Vedic Period

8 CH

northern India's sacred hymns

Vedic Period1,500 BCE – 322 BCE

The Newcomers

Indo-Aryan migrations, the great debate, and a thousand years without cities

~1500–1200 BCE

1,028 hymns transmitted without writing for three thousand years — the Rigveda

~1500–1000 BCE

iron axes clear the Gangetic forest, and the Brahmins build a ritual monopoly

~1000–800 BCE

how ritual purity became social hierarchy — the system outsiders most want to understand

Thematic

Brahman, Atman, karma, moksha — the Upanishadic revolution

~800–500 BCE

cities return to India after a thousand years — the Second Urbanization

~600–400 BCE

Siddhartha Gautama and Vardhamana Mahavira reject Vedic authority and change the world

~500–400 BCE

the Nandas, Alexander, Chandragupta, and a thousand years of Vedic legacy

~400–322 BCE