Original sentence: Midway through the second millennium BCE, and contemporary with several waves of migration into the subcontinent of Indo-Aryan peoples, began the Vedic period.The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants was established during this period, along with Janapadas (monarchical, state-level polities).Towards the end of the period, around the sixth century BCE, saw the rise of Mahajanapadas (large, urbanised states), the established orthodoxies of Hinduism had given impulse to the religious reform movements of Buddhism and Jainism and to the lives of their exemplars, Gautama Buddha and Mahavira
Edited sentence: Midway through the second millennium BCE, and contemporary with several waves of migration into the subcontinent of speakers of an Indo-European language, began the Vedic period.The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose later during this period.Towards the end of the period, around the sixth century BCE, the established orthodoxies of Hinduism had given impulse to the religious reform movements of Buddhism and Jainism and to the lives of their exemplars, Gautama Buddha and Mahavira