2261–2861 AM · ≈ 1500 BCE — 900 BCE · world history
Aryan migration and the Vedas
Herding tribes of Aryans enter India from the north-west; the hymns of the Rigveda take shape.
After the decline of the Indus cities, herding tribes come into the Punjab from the north-west, speaking a language kin to Old Persian, Greek and Latin. They build no cities and leave no writing: their legacy is hymns to the gods of fire, storm and dawn, learned by heart and passed from generation to generation. So the Rigveda takes shape, and after it three more collections; together they will become the foundation of all later Indian ritual. Settlement gradually moves east into the Ganges valley, where small kingdoms and tribal unions appear.