Introduction:-  During the Rig Vedic Age, Aryans were mostly confined to Indus region. The Rig Veda refers to Saptsindhu or the Land of Seven Rivers. This includes five rivers of Punjab namely Satluej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and Jhelum along with the Indus and Saraswati. The social life of the Rig Vedic people can be traced from the hymns of the Rig Veda.

  • The family was the basic unit of the Rigvedic society. It was patriarchal in nature.  Monogamy was the usual norm of marriage but the chiefs at times practiced polygamy. Marriages took place after attaining maturity.
  • The family was part of a larger grouping called vis or clan.  All the members of a clan were related to each other by blood relation. One or more than one clans made jana or tribe.  The membership of a tribe was based on birth and not on residence in a certain area.
  • The Rigvedic society was a simple and largely an egalitarian society. There was no caste division. Occupation was not based on birth. Members of a family could adopt different occupations.
  • However, certain differences did exist during the period. Varna or colour was the basis of initial differentiation between the Vedic and non-Vedic people.
  • The Vedic people were fair whereas the non-Vedic indigenous people were dark in complexion and spoke a different language.
  • Thus the Rigveda mentions arya varna and dasa varna. Here dasa has been used in the sense of a group different from the Rigvedic people. Later, dasa came to mean a slave.
  • The warriors, priests and the ordinary people were the three sections of the Rigvedic tribe. The shudra category came into existence only towards the end of the Rigvedic period. This means that the division of society in the early Vedic period was not sharp.
  • The women in society enjoyed respectable position. She could take part in the proceedings of the tribal assemblies called sabha and samiti.

Conclusion:-  Thus, Early Vedic Society was an egalitarian tribal society in which social relations based on Kinship ties were predominant, caste differentiation was not sharp and women enjoyed respectable position.