Life in the Vedic Period

 Life in the Vedic Period

The varna system

During this period, there were four varnas or classes in the society, namely brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra. The varnas were based on people's occupations. As time passed, varnas came to be determined on the basis of birth. This gave rise to castes. The caste system led to inequality in the society.

The family

Society in the Vedic period was patriarchal. The seniormost man in the family would be the head of the family. Women had a secondary status in the family. Girls were allowed to receive education. There are references to women of great learning like Gargi, Maitreyi, Lopamudra in ancient literature. However, such women were few in number.

In the later period, social restrictions on women became more stringent and their condition became worse.

The ashrama system

The ashramas were a systematic arrangement of an individual's life from birth to death. An individual was expected to devote first stage of his life to studies and learning. This period was called brahma- charyashrama. As a student, an individual had to lead a simple life, be self-reliant and obey his teacher. When an individual got married, he entered grihasthashrama or the stage of family life. As a grihastha or householder, he had to look after his family and shoulder religious and social responsibilities. During vanaprasthashrama, he handed over his responsibilities to his children and led a retired life. The fourth and last stage was sanyasashrama. The individual was expected to spend this period in meditation.

Day-to-day life

Most of the people lived in houses of mud or wattle-and-daub. The walls and the floor were plastered with mud and cow-dung. In cities, the houses were wooden. Some houses were multi-storeyed.

People's diet included milk, yoghurt, ghee, meat, fruits and cereals. Barley and rice were the staple food.

People in the Vedic period used cotton and woollen garments. They wore strings of flowers, a variety of beads and bead-strings and also golden ornaments. Nishka, a kind of pendant, was popular.

Singing, playing musical instruments, dance and board games were the means of recreation. On the occasions of religious ceremonies, musical programmes were arranged. Their musical instruments included the veena, the shatatantu, cymbals, conches, the damru and the mridanga.

Religious ideas

The Vedic people were curious about the various forces in nature such as the sun, the wind, the rain, the rivers, lightning and storms. They offered prayers to these forces to secure their blessings. The idea of making "offerings' to these forces in order to win their favour became common. They believed that fire would act as an agency to take the offerings to these forces. That is why they put their offerings or havi into the fire. This ritual of offering havi into the fire is called yajna. Later, the technique of performing yajna became very complicated. It could not be performed without taking assistance from a priest. Yajna came to be considered as the soul and substance of religion.

People in the Vedic period realised that all things in nature follow a definite pattern. They termed this regular pattern in nature as 'rita'.

The sages who sought to know how the universe was created maintained that the entire universe originated from a single primal principle called Sat. They believed that by whatever name god is worshipped, the worship ultimately reaches Sat or this divine principle. This thought helped to develop the idea of religious tolerance in India.