The first phase of urbanisation in India came to an end with the decline of the Indus Civilisation. A new era, the Vedic Age, began with the arrival of the Aryans. It is the period in the history of India between 1500 BCE and 600 BCE and gets its name from the four Vedas.
1. Who Were the Aryans?
- The Aryans were Indo-Aryan language speaking, semi-nomadic pastoralists.
- They came from Central Asia in several waves of migration through the Khyber Pass of the Hindu Kush Mountains.
- Cattle rearing was their main occupation, but they also practised slash and burn agriculture.
Slash and burn agriculture: a farming method in which land is cleared by cutting and burning all the trees and plants on it. It is cultivated for a short time and then abandoned, and people move to a new piece of land.
Aryans and their Home in India
- For Rig Vedic Aryans, cattle were the main source of wealth.
- In Rig Vedic times the Aryan homeland was the Punjab, then called Sapta Sindhu, the land of seven rivers.
- Around 1000 BCE, the Aryans moved eastward and settled in the Indo-Gangetic Plain.