160 Part III: South Asia
of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, as well as new religious ideas in the
Upanishads. Kashi was the early name for Varanasi (Banaras). After 500 B.C.E.,
Pataliputra would expand as the capital of the Mauryan Empire.
For the first 500 years of the period we call the Vedic Age, the newcomers
made themselves at home in the upper reaches of the Indus. They wrote of
encountering empty cities and dark-skinned people called Dasyus whom they
scorned and fought. For the next 500 years (from about 1000 to 450 B.C.E.) they
moved eastward, discovered the great Ganges system (consisting of the Ganges
River and a large number of tributaries), and began setting up small kingdoms
all across North India. Certain of these kingdoms became famous in the great
epics. In the kingdom of the Kurus, the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahab-
harata were two hostile clans. Kosala, with its capital city Ayodhya, was
Rama’s kingdom, and Mithila was the capital of King Janaka’s (Sita’s father)
kingdom; these are all figures in the Ramayana.
The Vedas and other texts being written in these small kingdoms of the Gan-
getic Basin describe a social order based on three broad social categories called
varnas: Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas, categories that eventually evolve
into the caste system. At this point the varnas appear to be functional social
groups: Brahmans are priests and purohitas (sacrificers), Kshatriyas are warriors
and rulers, and Vaishyas are everyone else: artisans, traders, and cultivators.Ga
nges (^) Rive
r
Furthest^ E
xten
sio
n^ o
f^ Ary
an^ Settleme
nt
H (^) I (^) M
(^) A (^) L (^) A
(^) Y (^) A (^) S
Path of former branch
of Indus River
LEGEND
Furthest extension of
Aryan settlement
Kuru
Pancala
Videha
Kosala
MT KAILASH
Saraswati^ River
India
Gandhara
Map 5.2 Small kingdoms in the Late Vedic Period, 1100–500 B.C.E.