We now study the subcontinent’s state and society up to the end of the first millennium CE. From the second millennium BCE, literary sources — the Ṛigveda being the earliest — begin to supplement archaeology, giving us a far richer picture. We move from kin-based groups (jana, kula) to territory-based janapadas and mahājanapadas, and finally to empires — the Mauryas and Guptas in the north, the Cholas in the south — while tracing the continuity of dharma and the pan-Indian ideal.

• A society is a system of social relationships among people who share a common territory, culture and sense of belonging.
• Its structural units are families / households; its institutions include marriage.
• Most importantly, society is regulated by customs and practices — not formal laws.

• A State is an organised political system based on rules and laws.
• It has defined rights and duties of rulers and subjects, mechanisms of governance, and institutions to enforce law and order.
• Such systems developed gradually as societies grew larger and more complex.

• The Vedas are the earliest known corpus of Indian literature (the Harappan script is still undeciphered).
• Vedic literature existed in oral form for centuries before being written down.
• The Ṛigveda‘s date is debated — from the fifth millennium BCE to the second millennium BCE.
• It was composed in the northwest — the Sapta–Sindhu region (the Indus, its five tributaries, and the Sarasvatī).
• Both the Ṛigveda and the Sindhu–Sarasvatī civilisation knew copper.

• Early Vedic society was organised into janas, or clans — groups bound by kinship ties.
• The Ṛigveda alone mentions about thirty janas.
• Five of them — Yadu, Turvaśha, Puru, Anu, Druhyu — were together called the pañchajana (‘five peoples’).
• The name ‘Bharata’ first appears in the Ṛigveda — for the Bharata jana, the people ruled by the family of the Bharatas.
• The rājā was mainly a clan chief who led the group in warfare and protected its members — not an absolute monarch yet.

The Ṛigveda and Atharvaveda refer to three assemblies — sabhā, samiti and vidhata — each with a real role in early polity.

• Over time, Vedic polity evolved into territorial units called janapadas.
• Janapada literally means “where a people (jana) first set its feet” — a shift from kinship-based to territory-based identity.
• This transition happened between about 1000 BCE and 600 BCE. People now belonged to a land, giving a firmer sense of identity.
• Control over land, agriculture and trade routes grew important → more complex administration.
• So from about 600 BCE to 300 CE arose bigger units — the mahājanapadas (bigger than janapadas).

• Sources speak of sixteen mahājanapadas.
• Magadha (present-day Bihar) gradually became the most powerful — thanks to its strategic location, fertile plains and strong rulers.
• Magadha’s expansion eventually led to the rise of the Mauryan Empire.
• The political landscape also included two forms of state: rājyas (monarchies) and gaṇas / saṁghas (republics).

• In the Deccan, the Mauryan Empire was succeeded by the Satavāhana Empire, which lasted nearly 500 years (2nd c. BCE to 3rd c. CE).
• Further south were the Cholas (lower Kaveri valley), Pandyas (Tamraparni & Vaigai valleys), Keralaputras (Cheras, in Kerala) and the Satiyaputras — all mentioned in Aśhokan inscriptions.
• The three crowned kings were the “Vendar of Tamilakam”. Their emblems: tiger = Cholas, bow = Cheras, fish = Pandyas.
• Much of what we know comes from Sangam literature (300 BCE–300 CE) — the earliest Tamil literary tradition.
• Sangam poems describe bold kings, e.g. a Chera ruler who earned the title adhirāja after defeating several crowned kings.
• Note: these early kingdoms are not the later imperial Cholas/Cheras/Pandyas that emerged centuries later.

• From the 6th century BCE, rulers took titles like rājā, mahārāja, samrāṭ.
• Kauṭilya’s Arthaśhāstra says: “Only if a king is himself energetically active, do his officers follow him energetically.”
• The Yajurveda‘s coronation oath advises the king to judge strong and weak impartially, protect the country from calamities, and do good to the people.
• The Śhānti Parva of the Mahābhārata guides rulers on ethics, justice and duties.
• The king’s chief duties: protect subjects from external threats and internal disorder, and administer justice (abduction, robbery, theft, adultery).
• Punishments for serious offences (cow-killing, treachery, drinking intoxicants) were severe, sometimes capital.
• Kingship was generally hereditary — but there are references to kings being elected or even expelled. So royal authority was not always absolute.

• Early monarchs’ geopolitical awareness stretched beyond their own kingdoms to the whole subcontinent.
• This was expressed through terms like Jambudvīpa, Bhāratavarṣha, Aśhvamedha and Rājasūya yajña, Prithivi, and chakravarti kśhetra.
• Aśhoka claimed his “energetic exertions” (parākrama) changed spiritual life in Jambudvīpa.
• The Arthaśhāstra defines Prithivi as “the area between the Himavat (Himalayas) and the sea” — equated with chakravarti kśhetra, the “domain of a universal paramount ruler”.
• The ideal recurred: a Chera king Nedunjeral Adan extended conquests to the Himalayas; in the 11th century CE, Chola ruler Rajendra I took the title Gangaikonda.

• Kauṭilya saw the state as an organic whole of seven constituents — the Saptāṁga.
• The state works only if all seven remain properly integrated — “one wheel does not move the carriage”.

• The king did not rule alone — he governed through a multi-layered administration.
• Central to it was the council of ministers (mantri–pariṣhad) — a small body of elder statesmen who advised and supported the king.
• It usually included the treasurer, chief tax collector, chief legal advisor and commander-in-chief.
• An Aśhokan inscription records the council taking decisions in the emperor’s absence — so in exceptional cases it could act independently in public interest.

• Empires were divided into provinces → divisions → districts → villages.
• In the Satavāhana empire: āhāras (divisions) under amātyas; villages led by a grāmika (headman). District governors (pradeśhikas) handled judicial & administrative work, often consulting bankers, caravan leaders, artisans and scribes.
• Between 300–800 CE power was decentralised. The north and south used different names for the same tiers:

• Guptas kept much of Kauṭilya’s system: the mantri headed civil administration; a new sāndhivigrahika (‘minister of peace and war’) appeared; kumārāmātyas served at local/provincial level. The Damodarpur copper plates show a 5-member district office.
• Pallavas (c. 275–897 CE) gave tax-free land grants to villages — Brahmadeya villages; village committees (variyams) managed irrigation, gardens and temples.
• Chālukyas gave land to Brahmin settlements — agrahārams (Aihole, Badami became learning centres).
• The tripartite struggle for Kannauj involved Gurjara–Pratihāras, Pālas and Rāṣhṭrakūṭas. In all, the village was the smallest, largely self-reliant unit.
• The imperial Cholas (9th–11th c.) divided the empire into maṇḍalams → valanāḍus → nāḍus → Urs (villages), with strong village assemblies.

• Ethics form the basis of law and life. The Vedas and epics discuss reality, right conduct and the nature of the universe; the Bhagavada Gītā emphasises knowledge, faith, action and virtue.
• Samatva = the principle of sameness — all bodies are of the same matter, all consciousness a manifestation of one supreme consciousness. The Vedas call it satya (true) and ṛita (right).
• The Mahābhārata shows characters of all varṇas upholding samatva; the epics critique discrimination and praise the ruler “who works for the welfare of all beings”.
• Ṛita = an all-pervading cosmic order (from the Ṛig Veda) — harmony and balance in nature and society; it regulates natural forces and upholds moral values.
• Dharma here does not mean religion — it means duty, obligation, righteousness and moral conduct. In Buddhism, the Pāli dhamma expresses similar principles.

• Politics and ethics were linked from the Mauryas to the Cholas: Aśhoka’s edicts promoted dhamma (moral conduct, non-violence, compassion); the 10th-c. Uttaramerur inscription required candidates to have “honest earnings” and be “pure” of mind.
• Texts like Kāmandaka’s Nītisāra and Bāṇabhaṭṭa’s Kādambarī reflect on ethical governance.

• The varṇa system had a fourfold structure — brāhmaṇas, kṣhatriyas, vaiśhyas, śhūdras.
• Early Vedic texts show no fixed status by birth. Identity depended on ethnicity, region, village, gotra, language and, especially, occupation — which was flexible and mobile.

• The four categories first appear (as varṇa) in the Puruṣhasūkta (Book 10 of the Ṛigveda). Over time each was linked to roles: brāhmaṇas (study/teach Vedas, officiate yajñas), kṣhatriyas (warfare, justice), vaiśhyas (agriculture, trade), śhūdras (assist others — but in practice farmed, traded, did crafts).
• Varṇa was a functional division valuing knowledge highest. The Buddhist Sutta Nipāta: “No brāhmaṇa is such by birth… but only by his deeds.”
• Gradually, a distinct structure called jāti emerged — from intermarriage, migrating groups becoming endogamous, and territorial differences.
• Varṇas were fixed at four; jātis had no limit and kept growing.

• Varṇa and jāti were not always rigid. Several ruling dynasties came from diverse backgrounds — Nandas, Mauryas, Śhuṅgas, Satavāhanas, Vākāṭakas, Guptas, Puṣhyabhūtis.
• The Mandsaur Stone Inscription (473 CE) records silk weavers who also did archery and astrology; the Karitalai plates record brāhmaṇas as land managers.
• Sangam’s Tolkappiyam shows a fluid, occupation-based society (Arasar = kings, Vanigar = traders, Velar = farmers, Antanar = brāhmaṇas).

• The kula (family) was the smallest unit → several families = grāma (village) → group of grāmas = viśha (headed by a viśhapati) → above that, the jana, protected by the rājā.
• So the family (kula) was inseparable from the jana.
• Gotra = a patrilineal lineage traced to a common ancestor (a Vedic ṛiṣhi); it regulated marriage.
• Everyone performed duties fitting their varṇa and stage of life (āśhrama).

• All stages had rituals — especially the ṣhoḍaśha saṁskāras (sixteen rites of passage).
• The four puruṣhārthas (goals of life): dharma (righteousness), artha (well-being), kāma (desires), mokṣha (liberation). Dharma and mokṣha matter most ethically; artha is good if guided by dharma.

• The Vedic period is often described as one where women held a high and respectful position.
• Women took part in scholarly learning and rituals, attended the sabhā, and even chariot races.
• Several Ṛigvedic hymns are attributed to women sages — Apālā, Viśhvavārā, Ghoṣhā, Lopāmudrā. Goddesses like Uṣha (dawn) and Aditi were revered.

• Over time, women’s position fluctuated and even declined — yet many kept contributing to household management, agriculture, crafts and religion.
• Gupta–Vākāṭaka literature shows educated, skilled women. Prabhāvatī Gupta ruled as a regent in the Vākāṭaka kingdom and issued land grants in her own name.
• Sangam texts show women in farming and trade, and celebrated poetesses like Avvaiyar and Vennikuyattiyar. Later, Chola queen Sembiyan Mahādevī supported temple building.

• The Vedic pantheon had no rigid hierarchy — different deities are praised as supreme in different hymns.
• Deities were invoked through prayers and yajñas (sacrificial rituals), most often to the sacred fire.
• Faith was intertwined with nature worship — each deity linked to sun, rain, fire, earth or dawn. Some practices survive today (e.g. sun worship at Chhath and Makar Sankranti).
• Nature was seen as sacred and powerful, not just a resource — an early sense of respect for nature.

• Vedic tradition evolved towards worship of personal deities — Viṣhṇu, Śhiva, Śhakti — laying the ground for Bhakti.
• Bhakti = a path of direct connection with the gods, without elaborate rituals, open to all regardless of class or gender.
• Organised Bhakti gained prominence in the 6th century Tamil region through the Āḻvārs (12 saint-poets of Viṣhṇu) and Nāyanmārs (63 Śhaiva saint-poets of Śhiva).

• Education was holistic — cultivating truth, patience, humility, control of senses, purity (sattvaśhuddhi) and reverence for all beings, guided by dharma.
• It also taught practical subjects: Vedas, grammar, logic, philosophy, mathematics, science, medicine, astronomy — plus arts, music, dance and martial arts.
• The guru–śhishya paramparā was sacred. The guru / āchārya guided the pupil “from darkness to light”; the teacher’s home was the gurukula, and the student was treated as family.
• India had many advanced centres of learning — Takṣhaśhilā, Nālandā, Vikramśhilā, Vallabhī, Ujjayinī, Kānchipuram, Odantapurī, Vārāṇasī, attracting students from India and beyond.

• The Mauryan state closely supervised the economy. Village land was divided into holdings; pastures and groves were common resources.
• The state encouraged clearing forests for farming (some forests were legally protected).
• The basic land tax was a fixed share of produce — generally one-sixth. Kauṭilya classified land types for revenue.
• Crops included rice, pulses, wheat, linseed, mustard, saffron, sugarcane, vegetables and fruits. In the Deccan, black soil favoured cotton. Sangam texts note the Chera region’s jackfruit, pepper, turmeric, ragi and sugarcane.

• Agriculture depended on irrigation — reservoirs, canals and dams.
• The Junagadh inscription records Puṣhyagupta (governor under Chandragupta Maurya) building a dam on Sudarshana Lake — showing the state’s active role.
• The Cholas built canals, lakes and tanks; the Grand Anicut (Kallanai) by Karikala Chola is still in use today.

• Well-structured states enabled trade to flourish. The Arthaśhāstra lists trade as a major activity; Magadha traded textiles, gems, coral, pearls, metals and minerals. Salt was state-regulated.
• Two great land routes emerged by the 6th c. BCE: Uttarāpatha (north) and Dakṣhiṇāpatha (south).
• Major ports — Muziris, Kāveripaṭṭinam, Arikameḍu, Masulipaṭnam — grew. By the early Common Era, India’s trade with Rome expanded via sea and Central Asia.

• Guilds (śhreṇīs) were associations of traders, artisans and merchants in the same craft or occupation.
• They grew after the rise of the mahājanapadas (6th c. BCE); silver punch-marked coins appeared. The Jātaka literature mentions eighteen types of guilds.
• Guilds regulated quality and prices, ran guild courts, and even acted as banks, financiers and trustees.