Painted Grey Ware pottery associated with Vedic material culture; Sonkh, Uttar Pradesh, India; 1000–600 BCE. Photograph: Biswarup Ganguly (2013), Wikimedia Commons

The period between the late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age in the northern portion of the Indian subcontinent, dated to about 1500–500 BCE. The period derives its name from the Vedas –– liturgical texts that were composed between 1300–900 BCE.