describe the social religious and economic life of the early vedic people
Answers
Arya’ literally means the man of ‘noble character’, and the “free-born”. They belonged to the group of people known as Indo-Europeans. They entered into India from the north-west.
They spoke the Indo-European languages from which modern languages like Sanskrit, Persian, Latin, Greek, Celtie, Gothic have developed. Originally, the Aryans seem to have lived somewhere in the area east of the Alps, known as Eurasia.
The Gods worshiped during this period were generally the personified powers of Nature. There were nearly 33 Gods mentioned in Rig Veda.Indra (destroyer of the fort), Agni (fire God) & Varuna (God of water) were the most popular Gods. Rudra (the God of animals), Dyaus (the oldest God and the father of the world), Yama(the God of death) were some other Gods during that period.Rig Vedic people believed that fire was sacred as it was the intermediary between man and God.Rig Vedic religion primarily consisted of the worship of Gods with a simple ceremony called ‘Yajna‘ or ‘Sacrifice.The economic life of the Rig Vedic people was sustained by a combination of agriculture, cattle rearing, trade, and commerce. The Rig Veda attached great importance to agriculture.In the early Vedic period the Aryans were depending mainly on a pastoral economy, their main occupation was cattle-breeding. The domesticated cow, horse, sheep, goat, dog etc. Wild animals like lion, elephant were known to them. They were not familiar with the tiger.Among the other occupations, carpentry, pottery making, metal working, leather working were famous.The cow was the most important part of the wealth. Most wars were fought for cows.Money and markets were known to the Rig Vedic people but they were not used extensively. Cows or gold ornaments of fixed value were the media of exchange.Coins were not known.