World History I

Chapter 3: Shifting Agrarian Centers in India
3000-500 BCE

16: Mon, Oct 27, 2025

This assignment is under revision for 2023-2024.

Please post in the forum for the day a short essay in response to this question:

Referring back to our resource on Talking about Power, discuss how power, resistance, consent, and law in the Vedic world develop and change from the time of the Rig-Veda to the time of the Ganges states.

Consider:

• What types of power and what limits on power do we see in sources such as the Rig-Veda, the Mahabharata, the Code of Manu, the Arthashastra, or the Upanishads?
• How is the division of society into varnas supported and sustained? What is the relevance of the concept of dharma?
• How do the types of power in the Vedic "republics" compare to types of power in earlier clans and tribes? Where does the authority of maharajas come from? Where does the authority of the Brahmin come from?
• How do traditions of self-discipline like yoga and asceticism relate to power?

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