Author: Irfan Habib
Vijay Kumar Thakur/
Publisher: Tulika
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 100
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8185229856
Description
The Vedic Age completes the first set of three monographs in the People’s History of India series. It deals with the period c 1500 to c. 700 bc, during which it sets the Rigveda and the subsequent Vedic corpus.
It explores aspects of geography, migrations, technology, economy, society, religion, and philosophy. It draws on these texts to reconstruct the life of the ordinary people, with special attention paid to class as well as gender. In a separate chapter, the major regional cultures as revealed by archaeological evidence are carefully described.
Much space is devoted to the coming of iron, for the dawn of the Iron Age- though not the Iron Age itself- lay within the period this volume studies. There are special notes on Historical Geography, the caste system (whose beginnings lay in this period) and the question of Epic Archaeology. A special feature of this monograph is the inclusion of seven substantive extracts from sources, which should give the reader a taste of what these texts are like.
As in the first two monographs, the authors seek to present updated information with clarity of exposition and reasoned analysis. Both the general reader and the student should, therefore, find here much that is interesting and thought provoking.
The Aligarh Historians Society, the sponsor of the project of A People’s History of India, is dedicated to the cause of promoting the scientific method in history, and resisting communal and chauvinistic interpretations.
Contents
Preface
EARLY VEDIC PHASE, c 1500-1000 BC
The Rigveda
Antecedents and Region of Settlements
Economy
Society and Polity
Aryas and Dasyus and Dasas: The Emergence of Four Varnas
Religion
Other Aspects of Culture
LATE VEDIC SOCIETY, c 1000-700 BC
The Vedic Corpus after the Rigveda, Avesta
Political History
Economy
Society
Religion
Other Aspects of Culture
INDIA, 1500-700 BC: THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
Archaeological Cultures of the Aryan Zone
Peninsular India
The Coming of Iron
NOTE : Epic Archaeology
NOTE : Bibliographical Note
Index