India: Veda

A new period in the history of India is marked by the appearance of literary sources. The main one is religious literature, known to us under the generalized title "Veda" (letters, "knowledge"); In modern science it is customary to call it the plural Vedas, since it consists of different parts, different in character and content. According to the name of the main source, the entire period under review (from the middle of the 2nd to the middle of the 1st millennium BC) is often called "Vedic".

According to the Vedas, slavery in India was common. The word "dasa" ("slave") originally meant "enemy", "stranger"; This indicates that in India, as in other ancient countries, foreigners were first enslaved by force. Now we meet self-selling, parents sell their children. About enslavement for the debts of the data has not yet been found. Among the slaves, apparently, women predominated.

All non-Arab population was divided into four classes (varna), which had a caste character; Belonging to varnas was hereditary, each of them was inherent in a certain place in society, corresponding to the degree of her nobility, her rights and duties. The first three varnas were more ancient; Their emergence is connected with intra-tribal social stratification and the seizure by the clan and tribal elite of the authorities and government. The highest was considered to be the brahmanas of Varna, belonging to the hereditary priestly families. The second in the listing is usually called varna kshatriyev - military nobility (royal family, military leaders, combatants, etc.). The third varnu - vaishyev - was the bulk of the community members, whose main occupation was production activity; It was the main tribute to Varna. The members of these three wari passed through the initiation rite, which was considered the second birth, why they were called "twice-born."

India: Veda

They were opposed by the fourth varna - sudras, who did not pass the rite of the second birth and were therefore called "one-hole-born". They were mostly strangers who were accepted into the community, but equal rights to the land, and they did not receive participation in governance in the Aryan religious cult. Their lot was the performance of subsidiary work - service and work for hire, a professional craft, also considered unprestigious as work not for themselves, but for others. Varna identity could not be changed at will. Everyone was supposed to follow only the lessons of his varna. A member of the highest grade of religion, for whatever reason, had to follow the lower classes, both he and his descendants could lose their varna. Members of different varnas could not marry, especially a man of lower varna with a woman of higher varna.

The whole life of an Indian - work, family responsibilities, relations with the state and other members of society, the performance of religious duties and centuries of established rules of conduct in everyday life - was regulated depending on his varna. The law of the way of life as an aggregate of traditional norms of behavior sanctified by religion was called dharma. The Indian's fulfillment of the dharma of his varna was considered his primary duty.

India: Veda