An outline, era by era

Vedic period; Mahajanapadas; rise of Buddhism and Jainism

Iron Age · ~1200 – ~500 BCE

The Vedic period is the age, roughly 1500 to 500 BCE, in which the Vedas were composed in Vedic Sanskrit by communities living first in the Punjab and then across the Ganges plain of northern India. The earliest text, the Rigveda, belongs to a society of cattle-herding clans led by chiefs. Later Vedic texts show settled farming, the use of iron from about 1000 BCE, and a ritual priesthood that shaped the social ordering later known as varna.

From around 600 BCE, sixteen states called the Mahajanapadas, such as Kosala, Magadha, Kashi and Vajji, arose in northern India. Some were monarchies and some were assemblies of clan leaders. Cities, coinage and trade grew, and Magadha slowly became the strongest. In this setting, teachers questioned Vedic ritual and the authority of priests. Mahavira, the last teacher of Jainism, and Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, both taught in the Ganges region, probably in the fifth century BCE. Their teachings of non-violence, rebirth and release from suffering became lasting religious traditions, and Buddhism later spread across Asia.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. The Buddha's birth and renunciation

    Origin story

    The legend

    Queen Maya dreams that a white elephant enters her side, and gives birth to Siddhartha in a grove at Lumbini. A prophecy says he will be either a world ruler or a great teacher. His father raises him in luxury, but he sees an old man, a sick man and a corpse, then a wandering ascetic. He leaves the palace at night to seek freedom from suffering.

    The rest is history

    The Buddha was almost certainly a real man, born into the Shakya clan in the foothills of the Himalaya. The detailed life story, with its omens and four sights, was assembled in texts written centuries after his death, such as the Buddhacarita of Ashvaghosha around the first or second century CE. The oldest Pali discourses give a plainer account of a man who left home and sought awakening. His dates are debated, with death traditionally placed about 483 BCE and many scholars now preferring a date later in the fifth century. An inscribed pillar set up by Ashoka at Lumbini, about 249 BCE, marks the birthplace.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryAriyapariyesana Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 26). Pali discourse, preserved in the Pali Canon, written down in the first century BCE.
    2. BookAshvaghosha. Buddhacarita: In Praise of Buddha's Acts. Translated by Patrick Olivelle. New York: New York University Press, 2008.
    3. BookGethin, Rupert. The Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

  2. Mahavira and the line of Tirthankaras

    Origin story

    The legend

    Jain tradition holds that twenty-four Tirthankaras, or ford-makers, appear in each age to teach the path to liberation. The first, Rishabha, lived countless years ago. The twenty-third, Parshva, is followed by Mahavira, who leaves his home at thirty, goes naked and wanders for twelve years in hard austerity until he gains omniscience.

    The rest is history

    Mahavira was a real teacher, a contemporary of the Buddha in the Magadha region, and the Buddhist texts mention him as the Nigantha Nataputta. The earlier Tirthankaras are known only from Jain tradition. Parshva may be historical, since early Jain texts describe followers of his who joined Mahavira's community. The Jain scriptures were not fixed in writing until about the fifth century CE, long after his death. The community he led is one of the oldest continuing religious traditions of India.

    Sources

    1. BookDundas, Paul. The Jains. London: Routledge, 1992.
    2. PrimaryAcaranga Sutra. Jain canonical text in Ardhamagadhi Prakrit, composed in stages from about the fourth century BCE, with an account of Mahavira's austerities.
    3. BookJacobi, Hermann, translator. Jaina Sutras. Sacred Books of the East 22. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1884.

  3. The sacrifice of Purusha and the origin of the four varnas

    Myth

    The legend

    The gods sacrifice a cosmic being, Purusha, who has a thousand heads and eyes. From his divided body come the horses, the cattle, the hymns and the chants. His mouth becomes the Brahmin, his arms the warrior, his thighs the commoner, and from his feet comes the servant.

    The rest is history

    This story is the Purusha Sukta, hymn 10.90 of the Rigveda, among the latest hymns in the collection, perhaps composed around 1000 BCE. It is the earliest text to name the four varnas, and later priests used it to justify a fixed social order. The earlier parts of the Rigveda do not describe such a system, and the hymn is generally read as a late addition. Real social life was shaped by many local groups, later called jatis, rather than four neat classes. Buddhist and Jain teachers in the Ganges region openly rejected claims of birth-based rank.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryRigveda 10.90 (Purusha Sukta). Vedic Sanskrit hymn, c. 1000 BCE, orally transmitted and written down much later.
    2. BookJamison, Stephanie W., and Joel P. Brereton, translators. The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India. 3 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
    3. BookWitzel, Michael. "Vedas and Upanisads." In The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, edited by Gavin Flood. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.

  4. The Battle of the Ten Kings

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    King Sudas of the Bharata clan is opposed by a coalition of ten kings. The priest Vishvamitra leads them across the river Parushni. The Bharatas, guided by the priest Vasishtha, cross the swollen river and defeat their enemies, and Indra helps Sudas win.

    The rest is history

    The battle is told in Rigveda hymns 7.18, 7.33 and 7.83, and it is one of the few events of the early Vedic period with a narrative in the hymns. The Parushni is usually identified with the river Ravi in the Punjab. The hymns are priestly praise poems, not chronicles, so they give few details and no date, and scholars place them around 1300 to 1000 BCE. The Bharatas later became central to the tradition of the Mahabharata, which takes its name from them. Real archaeological traces of the battle have not been found.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryRigveda 7.18, 7.33, 7.83. Vedic Sanskrit hymns, c. 1300-1000 BCE.
    2. BookJamison, Stephanie W., and Joel P. Brereton, translators. The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India. 3 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
    3. BookWitzel, Michael. "Early Sanskritization: Origin and Development of the Kuru State." Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 1, no. 4 (1995).

  5. Ajatashatru, the king who killed his father

    Folk tale

    The legend

    Prince Ajatashatru of Magadha, urged on by a rival of the Buddha, imprisons his father King Bimbisara and starves him to death. Later, tormented by guilt, he visits the Buddha and confesses. He goes on to conquer neighbouring lands, including the Vajji confederacy.

    The rest is history

    Bimbisara and Ajatashatru were real kings who built up Magadha in the late sixth and fifth centuries BCE, with its capital at Rajagriha. The story of the murder is told in the Buddhist Samannaphala Sutta, and Jain texts tell it differently, as Jains also claimed the king. The two religions both honoured him, which shows how much the kings were courted by the new teachers. The conquest of the Vajji confederacy is well attested in Buddhist and Jain sources. The later Nanda and Maurya dynasties rose from this Magadhan core.

    Sources

    1. PrimarySamannaphala Sutta (Digha Nikaya 2). Pali discourse, preserved in the Pali Canon.
    2. BookThapar, Romila. Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
    3. BookThapar, Romila. The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. New Delhi: Penguin, 2002.

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