Jana
Topic: The Vedic Age · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 7 "India's Cultural Roots"; Class 7, Ch 4 "New Beginnings: Cities and States"
Meaning
A jana was a clan or tribe of early Vedic society, a group of people bound by kinship (family ties). Each jana was linked with a region of the northwestern subcontinent, and its rājā (chief) led and protected it. Society was built up in layers: kula (family), then grāma (village), then viśha (group of villages), then jana. The Ṛigveda alone mentions about thirty janas. Between c. 1000 and 600 BCE, janas settled into janapadas, which were territorial states.
Example
The Ṛigveda names the Bharatas, Purus, Kurus, Yadus and Turvaśhas. Five janas (Yadu, Turvaśha, Puru, Anu and Druhyu) were together called the pañchajana, "five peoples". The name "Bharata" first appears in the Ṛigveda, for the Bharata jana.
Don't confuse with
- Janapada: literally the place where a jana "first set its feet". It was a territory with fixed land. A jana was a group of people bound by kinship.