Pre vedic age 1800 BC to 1000 BC
CHAPTER 1 : THE STORY OF THE ARYANS
While the Rig Veda was composed in our time line during 1500 BC and was penned down during 1200 BC . The core philosophy of the rig Veda was formulated prior to 1500 BC and the scholars debate the exact time during which it was developed.While it is agreed that the core philosophy evolved during 1800-1600 BC . The rig vedas were written in vedic sanskrit which a closely related to the early avestan language.
While the rig Veda goes into details of the life lead by the vedic Aryans and contains hymns sung in praise of gods and some parts of rig vedas deal with philosophy and metaphysical matters
First of all I want to make things clear of the distinction between vedic Aryans and indo Aryans. While indo Aryans is a broad term which includes different ethnicities having similar but not identical culture . vedic Aryans are a subset of indo Aryans and not all indo Aryans are necessarily vedic Aryans. The vedic Aryans did not identity themselves with the term indo Aryans as such a term did not exist they identified themselves as Aryans which is a social, cultural and religious concept and has nothing to do with place of origin or race in otl . There are plenty of indo Aryans tribes who we regard as indo Aryans but the vedic Aryans did not recognize them as such they saw them as non Aryans as those tribes did not adhere to the Vedas . The vedic Aryans are the indo Aryan tribes who composed the Vedas hence I gave them the name vedic Aryans. Alliance were formed time to time formed with non Aryans ( from the vedic Aryan point of view)who may be Dravidian or Indo Aryans or Indo iranian or Indo European tribes . But since Vedas and the Vedic culture developed later on the Vedic Aryans will be referred to as proto vedic Aryans.
A POD of this time line is the Persians , the medes and other iranian tribes move into Iran but Iran would be one of the 16 lands the Aryans rule and in this time line all 16 lands would have more social, religious, cultural and economic links and the 16 lands would be identified as
airyå daiŋ́hāvō a Unifying concept which United the Indo iranian people far and wide . This migration will take place around 16000-800 bc . Iran in this time line would be part of Aryan civilization and later on would develop its own dynasty that would rule the Indian subcontinent or the dynasty from the subcontinent would rule over the Iranian plateau
But in this time line rig veda or any other is not complied during the 1500 BC but latter during 1000 BC but the fundamental of Vedic culture and it's belief developed around the 1500 bc and gradually got refined over a period of 500 years until the oral texts were finally complied in 1000 bc . In our time line the vedic Aryans did not encounter any resistance when they settled down in mordern day Punjab as the remnants of the indus valley civilization had disappeared and only a few people resided in the Punjab. These people were absorbed by the vedic Aryans. While there was certain conflicts between the natives and the vedic Aryans and also the vedic Aryans and other indo Aryans tribes but not on the scale of Iranian tribes conflicts with Scythians, Elamite, urartu and neo Assyrian empire , neo Babylonian empire and also other people of the iranian plateau. These conflicts played a crucial role in the unification of various Iranian tribes .With the vedic Aryans the lack of serious threats resulted in conflicts between themselves eg bàttle of ten kings on the banks of the river Ravi. But in this time line this is simply not the case as the conflicts with the powerful hapta Sindhu empire, the name given by western iranian who were aliied to the Vedic Aryans, caused the unification not only of the Vedic Aryans tribes and Indo Aryan tribes but also the unification of Indo Aryans with the iranian tribes thus the split is not a total break as in case of our time line but a partial one in this time line.
PHASE ONE 2100BC TO 1700 BC
THE PROTO VEDIC ARYANS
By 2000 bc The proto vedic Aryans from altai mountains began to trickle down into the Ferghana valley. These tribes fled the Indo Iranian and the Indo European people who were fighting in central asia but The various indo Aryans tribes of central asia also migrated due to the desertification of their lands due to the 4.2 kilo year event . This bond event caused a lot of friction between the tribes in the andronovo culture some of the tribe migrated into the modern day ferghana valley, The Fergana Valley is an intermountain depression in Central Asia, between the mountain systems of the Tien-Shan in the north and the Gissar-Alai in the south. The valley is approximately 300 kilometres (190 mi) long and up to 70 kilometres (43 mi) wide, forming an area covering 22,000 square kilometres (8,500 sq mi). Its position makes it a separate geographic zone and allowed this group of Aryans to defend themselves against other Indo iranian people. The proximity to the the oxus river valley civilization aquainted them to the art of agriculture just like their other Aryan brethren like western iranian tribes etc. On the edge of the andronovo culture they still maintained links with other Indo iranian people. And formed a subculture within the andronovo culture.
This Andronovo sub culture AKA proto Vedic Aryans consisted of both communities that was partially mobile ,while most lived in settled small villages. Settlements are especially pronounced in near the rivers . Fortifications include ditches, earthen banks as well as timber palisades, villages typically contain around 20 to 50 houses but settlements containing as much as a hundred houses were built . Andronovo houses were generally constructed from pine , cedar or birch and were usually aligned overlooking the banks of rivers . Larger homes range in the size from 80 to 300 sqm, and probably belonged to extended families, a typical feature among Indo-Iranians.
Livestock included cattle , horses, sheep, goats and camel.The domestic pigs is present suggesting that economy was practicing settled agriculture or shifting cultivation. The number of cattle among this Andronovo subculture remains are significantly higher than among their neighbours.
Horses was used for both riding and traction. Agriculture also played an important role in the economy.The proto vedic Aryans were notable for regional advances in metallurgy. They mined deposits of copper ore in the
mountains and manufactured numerous copper objects , and workshops existed for working copper..
The proto vedic Aryans formed a confederation of different tribes under the leadership of the Atharvan clan which would be renamed as Bharatha clan later on but both have the same meaning with Atharvan being a type of priest who is responsible for maintaining fire and bharatha means act of maintaining the sacred fire . While Atharvan was chosen not because the leadership were a bunch of Atharvan families but it had a more philosophical meaning of being the source of light or maintenance of light or to be more specific maintenance of law and order in the tribal confederation . This Atharvan clan would play an important role in this time line and another important family that would play an important role is the kavian dynasty or clan . The word kavian meaning poet priest . This clan lead the parasu tribe and later on would be the allies of the Atharvan clan and these two tribal groups would come to dominate much of the Eurasian steppes
The proto vedic Aryans were engaged in fighting with other Indo iranian and Indo European people and most notably the torachians
The proto vedic Aryans expanded from the Ferghana valley into the pamir mountains and to the tien Shan mountains and roughly controlled the whole of modern day tajikstan and krygiztan and the area surrounding the lake issuyk kul which formed another major agricultural centre where settlement propped up along the 118 Rivers and streams . While the northern expansion into the tien Shan mountains brought them into contact with the torachians the south ward expansion brought then into contact with the helmand river valley civilization.
Now having given a broad picture on the proto vedic Aryans we go into the developments which were experienced by other Indo iranian tribes.
The western iranian residing around the syr darya were in close proximity to the oxus river valley civilization and experienced greater cultural interaction with that civilization more than the proto vedic Aryans and they formed alakul sub culture and over a peroid of time they formed an alliance with the proto vedic Aryans.
The practice of agriculture which was known to the Indo European people was further refined by the diffusion of agricultural practices by the proto western iranian and proto vedic Aryans this caused population stabilization but at the same time time caused a major population expansion and as a result a lot of tribes expanded westward into the pontic steppes and southern Russia which caused changes in culture and genetic composition and further population expansion
MAJOR POINT OF DIFFERENCE
WHILE IN OUR TIMELINE FROM 1800BC TO 1650 BC THE ANDRONOVO CULTURE WAS RAVAGED BY A PARA PLAUGUE WHICH WAS ESTIMATED TO HAVE KILLED A OF THE INHABITANTS AND CAUSED A POPULATION STAGNATION SUBSEQUENTLY SUCH PARA PLAUGUE DOES NOT TAKE PLACE IN THIS TIME LINE
ANOTHER MAJOR POINT OF DIFFERENCE IS THE INTRODUCTION OF SHIFTING CULTIVATION AND SETTLED AGRICULTURE
While most of the indo Iranians remained pastoral nomads, the climate around that time in central Asia was more humid than at present . While shifting cultivation was practiced in the Kazakh steppes , the steppes forest , the Kazakh uplands , the basin of the Caspian sea , it was also practiced across the 9,000 or so small to medium sized river and across the 50,000 lakes . They grew primarily clover and barley , while barley was mainly used as a supplement to the meat based diet, barley and clover was used as a feed grain mainly to feed their most important asset that is horse . Settled agriculture was practiced by the indo Iranians residing in the ferghana valley i.e proto vedic Aryans and on the banks of the river syr darya i.e by the western Iranian tribes where more intensive meathord of cultivation was practiced given its proximity to the Bactria margina civilization. The practice of shifting cultivation was brought to the indo Iranians by the farmers in modern day Iranian plateau who resided in the oxus river valley civilization which was passed on to the tribes in close proximity to that civilization who inturn passed it on to the other tribes .
Shifting agriculture is an system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned and allowed to revert to their natural vegetation while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cultivation is usually terminated when the soil shows signs of exhaustion or, more commonly, when the field is overrun by weeds. The length of time that a field is cultivated is usually shorter than the period over which the land is allowed to regenerate by lying fallow.
In this case no slashing and burning at all is needed as regrowth is purely of grass, an outcome not uncommon when soils are near exhaustion and need to lie fallow. In shifting agriculture, after two or three years of producing vegetable and grain crops on cleared land, the migrants abandon it for another plot. So fields are cultivated for a relatively short time, and allowed to recover, for a relatively long time. Eventually a previously cultivated field will be cleared of the natural vegetation and planted in crops again. Fields in established and stable shifting cultivation systems are cultivated and fallowed cyclically. Fallow fields are not unproductive. During the fallow period, shifting cultivators use the fallow widely for timber for fencing and construction, firewood, roofing, ropes, tools, carrying devices and medicines. It is common for fruit and nut trees to be planted in fallow fields to the extent that parts of some fallows are in fact orchards. Soil-enhancing shrub or tree species may be planted or protected from slashing or burning in fallows. Many of these species that were planted also unknownly helped in nitrogen fixation . Fallows commonly contain plants that attract birds and animals and are important for hunting. But perhaps most importantly, tree fallows protect soil against physical erosionand draw nutrients .
Initially with a small population resulted In a stable shifting cultivation system, the fallow is long enough for the natural vegetation to recover to the state that it was in before it was cleared, and for the soil to recover to the condition it was in before cropping began. During fallow periods soil temperatures are lower, wind and water erosion is much reduced, nutient cycling becomes closed again, nutrients are extracted from the subsoil, soil fauna decreases, acidity is reduced, soil structure, texture and moisture characteristics improve and seed banks are replenished.
The indo Iranians practice of shifting agriculture was by no means primitive The secondary forests or grasslands created by shifting cultivation are commonly richer in plant and animal resources useful to humans than primary forests or grasslands, even though they are much less bio-diverse. Shifting cultivators view the forest as an agricultural landscape of fields at various stages in a regular cycle. . The Stable shifting cultivation systems practiced by indo Iranians are highly variable, closely adapted to environment and are carefully managed by farmers during both the cropping and fallow stages. Shifting cultivators y possessed a highly developed knowledge and understanding of their local environments and of the crops and native plant species they exploit.
This causes a massive increase in the population in this time line caused by a phenomenon called feedback loop or to be precise two "self amplifying feed back loops" of ecological and social causation. The trigger to the changes were steady population growth and the steady expansion of agriculture to meet the demands of this growth. This set in motion the first feedback loop, the "use-value" loop. As more forest was cleared there was a decline in wild food resources and protein produced from hunting, which was substituted for by an increase in domestic pig raising. And other livestock An increase in domestic pigs required a further expansion in agriculture. The greater protein available from the larger number of pigs and other livestock increased human fertility and survival rates and resulted in faster population growth.
But this process of obtaining food and other resources is underpinned by two process First, the obtaining of materials from the environment and their alteration and circulation through social relations, and second, giving the material a value which will affect how important it is to obtain it, circulate it or alter it. Environmental pressures are thus mediated through social relations.
This is logical as almost all of the materials required by humans to live (with perhaps the exception of air) are obtained through social relations of production and that these relations proliferate and are modified in numerous ways. The values that humans attribute to items produced from the environment arise out of cultural arrangements and not from the objects themselves.
Transitions in ecological systems and in social systems do not proceed at the same rate. The rate of phylogenetic change is determined mainly by natural selection and partly by human interference and adaptation, such as for example, the domestication of a wild species. Humans however have the ability to learn and to communicate their knowledge to each other and across generations. If most social systems have the tendency to increase in complexity they will, sooner or later, come into conflict with, or into "contradiction" with their environments. What happens around the point of "contradiction" will determine the extent of the environmental degradation that will occur. Of particular importance is the ability of the society to change, to invent or to innovate technologically and sociologically, in order to overcome the "contradiction" without incurring continuing environmental degradation, or social disintegration. But in case of nomads like the indo Iranians the innovation may be as simple as moving to another area where there is better climate suited for their needs because the society could not innovate technologically because of a slower rate of innovation in relation to environment degradation caused by agriculture and climate change as central Asia becomes drier and colder than the present day
But this phase saw a rapid expansion of the andronovo culture into the pontic steppes which brought them in contact with Indo European people . The culture of andronovo expanded from Dineper to the altai mountains and the western most people came into contact with phoenicians with whom they engaged in trade but apart from trade there was nothing more but the significance of this contact was that Indo iranian PE aquired some technology of metal making but this small scale contacts did not result in anything drastic . But what was drastic was the contact with the remnants of abashevo culture and the newly formed suburna culture and also the abutting multi cordonned ware culture .
Indo Iranians whose population by now has reached 3.5 million people began to beyond the syr darya river and by now the use of chariots became wide spread . The Vedic Aryans and other indo Iranians over a period of 400 hundred years aquired the skills of agriculture, livestock raising , metallurgy, warfare and trade and commerce .
From 1800-1700 bc was a time of distress since most of the rivers began to dry up and caused further aridification of the lands which caused the decline of oxus river valley civilization, however some of it's inhabitants migrated to the Ferghana valley and assimilated with the proto Vedic Aryans giving them technology and know how required to become an urban power .
In this time line during 1700-1600bc the Vedic Aryans began to expand and settle in between the syr darya and Hindu Kush mountain and later on into the helmand river valley.
This peroid is marked by conflict and turmoil but in general this era saw the unification of different tribes .While Vedic Aryans controlled the lands from Tien Shan mountains and the Ferghana valley to Helmand valley their allies the western iranian tribes controlled the syr darya to helmand river valley
Before we go on with this time line one question has to be answered, who are these Aryans ?
Vedic Aryans and other tribes by no means have began to identify themselves as part of the empire or some state body . The Vedic Aryans and other tribes were basically a confederation of tribes who engaged in brief war amongst themselves and at the same time formed alliance against other tribes , the lands where they were dominant has no border nor were many Vedic Aryans and others confined to a particular territory, they roamed free from the banks of the river oxus to southern Siberia and from altai mountains to dineper while agriculture which was rapidly gaining popularity among various tribes practiced a more settled way of live but even they didn't have identity tied to a place and migrated from place to place in search of better arable land. In times of peace they mingled freely with tribes whose customs and tradition were alien to them . Although their population was growing there was peace for the most part . The Vedic Aryans and other subculture identified themselves as belonging to a culture as opposed to race , place of birth or any other parameters of identity. For the nomads only their companions and their tight-knit group of people they've known all their life, and the herds of sheep, goats and cattle that accompany them in their migrations across the plains.
Their ancestors came from the
Sintashta culture, which is even less studied than its Andronovo descendants. Around 2200 BCE, the constantly warring Sintashta villages seem to have suddenly joined forces and exploded outward from their small territory, to conquer or absorb the surrounding tribes and construct a small settlement across thousands of miles of open steppe-land.Perhaps they had their own “Genghis Khan,” uniting the tribes and spurring them on to greatness and later on much like the Mongol empire you have them disintegrating into smaller groups within a century. Similarly the Aryans that we see in this time line and in our time line are the decendants of a great central asian culture .
before this expansion, it’s clear that the Sintashta culture had already given birth to several key technologies, ideas and ways of life that would influence Asian, Middle Eastern and European culture for millennia to come. Sintashta (or proto-Sintashta) burials contain the
earliest known horse-drawn chariots, developed from ox-carts around 3000 BCE — along with hoards of copper and bronze weaponry forged with strikingly expert skill
But were the Andronovo people actually Aryan?
Were they Indo-European at all?
The answer to that question is more complex than it first appears. In fact, it raises a specter that’s haunted Central Asian archaeology for more than a century in otl how exactly do we classify these people, when they don’t seem to fit into any of our neatly labeled boxes?
The great mixing bowl of the Asian steppe makes mincemeat of such classifications.
One theory that enjoyed some early popularity was that the Andronovo people were ancestors of the Aryan charioteers who later ruled northern India. Andronovo people clearly favored the horse-drawn chariots beloved by many Indo-Iranian peoples. They also seem to have worn the tunics and trousers later made famous by Indo-Iranian warriors like the scythians and sarmatians.
Research on Andronovo bodies preserved in the frigid steppe soil has revealed that many of their skulls “exhibit pronouncEd caucasian features ,” and that their DNA is similar to that of modern Caucasian peoples, containing genes for pale skin, blue eyes and blond hair.
So were the Andronovo people more like “Vikings in chariots?”
No, not that, either.
They also possessed several genes now found in Kazakh, Mongol and Siberian populations, hinting that (at least some of) the Andronovo people may have had epicanthic folds around their eyes, and may have resembled modern Kazakh or Siberian people at least as much as Swedes or Finns.
A reconstruction based on the remains found in Central Asia
Some of them looked like this
Some looked like this a mix of different ethnicity
After the collapase of oxus river valley civilization was a time of intense upheaval and the Vedic Aryans engaged in war with other tribes and won and lost a series of wars across the enite andronovo cultural sphere in alliance with the western iranian tribes But in this phase another major pod takes place , the remants of oxus river valley civilization and it's inhabitants are assimilated into the Vedic Aryan fold , by this act the Vedic Aryans have put themselves on par in terms of technology and know how with other major civilization. And this caused the Vedic Aryans to grow in all areas at such fast rates in the succeeding years .
The 18TH century bc would be the turning point in the history of the Aryans as the oxus river valley civilization to it's north began to collapse and it's inhabitants moved into the iranian plateau while some moved into the helmand river valley. These people brought with them the skill , craft and knowledge of their civilization. The consequences of this was accelerated speed of development
The century of war which will be discussed in the next section had its impact while there was an expansion in term of number of tribes in the Vedic Aryan fold but equally so is the number of dead , the strength rose from 300,000 to 650,000 but a lot of people died during this times of troubles.
Conflicts during times of trouble
Heavy armoured charioteer
A warrior
SECOND PHASE (1700-1680 BC )
ERA OF CONQUEST AND EXPANSION
THE BACKGROUND
Before going in details of the expansion and conquests the inter tribe rivalry from 2100-1700 bc must be discussed
As stated earlier by 1700 bc the oxus river valley civilization collapsed and it's inhabitants were absorbed by Vedic Aryans and Western iranian tribes . During this era an alliance was formed between the Vedic Aryans and Western Iranian and it was for the first time that an Aryan identity came into existence
However From the 2000bc to the 1700bc the proto Vedic Aryans were dominated by the steppe powers to their West the oxus river valley civilization and then the other Indo iranian tribes. The Indo Europeans also came from the north to extract tribute from the proto vedic Aryans. In some cases they were under tocharian domination (from the East, mainly from tarim basin) according to the balance of power at any given time. Under this triple domination the Vedic Aryans started to show growing power and independence. Their rise was slow compared to others because they were frequently crushed by neighbouring powers—each using the Vedic Aryan warriors when needed but ready to crush them when the Vedic Aryans became too powerful. The western iranian suffered no better fate than the Vedic Aryans. The Vedic Aryans because of their geography were able to Unite and eventually expand northward and southwards .
Enjoying the collapse of the oxus river valley civilization to the West and the collapse of the tocharians in the early 1700bc century the proto Vedic Aryans and Western Iranian tribes established the Aryan league or an alliance in 1700bc . The league
proved to be a significant power steppe as they were continuously moving south and north and gaining control over former Indo iranian, European and other people lands .
However During the time of the zenith of the oxus river valley civilization both were vassals to the suzerin either to the oxus valley civilization or to the nomads towards the north depending on the balance of power between the two, or the suzerainity ended when they replaced the oxus river valley civilization as the main steppe power. Once the civilization collapsed and the alliance/ league established there was enough of a power vacuum was left to give the Aryans the opportunity to cast off the bonds of subordinacy. The Aryans occupied the areas vacated by the oxus valley civilization bringing them under their control.
In the 1900 bc the Vedic aryan tribes were still a weak confederation after being heavily defeated by oxus valley civilization who enslaved many Aryans and seized a large part of their livestock, leading to harsh times for the proto vedic Aryans. By that time the proto vedic Aryans are still described as the lower level of nomadic civilization, their 'confederation' still being an anarchist system of isolated tribes, each tending his own sheep and horses and hunting on his private territory. Some federal leaders were created after elections during a time of war after which it became a local power.
the the oxus river valley civilization established it's dominance in 1800s when the proto Vedic Aryans were living in a period of internal military turmoil. Their tribes were fighting each other perhaps as a result of river valley strategy to increase tensions between nomads in order to create internal divisions. In 1800 bc some Vedic Aryan tribes tribes submitted to the Indo iranian tribes while others submitted to the oxus valley civilization
Opposition rose because of the behaviour of oxus river valley civilization, who treated Vedic Aryans chieftains as their servants and refused to provide help during a famine that struck the Ferghana valley area According to the agreement the civilization was supposed to provide famine relief. When they failed do so the Aryans launched a rebellion .
The first significant response from the oxus river valley civilization was to send an army but they were defeated by Vedic in the Battle. The civilizationwas astonished by the announcement of the defeat and quickly made attempts to launch a new attack to the rebels.The proto Vedic Aryans kept winning on the battlefields. The Vedic Aryans contacted that western iranian for assistance for their rebellion and the latter quickly acceded to the request and the combined forces captured one territory after another until finally the oxus river valley civilization agreed to pay tribute to the combined power , with this the domination of the river valley civilization came to an end and that of the Aryans began , within 50 years the civilization will collapse because of climate change and it's inhabitants would merge with the western iranian tribes and the Vedic Aryan tribes .
This revolt was lead by BHARATA the leader of the Atharvan clan and the leader of the western iranian tribes was gayo maraton the leader of the house of pishadiddun and in the span of 15 years they founded an empire which spanned from the dineper to the mongolian plateau and from southern Siberia to the Persian gulf and named the land they conquored MahanIyazasana meaning the glorious world empire
Before going on a revolt against the oxus river valley civilization baratha began to reform the proto vedic Aryans and to unify them into a single nation ,he against custom, and put competent allies rather than relatives in key positions and executed the leaders of enemy tribes while incorporating the remaining members into his clan. He ordered that all looting wait until after a complete victory had been won, and he organized his warriors into units without regard to vis . By 1705 bc he had vanquished all rivals,. The following year, he called a meeting of representatives from every part of the territory and established a nation similar in size to modern tajikstan , krygiztan whole of ferghana valley and whole of helmand river valley. He was also proclaimed Rajan or king of all tribes .
Having united the steppe tribes, Baratha ruled over some 700,000 people. In order to suppress the traditional causes of tribal warfare, he abolished inherited aristocratic titles. He also forbade the selling and kidnapping of women, banned the enslavement of any Aryans and made livestock theft punishable by death. Moreover, Bharatha ordered the adoption of a writing system when they came into contact with the Babylonians, Elamites and adopted a modified version of cuniform ,immunity was granted to and traders and allowed freedom of religion well before that idea caught on elsewhere.
Baratha's first campaign after the successful revolt and after establishment of their alliance with the western iranian tribes took place against the tribal confederation in northwestern central asua. After a series of raids, the Aryans launched a major initiative that brought them to the doorstep of the capital of tribal confederation. The army consisted almost entirely of cavalrymen, who were expert riders and deadly with a bow and arrows. Aryans frequently deployed a false withdrawal—one of their signature tactics—and then initiated a shock attack or counter attack . After a series of one sided battle the tribal confederation ruler submitted and presented tribute.
The Aryans next attacked the pontic steppes of southern Russia whose ruler had made the mistake of demanding Baratha submission. From 1695 - 1691 bc t outnumbered aryans ravaged the countryside and sent refugees pouring into the Iranian plateau. In 1691 bc the Aryans besieged the capital of the western andronovo tribal confederation the ruler agreed to hand over large amounts of grain, silver, gold and horses. When the ruler subsequently moved his court south Bharatha took this as a breach of their agreement and, with the help of deserters, complete the conquest of all the lands towards the west
In 1690 bc Baratha went to war against the tribes in Iranian plateau. These lands held vast number of tribes who escaped the Aryan conquest and Baratha was determined to bring them under his sway . Despite once again being outnumbered, the Aryan horde swept through one one tribe after another in the iranian plateau Skilled workers such as carpenters and jewelers were usually saved, while aristocrats and resisting soldiers were killed. Unskilled workers, meanwhile, were often enslaved . No one knows with any certainty how many people were enslaved during these wars, in part because the Aryans propagated their vicious image as a way of spreading terror.
THIRD PHASE 1680-1500 bc
CONSOLIDATION IN THE HELMAND RIVER VALLEY AND THE IRANIAN PLATEAU
After the conquest Baratha turned to consolidate the gains and tried to incorporate other tribes into the Vedic Aryan fold or merge with that of it's allies . In this phase the Aryans resembled more like a Manchu society that is a mix of nomads and settled farmers
This phase is marked by the consolidation in the helmand river valley and to the west into the Alborz mountains until the zagroz
Mountains and in the east the . This phase the came into active contact with people of the iranian plateau, the Elamites, the gutians , the hurrians , Hittites, kassites, Babylonian, Assyria and many other people group in the west , in the east they came into contact with the inhabitants of the Indus valley civilization.
This phase also saw the
The vedic Aryans and the western Iranians tribes on the banks of the river syr darya in late 1700 BC and formed the indo Iranian who be referred to as Aryans and this new subculture was different from the other subculture in the andronovo cultural sphere which by now is dominated by the Aryan People . This phase saw the change from tribe based organizations to territory based organizations a consequence of its interactions with the river valley civilization. The indo Iranians in this phase can be compared to the Scythians who would only come into the picture a millennium later. The indo Iranian people or Aryans later on formed their own culture distinct from that of the andronovo culture . The indo Iranians in this phase turn to agriculture and more importantly trading and metallurgy and when a major drought hits their region they engaged in raids and plunder of the river valley civilization.
The vedic Aryans on the whole have adopted a sedentary lifestyle and began to cultivate the fertile Helmand river valley while few remained in the ferghana valley and also in the syr darya and Amur darya , many took to industry and trading activities too while their cousins i.e other Indo Iranian and Indo Europeans still roamed free across the steppe grassland many more began to roam the vast Iranian plateau as the lands further north became arid because of climate change and due to over grazing . The vedic Aryans and other nomads had a symbiotic relationship , the vedic Aryans and other settled subculture sold grains , manufactured goods and offered other services in return the nomads traded with them goods from far off river valley civilization and offered protection against the threats of the river valley civilization and other nomadic tribes but for the most part the river valley civilizations and the former had a tough time taking on the tribal confederation and when come face to face with the horse archers they stood no chance .But conflicts with the river valley civilization was rare and was done with a primary purpose of obtaining wealth , grains and skilled craftsmen and was done usually during the times of drought when resources were hard to come by .
Indo European and other Indo iranian people who haven't adopted the art of agriculture and who were nomads lived in confederated tribes, a political organization took a form of voluntary association which regulated pastures and organised a common defence against encroaching neighbours for the pastoral tribes of mostly herdsmen. While the productivity of domesticated animal-breeding greatly exceeded that of the settled agricultural societies, the pastoral economy also needed supplemental agricultural produce, and stable nomadic confederations developed symbiotic alliance with sedentary peoples – i.e vedic Aryans in exchange for animal produce and military protection.
Nomadic Indo iranians and Indo European were particularly known for their horse riding skills, and their early use of composite bows shot from horseback. With great mobility, the they could absorb the attacks of more cumbersome footsoldiers and cavalry, just retreating into the steppes or mountains. Such tactics wore down their enemies, making them easier to defeat. The they were notoriously aggressive warriors. They "fought to live and lived to fight" and "drank the blood of their enemies and used the scalps as napkins.Ruled by small numbers of closely allied elites, they had a reputation for their archers and many gained employment as mercenaries.
AT THE RIVER HELMAND, THE NUCLEUS OF THE CONFEDERATION
According to vedic geography of this time line , the region of the Haētumant River extends in a southwest direction from the point of confluence of the Arḡandāb with the Helmand and has an important position within the aryan tradition and was seen as the cradle of Aryan civilization in this time line.In particular, this is mentioned in the text Of Vedas which contains some strophes dedicated to a celebration of the Haētumant and some of its affluent rivers, such as the
Xᵛāstrā,
Hvaspā,
Fradaθā,
Xᵛarənahvaitī,
Uštavaitī,
Urvā,
Ǝrəzī, and
Zarənumatī.
Haetumant or Helmand river or the country of the Haētumant seems to have had a privileged position ; because, compared to the other 16 countries also mentioned in the Earliest layer of vedas its description occupies important space, with the exception of Airyana Vaēǰah and hapta Sindhu and also Rangha ( later on known as Ganges or ganga ) later was called as Aryavarta after aryanization of the Sindh , Gangetic river valley and Punjab region . The identification of these rivers, lakes, and mountains was in great detail . The important role that the Helmand River and its region have played in Indo iranian tradition is linked to the special connection between them and the first dynasty of the Aryans THE khshayarshas of the Atharvan clan which literally translates to the Lion Kings or king who possess great valour . And for the parasu clan it's the home of kavian dynasty.
THE GEOGRAPHY
The Helmand river is proximately 1,300 km (800 miles), Originating from the Koh-e Bābā heights of the Hindu Kush mountain range, the Helmand receives five tributaries—Kajrud , Arḡandāb, Terin, Arḡastān, and Tarnak. Draining the entire southwestern portion of Afghanistan (approx. 100,000 sq. miles), the river moves southwest towards the iranian border of otl pass through the provinces of Wardak, Oruz-gān, Helmand, and Nimruz. South of Zaranj, the river flows northward, forming the Afghan-Persian border for 55 km before emptying into the Helmand (Sistān) marshlands. The river approaches the border area through the Mārgo Desert (Dašt-e Mārgo), and upon reaching it, splits into two separate waterways. The first, called Helmand (locally also called Daryā-ye Sistān, the Sistān River), flows through the Sistān plains, where it is used for irrigation by the local population. The second, named Siḵ-sar (also called Pariān), forms the Afghan-Persian border in the villages of Nāruʾi and Miānkangi and finally drains into the Hāmun-e Helmand, the main expanse of fresh water within the Iranian Plateau,
Indo Aryans bulit canals,dams, distributaries, and protective embankments are some of the measures used to regulate such floods.Irrigation canals are usually drawn from the river seven to fourteen miles from the land they irrigated .The Helmand is navigable from Gerešk to the Sistān .It's medium annual water output is 2,900 million cubic meters and irrigation is possible for most of it's stretch. In the spring when the Hāmun lake reaches its maximum size, the water flows southward through the Selagrud River into the Gowd-e Zerreh depression in southwestern Afghanistan. Between May and October, the Wind of 120 Days.an erosive gale brought on by the differential pressures between the northern plains and the southern lowland deserts, blows from the northwest. This causes intense evaporation, which divides the Hāmun into three separate lakes.
SOCIO ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
The veduc Aryans some of whom were nomadic and most of whom practiced settled agriculture grew wheat, legumes and barley and later on millets also raised polutry, horses , cattle, Camel and other animals . There were also industry relating to smelting of copper ore making bronze implement and objects of daily use , making pottery , jewelry , processing of agricultural commodities, textile manufacturing . Further there were 980 minor settlement with population no more than 300 and 5 major cities with population of more than 10,000 were bulit and one major city with a population of 50,000 and rest of the population practiced nomadic life style .
The people of this new civilization traded extensively with and with the Indus valley civilization to it's south and grew in prosperity which stood out when it's neighbouring civilization have experienced stagnation in every aspect of social life .
The nomads made expansion beyond the helmand river valley and reached the Alborz mountains, Dast e kavir and dast e lut in the east . The settlement was was bulid using locally available material and cities lacked any serious fortifications . The life in general was very peaceful and conflicts were rare since there was available in plenty land and grazing fields and for the vedic Aryans to grow in strength and by 1800 bc the population of the civilization reached 700.000 people more than half practiced a settled way of life . While the nomads had free reign of entire eastern iranian plateau.
Society was simple, archaic one, divided essentially between priests and other men, with every peasant at the same time a fighting man, who was ready to defend his property against enemies in times of danger. These Other men were peasant-farmers and cattle-tending pastoralists.A parallel can be drawn in this respect between the Indo-Iranians and certain East African tribes, who also have a mixed pastoral economy, but for whom too the cow is of unique social and even religious importance.These African tribes are likewise divided into two social groups, priests and warrior-herdsmen. Then later on people recognized, into, three social divisions, priests, warriors, and herdsmen-farmers.
Intially a classless society would have been characteristic generally of Aryan peoples in their pastoral period later on The trifunctional hierarchization of society was a result of a dynamic process of development . In the older pastoral society, we expect unranked descent groups. As the community grows and diversified the extended family group for economic reasons; moving to establish new settlements leads to profound social changes with ranked descent groups and full-time craft specialization.
The priesthood were called karapan or adhvaryu generally held to designate ordinary working priests who performed rituals , there was another class of priests who officiated the ceremony and another class who used to sing inspired words . the priesthood was hereditary because of the existence of a learned, subtle, technically complex religious poetry, whose mastery clearly required years of study.
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
There was a presence of proto state and kingdoms and political organization at best was semi tribal in nature characterized by few conflicts amongst themselves but a form of league of tribes was present to provide common defense against the Invaders .
The family or kula was the basic unit of political organisation headed by the Kulapa or grihapati.The next unit, grama or village was headed by the gramani. The Vis or a group of villages was headed by the Vispati. The highest unit, Jana or tribe consisted of a group of Vis headed by the tribal chief. The administrative machinery of the Aryans in this period worked with the tribal chief in the centre, because of his successful leadership in war. He was called ganapatior Jyestha that in this period the king’s post had not become hereditary. However, the chief or the ganapatior Jyestha or the council did not exercise unlimited power, for he or they had to reckon with the tribal organizations. The called the protector of his tribe as he protected its cattle, fought its wars and offered prayers to gods on its behalf.
raja was chosen by his people, the vish or the Jana. Further, in a situation where the resources for maintaining a regular standing army were absent, the raja depended on the vish who constituted the militia.Thus, although the ganapatior Jyestha or the janasyagopa (i.e., the protector of the jana) was certainly more prosperous and powerful than the other members of the Jana owing to his access to the loot obtained in battle and the tribute or bali offered by his own people, he depended greatly on popular support in order to exercise his powers effectively.
Several tribal or the clan-based assemblies such as the Sabha, Samiti, Vidatha, Gana are mentioned in the veda. They exercised deliberative, military and religious functions. The Vidatha seems to be a more popular assembly than either Sabha or Samiti in this period. The Vidatha was an assembly in which both men and women participated.
It functioned as centers for settling disputes, redistribution, and provided a place for performing sacrifice. The Sabha was the ‘Body of the Elders’ and constituted mainly of the military chieftain and the elite. The speaker of Sabha was called Sabhapati and its members, Sabhya.
The Samiti was more in the nature of a folk assembly in which the entire population could participate. The members of the Samiti were called Vishah. The most important function of the Samiti was the election of the ganapatior Jyestha and the election of Sabha, a selected body was more like an advisory council.
In the day-to-day administration, the ganapatior Jyestha was assisted by a few functionaries. Officials like the senani or the general, thepurohita or the priest, the gramani or the head of the grama and to spasas or spies, but these were not to have organised into a formal bureaucracy. There was not mention any officer for administering justice and officer concerned with tax-collection.
FOURTH PHASE 1500-1356
BIRTH OF AN EMPIRE
Socio economic conditions
with bigger and larger cities with advanced fortifications, better metallurgy and change in material culture which in turn resulted in change in overall culture. After the migration of the inhabitants of oxus river valley civilization and the Indus valley civilization cities had a fort and adjoining settlements. Buildings were of mud brick and plastered. Fort's included sling balls and within the cities the manufacturing of fine ceramic ware, utilitarian pottery, exports to northwest Iranian gray ware culture suggesting new trading partners, new technology for manufacturing of bronze and copper weapons, jewelry, compartmented seals, polished bone, and flint implements. A residential, artisan, and storage complex contained inside the city and cities usually had Next to the temple was a four-cornered palace with round towers, its outer face bearing stepped pilasters. It had massive walls, “T”-shaped corridors, and was surrounded by a moat , cities also contained furnaces for smelting bronze . There were 5 such cities with a population around 10,000 people and all of them were uniform in nature .Houses were built of wattle and daub mud , or bricks, ranging in size from small huts to large houses with many rooms. There is a clear settlement hierarchy, with a few central towns that stand out amongst numerous small villages. The society was fairly evolved, proto-urban or semi-urban stage of this culture, with evidence of social organization and trade, including ornaments of gold, copper, ivory, and semi-precious stones, storage bins for surplus grain, stone weights, paved streets, water channels and embankments.Arts and crafts of the Aryan People are represented by ornaments (made from terracotta, stone, faience, and glass), human and animal figurines (made from clay) as well as incised terracotta discs with decorated edges and geometric motifs which probably had "ritual meaning," perhaps representing symbols of Brahman and it's 33 representation There are a few stamp seal with geometric designs inscription but this inscription has no LINGUISTIC meaning apart from use in trade and commerce. Also In the 18th century there was a secondary migration into the river valley and also the migration from hapta Sindhu into the Aryan civilization the three migration wave caused the population to explode from 750,000 to 950,000 .
With the growth in population there was increasing pressure on land and water ,while in the east there was a formidable hapta Sindhu empire the Aryans decided to move west and into sistan .
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION AND INTER TRIBE RELATIONSHIP.
Before we go into the details of the west ward expansion of the Aryans a introduction and discussion of the political system and organization needs to be done
During this time the tribes began to form into proto states with all having tribal council presided over by a king or an elected officials such as executive committe . The Aryan tribes during this time are Alina , Aanava , aaju, bhalana , brihigus, , dahae, dhribika , gunngu, parni , parsu ( the Persians ), pakhta , nahusha, paravata , Rushama, srinjaya, turvasa, yadu , kuru ,and other minor vedic tribes and all these tribes were occupied on the banks of river helmand
Most of tribes got along well with one another , conflicts were present mostly to contest land and right to water but the conflict was limited to one day or two and did not involve a large segment of the population and the Victor of the war had the right to collect tribute from the king or leaders of the defeated tribe .
There was no border security for a kingdom and border disputes were very rare. One king might conduct a military campaign and defeat another king in a battle, lasting for a day. The defeated king would acknowledge the supremacy of the victorious king. The defeated king might sometimes be asked to give a tribute to the victorious king. Such tribute would be collected only once, not on a periodic basis. The defeated king, in most cases, would be free to rule his own kingdom, without maintaining any contact with the victorious king. There was no annexation of one kingdom by another. Often a military general conducted these campaigns on behalf of his king. A military campaign and tribute collection was often associated with a great sacrifice conducted in the kingdom of the campaigning king. The defeated king also was invited to attend these sacrifice ceremonies, as a friend and ally. But these sacrifices had one important impact , the expansion of the Aryan realm as most tribal kingdom or states avoided wars with one another and were United together in a league like NATO for the purpose of common defense.
It was originally created for protection against enemies from surrounding areas under the leadership of the vedic tribe .During the reign of prithu the other tribes were persuaded to acknowledge the leadership of Vedic tribe , the treaty with Vedic tribe was renewed, and it was agreed that the troops of the other tribes would attend on an appointed day to form a united military force with the troops of Vedic tribe That was done, and formed combined units of Vedic tribes and other troops.
It was during these times that major political changes took place in the vedic Aryans confederation. The vedic Aryans tribes over a period of time went from being nomadic pastorialist to settled farmers even though significant number of tribes were nomadic in the east of the hindu kush mountains . The vedic Aryans were also influenced by the governance style of the indus valley empire and began to adopt the system of government of the indus valley empire. They aslo began to combine the elements of warfare practice of the indus valley empire. The Indus valley army proficient in static warfare and had series of fortification in and around major settlement and in strategic areas and these tactics counterred the mobile warfare of the vedic Aryans . Though the years the vedic aryans developed tactis to take on fortification by way of seiges and by other means . The vedic Aryans also had large number of skilled horsemen which they can deploy in battle. These developments gave a tactical egde over the troops of the indus valley empire and the century of war had enabled the vedic Aryans to develop strategies to employ during war . These Aryans also had accumulated considerable amount of wealth by trading with the Indus valley empire and also with the neighboring tribes. There was brisk trade was carried on whenever peace prevailed amongst the tribes . With trade came new ideas and information and new technology which the vedic Aryans adopted. There was also a trade delegation of the vedic Aryans in the capital of the Indus valley empire and seals of Aryan merchant were found all over plateau of Iran and also in central Asia aswell as in the Indus valley.
The vedic Aryans had increased their strength by recruitment of more tribes further north in central Asia unlike the vedic Aryans of our timeline who were not in favour of recruitment of non vedic Aryan tribes but none the less recruitment of non vedic Aryans was common in our timeline as they viewed it as a matter of necessity. In this timeline the vedic Aryans actively recruit the brethern tribes of central Asia in their battle against their enemies further the conquest and absorption of tribes over a period of time increased the recruitment pool.
CHAPTER 2 THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION OR IKSHVAKU EMPIRE
In our time line The indus valley civilization collapsed in and around 1900 BC which was caused due to civil war, famine , war migration which was prompted by the change in the climate which occurred during that time period which caused the collpase of river valley civilization around the world and also caused the movement of various tribes including the vedic-aryans and the Iranian tribes . The collpàse was further accelerated because of civil war and diseases such as leprosy and tuberculosis.
In this alternate time line the indus valley civilization survived though it initially suffered from the climatic changes and the change in the outflow of the water of the river which was identified by the Aryans as Saraswati and these times would be known to its people as times of trouble which laster from 1900 bc to 1800 bc but it never had to suffer from the outbreaks of diseases . Thus the civilization survived by forming an Empire under a centralized government and The people of this civilization adapted to the change and built new cities and settlements though the new settlement and cities were not in the size of the former cities and settlements intitally But nonetheless the civilization survived and was recovering. The recovery was more pronounced in the present day sindh province of pakistan and in the state of gujarath of India but in the region of mordern day greater punjab there was population stagnation as these region was hit the most by the change in monsoon patterns thus the people moved south into the sindh and gujarath and began to rebuild their lives there but over a certain time period the winter monsson recovered causing a growth in population in that region . The change in monsoon patterns meant that southern regions of Indus river valley received more rainfall than the northern part and thus were able to recover much quicker than the punjab . BUT the punjab region did recover and by 1400 bc the Indus valley empire had recovered its former civilization and was engaged in active trade with the kingdoms of Mesopotamia, Elamite, the Egyptians and the civilizations in the Deccan plateau . The empire so formed was as stated earlier a centralized one. While its earlier predecessor were small city states and Kingdoms which was integrated to a significant extent by way of Confederation. The empire was a radical departure from its earlier predecessor and this was reflected in the production and distribution patterns which was organized at a central level while earlier the system was made up small to medium states and was integrated by custom ,culture, Trade
To put it in perspective the pre crises Indus valley civilization were like ancient greek city states except they did not quarrel amongst one another like the Greeks did . While during the mature harappa phase there was as in our timeline a movement towards centralization but because of the times of trouble this idea never came to fruition in our timeline but in this timeline the crises caused the people to unite under one banner to survive and survive they did as a empire.
It was In and around1400 BC the vedic Aryans tribes under the leadership of Bharatha tribe declared war on the indus valley empire on the ground that the empire was interfering with the internal affairs of the vedic Aryans tribes thus beginning the two centuries of war which would cease only on the subjugation of the Indus valley civilization. At the time of the declaration the vedas of this timeline noted it was like an ant declaring war on an elephant. But such a comparison is a misnomer . True that vedic aryans did not have vast fortification or cities or elephants or advanced organization they made it up with horses archers,new weapons and battle tactics that they had aquired from the vanquished tribes or their enemies including the Indus valley empire. The Indus valley Empie had experienced huge depopulation in the north especially around kashmir and the greater punjab area while the lands of the south in present day sindh province was cultivated and was the centre of trade commerce and industry and it was in this area where the recovery was the strongest . The sindh area was protected by the Suleiman mountains in the west and the thar desert in the east and in the south there was the Arabian sea making the geographical location perfect to base the core of the empire as the only vulnerable point was the relatively narrow strip between the thar desert and the suleman mountains in the north which would act as a funnel and thus favours the defender rather than the attacker or the invader.
The vedas of this time line noted that this war lasted for 21 years but the war was by no means continuous, periods of war were followed by times of peace but after each war the Indus valley civilization became weaker and weaker . The last war took place in and around 1380bC the Indus valley civilization had disintegrated into small principalities all of whom were vassals to the vedic Aryans who by then called the land they rule ARYAVARTA, The expansive realm of ARYANS
The war covers four periods or phases each covering a period of 5 years .In the first phase the vedic Aryans declare war and conquered the kashmiri Himalayan mountains and parts of northern Punjab . This phase is crucial because it gave the vedic Aryans access and control of important mountain passes . the war was not limited to the Indus valley. In the west the vedic Aryans with the help of the tribes in the Baluchistan plateau captured the important mountain passes in the Suleiman mountain range. While the territorial gains to the vedic Aryans were small but they ended up gaining control over the strategic areas which would enable them to mount multi frontal attacks in the future which in turn would play a crucial role in he subjugation of the Indus valley. During the second phase of the war the Indus valley empire lost the entire Punjab area to the vedic Aryans. The vedic Aryans mounted a multi front war in which the capital of the empire mohenjo daro was sacked . The attack was mounted from the Suleiman mountain range and it was met with little to no resistance. The vedic Aryans took away huge quantum of gold and trained craftsman and artisans as war booty . Third phase of the war was the most devastating one as the empire crumbled and the remaining nobility accepted the vassalage of the vedic Aryans. This war began with the Indus valley empire mounting an attack on the Helmand valley with the aid of the baloch allies who had switched sides , the attack failed and it resulted in the all out invasion of the empire which was prevented by signing a treaty . The fourth and final phase was more of a revolt against the vedic Aryans rather than a war . The cities of the Indus valley witnessed a boom as a result of peace and trade with the Aryans but they did not want to pay tribute to the Aryans as it was considered by the proud people to be humiliation to their culture and way of life . When the aryans raised taxes to pay for wars with the tribes in the Ganges a revolt ensured . while the revolt was hard on the nobility as they lost all their privileges for the common man the events were greeted with cold indifference.
Indus valley civilization suffered from wars and diseases like tuberculosis and leprosy has to be dealt with. While in our timeline these diseases caused a death blow to the Indus valley civilization in this time line the tuberculous epidemic reaches the Indus valley slowly and the impact of the disaster is huge but it is not sufficient to cause a death blow but is sufficient to cause the defeat of the Indus valley to the vedic Aryans tribes. It is estimated that the Indus valley civilization had at its peak a population of 7 million inhabitants and many migrated eastwards and still many more died due to diseases and the conflicts . In this timeline such events do happen but the effect of it were not so acute. The population drops from 7 million inhabitants to 4 million inhabitants (anything more will be just too much )with a million inhabitants migrating to eastwards to the gangetic river valley. But in this timeline there is another diseases outbreak in the in the gangetic river valley around 1500 BC which kills significant percent of the population in the lands beyond the Indus valley but the disease never reaches the western Punjab, the Indus valley empire and the Tamil country deep south . The population of the subcontinent falls from 8 million to just 5 million with the bulk of survivors being the inhabitans of Indus valley empire and the rest being the vedic Aryans and Tamil people of the south . The vedic Aryans also bring with them diseases from the central Asia while this causes deaths in the Indus valley but it causes just a 5 percentage decline in population as the people of the Indus valley had resistance to the diseases. But this had devastating impact on the survivors of the great epidemic . The result was depopulatinion of vast areas of the subcontinent. While the vedic Aryans did fill up the empty spaces over a period of time but this prompted the vedic Aryans in the latter years to go on slaves raids in the iranian plateau and central asia and recruiting the central Asian tribes most notably the Scythians and purchasing slaves from other central Asian tribes . With plenty of resources available there is less scope of conflict amongst the vedic Aryans but this will have an impact on the population of the subcontinent as India of this timeline consist of more bronzed skined and yellow skinned people while brown skin are distribriuted in the deep south
The war between the Aryans and the Indus valley civilization was recorded in the epics and stories which will be covered under the head ARYAN AGE OF HEROES
Consequences of the conquest of the indus valley empire on the vedic-aryans and history of the Indian subcontinent
A. Popularity of centralised state with a absolute monarch ruling a vast empire
Any person who has studied political science knows that vast empires create centralised state and favours absolute monarchy and vicea versa especially in a time before the advent of mordern day communication
In our time line the Bharatha merged with the puru tribe to create the powerful kuru kingdom in mordern day Pakistani Punjab but in this time line the merger does take place but there is no change on name as Bharathas in this time line were leaders of the vedic Aryan tribal confederation and as such name change is out of the question. While not much is known of the kings of the Bharatha tribe before 1200 BC but post 1200 BC there is a complete list of kings . While scholars of our time line and this time line agree that Bharatha tribe before it's meger with other tribes had a tribal council called sabha and samithi and it's society was egalitarian and democratic in nature but in this time line after the series of merger with other tribes and absorption of non Vedic Indo Aryan tribes and after assuming the leadership of the tribal confederation and more importantly the influence of the indus valley empire lead to creation of a new form of political structure ,the absolute kingship . While in our time line it was only around 500 BC that strong monarchical states emerged and it would take another two hundred years before the first empire known as the Nanda empire would emerge the same empire that Alexander the greats troops who were already de moralized refused to face the empire in war as it was said that Nanda empire had the largest and the most powerful army in the world but the concept of absolute kingship did not emerge with the nandas it was the Mauryan Empire the had the concept of absolute kingship and this evidenced by the hatered of the Maurays to the Mahajanapada and vice versa and also from Arthashastra
In this time line absolute kingship was known to the vedic Aryan tribes as it was followed by the indus valley empire and it's adoption by the vedic Aryans and the subsequent conquest of the indus valley civilization by the vedic Aryans caused a huge butterfly event . The concept of absolute monarchy much was unknown to the vedic Aryans is championed by them in this time line and this was the first major consequence and change from our time line. The consequences of this change are many folds . The obvious one is a centralised government is popular with the elites and the masses than in our time line. Further an absolute monarchy combined with a centralised state encourages unity and uniformity in political level and to some extent even in cultural level as religions in this time line in general and Hinduism in particular now champions the cause of absolute monarchy and a centralised state including large empires . Further with a history of centralised control and absolute monarchy creates an incentive for large empire because to achieve centralised control and to regin as an absolute monarch in a reasonable manner large empires are a pre requisite so instead of small to medium sized confederation that was characterized in our time line the history of India in this time line is characterized by strong authoritarian central government ruling a large empire
B Urbanization of the subcontinent
While in our timeline second wave of urbanization takes place around 500 BC but in this time line since the indus valley civilization survived and people continued to live in the indus valley and the vedic aryans soon began to build towns ane cities with the indus valley as the model. The vedic Aryans soon begin to adopt a urban life style and many more who are nomadic pastorialist settle down to become farmers in the saptha sindhu valley whose population has been recovering since the times of trouble in the 1900 BC. The massive influx of vedic Aryans and other indo Aryan people from the west who begin to settle down and cultivate the fertile indus valley resulted in a revival of agriculture in the river valley not seen since the days of mature harappa civilization of our timeline
The indus valley civilization for all its advances in science and technology did not have much knowledge of irrigation system which in our time line was the main cause of its decline . While in this time line they did learn to irrigate the land and survive as a result their knowledge of irrigation was poor at best when compared to vedic Aryans who had good experiences and knowledge of irrigation systems as they irrigated the arid lands of central Asia during the middle bronze age . The vedic Aryans just like in our time line began to irrigate the land by building canals and small dams in the fertile sindh and the punjab region while in the dry and arid lands they with the help of Iranian tribes learnt to build qanats this brought in further lands under cultivation and made agriculture in the indus valley and beyond less dependent upon the unpredictable monsoon and increased the agricultural output from the land by many folds. This over a period of time lead to an increase in population of the indus valley but more importantly it resulted in further urbanization of the indus valley because of the surplus agricultural production. Thus the foundation of urbanization was secured
Further urbanization requires a strong central government as this was discussed in the previous point we can say the logical consequence of this that the central government will built new or renovate old cities to increase the control and to bring in further revenue in the form of taxes from industries ,trade and commerce
The retention of the knowledge and experience of the indus valley civilization has already been discussed in the beginning
These factors will cause an increase in the urbanization aswell as primitive industrialization which latter on spread throughout the sub continent
C Increase in foreign trade and consequently increase in the knowledge of foreign lands
While it may come as a surprise for many but the people of the indus valley civilization were proficient in conducting sea voyage and were experts in building dockyard and ports . The best example of their proficiency is the docks and ports of lothal in present day indian state of Gujarat. While vedic Aryans who were not known much for their sea trade aswell as land trade . This resulted in the indian subcontinent being cutoff from the social and technological development of foreign lands as consequence of this isolation the social and economic and scientific development of the subcontinent was not shared with the foregin lands or it resulted in delayed or stunted development of the subcontinent in various areas .
An active foreign trade will have further accelerated impact on urbanisation as artisans and metal smiths and other industries have a much larger market to cater to and from the point of view of the government it will increase the amount of revenue in the form of taxes
In this time line the vedic Aryans because of the inhabitants of the indus valley civilization come into contact with Elamite, neo Babylonian empire, neo Assyrian empire, various elamite and other tribes of the Iranian plateau and as a result of this contact apart from increase in prosperity as a result of foreign trade the people of the subcontinent also come into contact with foreign ideas and scientific development and the people of the middle East with that of India . While this will not cause huge butterfly effects in the political arena but the impact of this contact on religion and science and technology is not clear. There will be an increase in the speed of scientific and technological advances than what we see in our time line but in my opinion this will not result in major changes in the course of political and military events but rather a change in the standard of living of the people around the ancient world. To give an example by having contact with the people of the Iranian plateau who had advanced knowledge of irrigation systems that is the qanats the people of the subcontinent begin to use some of the irrigation techniques of the Iranians to improve the irrigation system of their own thereby increasing crop yields or using it to deliver water to the cities in a much more efficient manner
Date of edit 27 August 2018
D. Socio religious changes
The indus valley civilization of our time had by the mature stage developed a very complex social heirrachy . While the details of this social order is not known in our time line and in this time line also the deatils are not known but the caste system that emerged in this time line may be same as that of the social order that prevailed in this alternate time line indus valley civilization but with certain chaage in structure and organization.
While this caste system is not as rigid as the caste system of our time line as it did alow both individuals and communities to improve their status . In our timeline It is a fact that the caste system was not rigid until the Gupta's lost power due to the invasion of hepthalites and during the islamic invasion of india this caste system further de generated into a ridiculously irrational system that emerged as a parallel power to the state authority but on the filp side it helped hindus preserve their customs and tradtion by locking them in a state of perpetual stagnation
But in this time line the caste system will remain liberal when compared to our time line ,the reason for this is a strong central government and a Monotheistic religion combined with a high level of urbanization and industrial growth. Any person who studied indian history knows that when a strong centralized state emerged the caste system always weakened for example during the time of mauryas and the guptas both of which were centralized states the caste rules were relaxed and more liberal dhramashastras were composed
. As for the effect of monotheistic Hinduism instances of the effect of monotheistic movement within Hinduism during the zenith of caste rigidity that is during the 10th to 17th century it was these Monotheistic movements within hinduism that emerged as the enemy of the caste system as the common doctrine of all these movements was" All people are equal in the eyes of god as there is only one god we are his children" be it the shaivites or vaishnavites or any bhakti movements They stood against discrimination on the grounds of caste especilly the parctise of untouchability ( which in my opinon is kinda stupid) and had a common values and ethics system which kept them united and promoted group solidarity.
In this time line as the form of government is centralised autocratic monarchy and the religion being Monotheistic the caste system is more like a class system and the practice of untouchability is never heard of and people of all social classes are given access to place of worship and other public places . Further in this time line the concepts of karma, papa, punya,janma , punar janma etc are present but they don't develop into a complex concepts which was used to justify the caste system as the concept of free will is more popular than vidhi or Brahma lipi or Fate in simple English fate ( but for non Indians reading this i do suggest that you google the concepts that I have written herein before and their impact on social development of indian subcontinent)
As I stated in the beginning the hinduism of this time line is MONOTHEISTIC and the hindus worship lord Brahma and regard fire as the image of Brahma and thus much like the zoroastrian people hindus in this time line also construct fire temples
The reason why hinduism in this time line borrows heavily from proto Zoroastrian ideas and beliefs is the fact that vedic sanskrit and early avestan language is very similar and since hindus of this time line are in more active contact with the Iranian tribes in the Iranian plateau which is the place where proto Zoroastrian religion was practised a lot of concepts of that religion makes its way to hinduism . While the gods of indus valley civilization are assimilated into the vedic Aryan religion as Demi gods which are another category of supernatural beings which the people believe in this timeline which will be explained latter.
The reason why hinduism in this time line is Monotheistic and puts more emphasis on free will and good vs evil is because the birth place of hinduism or Brahmanism as it will be known in this time line is not limited to Punjab as it was the case in our time line but the whole of indus valley Afghanistan and Balochistan and further since the development of Vedas and other religious concepts are delayed because of the wars that the vedic Aryans fought with the Iranian tribes and other indo Aryans tribes and also the indus valley empire the vedic Aryans put more value in unity and order and the wars have a crucial impact on the society of the vedic Aryans in that the warriors and noble family establish their dominance over the priestly class as warrior are valued more than the intellectuals or people who recites hymns. Further since the place of development of hinduism is more extensive in geographical terms and is subject to foreign influence because of trade in this time line the vedic Aryans come into contact with proto Zoroastrian ideas of eastern Iranian plateau as vedic sanskrit and early avestan language are similar making it possible for the ideas of free will , good vs evils aand Monotheistic ideas to cross over from the Iranian plateau to the vedic Aryans tribes in the indus valley.
What may also makes a cross over into hinduism is the concept of good and evil which has a similar concept in Hinduism of our time line as Dharma and Adharma but the concept of Dharma is much more complex than the concept of good and evil as the equivalent concept of Dharma is justice and the lord of justice is lord Yama the lord of the under world so if the concept of good and evil does make it into hinduism then it may become more mazadyasna than Brahmanism but in this time line hindus will still have the concept of Dharma and Adharma but since it is a Monotheistic religion in this time line the lord of the underworld and justice is also the lord of the universe that is the one and only God Brahma . So in this time line while the goal of moksha ( freedom from birth and rebirth) the ultimate goal of all hindus but the complex ideas of punya and papa will not be so dominant and makes its way to other concepts. In our time line the idea that deeds of a man in his previous life determined in which caste he was born in this life will not see the light of day in this time line as free will is the most important concept as God made every person capable of taking one's own decisions and if a person doesn't lead a life of righteousness he will be born again into the world . While the concept of heaven and hell is present , as a result of cross over from proto zoroasterian concepts with the concept of 7 janamas after which a person is judged for this deeds by the lord himself . Salvation or heaven or moksha means becoming one with the supreme being that is becoming a part of god ie Ahambrahmasmi which is a concept of Rigveda of our timeline remains a important concept in this time line also . As for hell well there is nothing much to say other than its hell. So the concept of heaven titimeline judeo Abrahamic .
While being Monotheistic the hinduism of this time line also has a concept of Demi gods that is souls of great individuals who on their death earn super natural powers but are not god . This is not a vedic Aryan concept and strictly speaking a Dravidian concept as is the case in our time line. Demi gods can be any person or an object or a natural formation such as an outstanding warrior , a great emperor, a great administrator, a mountain, a river , the sun etc while fire temples are not built for these Demi gods but shrines are build in their honour and prople evoke both the supreme being that is the Brahman and any of these Demi gods in their daily life . While intiallly any individual or object could have been raised to a status of Demi god if the people approve of it . But latter on in history the status of granting the status of Demi god became regulated by the Hindu religious order that is the clerical class of the Hindu faith interfered to preserve their power .
Being Monotheistic has an advantage of having simple religious practices unlike the complex religious practices that characterized the Hindu faith of our time line . The effect of this is there is no Buddhism or Jainism or any other counter religious movements as the main cause of all these movements is the pointless of the Hindu rituals and ceremonies whose meaning had become lost to time by then. A simpler religious ceremonies and better social system will ensure stability at the same time progress. But the furstration of the people with pointless religious ceremonies as was the case in our timeline will be replaced by frustrating pointless wars and rebellion which will provide the cause for religious reforms in this timeline plus the oligarchy and the institution of slavery.
The religious changes have been explained to some extent here and the evolution of Hinduism will be covered in other eras for example in the vedic period when the vedas are composed details of Vedas will be provided and in the changes during the ishvaku dynasty era, the Greek invasion and the introduction of Hellenistic religion into the subcontinent and it's popularity in the indus valley and the Hindu Kush mountains, the Mauryan Empire era when the vedic hinduism reached its zenith , the civil war era when the challenge to the vedic orthodoxy became prominent, the Gupta empire era when the vedic Brahmanism was revived by the Gupta emperors some of whom were religious fanatics introduced the concept of forced conversions and religious persecution of certain religious movements, the prathihara empire which was more like a confederation than a empire , the shansabani the eastern Iranian tribes who in this time line remained Hindu it was during their regin the kings of India took the title shah Shahenshah ud Aryan ya anaryan, the various eastern Iranian dynasty that ruled India from 1256 to 1630 the Turks in this time line some of whoare usually tolerant in their outlook but some persecuted minority religion, the Maratha empire 1630 to 1905, the republic of ARYAVARTA 1905 to present
Date of entry 28-8-2018
The social structure and the state I
While not much is known about the social structure of the indus valley empire the vedas of this time line goes into depth as to how the new social structure came into being. The king of the Bharatha ,the king of kings of Aryans pratipa knew that the new subjects especially the elites will never reconcile with the vedic Aryans so he together with his sabha and samithi ( the elite of the vedic Aryans conferderation) formulated a plan to integrate their newly conquered lands into their empire. While intiallly they did not have plans of converting the people of the indus valley into their faith but latter on in 900 ad as brahmanism became powerful did religious conversion in the indus valley convert to brahmanism but even then majority retained their original faith especially in the sindh and Gujarat. The vedas does make vague reference to the faith of the indus valley civilization. The faith described by vedas of this time line tells us that the people of the indus valley followed predominantly proto shaivism and shaktism while a significant minority also adhered to nature worship with host of other gods and goddesses. There were no temples or religious buildings where religious ceremonies were performed as all such ceremonies were performed in their houses or in outdoors.
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The lands that once belonged to the indus valley nobility was confiscated and re distributed to the prominent individuals of the Indo Aryan tribes who happen to be prominent military commanders as well . While this does not lead to feudalism as only land is handed out not any legal or administrative powers and these new nobles are liable to pay taxes to the king emperor
The fate of these former noble families is tragic many were given away as wives to the elites of the vedic Aryans while the rest became peasants working in the lands that once belonged to them but some noble families who collaborated with the vedic Aryans were spared .
The caste system is as follows
1 These new land magnets formed the top caste of the society ,the fact that these families held prominent military rank aswell as vast tract of land gave them significant influence only next to the king emperor and his family in politics and latter on the top caste would also include top civil servants of the empire and the super rich of the society who were usually from the trading community and it was not unusual for these individuals and their families to be given the rank of nobility
2 The next in rank were the members of the military and the religious clergy and latter all the members of the civil service who are not belonging to the top rank and men of the books and science
3 The people in third place are the traders , merchants, metal smiths , tenants of the noble farmlands, peasant proprietor of the crown lands
4 The labour class - a person of this class can better his social standing by joining the army or by learning a trade under a master craftsman or by showing off his skills as a merchant and there were number of other ways by which men of this social class could improve their rank. The upward mobility was by both ways . One way is by an individual having skills and experience and there by moving up the social ladder or the community as a whole decide to improve their social status and it's members begin to acquire various skills . So an individual of rank three could aspire to get into rank two or a person who got promoted into rank three could dream of his children joining the respected second class or a merchant by becoming rich in his trade could see himself and his family joining the nobility.
5 The slaves
There were diffrent kinds of slaves and each class had its own right. While no member of brahmanism could be made a slave and enslaving a member of Brahmanical faith would lead to the death penalty ,however a person of Brahmanic if he owed any sum of money to any individual or to the fire temple or to the guilds could be made a debt slave but the vedas doesn't say a debt slave is a slave as the debt slave enjoyed the same rights and privileges of a ordinary subject of the empire but he had to part ways his income to his creditor not the whole of it but a substantial part of it . The vedic Rishi's were not in favour of debt slaves and a person to be relegated to a rank of a debt slave a decree or order of the crown court or a Judge who is authorised by the crown to deal in matters other than offence against the crown was always required and further they put a time limit of the duration of the debt slave. The vedas of this time line makes it clear that no person shall be relegated to a debt slave for more than 12 years after which he is free from debt nor his children are required to repay the debt and Shall not be born into slavery . There were elaborate rules and regulations on the treatment of debt slaves depending upon ones social rank
The next category of slaves are prisoners of war . These slaves played a crucial role in the building of the empire . The prisoners of war from Iran and central Asia helped the Indians to keep in contact with the latest developments in the world . The metal smiths , engineers, military commanders,horsemen etc after being captured in the battlefield were taken to the indus and gangetic valley and latter on into Deccan plateau . The vedas declared that all prisoners of war were slaves of the crown . The vedic Aryans placed a lot of respect for the warriors of their enemies which was a direct consequence of the events in the indus valley. The good treatment of prisoners of war by the Indians was the main reasons why many armies surrendered to the Indians rather than fighting to death.
The last category were the slaves brought from outside the indian realms. While chattle slavery was prohibited by the vedas but this prohibition extended only to lands under indian rule and Indian traders were the largest purchaser of slaves outside India . After horses ,slaves were India's largest import and when indian empires had access to the grassland of central Asia from where they could get their horses from the import of slaves increased by a large amount. The vedas authorized only the first three classes to own slaves and it required good treatment of slaves for example a married female slave could not be raped, while a child born to a unmarried female slave from a Aryan father the child was free of slavery and the mother of the child was entitled to claim maintenance for herself and for the child from the household and if the child was a male and he joined the army voluntarily the mother was freed from slavery . The saddest part of this time line aswell as our time line is that large majority of slaves imported were women ( guess what's the purpose cause I ain't gonna write about it ,for shame !!!) Of both European and African decent . Infact the Romans not wanting to pay Indians for their imports in gold paid for the import in horses and female slaves
While the details of the caste system will be dealt latter but for now let's get back to the indus valley
King emperor pratipa knew a revolt was only a matter of time so he began preparation to meet the revolt and also began to tàke steps to reduce the scale of the revolt
The vedic Aryans began to build fortifications near cities and strategic areas , roads were rebuilt or improved and new ones constructed , new horsemen and troops were recruited from central Asia and the Helmand valley and stationed in the forts and encampment in and around the indus valley , the communication system too was taken over and monitored, interfacing between the troops and ordinary civilians too was reduced as troops were required to reside in the barracks situated outside the cities.
The vedic Aryans began to make efforts to obtain the support of the religious men, the tradesmen , the small but influential civil service, the men of letters and science. While these efforts were mostly successfull in that most of these people were not hostile to the vedic Aryans and some especially the merchant class welcomed them because the vedic Aryans reduced taxes and brought in security
The ordinary inhabitants of the indus valley were mostly indifferent to the vedic Aryans while there was large scale plunder of their wealth but their women most of whom were spared from the horrors of rape and the vedic Aryans gave tax holiday for a few years as compensation for the plunder . It was said that the wealth of the indus valley civilization was so large that some vedic Aryan tribes didn't bother to collect taxes from their subjects for 5 years . But this tax holiday did not extend to one kind of poll tax that required every men women above the age of 15 to work for 100 days in the crown lands or in the crown infrastructure projects or if the person was rich enough to pay the tax in the form of kind or money
The reason why I am explaning this is to make you guys understand how the vedic Aryans achieved the rapid urbanization of the entire subcontinent as this modus operandi was replicated with little variation across the subcontinent
First the conquered lands were divided amongst the elites with the crown getting half of the lands and the rest being divided up by the nobility with small percentage given to troops who had served in the army for more than 10 years . Some of the local population were enslaved by the crown as prisoners of war and were deported to diffrent parts of the large empire where ever there was shortage of labour . Next the lands were seized from the conquered nobility or from peasant proprietor but care was taken to ensure that not too much disruption took place for example if the land of the peasant proprietor was seized he was allowed to remain on his land as a tenant and keep his house in return he had to pay rent to his new land lord and the rent was usually the same amount of taxes that was levied and was gradually raised , further the labour poll tax was imposed . The effect of these seizure activity was land labour and capital was effectively transferred from the conquered people to the vedic Aryans elite and their military
With established control over land , labour and materials the empire now uses it to cement it's authority over the newly conquered lands . Using the labour roads and fortifications are built in the beginning. The part of the land that was seized are also given the veterans . These veterans many of whom obtain lands on retirement after long periods of service in the army become prominent members of the society. Most veterans are skilled metal smiths, engineers, men of letters or join the civil service if they are intelligent enough and having access to land helps them to obtain significant influence in the local level .
When the roads , bridges and fortifications are constructed the vedic Aryans search a suitable area to construct a city . First infrastructure is laid out in the form of aqueduct , sewage system, public bath, stadiums,fire temples, granaries, administrative offices, large market areas, barracks and other urban facilities
When cities are constructed then trade blossoms and primitive factories are also established by the merchant community or by the crown itself and more importantly the with cities the elites establish palaces and villa around the country side but near to the cities
So the entire system is an oligarchy but with a large middle class and the social structure is imposed by the force of arms intiallly but later on with the establishment of cities gradual cultural assimilation takes place over a period of time as the benefits of the empire begin to trickle down to the poor masses
This social structure and the way in which it was imposed stands in stark contrast to the way in which the social structure was imposed in our time line. In our time line the social order was imposed by force of arms but state power did not play a huge role and this vaccum was filled by the religious establishment who with the backing of state power formulated elaborate rituals and doctrine which in turn justified the brahmins top place in the social order . In this time line state power plays an important role in imposing a social order and in maintaining the social order state plays even more of an important role . The role of religion is taken over by urbanization ,the oligarchy and more importantly the state power . The government of this time line is centralised with a large and powerful army backed up by a elaborate civil service which develops in size and complexity over a period of time and most importantly an espionage system that develops simultaneously with the expansion in territory and finally to hold the tapestry in place religion provides the divine justification for the existance of the state . Further in this time line all surplus wealth is used in expanding the territory of the empire and there by increase the flow of revenue and available resources which in turn enables the Indians to maintain a large state apparatus which inturn helps to maintain a centralised autocratic monarchy thus secure the unity of the diverse and vast empire
Thus in this time line all socio religious reform movement are targeted against the strong monarchy and the state structure that supports it which why the state persecuted religious minorities as they oppose the state power rather than the religious authority of the brahmanism so we end up in a situation where the clerics want the persecution of a religious movement which they deem herassy but the government does not persecute it because it is not a threat to state power but to please the clerics the religious establishment of the rival religious movements are not given any privileges
Further in this time line clerics play an important role in legal development if you refer to my post 32 which goes into some details of the legal system
