Rigvedic tribes - Indo-Europeans in India 2/2

The Indo-Aryan tribes mentioned in the Rigveda are described as semi-nomadic pastoralists, subdivided into temporary settlements (vish, viś) and headed by a tribal chief (raja, rājan) assisted by a priestly caste. They formed a warrior society, engaging in endemic warfare and cattle raids ("gaviṣṭi") among themselves and against the "Dasyu" or Dasa. The size of a typical tribe was probably of the order of a few thousand people. The king is often referred to as gopa (protector). He was aided by several functionaries, including the purohita (chaplain) and the senani (army chief; sena: army). The former not only gave advice to the ruler but also was his chariot driver and practised spells and charms for success in war. The status of the Brahmins and Kshatriyas was higher than that of the Vaishyas and Shudras. The Brahmins were specialised in creating poetry, preserving the sacred texts, and carrying out various types of rituals, functioning as the intellectual leadership. Kshatriyas defended the tribe and maintained law and order. The Vedic forms of belief continued elements of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) religion, syncretising it with innovations and foreign elements, thereby forming the precursor to modern Hinduism. The priests executed rituals for the other classes (varna) of Vedic society. People offered for abundance of rain, cattle, sons, long life and gaining 'heaven'. The kings performed sacrifices like rajasuya (royal consecration), vajapeya (including a chariot race) and, for supreme dominance over other kings, the ashvamedha (horse sacrifice). The main deities of the Vedic pantheon were Indra (King of the gods and Lord of Heaven), Agni (the sacrificial fire), Soma (sacred drink) and some deities of social order such as Mitra-Varuna (closely associated with ṛtá (ऋत) from PIE *h₁r̥-tu-, "fitting, right, ordered", the philosophical foundation for the Hindu conception of dharma), further nature deities such as Surya (the Sun), Vayu (the wind), Prithivi (the earth). Deities were not viewed as all-powerful. The relationship between humans and the deity was one of mutual obligation (PIE *gʰosti-, source of the words 'guest' and 'host'), with Agni (the sacrificial fire) taking the role of messenger between the two. The Indo-Aryan languages, through Indo-Iranian, ultimately derive from Proto-Indo-European, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The existence of such a language and a corresponding people has been accepted by linguists for over a century. The linguistic center of gravity principle states that a language family's most likely point of origin is in the area of its greatest diversity. For example, consider the Germanic languages: North America may have more speakers of Germanic languages, but almost all of them are exclusively or primarily speakers of English. Northern Europe, where the Germanic languages are known to have originated, has in significant numbers speakers not only of English but also other West Germanic languages like German, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, and North Germanic languages like Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese. By this criterion, India, home to only a single branch of the Indo-European language family (i.e. Indo-Aryan), is an exceedingly unlikely candidate for the Indo-European homeland; Central Europe, on the other hand, is home to the Italic, Venetic, Illyrian, Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, Slavic, Thracian, and Greek branches of Indo-European. The Kurgan model of Indo-European origins identifies the Pontic-Caspian steppe as the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) Urheimat, superseding earlier views that placed it on the North German plain within the Corded Ware horizon. According to this model, the Kurgan culture gradually expanded until it encompassed the entire Pontic-Caspian steppe around 3000 BC. The mobility of the Kurgan culture facilitated its expansion over the entire Pit Grave region, and is attributed to the domestication of the horse and later the use of early chariots. The first strong archaeological evidence for the domestication of the horse comes from the Sredny Stog culture north of the Azov Sea in Ukraine, and would correspond to an early PIE or pre-PIE nucleus of the 5th millennium BC. The earliest known chariot was discovered at Krivoye Lake and dates to c. 2000 BC. Subsequent expansion beyond the steppes led to hybrid cultures. From these kurganised cultures came the immigration of proto-Greeks to the Balkans and the nomadic Indo-Iranian cultures to the east around 2500 BC. The separation of Indo-Aryans proper from the Iranians is commonly dated, on linguistic grounds, to roughly 1800 BCE. The Nuristani languages probably split in such early times, and are classified as either remote Indo-Aryan dialects or as an independent branch of Indo-Iranian. By the mid 2nd millennium BCE early Indo-Aryans had reached Assyria in the west (the Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni) and the northern Punjab in the east (the Rigvedic tribes).