The foundation of the book Sarasvati River and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram drives home the point that the Vedic Sarasvati civilisation and the Harappan civilisation were one and the same. The Rigvedic Sarasvati civilisation represents an earlier phase from the Harappan civilisation.
Very briefly we can summaries that the Rigvedic civilisation formed the cultural, religious and intellectual basis of the later Harappan civilisation and the Harappan cities were the materialistic side of the Vedic civilisation.
This is proven by research conducted by archaeologist such as SR Rao in India and AH Dani in Pakistan who found several evidence of Vedic practices including sacrifices and fire worship. A careful correlation of these archeological finds like Vedic altars with technical literature has shown that the Sulbhasutras – which are mathematical manuals found in Vedic literature must have been used for their design and construction.
These mathematical texts are part of the so-called Sutra period of the Vedic age. The four Vedas constitute the basic Vedic literature. This was followed by the Brahmanas and the Sutras. The Sutra period is therefore the closing part of the Vedic age. The famous Sulbasutras are part of the Sutra literature and therefore came at the end of the Vedic age. Since we now have the connections between the Sulbas and Harappan archeology, this suggests that the Harappan civilisation must have belonged to the closing period of the Vedic age.
This conclusion is supported by other research. On the basis of a comparison of archaeology with the literary records of India and the Mesopotamia, KD Sethna and others have independently shown that the Harappan civilisation of the c. 3000 to 2000 BC corresponds also to the Sutra period of the Vedic literature. The Harappans carried on brisk trade with the Sumerians who had their empire in the valley of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates in west Asia.
Sethan’s work is based on a comparison of Indian and Sumerian records. Sethan notes that the evidence of cotton in Sumerian and Harappan sites combined with it being mentioned in the Sutras literature for the first time imply that both the Harappan and Sumerian civilisation belonged to the Sutra period. The Sumerians called cotton kapazum, which is known as karpasa in Sanskrit. Furthermore, the Sumerians have recorded that cotton was imported from India. In Sumerians records India is referred to as Meluhha a Prakrit word for western India that was further corrupted from Sanskrit word ‘Mleecha’.
The Sutra literature in particular the mathematics of Sulbasutras must have been the basis of the great urban civilisation of the Harappans. Do remember that Harappan structures were multi-storied structures, harbours, huge water tanks and granaries, well laid out cobbled streets with running water for each house and sewage system that rivals modern cities. Without this scientific infrastructure the great urban civilisations of the Harappans would not have been possible just as the modern world would not have been possible without modern mathematics.
The important point to note is that the scientific analysis presented here shows that the Rigveda describes the society before the rise of the Harappan civilisation. This is exact reverse of the chronological relationship between the Vedic and the Harappan societies given in the history books currently.
Comment: The current history books don’t explain the basis for the great urban civilisation of the Harappan civilisation yet credits the Vedas to the nomadic barbarian Aryan invaders. Going by the current history books Harappan urban civilisation sprang out of thin air were then destroyed by invading barbarians who brought the high Vedic knowledge with them. How much more unscientific and unsubstantiated can the narrative on the Aryan invasion theory be.
Ref: Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram
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