What is the Vedic Age?
The Vedic period (or Vedic age) was a period in history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed.
- The time span of the period is uncertain. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the Rigveda, the oldest of the Vedas, was composed roughly between 1700–1100 B.C.E., also referred to as the early Vedic period. The end of the period is commonly estimated to have occurred about 500 B.C.E.
- Despite the difficulties in dating the period, the Vedas can safely be assumed to be several thousands of years old.
- Transmission of texts in the Vedic period was by oral tradition alone, and a literary tradition set in only in post-Vedic times.
- The associated culture, sometimes referred to as Vedic civilization, was probably centered early on in the northern and northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent, but has now spread and constitutes the basis of contemporary Indian culture.