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LATE VEDIC SOUTH ASIA, ~1200- 500 BCE A SHIFTING SOCIO-POLITICAL, CULTURAL, AND ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE

THE LATE VEDIC ERA

Myth Legend History

1500 1300 1200 1100 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 350 300 200 100

1300 BCE Kurukshetra War Vedic era small kingdoms and republics Persia in Indus Valley A 323 BCE 184 BCE

Beginning of 16 Mahajanapada States L Maurya Empire

1000 BCE "Second E

Bronze-Iron Urbanization" X

1500 BCE Rig Veda 1200 BCE Transition in Alphabet 256 GK-Bactrian Kingdom

Vedic Era 500 BCE to S. Asia 180 Indo-Greek Kingdom

South Asia Brahmanist--> Upanishads 185 BCE

Thought Bhagavad Gita

Buddhist--> Gautama Buddha (long dates reflect conflicting data)

Thought

We didn’t talk much about political, social,

and economic practice last time

We’ll talk about the shift from Indo-Aryan style rule

to classical South Asian forms that will set up the

first imperial periods today

The 16 Mahajanapadas, ~600 BCE

We’ll end on this- the

“Vedic” era ending

around 500 BCE with a

TON of

philosophical/political/

social/cultural debates as

South Asia enters the

“Axial” Age

Each of those

developments are so

important we’ll need a

whole week for each

one! Which will come in

Module 2

Vedic Tribes set up society. What

does it look like?

What is a form of government

that seems compatible with

tribal political organization?

Multiple,

egalitarian

tribes

jockeying for

position

A FLAT and

flexible

hierarchy…

Oligarchic Republics organized

almost as city-states!

That’s right, not dissimilar from

the contemporary period in

Greece

MATSYA NYAYA “UNBRIDLED COMPETITION” IN THE EARLY VEDIC AGE-

REFLECTIVE OF TRIBAL CHIEFDOMS TURNING INTO REPUBLICS

In this era, texts

are unclear what

caste is at the

top of the order

Kshatriya

(warrior) on top

in earlier Vedic

era

Upanishads

show Brahmin

(priestly)

reasserting

authority

What about

other castes? Is

the caste

“order” really

set?

THE LATER VEDIC ERA, ~1000-500 BCE

ERA OF THE UPANISHADS

Ganges plain is

being cleared

Irrigation and

waterworks being

built

Creating the most

fertile area on the

globe

Are tribal identity and animals

going to be the source of

wealth any longer?

The power and wealth of the Ganges

The 16 Mahajanapada System, ~600

BCE

Indo-Aryan Republics

Gangetic Kingdoms

• No longer just Brahmins vying for control

• NW republics more open to different

constellations of power

• Some Kshatriya, some Shudra, some ignoring

Brahmins

• Gangetic (Ganges) Kingdoms develop a fixed

power structure- hereditary Kshatriya kings,

Brahmin orthodoxy supported, Kshatriya nobles

controlling land in countryside

• Enormous towns and trade networks develop as

material wealth begins to grow rapidly, based on

agriculture

• 493 BCE, Maghada grows. Two keys:

• Starts nascent empire building tendencies

• First Maghada family overthrown by Shudra

family, Nandas. Kshatrya families will not build

empire for another 1000 years

Mahajanapada system makes a lot of

sense- a HUGE country with HUGE

wealth split into over a dozen major

centers, all trying out different

combinations of social class structure,

political ideas, and religio-philiosophical

ideas. Why might ONE group, the

Magadha Empire/Nanda dynasty, start

expanding rapidly? Anyone want to guess

what came to South Asia just before the

450s?

Brahmi Script,

~600s BCE

Magadha

coins, from

~500 BCE

Now that Sanskrit is written, it becomes a “Classical” and

“High” language of the educated class (Brahmins)

Sanskrit

Magadhi

Pali

The Prakrits “from the source(Sanskrit)”

Shauraseni Hindi (600s CE)

Sacred

languages

of the

Buddha

South Asia on the Precipice of an

“Axial Age” that would reshape human

history forever, ~500 BCE

New debates on RELIGION

orthodoxy/heterodoxy,

individual vs priestly

(Brahmin) control of religion

New debates on SOCIAL

organization

Why do Brahmins get to

control society? What about

other castes? What is the

role of wealth?

New forms of POWER

Writing, Coins, and Empire

Who has the right to those

levers of power?

VEDIC ORDER is fracturing,

what will replace it?

We will see a TON of answers to these questions in

Module 2 as we see how religion and philosophy

become intertwined in questions of social and

political organization and South Asia comes up with

a “Classical” constellation of answers

THE UPANISHADS

HOW DO WE

KNOW WHAT WE

KNOW?

ALL HUMAN

KNOWLEDGE

COMES FROM

SOMEWHERE

The Real World

Humans

Knowledge- A barrier. EVERYTHING you know came

from your senses or from another human

The way YOU assume the world works. But that ASSUMES the real world is real.

Shruti

What is Heard

Rishi

Great sages

Smrti

What is

Remembered

How Do We Know the Divine? A Series of

Intermediaries- South Asia

The

Universe

can be

HEARD if

you focus

How do we

hear what

the universe

is saying?

Yoga

Discipline and

Practice

Mantra

Sacred

Utterances

Can just

anyone do

this?

Brahmin

No! This caste of priests must

intercede for you- pay for the rituals

The Rig Veda-

the oldest

Shruti

The

Upanishads-

the last Shruti

The Upanishads

~600-500 BCE

The final Vedas, 108

Chapters

End of the Sanskrit/Vedic

Era

Means “sitting down

[near a teacher]” A fully realized statement

about the universe and

humanity’s role in it

The birth of Classical

South Asian Religion and

Philosophy

What does it say about

the complicated socio-

political world of South

Asia at the time?

Samsara = The Endless

Cycle of Rebirth

Moksha = Breaking the

Cycle- Not quite

Enlightenment!

Key question: WHO ARE

YOUAtman = the Self

Janaka: What is the light of man?

Sun->moon->fire->speech->self->heart surrounded by senses->

Frailties from the body, not self

Sees w/o seeing, hears w/o hearing, since nothing is separate from it

When there is another, there is separateness, when there is not, there is unity, the world

of Brahman

When growing old and dying, prana leaves one by one, drawing into the self, no longer

seeing/hearing, etc light of Self draws from the gates of the bodies

Caterpillar, from one edge of the grass, gathers in and pulls to the next body

Self is Brahman, but thru ignorance we ID it with intellect, mind, passions, elements, why

it “looks like this and that”

Free from desire? You find all fulfillment in Self, you merge with Brahman instead

Notice the social relations:

Yajnavalkya is a Brahmin,

doing a fire

ceremony/sacrifice for the

kshatriya Janaka

Mundaka Upanishad: Two ways of Knowing

Part I

What does it say about Rig Veda?

Infinite godhead -> Brahma->cosmos->wisdom to son Atharva->Angi->->Angiras

A human noble askes Aniras, what is knowing all? Twofold, higher and lower

Lower: study of Vedas, linguistics, rituals, astronomy, all the arts

Higher: what leads to self-realization, which mind cannot grasp, eye cannot see, it is like

spider web going in and out, grass out of the earth, hair from your arm, that is how

universe springs from the deathless Self

The deathless self MEDITATED UPON HIMSELF AND PROJECTED THE UIVERSE AS

EVOLUTIONARY ENERGY

From that energy springs karma, the universe, the chains of CAUSE AND EFFECT

And from that Deathless Self SPRINGS BRAHMA

Mundaka Upanisha: Two ways of Knowing

Part II

What does it say about Rig Veda?

The rituals in the Vedas are LOWER KNOWLEDGE, and the SAGES ignored this to

look for higher knowledge

Then it MOCKS THE RITUALS

They are UNSAFE RAFTS for crossing the sea of samsara, the blind leading the blind

They fall in the seas and perish, but meditation and conquering the senses allows

passage

Tat

Tvam

Asi

तत ्त्वम ्असि You, proud of your

college degree

Your father,

dropping

some

knowledge

bombs

By knowing one lump of

clay, you know all clay: by

knowing one life, you

know all life

YOU ARE THAT

In sleep, you are close to

the Self; the tired mind

settles down close to its

true Self

YOU ARE THAT

A bee gathers nectar from

many flowers, can one

drop of honey say I am

from this flower or that?

All creatures are part of

the One, yet know not

YOU ARE THAT

Son, your

professors are

f***ing morons.

Do rivers remember they

were ever separate rivers?

All lose that separateness

as they merge with Being

YOU ARE THAT

Cut a tree and it bleeds;

but still lives. The Self gives

it nourishment; as it leaves

branches they die, but the

Self does not.

YOU ARE THAT

But what am I?

Tat Tvam Asi,

mother***er,

are you even

listening???

Crack open that fruit. Break open

its tiny seeds. You see nothing?

AND YET from that essence a

whole tree will grow

YOU ARE THAT

Mix some salt in water. Where did

it go? It is salty in each place, and

yet you cannot see it. IT is

everywhere, though you see it not

YOU ARE THAT

When a man lies dying, he knows

his family. But as speech merges to

mind, to breath, to fire, to Being, he

know longer knows them as his

self becomes ONE

YOU ARE THAT

YOU are the basis of reality

The world of your senses is not

reality, the SELF is reality

Once you realize this, there is no

need for another body, you

become one with everything, and

BREAK the CYCLE

How do we know what we

know? Who are you?

The world and your body is just a

vehicle to interact with things