Analysis of Conflict-Oriented Circumstances in the Social History of the Vedic Period: A Sociological Perspective

Abstract

Purpose: The decline of the old and the emergence of the new; life and society involve a continuous series of conflicts within every social structure. Conflict has been a part of human civilization since ancient times, serving as a process for managing resources in socio-cultural structures. This article explores the different forms of conflict in Vedic social history, offering insights into an ancient civilization. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research is based on a qualitative approach, using primarily secondary data. Information was gathered from Vedic texts, interactions with historians, historical documents of an ancient civilization, and research journal articles using historical content analysis. The content analysis method was used to analyze the collected data. Findings/Results: The pattern of production was based on animal husbandry and the agricultural system in the Vedic period. Land and livestock were the major resources of the production system. The practices of conflicts were increasing in a way in the process of captured and extension of the land and livestock as the resources of the production system. In these surroundings of socio-economic circumstances, so many forms of conflicts are found in the Vedic period such as the conflict between the Aryans and the Dravidians, the Hind Aryan and the Vedic Aryan, the different Varna’s of Vedic Aryan, between different race and class of Vedic Aryans, the animal owners and the traders/merchants (pani), different states and kings, and in different cultures. Similarly, due to the leadership of holding resources, family, and the Gotra system are found to be debatable and antagonistic in the form of the conflicts. Originality/Value: It has been found that the conflicts are of various kinds found in the society of the Vedic period. Such conflicts have been found the conflicts between son and father, conflicts between the parents and the children, between Aryans and Dravidians, between Hind Aryan and Vedic Aryan, husband and wife, women and women, Pastoralist and trader, between wives in Polygamous, conflicts in war, cultural conflict and the so on. These different kinds of the conflicts have been found and dealt in the Vedic society. In fact, the conflicts of the society have been found as the central causes of disharmonious, chaos, restlessness, and the trouble and it has been found stressful life in the society of Vedic era and conflicts have been found to be the reasons of the suffering as well as hardship of not only individual life but of the entire social structure even in the Vedic era.