Odin, Ouranos, Varun.a); an atmospheric level wherein gods of storm and
warfare presided (e.g., Indra and Thor); and a sub-atmospheric order in
which one found those gods who maintained the everyday functions of the
cosmic order. The socio-cosmic contract between the realm of the gods
and that of humans was thought to be maintained through the sacrificial
ritual system centered on the fire. It was thought that these tribal groups
migrated into Northwestern India by about 1750 BCE, after the decline of
the Indus civilization, and began to settle in rural areas.
Some Indian scholars insist this idea of a migration into India was a
construction of colonialist European discourse and that the subsequent
developments on the subcontinent were of purely indigenous origins. These
indigenous origins, which might be called “proto-Vedic,” are said to have
been a part of the early civilizations of Northwestern India, possibly including
the valleys of the Indus and Sarasvatı ̄ rivers. These claims are based on
various fragments of evidence: archaeological finds that suggest there were
settlements (for example, at Mehrgarh) datable several centuries prior
to the Indus civilizations; references in the R.g Vedato astronomical events
(for example, eclipses) that are said to have occurred some centuries
earlier; references in the R.g Vedato the river Saraswatı ̄, which is said to have
dried up around the nineteenth century BCE; and others. These kinds of
evidence have emboldened some scholars and Hindu nationalists to claim
that the R.g Vedashould be dated several centuries earlier than traditionally
thought and that India was, in fact, the source of “Indo-European” culture.
It is still too early to conclude that this view should supplant the traditional
one relative to the origins of the “Indo-Europeans,” but clearly a number of
questions wait to be resolved.^14
The Vedic period
Whatever its origins, a post-Indus culture developed in Northwest India
which became the matrix for what comes to be known as the Vedic period.
The social order of the Vedic period was primarily patrilineal, though
women did have certain privileges. Women, for example, could own certain
properties, did participate in certain rituals – in fact, wives were required to
be present with their husbands at rituals and were involved in reciting certain
chants.^15 There were several forms of marriage, both monogamous and
polygamous.
While the social hierarchy may not yet have been characterized by the
strictures on upward mobility found in the later caste system, three classes
of “A ̄ryan” society known as varn.as(color or characteristic) were identified;
these were the bra ̄ hman.asassociated with the priestly and teaching functions
Sources of Indian Religion 21