About 1500 BC, a race of nomadic herders who has long since migrated from the Central Asian steppe thrust their way into northwest India. They spoke an Indo-European language- an early form of Sanskrit- and for this reason are popularly known as Aryans. In the valley of the River Indus, which lies in present day Pakistan, these Aryans found the remains of what had once been a civilization as advanced for its days as those of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Aryans were well-armed warriors. They thus had little difficulty in dominating northwest India and establishing supremacy over the people they found there. These included the one proud creators of the Indus Valley Civilization. The Aryans didn’t destroy pre-existence culture; they learned from it, and they no doubt reinvigorated. The civilization that afterwards developed and spread throughout India is therefore the result of the dynamic interaction of the Aryans with the other peoples of India.

The period of Indian history ushered in by the coming of the Aryans is known as the Vedic Age ( c.1500-500 BC),after a series of literary compositions of great antiquity known as the Veda (Knowledge) :

1.Rig Veda :a collection of 1028 poetic hymns.
2.Yajur Veda –concerned with sacrificial formulae.
3.Sama Veda –which is purely liturgical.
4.Atharva Veda- mainly a book of spells.

At the social center of the new culture, on the other hand, there developed caste system, which divided the population up into various hierarchical groups :

1.the Brahmin priest hood (brahmana).
2.The warriors and aristocrats( kshatriya )
3.The traders and other professionals ( vaishya)
4.The cultivators (shudra)

Indian people followed the brahminical doctrines, accepted the notion of Dharma and the notion of personal rebirth or incarnation. They practiced meditation and other mystical disciplines, including forms of yoga.