Vedic Culture

The Vedic period has been broadly classified into two categories: the Early and Later Vedic Periods. This has been done according to the way the transition in the style of culture and society took place. The Vedic period society developed rapidly as time passed by. In Vedic age, culture and society developed from the crude form to the refined form as more and more people came to settle and started to contribute their own ideas to reform the society. With the development in society & culture during Vedic era, historians had to divide the era according to the developments.

Society and Culture in Early Vedic Period
Society in the early Vedic period was basically semi nomadic in nature as people were still learning to settle permanently. They did settle on small patches of land, but moved as soon as the resources over there were depleting. They started to domesticate wild animals and train them as farm animals. As the population in these semi-nomadic groups increased, they settled permanently as moving with a large group was next to impossible. They then started to do farming on a large scale and resorted to full time farming. Their culture was that of a typical tribe. They had a tribal chief who was the governing head of the tribe. He was helped by a group of wise and experienced men in performing his duties.

Society and Culture in Later Vedic Period
The society in the later Vedic period increased in size as people began to live in large settlements that had all facilities for the people. The size of the agricultural fields grew in size. During this time, kingship evolved into the hereditary form in which the son of a ruling chief gets the throne after the chief. The priestly class developed and occupied the highest position in the society. Another significant development during the later Vedic age was that of the caste division of the society. The society was divided into four castes namely Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. The Brahmanas were the priestly class who occupied the highest position in the society. The Kshatriyas were the warriors; the Vaishyas were the service class like businessmen and peasants. The Shudras were the lowest class of people who did jobs like removing garbage, cleaning up, etc.