On the other hand, the Aryan civilization came to India, across the Hindu Kush mountains around 1500 B.C. Initially, they had lived in the vast plains of Central Asia. After that for some reason, probably in search of better nomadic herds a few of them moved from their homes. They went east, west and south. One group went to Europe, another to the Middle East, a few went to Iran and the rest came to India.
Our main source of information of the Aryans comes from the ancient books called the Vedas. The oldest of them is the Rigveda. It is quite a long book which consists of about 1028 poems which people sang to their absolute, their gods and obviously do not give us a lot of information about the kings and conquests . But by studying them cautiously, the historians have figured out a lot about the Aryans.
The Archaeological Survey of India has been analytically excavating an Indus site known as Dholavira on the salty marshes of the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat for the past six years. In Dholavira they display a surprising exuberance that expresses itself in elaborate stone gateways with rounded columns apart from giant reservoirs for water.” Exploring Dholavira is like opening a complete book on the Indus” said one of the Archaeologists.
The Aryans did not come to invade India, not like people who wanted to defeat, kill, plunder and then go back to their homelands. They came to India to stay, and they arrived with their whole families, their wives as well as their children and their cattle and goods. They wandered about the plains of Indus, searching for grasslands for their cattle. As time went on, they settled down in small villages, and gradually took to agriculture. The advance of Aryans was not easy. The land was full of thick jungles and in the jungles lurked dangerous animals and cunning robbers. The nomads begged the Sun god known as the Pushan for help.
The writing system of the Indus valley civilization is believed to be based on syllables. The Indus people also wrote from right to left as is manifest by the strokes, but it does follow at times a rebus style. Among lettering a jar shaped alphabet is most common. Whereas, the Rigveda was finally written down in Sanskrit, which is one of the greatest gifts that the Aryans have given to us. The Aryans had a vague sense of Sanskrit but the languages they developed were pali and prakrit.
The Indus people appeared to have shunned personality cults. It is almost a faceless culture with no glorification of individual rulers and no royal tombs. On the other hand, kingship existed in the Aryan civilization. There was ceaseless fighting and the Aryan tribes gradually settled in Punjab. The early Aryan kings did not live in castles or own large estates. They did not collect taxes from people and nor did they have any rights over the land. They kings power was kept in check by two assemblies the Sabha and the Samiti.
In conclusion, I think the Indus valley civilization was much better then the Aryan civilization because it was much simpler and less complicated. People lived a very simple and happy life and there was no glorification of individual rulers.
