Chapter 12: Vedism and the God-King Indra
readx;? The Rig Veda already mentions measuring the land. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoThe father is the head of the family, and the man has become an important figure in society. Women run the family and have no low status. Some of the hymns in the Vedas were made up by women. Monogamy was the dominant form of marriage at the time. Different industries have emerged in society, but industries have not yet become fixed and hereditary, and people are not divided into social groups of unequal status because of different industries.
The Aryans gradually turned some of the conquered Dasa (formerly the inhabitants of the Harappan civilization, mainly the yellow race) into slaves, so the word "Dasa" has the meaning of slave in India.
The clan tribal organization of the Aryans remained. The tribal system reigned supreme, and below the tribe there was "Coroman", meaning "village". The village may have consisted of large patriarchal families of the same clan, and the tribes and clans had a citizens' assembly (called "vidta" by the Aryans), attended by all adult men, and convened when the tribe encountered important events such as military affairs, sacrifices, and the distribution of spoils. The head of the tribe is elected by a popular assembly. In addition, there is also a "saba", or tribal elders, among the clans and tribes, and the military leader in charge of military affairs, the "raka", is one of the main authorities.
After arriving in India, the tribal life of the Aryans began to disintegrate, and the tribal leader was effectively hereditary. The position of the chieftain was mainly military, and his power grew day by day in constant wars. The tribe also had village chiefs and a budding class of specialized priests, whose status was gradually rising.
Vedic religion was the dominant religion of the early Vedic era, which evolved from the beliefs of the nomadic Aryan tribes. It is a polytheistic religion. Worship all kinds of deified natural forces, ancestors, heroes, etc. For example, the god of heaven and the god of the sun, the god of the sun, the god of thunder, Indra, the god of the wind, the god of the sky, the god of fire, Agni, and the god of wine, Sumo, etc.
In the later period, the development of monotheism gradually tended, and there were abstract gods, such as the creation of all gods, the prayer of the main god, and the original man. Although it has the concept of the soul, it has not yet produced the idea and belief of soul reincarnation, which has an important influence on the formation of Brahmanism and Hinduism in the future.
The main god of the time was the deification of the Aryan leader Indra, who was warlike and drinkable, the god of war and thunder, and the Aryans described him as a god who could make thunder and guide them to victory, which was related to the fierce conquests of the time. Indra was later known in Buddhism as Shakti, the king of all gods.
The era of Indra tribal rule by 3000 years. Correspondingly, in religion Indra's god-king status should have been maintained for such a long time.
At that time, the poets were most fond of the four gods, namely Indra, the god of war and thunder, Agni, the god of fire, Soma, the god of wine, and Shuangmatong, the god of medicine. In the Rigveda, more than half of the poems are devoted to these four deities, including nearly 250 hymns praising Lord Indra, accounting for about a quarter of the total number of hymns (1,028) in the Rigveda, more than 200 hymns praising Lord Agni, second only to Indra, more than 120 hymns praising Lord Suma, and more than 50 praising the god Twin Horse Children. Therefore, in the Vedic pantheon, these four deities are the most important.
The belief base of Vedic religion is very simple: real life. The first motivation of his faith is the necessity of life, not ignorance. People at that time were very practical, they paid attention to real life, they paid attention to the real things in life. In real life, the tribal leader controls everything, he decides about food, clothing, housing and transportation, manages the distribution of property, manages residence and migration, he declares foreign wars to lead troops to fight, and he collects troops back to the camp with foreign countries. In short, it is up to him to decide what is in the interests of the entire tribe. In this case, people proceed from reality, obey the orders of the tribal leader, worship him as a god, and worship him as the most important and greatest deity. Fire is the most indispensable thing in real life, especially family life, is the maintenance and entourage of people's clothing, food, shelter and transportation, in ancient times, the world without fire is terrifying, dark, cold, and barbaric. In a sense, fire is the decisive force for human beings to move from the barbaric stage to the civilization stage, and if fire is not discovered, it is estimated that human beings are still in the chaotic stage. The ancient Indian Aryans started from reality, regarded fire as a god, and then regarded it as a kind of intermediary between man and the gods, and regarded him as the only way for people to communicate with the gods, and threw sacrifices to other gods into the fire, hoping that fire would bring them information, blessings and favors from the gods.
Vedic culture reflects the daily life of Indians at the time and the imagination of the imagination, for example, the Vedic philosophy promoted the culture of wine, encouraging people to drink alcohol. In the practice of life, they discovered the various functions of wine and felt the charm of wine, but they could not accurately interpret these functions and charms, so they simply regarded it as an omnipotent god and worshiped him.
He entered the Pantheon of Vedic Religion with his practical abilities, and his spirit of saving lives, curing all diseases, and helping others is an eternal virtue that is worthy of praise in real life. Perhaps, the two horse boys themselves were two famous doctors of the ancient Aryan tribes, and because of their noble virtues and superb medical skills, people worshipped them as gods.
In fact, this basis of Vedic belief based on real life is not only embodied in the four gods, but also in other deities from all walks of life. For the ancient Indo-Aryans, the sun in the sky was a god, the clouds in the sky were gods, and the rivers on the earth were gods. This practice of turning visible and audible people or objects in life into gods and worshipping them comes from reality and is rooted in life, and is people's artistic depiction and beautification of real life.
The Aryans inherited the hydraulic techniques of the Harappan civilization and passed them back to the ancestral lands of the Aryans in Central Asia. The most famous is the site of Yerikovin, which is extremely close to the Harappan civilization.
The Yerikovan Gorge in the southern part of the Ural Mountains is the last remaining remnant of the Aryan Ancestral Lands. Archaeologists have found millions of engineering remains that have stopped work for no apparent reason, and found strange rings in the center of the canyon. Yelikewen is not only a city to live in, but also a temple and an astronomical observatory.
Flying over Yerikowin in a helicopter will give you an incredible impression. Huge concentric circles are clearly visible in the valley, and the city, as well as its edges, are tightly surrounded by circles. It is still unclear what the purpose of the monumental circular structure was to be used for defense, scientific research, cultural education, or religious purposes, and some researchers even suspect that the rings were the runways for ancient spacecraft launches, and more likely that they were canals dug for some purpose.