The Aryan ones
It is in a context of deliquescence of this urban civilization that, towards 1500 av. J. - C., the Aryan ones (Indo-European people come from Tadjikistan) open the second great phase of the history of India. They colonize India of North, impose to him their language (Sanskrit), their religion, but especially their social hierarchy. This phase begin with a first vedic period (of 1500 with 1000 av. J. - C.), where the Aryan ones cohabit with the sedentaries, heirs to the age of Indus, who have more developed culture. While continuing their tribal life pastors semi-itinerants, the Aryan ones spread themselves in the basin of Indus, but occupy primarily Pendjab.
Then a manner of compromise is established with certain indigenous groups, first step of the process of cultural integration which, in two millenia, will give to India and then the Southeast Asia a cultural unit. Indeed, Aryan the, carrying ones a knowledge (veda) inspired by the gods with the wise ones (rishi) which transcribes it in antiquated Sanskrit, make it divide with the first inhabitants indusiens. The day before I er thousand-year-old, the Indo-Aryan ones, which controls soon the technique of the metallurgy of iron, overflow the framework of Pendjab to infiltrate in the valley of Gange.
Political changes
Begin the second vedic period then, of 950 with 600 av. J. - C., during which the Indo-Aryan ones enter a double process of evolution. The first, of political nature, marks the abandonment of the tribal stage to the profit of confederations, whose definition is more territorial; the second, monk, see to be worked out complex forms, such as the cosmic sacrifices, which lead to a distribution of the company in four functions based on a different report with the sacrifice and which make it possible to distinguish the monk from the policy. The aforementioned confederations acquire a preetatic dimension of it, while myths of foundation root the new order vedic on a center, Haryana, which becomes the “Holy Land” of the Hinduism, where the Indo-Aryan company finds the symbols of its cohesion.
At the moment when the valley of Gange is colonized emergent clannish chefferies, among which that of Kurukhs, established between the old country of Pendjab and the face pioneer of the valley of Gange, which is seen recognizing a dominant position, magnified by the epopee of Mahabharata.
The penetration of Indo-Aryan is soon such as, as of 800 av. J. - C., they has an unquestionable knowledge of a good part of India and founds great entities regional policies, Janapadas, which cut out India of North. In addition, the latter reinstates the great maritime trade with Mésopotamie. These relations bring to him, after more than one millenium of bracket oral, a new form of writing, alphabetical, the brahmi. At the same time, Indo-Aryan take control of Deccan (what Ramayana under an epic veil reports), potentially designs India like a whole, and the great values of their culture are gradually codified.
A new urbanization develops, in the valley of Gange this time, whose catch in hand will be completed at the end of the VII E front century J. - C. by the Indo-Aryan ones. At the end of this cultural evolution, on the religious level, the teaching of the veda (with its concept of collective hello) yields in front of first Upanishad and their celebration of a devotion personal, which seems to mark a return towards a religious sensitivity préaryenne and will be from now on the mark of the Hinduism.
On the intellectual level is born a personal laic reflection, with the appearance of the philosophy of Kapila. The epicentre of India slips again towards the east, where the local authorities which are structured around their strengthened capitals face for the control of navigation on Gange. India is finally ripe to enter the history itself.
The Persian expansion with Darius, of 550 with 528 av. J. - C., is the occasion when it leads to the Indian world, bringing, in particular, a second writing in India: the kharosti, derived from the writing of the Persian chancellery, at the origin of the contemporary alphabets. The diffusion of the Persian political model then causes a first imperial vocation on the part of the princes of Magadha (area which ensures the control of navigation on Gange), with a first historically attested dynasty, that of Haryankas, which is affirmed of 575 with 410 av. J. - C.
Religious reforms
In this context of redefinition of balances of the Indian order two “reforms” of the Hinduism are worked out, which give rise to two great doctrines. Those will structure the other shutter of the Indian thought: that of the renouncement, non-violence and the detachment, thanks to the organization of monastic communities. Buddhism of Çakyamuni (towards 563 - towards 470 av. J. - C.) becomes the religion of reference of the Far East, whereas the jainism of Mahavira (540-468 av. J. - C.) remains Indian and minority.
In parallel, the Indian classicism completes to be fixed, with the coding of the Sanskrit by Panini, in second half of the O C front century J. - C. the pressure exerted by the Indo-Aryan ones on Deccan supported, probably, the emigration of Dravidian of India of the South towards the Southeast Asia, whose first mentions appear in Ramayana.