Prehistory, Harappa and the Vedic Age

The ages, oldest first: Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), Neolithic (New Stone Age), then the Metal Age. Mesolithic hunters fixed tiny stone blades (microliths) onto shafts to make barbed spears, arrows and harpoons.

The Harappan (Indus Valley) civilisation:

• Mohenjodaro: each house drained into a covered street drain; the Great Bath.
• Chanhudaro: a bead-making town, the only Harappan city with no citadel.
• Lothal: a dockyard. Kalibangan: a ploughed field.
• Seals: mostly of steatite, a local soft stone, with an animal (often the unicorn) and a line of the undeciphered script. The Pashupati seal shows a horned male figure.
• Crops: mainly wheat and barley. Women wore ornaments of gold, silver, copper and bronze.
• There is no evidence of sati in the Harappan civilisation.

The four Vedas:

• Rigveda: hymns of praise (a rik is a hymn). Its Samhita, the compiled body of hymns, has 10 mandalas and 1,028 hymns. The battle of ten kings (Dasarajna) is in its seventh mandala: King Sudas won it on the Parushni (Ravi).
• Samaveda: melodies for chanting.
• Yajurveda: formulas and procedures for sacrifices.
• Atharvaveda: spells and charms against evil spirits and disease.

The six Vedangas: Shiksha (phonetics), Kalpa (ritual), Vyakarana (grammar), Nirukta (etymology), Chhandas (metre) and Jyotisha (astronomy). Vaisheshika is not one of them: it is a school of philosophy (darshana), founded by Kanada.

Words and units:

• Jana: the tribe, the main social unit. The rajan was its chief. Sabha and samiti were assemblies.
• Gomat: a wealthy man, one who owned many cows. Gavishti (search for cows) meant war. Duhitri (one who milks) meant daughter.
• Rigvedic society had three sections: priests, warriors and ordinary people (vish). Craftsmen were not a separate section.
• Later came four varnas: Brahmanas (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (farmers, herders and traders) and Shudras.
• The four ashramas, in order: Brahmacharya (student), Grihastha (householder), Vanaprastha (retiring to the forest), Sanyasa (renunciation).

Sapta Sindhu, the land of seven rivers, had the Indus, the five Punjab rivers and the Saraswati. The Rigvedic names: Vitasta (Jhelum), Askini (Chenab), Parushni (Ravi), Vipash (Beas), Shutudri (Sutlej).