.The timing of the Indo European migrations can be traced back to 4000 BCE in Europe when the speakers of Proto Indo European languages spread and dispersed through large parts of Iran, Russia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, and Greece, and a large part of northern India. This dispersal has been confirmed by linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, and genetics. This explains the similarity between various languages like Sanskrit, Persian, Russian, Greek, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali, and Gujarati. We also notice a striking similarity in the use of the past tense in Russian and many Indo Aryan languages.

It has been claimed by many historians that the Aryans destroyed the Indus Valley civilization and that they entered India as invaders. The Aryans entered India after the demise of the Indus valley civilization around 1500 BCE and there is no direct evidence linking the Indo Aryans to the destruction of the Indus Valley civilization. The religion and the rituals of the Indo Aryans bears a striking resemblance to those of ancient Iranian religions and Greek religions. For example, the horse is considered as an indispensable trait of the Aryan culture and the term asva(horse) appears in the Rig Veda and in Zend Avesta the religious text of the Iranians. It also appears in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and other Indo European languages. Similarly, the pit dwellings, sacrificial rituals, the svastika, language, and inscriptional evidence is a common feature among the speakers of the Indo Aryan languages.

The speakers of the Indo Aryan languages came to be identified by their tribal identity and subsequently, it gave rise to Jana and varna system of social differentiation. This system of social differentiation eventually gave rise to jatis or castes like the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras.Tribal conflicts were frequent among the Indo Aryans.The rajan(king) was expected to lead the tribes in battle against each other.The four Vedas namely the Rigveda, Yajurveda,Atharvaveda and Samaveda were composed in this period. Eventually, this formed the basis of the Vedic age which lasted from 1500 BCE to 500 BCE in ancient India.