Advent of Aryans. Originally , the Aryans seemed to have lived in steppes strectching from Southern Russia to Central Asia. they spoke Indo-European language though it is difficult to say that earliest Aryans belonged to one race. Names of animals a d plants are similar in most Indo european languages e.g goats, dogs, horses, pine etc.
Their society was male dominated . The horse played the most significant role in their life although they used many animals.
the domesticated horse appears is 6 th millenium BCE in Black Sea and Ural mountain area. Nearly 60,000 horse bones appears in the Ural area around 3000 BCE. Swiftness of horse allowed them to make inroads in Asia from about 2000 BCE.
On their way to India, the Aryans first appeared in central Asiaand Iran, where indo-Iranian lived for a long time.
Rig Veda, the earliest test of the Indo european language, mentions arya 36 times.rig Veda is a collection of prayers offered to Agni, Indra, Mitra, Varuna and other Gods by the family of sages and poets.It consist of ten mandalas ( books) of which Book II to Book VII form its earliest portions. Book I and Book X seeems to have been added later.
the Rig Veda has many thing in common with Avestha, which is the oldest text in Iranian language. Both Rig Veda and Avestha use the same names for for several Gods and social classes.
earliest specimen of Indo European language is found in an inscription of about 220 BCE from Iraq.In Antolia( Turkey) also such inscriptions have occurred in 19th to 17 th century BCE. Aryan names appear in Kassite inscription ( 1600 BCE) from Iraq and Mitanni inscriptions of 14 th century BCE from Syria. But, no such inscripotions have been found from India so far.
Aryans appeared in India a little earlier than 1500 BCE. They used socketed axes, bronze dirks and swords which have been discovered from north western India. Evidences of horse and horse sacrifice have been found in southern Tajikistan and swat valley ( Pakistan).
The earliest Aryans lived in area bounded by eastern Afghanistan, North west frontier Province, Punjab and fringes of western Uttar Pradesh. Some rivers of Afghanistan like Kubha , Indus and it five branches are mentioned in the Rig Veda. The Sindhu is repeatedly mentioned in Rig Veda. Another river Saraswati is called naditaran(the best of the river) in RigVeda. The whole region where the Aryans first settled in Indian subcontinent is called saptsindhu, the land of seven rivers.
The Aryans migrated to India in several waves. rig Vedic people were the first ( around 1500 BCE). They came into conflict with indigenous inhabitants called dasa or dasyus . dasyu have been mentioned in RigVeda as original inhabitant. The aryans were soft towards dasa but hostile towards dasyus. The term dasyu hatya, slaughter of dasyus have been repeatedly mentioned in Rig Veda. The Aryans succeeded in conflict with indigenous people because they possessed chariots driven by horses ( Aryans wre the first to introduce chariots in West Asia and India.
