ABSTRACT
Sometime between 1800 and 1500 B.C.E. the subcontinent of India was subjected to a series of discrete and limited invasions by a people who called themselves "Aryans" ("noble ones"). These Aryans spoke a language that belongs to what is now called the IndoEuropean language family, a family that includes such diverse modem European languages as Greek, Latin, German, the Scandinavian languages, French, Spanish, and English. The Aryans came into India from the steppes of Central Asia and from the region to the east of the Caspian Sea. Their invasion occurred at the same time that other members of this same language family were moving out of Central Asia and into ancient Turkey, Greece, and Northern and Southern Europe. The Aryans brought two significant items with them: First, several devastating weapons of war such as the bow and the two-horse chariot, weapons that made them invincible in battle; and, second, their oral compositions that came to be called "the Vedas."
