the vedic period in india is marked by the development of large, urbanised states.
the vedic period in india is marked by the development of large, urbanised states.
the vedic period in india is marked by the development of?
large , urbanised states
Na
Na
according to michael witzel's analysis of the kuru kingdom, it can be characterized as the earliest vedic "state", during the middle vedic period. however, robert bellah observes that it is difficult to "pin down" whether the kurus were a true "state" or a complex chiefdom, as the kuru kings notably never adopted royal titles higher than "rājan," which means "chief" rather than "king" in the vedic context. the middle vedic period is also characterized by a lack of cities; bellah compares this to early state formation in ancient hawai'i and "very early egypt," which were "territorial states" rather than "city-states," and thus "it was the court, not the city, that provided the center, and the court was often peripatetic." romila thapar characterizes vedic-era state formation as being in a condition of "arrested development," because local chiefs were relatively autonomous, and because surplus wealth that could have been directed towards state-building was instead used for the increasingly grandiose rituals that also served to structure social relations. the period of the upanishads, the final phase of the vedic era, was approximately contemporaneous with a new wave of state formations, linked to the beginning of urbanization in the ganges valley: along with the growth of population and trade networks, these social and economic changes put pressure on older ways of life, setting the stage for the upanishads and the subsequent sramana movements, and the end of the vedic period, which was followed by the mahajanapada period.
vedic period