Many medieval manuscripts

Tantrism permeated Jainism, Buddhism, Savism

and Vaishnavism. From the seventh century it continued to hold ground

throughout the medieval age. Many medieval manuscripts found, in different

parts of the country deal with tantrism and astrology, and the two are

completely mixed with each other.

Thus in the sixth and seventh centuries we

notice certain striking developments in polity, society, economy, language,

script and religion. This shows that in this period, ancient India was coming to

an end and medieval India was taking shape.

There are no written texts for the study of

society in pre Vedic times. Archaeology tells us that people lived m small

groups in the hilly areas in the Paleolithic Age. The main source of their

subsistence was the game they hunted, and wild fruits and vegetation roots they

collected. Man learnt to produce food and live in houses towards the end of the

Stone Age and the beginning of the metal age.

The Neolithic and chalcolithic communities

lived on the uplands not far from the bills and rivers. Gradually there arose

peasant villages in the Indus basin area, and eventually they blossomed into

the urban society of Harappa, with large and small houses. But once the Harappa

civilization disappeared, urbanism did not reappear in India for a thousand

years or so.

Tribal and Pastoral Phase

Tribal and Pastoral Phase For the history

of society from the time of the Rig Veda we can also use written texts. They

tell us that the Rig Vedic society was primarily pastoral. People were

seminomadic, and their chief possessions consisted of cattle and horses. The

term for cow (gau) occurs 176 times in the earlier parts of the Rig Veda.

Cattle were considered to be synonymous with wealth, and a wealthy person was

called goat. Wars were fought for the sake of cattle, and therefore the lama whose

main duty was to protect the cows was called gopa or gopati.

Cow was so important to the family that the

daughter was called dhikr that is one who milks. So intimate was the

acquaintance of the Vedip people with kina that when they came across the buffalo

in India they called it govala or cow haired. In contrast to references to cows

those to agriculture are fewer in the Rig Veda. Cattle rearing therefore was

the main source of livelihood.

In such a society people could hardly

produce anything over and above what was needed for their subsistence.

Tribesmen could afford only occasional presents for their chiefs. The main

income of a chief or a prince came from the spoils of war. He captured booty

from enemy tribes and exacted tributes from hostile tribes and tribal

compatriots. The offering of tribute received by him was called bail. It seems

that the tribal kinsmen gave trust and voluntary presents to the tribal chief.

In return the chief led them from victory to victory and stood by them in

difficult times.