Ideas · c. 1500–1000 BCE
The Vedas are composed
Punjab, north-western Indian subcontinent
In the north-west of the Indian subcontinent, poets composed the Rigveda, 1,028 hymns in Vedic Sanskrit, most likely between about 1500 and 1000 BCE, and it was gathered into a fixed collection around 1200–1000 BCE. Passed down orally with remarkable precision for many centuries before being written down, it was followed by the other Vedas and, from roughly the 7th–6th centuries BCE (dates are debated), by the philosophical Upanishads.
Why it mattered
The Vedas are the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, and the Upanishads' ideas of brahman, atman and karma became central to Indian religion and philosophy.
Related
- The world in 1500 BCE: Chariots and Empires chapter
- Code of Hammurabi previous moment · c. 1755–1750 BCE
- Shang bronzes and oracle bones next moment · c. 1250 BCE