Social and Political Context
Social and Political Context
`This chapter describes the way of life of the peoples depicted in the Ṛgveda: mobile pastoralists organized into small family-based groups, which could unite against a common enemy or for a common project, but otherwise existed in relative independence, though they all belonged, and were aware that they belonged, to the larger culturally defined group of Indo-Aryans called Ārya. There is some evidence for social stratification, which in the late R̥gveda acquires the shape of the later four-varṇa system, but there is nothing like the strict caste system of later India. The groups were led by kings (rā́jan-), but what kingship meant is hard to determine. The roles of warrior and priest are crucially important in the Ṛgvedic hymns, but it is not clear whether these were exclusive roles. Due to the nature of our evidence, it is difficult to discern much about the life of non-elite males or of women.
Keywords: Ārya, Dasyu, Dāsa, clan, tribe, varṇa, Five Peoples, rājan, king, Puruṣa sūkta
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
