Vedic Period, Political History

“Vedic period” refers to the period when the Vedic corpus, the oldest body of South Asian literature, was composed. The Early Vedic period corresponds to the second half of the second millenniumbce, when the oldest Vedic text – theSaṃhitāof theR̥gveda– was composed. The Vedic Aryans were agro‐pastoralist nomads who migrated from Iran and spoke an Indo‐European language. Possibly a cultic confrontation led to the schism between the Indo‐Iranian speakers and the Indo‐Aryans whose entry in the Indian subcontinent entailed clashes and negotiations with different cultural communities known as the Dāsas and Dasyus. The Early Vedic tribes also fought among themselves, mainly for cattle, and eventually the Bharatas established themselves as the most prominent of them all, especially after their chief Sudās won the famous battle of Ten Kings. Vedic Aryans moved eastwards in the Later Vedic period (ca. 1000–600bce) and adopted sedentary agricultural life. The Kuru‐Pāñcālas dominated the early phase of the Later Vedic period, when rudimentary hereditary kingship was emerging. However, their position waned at the end of the Later Vedic age, and territories further east – such as Kosala, Kāśī, and Videha – gained prominence.