Mainstream British historian rejects Aryan Invasion theory

I came across a book by Neil MacGregor 'A history of the world in 100 objects' and found some positively interesting observations about the Saraswati-Indus civilisation which is gaining currency among main stream historians and coming especially from a devout Christian with British nationalist leanings its rather surprising.

The book is divided into various ages of world history starting from early pre historic times travelling down to foundation of early cities, empires, birth of religions and so on. In the foundation of cities section the Saraswati and Vedic civilisation finds a chapter dedicated to the various seals, the organisation of the cities and the civilisations eventual demise.

MacGregor starts off by explaining the expanse of the civilisation, the democratic government opposed to autocratic contemporary civilisation, the sophistication of the city architecture and the various seals. He confesses that the discovery of these cities rewrote not just Indian history but world history by pushing back Indian history by thousands of years and giving the nationalist Indians an argument to demand freedom from British rule. The dates of 2500 BC MacGregor offers can be rejected for a much older date based on recent discoveries of cities around the dried Saraswati river bed. He mentions the fact that the dead were cremated and explains the bull and cow seals without alluding to Vedic Hindu roots of the civilisation which is ambiguous for a historian who otherwise is emphatic with other conjectures.

Most importantly MacGregor unlike his colleagues elsewhere has clearly left out even an ambiguous mention of the Aryan invasion theory and offers ecological disaster and climate change as the reason for the civilisations demise. He steers clear of Aryan invasion theory even while hazarding a guess on the topic.

We can only hazard a guess as to why. The need for timber to fire the brick klins of the huge building industry may have led to extensive deforestation and an environmental catastrophe. More importantly climate change seems to have caused tributaries of the Indus to alter course or dry up completely. 

This narrative is very important to note the changing discourse on the Aryan invasion theory and Saraswati and Vedic civilisation among leading academics. Witzel and his tribe of deception artist's should take note. So should the Indian historians who should move with time and rewrite a more authentic Indian history based on facts and not based on conjectures or political motivation.

MacGregor quotes Prof. Nayanjot Lahiri from Delhi University on the importance of the discovery of these ancient cities.

In 1924 when the civilisation was discovered, India was colonised. So to begin with there was a great sense of pride  that we were equal to the British if not better than our colonisers and considering this that the British should actually leave India. This was the exact sentiment that was expressed in the Larkana Gazzette...

After independence the newly created state of India  was left with just one site in Gujarat and a couple of other sites towards the north, so there was a urgency to discover more Indus sites in India. This has been among the big achievements of Indian archeology post independence - hundreds of sites today  are known, not only in Gujarat  but also in Rajasthan, in Punjab, in Haryana and even in Utttar Pradesh.

Towards the end MacGregor share his own sentiments.

The great cities of Mohenjodaro and Harrapa  which were first excavated, are in Pakistan, and and subsequently one of the most important pieces of work on the civilisation was done by a Pakistani archielogist - Rafiq Mughal who discovered  nearly 200 sites in Pakistan and Cholistan. But my own sense is that on the whole the state of Pakistan has been much more interested, not exclusively  but significantly, in its Islamic heritage, so I think there is a greater interest in India as compared to Pakistan.

...the artefacts, the pottery, the beads, etc., that were found at these sites - are divided  between the two states. Some of the most important objects were actually divided right down the middle - like the famous girdle from Mohenjodaro.

In conclusion I can only repeat that history of India has to be rewritten with more authenticity. A nation without history can create one, but a nation deprived of its true history is a nation deceived. Indian falls in the later category.

Latest Genetic Study Rejects Aryan Invasion Theory

Latest studies in the field of genetics have shown that the entire Aryan Invasion theory is a big myth. On the contrary the latest study show that genetic components have originated in India which has populated middle East and west Asia and beyond which is in fact in line with Hindu historical texts.

This study was conducted by the prestigious Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) Hyderabad, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. 

Where does these findings place the likes of  Michael Witzel of Harvard and Romilla Thappar of JNU along with hundreds of their outdated acolytes. I guess only time will bury these fossils out of sight and mind. 

Inventing the Dravidian Race Part - 3, Appropriation of Shiva, excerpts from the book 'Breaking India'

Protestant missionaries in the beginning attacked Saiva Siddhanta vehemently, the American Missionary Seminary in Sri Lanka used a Tamil English journal called the Morning Star (1841) to launch an attack on Saivites, calling Tamils barbarians living in darkness.  This attack proved counterproductive, caused much angst among the people for the Christian disrespect towards a cherished tradition. The attack was also effectively countered by a Sri Lankan Saivite Arumuga Navalar. Therefore the strategy changed from denigration to appropriation. 

G.U. Pope used this strategy very often, whenever he found something suitable and in line with his Christian belief he attributed it to Christian influence on Tamils and whenever he found something not fitting into his Christian belief and dogma, he blamed it on Hinduism. He states:

It will be seen how very near in some not unimportant respects the Saiva system approximates to Christianity; and yet some of the corruption to which it has been led by what almost seems a necessity are months the most deplorable superstitions anywhere to be found.

Later Christian missionaries started using this strategy to start portraying Saiva Siddhantha closer to Christianity. This missionary success in selectively appropriating and spreading confusion has permeated academic Tamil studies ever since.

Source:

Breaking India by Rajiv Malhotra and Arvindan Neelakandan

Inventing the Dravidian Race Part - 2, De-Hinduising Tamil Traditions excerpts from the book 'Breaking India'

Since colonial times to this day there has been attempts to construct an ethnic-religious identity separate from the rest of India, and to find christian roots for this so-called 'Tamil religion'. This entailed manipulating  the interpretations of the literary core of Tamil tradition, which consists of three main elements: 

i) Thirukural, a classical Tamil text containing ethical literature that is very much a part of the Indian Smriti tradition; 

ii) Saiva Siddhantha, a Vedanta branch of Saiva philosophy; and

iii) A huge body of classical Tamil devotional literature.

 


Thirukural

As per recorded statements of Robert Caldwell, the so called saviour of the Tamil people noted on number of occasions that nothing ethical or civilised could come out of the Dravidian mind, either by itself or under the influence of the Vedic religion. But at the same time he did not want to credit Vedic tradition, so he chose another source. He attributed Thirukural to Jainism. Even if for a moment this is believed to be true, Caldwell in his attempt to create fake origins and sources forgot that Jainism is also part of the Vedic religious system which in effect puts the Thirukural within the Hindu tradition. At any rate Caldwell's claims have been demolished. G.U Pope another missionary maintained that Thiruvalluvar was under Christian influence (St. Thomas) that produced this literary work. This claim for decades has been rejected even from within the christian missionary community. However, it is being revived today by evangelical movements in Tamil Nadu.

Saiva Siddhantha

Dravidian scholars labour to position Saiva Siddhantha as something unique to Tamil spirituality and not linked to Hinduism although the traditional works of Saiva Siddhantha refers to Vedas as their authority. G.U Pope and other missionaries positioned it as a monotheistic approximation of Christianity but not exactly pure Christianity. They then attempted to hoodwink people into believing that they were following a polluted form of Christianity and they could help people in upgrading to pure Christianity via conversion.

Tamil Devotional Literature

All hymns written in Tamil speak of Siva as living in the Himalayas and even address him as 'Arya'. Evangelist and pro Dravidian scholars fabricated the origins and distorted the interpretations of their contents to suite their agendas.

Chrisitian historian Stephen Neill rejects Pope and Caldwell's fraudulent claim with a tone of empathy: 'Their brilliant imagination has produced a beautiful romance. The sober verdict of historical judgment must be that any Christian influence on Tamil literature is unlikely...what we see is devout minds working on similar problems and arriving independently at comparable results'.

Source:

Breaking India by Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan  

Inventing the Dravidian Race Part - 1, Breaking India

Colonial administrators and evangelists were able to divide and rule the peoples of the Indian subcontinent, based on imaginary histories and racial myths - to the extent of inventing an entire race called 'Dravidians'. Evangelical and colonial interest worked in tandem with ethno-linguistic scholars to fabricate the Dravidian identity. British administrator Brian Hodgson* invented the term 'Tamulian' to refer to what he considered to be non-Aryan indigenous population of India.

The catalyst who is credited with the construction of the 'Dravidian race' was a British missionary named Bishop Robert Caldwell (1814-91) from the Anglican church. He used linguistic theories to create a racial theory. In his papers and books presented to his peers he proposed that Dravidians were in India before the arrival of the Aryans, were cheated and kept in shackles by the Brahmin's through exploitation of religion. He demanded a complete removal of Sanskrit from Tamil, and once the Dravidian mind was free of the Brahmin Aryan influence, Christian evangelisation would reap the souls of the Dravidians.

Contrary to claims by other missionary scholars like William Carey, who supported the thesis that all Indian languages are derived from Sanskrit, a critical role was played by Alexander Campbell and Francis Ellis, collectors of Madras who broke rank and claimed that south Indian languages were not derived from Sanskrit which laid the foundation for later intervention. No Indian scholar or Pandit has made such a claim before.

A lie took to the absurd when Ellis claimed that Tamil and Dravidians are connected to Hebrew and also with Arabic. Their logic was based on some convoluted biblical theory of skin colour, all dark skinned people were children of Ham - the cursed one.

Caldwell transformed Linguistics into Ethnology which had far reaching consequences. He established the theological foundation for Dravidian separatism from Hinduism backed by the church. What this means simply is separating south India from north India by raising false boogies of Aryanism and Brahmanism supported by 'Atrocity Literature'**, disassociating Tamil from Hindu spirituality and giving it a independent origin which instills temporary pride before church usurps the classical art-forms of South India***. For all the degradation and insults heaped on Tamil culture and Hinduism a statue of Robert Caldwell and G.U. Pope another missionary has been erected on Marina beach in Chennai by the local state government. It is a major landmark in that city today.

Missionary strategy was two pronged. First, intensely study the devotional and spiritual literature and praise it in glowing terms to Tamil scholars. Second, they projected Tamil culture as being very different and totally independent from the rest of India. To support their argument they would provide spurious works created by the church to support this view. This body of work then went on to provide ideological underpinnings of later racist politics. Chandra Mallampalli, a christian scholar, explains:

South Indian political culture of non-Brahmanism drew its inspiration from the Dravidian ideology: this ideology posited a distinct linguistic and racial identity for south Indians. Non Brahmin agitators pitted Dravidian culture, which most often championed the Tamil language, against Hindu, Aryan or Sanskritic cultures from the North. Champions of Dravidianism and non-Brahmanism drew upon the cultural and linguistic resources provided by missionaries such as Robert Caldwell and G.U. Pope.

Missionary scholarship created a false local ethnic identity and Tamils were instructed to reject its Hindu nature. It became strategic to show that Tamil religion had strong ethical underpinnings on par with civilised world and this meant monotheistic Christianity. What these theorist failed to say and the people who fell for the Dravidian race theory and religion failed to ask was what is Tamil religion they talk of? But what was provided were quasi Christian traits retrofitted into Tamil devotional works to prove its similarity with Christianity. In fact the propaganda went to the extent of claiming that the Thirukural was influenced by St. Thomas and Thiruvalluvar the great Tamil Hindu saint was his disciple.

The second part of the strategy kicked in now. To show the proximity of Christianity with the spuriously created Tamil race-religion identity the missionaries chose the Kural - a non sectarian humanistic body of work and Saiva Siddhanta - corpus of scriptures seen as representing a native monotheistic counterpart to Christianity. Brook and Schmid identify two steps in the way these Tamil clsssics were used: first, separating Brahmins and non-Brahmins using the Kural; and second, linking Dravidian ideology with Saiva Siddhanta as an interim step towards further linking it with Christianity.

Robert Caldwell characterised the Brahmins as the racial others of the Dravidians, the Aryan colonisers^ who speak and read Sanskrit. Through this manipulation the Brahmins were made out to be colonisers and the actual colonisers the British and their Christian mission were projected as saviors of the Tamils.

Blogger Notes:

* Civil administrators and arm chair historians created race theories and similar such farcical concepts with absolutely no scientific rigour.

** Atrocity literature is a technical term referring to literature generated by a Western interest, with the explicit goal to show that the target non-Western culture is committing atrocities in its own people and hence need of Western intervention.

*** Recently attempts are being made to absorb Bharatnatyam, lamp lighting and many other Hindu art-form and traditions into Christianity. 

^ Missionaries dub Sanskrit speaking Aryan Brahmins as colonisers and oppressors of the Dravidians in the south but elsewhere in the north missionaries claim common ancestry with Aryans and attempt to usurping of Sanskrit and the Vedas.

Source:

Breaking India by Rajiv Malhotra and Arvindan Neelakandan

Inventing the Aryan Race. Excerpts from the book 'Breaking India'

Raymond Schwab in his seminal book The Oriental Renaissance published in 1984 explains that in the late 1700 the widespread arrival of the translation of the Bhagavad Gita of the Hindus provided the west with the first idea of the advanced level of eastern philosophy and spiritual message independent of the Bible and other classical traditions like the Greeks and the Romans. Hinduism became a source of many theological debates and arguments. The publication of Kalidasa' Shankutala  proved the proverbial last straw. The Europeans had to appropriate a superior civilisation to keep their superior religion and race status intact and thus started the greatest re-writing and retrofitting of culture, religion, language and history of the world.

The evolution of Aryan race theory and racism in general evolved out of two factors. One was, Germans seeking national identity separate from the classical traditions (Greece and Rome) as they were already appropriated by the French with whom the German had running feud. The second was imperialistic ambitions and colonial goals of the Britain and other European countries with an overlay of missionary sponsorship.

It was with the discovery of Sanskrit that Philology, i.e. study of languages was born. We can safely say that Europeans obsession with the use of Sanskrit in the construction of a linguistic origin for the European people and their culture gave birth to Philology. To understand why Europeans fell over each other to appropriate Sanskrit stems from the work done by William Jones a judge in the Calcutta court of the East India Company. He says...

The Sanskrit language ... is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greeks, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity... than could possibly have been produced by accident

A century later Max Muller one of the most influential figure wrote:

Thanks to the discovery of Sanskrit ancient language of India and thanks to the discovery of the close kinship between this language an the idioms of the principal races of Europe...a complete revolution has taken place in the method of studying the worlds primitive history

What he actually meant was, with the chance discovery of Sanskrit with its similar sounding words we can now re-write our history and the world history as we choose. Once the Indian texts had been mined for their treasures had been processed through mistranslations, plagiarism, rejection and extrapolations and the Indian knowledge securely retrofitted into the Bible and European history, the Indian source lost its earlier glamour and was discarded.

German scholars like Johann Gottfried Herder, Hegel, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel were working on creating a separate identity for the German people away from their bitter enemies the French and in fact wanted to elevate it beyond the French. They romanticised India to the level that Schlegel built India as the historical motherland of the German people and claimed that the ancestors of the German people were Indians who migrated to Germany. He describes India as a land of 'happiness and fertility'. He states that the first wave arrived into north Europe from India and another wave much later went to Egypt, Greece and Rome.

While the Germans adopted the Sanskrit and Aryan identity as their national essence, the British had a different relationship with it, in light of the fact that they ruled over the Indians they used it to legitimise their rule as a reunion of a long lost brothers, helping out his downtrodden brethren.

Some of the scholars who lent a helping hand in this fraud were Ernest Renan who created the Aryan Christ, Friedrich Max Muller, Adolphe Pictet, Rudolph Friedrich Grau, Joseph Gobineau, Houston Stewart Chamberlain and few others.

The Aryan Christ

As Christians in Europe struggled to break free from Judaism, Sanskrit & Aryan race theory provided them the escape vehicle. Renan in his inaugural speech in College de France said 'The victory of Christianity was not secure until it completely broke out of it Jewish shell and again became what it had been in the exalted consciousness of its founder, a creation free from narrow minded bonds of the Semetic spirit.' He further wrote 'Originally Jewish to the core Christianity over time rid itself of nearly everything it took from the race, so that those who consider Christianity to be the Aryan religion par excellence are in many respects correct'.

After reading this and many such attempts to divorce Christianity from Judaism I am more and more convinced that the Jews never persecuted and crucified Christ. It was the Romans who did it. Its obvious Christ may have been preaching against the Roman gods, extolling his people to rise and over throw the occupiers, becoming a pain in the back side for the administrators. Once they themselves converted  to Christianity a few years later it may have become uncomfortable for the new converts to be seen as the murderer of the founder of their new found religion. The case of murder was then made out against the Jews and how they connived and schemed to have the renegade killed. Since the Bible came much after it was easy to spread this spurious tale of Jews crucifying Christ. By the way notice that Christ in no way looks least bit Jewish but every bit a European.

People like Pictet and Grau justified colonisation of India as the only way to bring long lost Aryan brothers together. Both viewed the world composed of two races, the Aryans and the Semitic. While the Europeans were Aryans the Jews were Semitic. Indians were considered polluted Aryans who had to be converted to the true faith of Christianity. Gobnieau promoted the Aryan invasion theory and caste theory basing his work on Karl Marx's assumption that India had no history other than a series of foreign invasions. One wonders if Karl Marx was really as clued in and profound as he is made out to be?

Wilhelm Halbfass explains how the Aryan construct shifted over time:

During Gobnieau's lifetime, the old theory of the Asian origin of the European languages and traditions and of cultural movements from the East to the West, increasingly gave way to speculations on primeval movement from West to the East and on Aryan migrations from Europe, specially Northern Europe or even the North pole to India. According to these speculations, the Europeans gave their superior culture to the Indians and then lost their superiority through the mixing with the local inhabitants and perished in a climate for which they were not suited. In 1903 E. de Michelis summarised this by stating that Asia and India in particular was not the cradle of civilisation but the grave of the Aryans.

Chamberlain: Aryan-Christian Racism

Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927) was a British author who wrote the book The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century in 1899. Though English he wrote it in German to emphasise his Aryan-Teutonic heritage. The book was a Europe wide best seller. This book linked Indian caste with race and projected Aryan heritage as the most evolved. He wrote in his book:

...wherever the Aryans went they became masters. The Greeks, the Latin, the Kelts, the Teutons, the Slavs - all were Aryans: of the aborigines of the countries which the overran scarcely a trace remains. So too in India, it was 'varna' colour which distinguished the white conquering Arya from the defeated black man, the Dasyu, and so laid the foundation of the caste. It is to the Teutons branch of the Aryan family that the first place in the world belongs, and the story of the 19th century is the story of the Teutons triumph.

But in time Chamberlain became aware of the limitations of the Biblical basis of the Aryan myth, and even had a premonition that one day the notion of a historical Aryan race might be fully disproved. Yet he felt that the notion was important for Europe. He wrote:

Though it were proved that there never was an Aryan race in the past, yet we desire that in the future that there may be one. That is the decisive standpoint for men of action.

Chamberlains work went on to become an authoritative influence on the Nazi leadership which had devastating consequences for Europe as real authentic history tells us.

Note: All scholars mentioned in this article have never seen or met an Indian let alone been to India. All their papers and books was based on second hand information, hearsay, translations, mistranslations. At best their books and theories can be called 'conjecture' with no scientific foundation.

Source:
Breaking India by Rajiv Malhotra and Arvindan Neelakandan

The Rise of the Aryan Invasion Theory. Excerpts from the book Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram Part 11

In the sixteenth century European travelers to India were struck by the remarkable affinties between Sanskrit and European languages. Fillippo Sasseti a Florentine merchant living in Goa between 1583-88 CE, observed that there was definite connection between Sanskrit and European languages.  But it was Sir William Jones a Calcutta judge with the British East India Co. the founder of the Asiatic Society who launched a comparative linguistics study. He observed…

The Sanskrit language whatever be its antiquity is of wonderful structure; more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of the verbs and the forks of the grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed that no philologer could examine them all three without believing them to have sprung from the some common source.

Many historians regard this observation by William Jones as the basis for ancient Indian history. Please note that the whole approach to ancient Indian history came into existence flowing from the study of Sanskrit and other European languages.

Its not surprising that linguist such as Friedrich Max Muller and Albrecht Weber should have formulated a model of ancient Indian history based on their theories of comparative linguistics.

According to the AIT a people called Aryans, a branch of the Indo-Europeans living originally in Central Asia or Europe invaded India overcame the natives, who according to this theory were ‘a rabble of aboriginal savages’ to become the lord and masters of India. This is the famous Aryan invasion theory being treated as historical facts by Indian and western historians. According to this theory the invaders brought the Vedas and Sanskrit language with them.

To arrive at this theory and date of 1500 BC Max Muller relied on the only model available for ancient history available in Europe then - The Biblical account of Creation.

Ref: Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram

Points to note:

1)  For a moment lets take the AIT at face value. The AIT was created in the mid 1800 and the Harappan ruins were found in the 1920’s then how is it that the linguists have concluded on ‘invasion’.

2)  Later historians have very smartly retrofitted all new findings, artifacts and evidence into the AIT model without looking at alternate theories. 

Comment: JNU Marxist historians like Romila Thapar who recently retracted the Aryan race and invasion theory and other western scholars like Michael Witzel, Akso Parpola etc are ready to base their studies and reputation on the unscientific conjecture of British bureaucrats and civil servants but don’t give alternate models due respect. The funny part is that in the last 150 odd years the scholars supporting the AIT have only done just that ‘supported’ this flawed theory and have not come out with any new break through. Witzel and her minions have spent their entire lifetime in propping up this false theory.

Sarasvati, the great mother of us all (The Wakankar findings) - Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram Part 8

The Sarasvati River described in the Rigveda as flowing from the ‘mountains to the sea’ is very ancient, several centuries before 3000 BC or well over 5000 years old counting from today. What is interesting is that the Yamuna and Sutlej flowed into the Sarasvati. The made the mighty river mightier. Sometimes before 3000 BC, probably due to tectonic shifts that followed earthquakes, the Yamuna changed course and began to flow into the Ganga. This reduced the flow into the Sarasvati, leading to a weakening of its upper course that soon disappeared into the desert at a place called Vinashana. Archaeologists have identified the place as Kalibangan in Rajasthan where Harappan and pre-Harappan settlements have been found along with signs of at least one earthquake. This corresponds to the description found in the post Rigveda literature like the Jaiminiya Brahmana and also the Mahabharata.

While the upper Sarasvati weakened and disappeared into the desert, the lower Sarasvati continued to flow through what is now the Thar Desert, fed by the Sutlej and other smaller rivers. This is what sustained the Harappan civilisation in Rajasthan, Sindh and Cholistan down to the Rann of Kutch. But this lower Sarasvati too dried up in stages in the 2200-1900 BC period, ending with it the Harappan civilisation. The reason for this was ecological degradation and not any invasion – Aryan or otherwise. First as it happened with the Yamuna, the Sarasvati lost the Sutlej when it changes course and joined the Indus again due to tectonic shifts. This was compounded by massive worldwide drought in and around 2200-1900 BC period that struck across a wide belt from southern Europe, North Africa to China. It ended the civilisations of the Dynastic Egypt and Sumer-Akkad in Mesopotamia along with Harappan. The Harappan civilisation ended in around 1900 BC and not 1500 BC as stated by some history books. Which means the civilisation ended a good 400 to 500 years earlier than thought.

This ecological degradation was a major blow to the region. This resulted in migration of the Harappan civilisation into Gujarat, east into the Gangetic plain and into west Asia. There are records of Kassite rulers of Indian origin establishing an empire in Babylon that lasted for 500 years

Ref: Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram

Please read more from the same series

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic_02.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and_03.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/no-horse-at-harappa-sarasvati-river-and.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/global-drought-ended-harappa-not-any.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/reference-to-sarasvati-in-rigveda.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-chronology-harappa-sutra.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-indian-history-retrofitted-into.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/10/4-recommended-books-for-all-ancient.html

Reference to Sarasvati in the Rigveda - Sarasvati River and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram Part 7

The discovery of the Sarasvati was a major blow to the Aryan invasion theory. Till then they subjected the existence of the Sarasvati to fiction or placed it in strange geographic areas ranging from Russia, West Asia, Central Asia to Afghanistan. But in 1975 NASA satellite picture exploded this myth later confirmed by V.S. Wakankar who led a ground level expedition to plot the course of the now extinct river.

Verse in the Gritsamada

Ambitame, naditame, devitame sarasvati

That is,  Sarasvati is the best of mothers, the best of rivers, the best Goddess.

Some modern scholars have equated Sarasvati to Haraqiti a inconsequential insignificant stream in Afghanistan compared to the power and destruction capability of Sarasvati as mentioned in the Rigveda. In anycase this poses a major challenge. The Haraqiti is landlocked and does not flow from the mountain to the sea as mentioned in the Rigveda. More serious is the location: the famous Nadi Sukta of the Rigveda places the Sarasvati between the Yamuna and the Shutudri (Sutlej). Enumerating the rivers from the east to the west, it says;

Imam me gange yamune sarasvati shutudri stomam parushnya; 

Asiknya marudvridhe vitastya arjikiye shrinuhya sushomaya.

Since the Nadi Sukta mentions all the rivers from the Ganga to the Indus and beyond, locating the Sarasvati to Afghanistan would require us to shift the Ganga, Yamuna and the other Indian rivers to Afghanistan. More importantly, the passage helps in locating the Sarasvati between the Yamuna and the Sutlej.

As far back as 1886 R.J. Oldham of the Geological Survey of India concluded that a great river with its course lying between the Yamuna and the Sutlej did exist in ancient times as described in the Rigveda. Oldham’s discoveries were ignored by those attached to the AIT who referred to Sarasvati as a deity worshipped in the form of a river. But with the discovery of the Sarasvati the river has dropped a big hole into this argument.

Ref: Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram

Read more from the same series

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic_02.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and_03.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/no-horse-at-harappa-sarasvati-river-and.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/global-drought-ended-harappa-not-any.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/sarasvati-great-mother-of-us-all.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-chronology-harappa-sutra.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-indian-history-retrofitted-into.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/10/4-recommended-books-for-all-ancient.html

Global Drought ended Harappa not any invasion! Sarasvati river and the Vedic civilisation by NS Rajaram Part 6

Global Drought 2200-1900 BC

A joint French-American study of northern Mesopotamia just noted (Wiess, Coutry et. al. 1993) that the Akkadian empire of Mesopotamia, which had extensive trade links with the Harappans, was brought to an abrupt end as the result of a severe drought that began about 2200 BC and persisted for nearly 300 years. They attributed this to a global climatic change of increasing aridity that began nearly a thousand years earlier climaxing in what is now called the Great Drought of c. 2200-1900BC. Since the mature Vedic Harappan civilisation is also known to have ended around the same time the cause of the end is very obvious and common to all great civilisations of the period the Egyptian, Mesopotamian and the Harappan.

Ref: Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram

Note: Clear evidence is presented to us even to this day if we care to take a deeper look. The physical world map from the north of Africa to the Indian Subcontinent is nothing but a great arid desert interspersed with a few large rivers like the Nile, the Euphrates, Tigris, Indus and the now dead Sarasvati.  What does this imply? Can some of the world’s largest, most ancient civilisations have been born in a desert like condition? Then could they have succumbed to the desert caused by the Great Drought or to some phantasmal Aryan race?   

Please read more from the same series


http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic.html
http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic_02.html
http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and.html
http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and_03.html
http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/no-horse-at-harappa-sarasvati-river-and.html
http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/reference-to-sarasvati-in-rigveda.html
http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/sarasvati-great-mother-of-us-all.html
http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-chronology-harappa-sutra.html
http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-indian-history-retrofitted-into.html
http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/10/4-recommended-books-for-all-ancient.html

No Horse at Harappa! Sarasvati River and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram Part 5

No Horse at Harappa!

American archaeologist Jim Shaffer noted:

Current archaeological data do not support the existence of an Indo-Aryan or European invasion into South Asia any time in the pre- or proto historic periods. Instead, it is possible to document archaeologically a series of cultural changes reflecting indigenous cultural development from prehistoric to historic period.

In addition to such negative evidence, positive evidence has shown that the Harappan civilisation was a part of the Vedic Aryan fold and this evidence includes the presence of horses. The proponents of the AIT theory have in a child like manner harped about the absence of horse by coining a slogan “No Horse at Harappa”. The juvenile fashion in which they have gone about dancing and celebrating this worthy of note because the scientific evidence shows otherwise. Horse both domestic and wild varieties have been found at places like Koldihwa and Mahagarh in interior India dating back to 6500 BC! These are Neolithic sites. The issue of horse has been blown out of proportion by scholars with the vested interest in preserving the invasion theory and the non indigenous basis of the Vedas and the Vedic civilisation. 

One of the most vociferous deniers is Michael Witzel who has gone to claim that any Harappan horse remains is a later introduction. This means that horse remains found and described by John Marshall in the 1920’s was introduced later. Witzel and his band of happily ignorant deniers stand discredited after this episode. How they lost their tongue can be illustrated by evidence found which is scientific and accepted by scholars worldwide. Sample the findings below.  

Ref: Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram

Remains of horses have been found among other places in Mahagara near Allahabad (dated to c. 2265 BC to 1480 BC, described as Equus ferus caballus Linn), Hallur in Karnataka (c.1500 - 1300 BC, described as Equus ferus caballus), Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa ("small horse"), Lothal (e.g., a terracotta figurine and a molar horse tooth, dated to 2200 BC), Kalibangan, and Kuntasi (dated to 2300 – 1900 BC). Horse remains from the Harappan site Surkotada (dated to c. 2400-1700 BC) have been identified by A.K. Sharma as Equus ferus caballus. The horse specialist Sandor Bökönyi (1997) later confirmed these conclusions and stated that the excavated tooth specimens could "in all probability be considered remnants of true horses [i.e. Equus ferus caballus]". Bökönyi stated that "The occurrence of true horse (Equus caballus L.) was evidenced by the enamel pattern of the upper and lower cheek and teeth and by the size and form of incisors and phalanges (toe bones)." An alleged clay model of a horse has been found in Mohenjo-Daro and an alleged horse figurine in Periano Ghundai in the Indus Valley.

Trautmann (1982) thus remarked that the supply and import of horses has "always" been a preoccupation of the Indians and that "it is a structure of its history, then, that India has always been dependent upon western and central Asia for horses." The paucity of horse remains could also be explained by India's climatic factors which lead to a faster decay of horse bones. Horse bones may also be rare because horses were probably not eaten or used in burials by the Harappans.

It should however also be noted that other sites like the BMAC (Bactrian Margiania Archaeological complex i.e. areas surrounding the Caspian Sea) which some consider nevertheless as Indo-Aryan are at least as poor in horse remains as the Harappan sites. Note also that the horse only appears in Mesopotamia from ca. 1800 BC when it acquires military significance with the invention of the chariot. Domestication of the horse before the 2nd millennium appears confined to its native habitat (the Great Steppe).

Colin Renfrew (1999) also remarked that "the significance of the horse ... has been much exaggerated" and Bryant holds that "using such negative evidence, by the same logic used to eliminate India as a candidate, ultimately any potential homeland can be disqualified due to lacking some fundamental Proto-Indo-European item or another. 

Source: Wikipedia

Comment: Moreover the horse Equus Namadicus (named after remains found in Narmada basin) had been an indigenous animal in India since the Pleistocene, which means 2.5 million years from the Common Era. Equus Namadius remains have been found as far as in present day Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh also. Another strain the Equus Sivalensis was found in the Shivalik Mountains and all across northern India.  Thus horses have been known in India from untold antiquity a fact that is borne out by hard scientific evidence thus demolishing the “No horse at Harappa” dogma. Ever since this evidence was presented Witzel and his cronies with no room to escape have been quiet on this subject.

Please read more from the same series

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic_02.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and_03.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/global-drought-ended-harappa-not-any.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/reference-to-sarasvati-in-rigveda.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/sarasvati-great-mother-of-us-all.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-chronology-harappa-sutra.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-indian-history-retrofitted-into.html 

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/10/4-recommended-books-for-all-ancient.html

Excerpts from the book Sarasvati River and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram Part 4

The Discovery of the Sarasvati River

The discovery of the Sarasvati River dealt a deathblow to AIT. It showed that the Sarasvati River, which supported the Harappan civilisation, was none other than the great river described in the Rigveda. This means that the Harappans were Vedic. Put another way, what it means is that cities and the other archaeological remains of the Harappan civilisation represents the material side of the culture and civilisation described in the Vedas.

That is to say, the people who created the Vedic literature also created the Harappan cities.

Ref: Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram

Note: It’s interesting to note that Indian school texts books don’t discuss the Vedic past of India or the Harappan civilisation in greater detail except saying that little is known yet (even till date i.e. 2010?). The books author (in most cases Romila Thappar) glosses over these topics and arrives at the Aryan invasion theory, declares the destruction of the ancient civilisation, end of chapter. 

Please read more from the same series

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic_02.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/no-horse-at-harappa-sarasvati-river-and.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/global-drought-ended-harappa-not-any.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/reference-to-sarasvati-in-rigveda.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/sarasvati-great-mother-of-us-all.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-chronology-harappa-sutra.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-indian-history-retrofitted-into.html 

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/10/4-recommended-books-for-all-ancient.html

Excerpts from the book Sarasvati River and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram Part 3

Indology, a colonial euphemism to subvert Indian history, culture and civilisation

 

Much of what Indian students learn today about ancient India derives from it. Most of us Indians were brought up to believe that the western scholars beginning with Sir William Jones and his discovery of Sanskrit, culminating in the work of the Anglo German F. Max Muller, a forgotten figure in Europe but revered in India as a paragon of virtue promoted by the German govt. via the Max Muller bhavans all over India.

To understand how the current notions about ancient India and its Aryan creators were discovered, we need to go back to the Calcutta Judge Sir William Jones in the eighteenth century. He recorded that Indian languages especially Sanskrit was related to European languages and to account for this F. Max Muller ‘later’ proposed the Aryan invasion theory. Other factors that promoted or readily accepted this version were colonial politics and Christian missionary interests.

Max Muller assigned a date for the invasion as 1500 BC and 1200 BC for the composition of the Rigveda. The reason for this firm belief unsupported by any archaeological evidence was the Biblical chronology that assigned 9:00 am 23^rd October 4004 BC for the creation of the world and 2448 BC for the Noah’s flood. Max Muller’s facility with the Vedas and the Sanskrit language was likened by the great Dayanand Saraswati to a “toddler learning to walk”.   

Indology gave the British a platform to build theories to justify their rule in India as reunited Aryan brothers who were working to uplift them.

Ref: Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram

Note: Also refer to a scene in the movie Gandhi that aptly portrays this sentiment where Richard Attenborough subtly shows how flawed this theory was via a ‘silent’ rebuttal by Gandhi, which embarrasses British bureaucrats present during the negotiations. The entire scene was created to admit that the Aryan invasion was a British colonial concoction.

Please read more from the same series

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic_02.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and_03.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/no-horse-at-harappa-sarasvati-river-and.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/global-drought-ended-harappa-not-any.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/reference-to-sarasvati-in-rigveda.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/sarasvati-great-mother-of-us-all.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-chronology-harappa-sutra.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-indian-history-retrofitted-into.html 

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/10/4-recommended-books-for-all-ancient.html

Synopses from the book Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram Part 2

Two approaches to history: Science vs. Theology

The debate between the supporters of AIT and the ones to oppose is summed up by the title. To see the divide between the two approaches to history – the theological and the scientific – one can scarcely do better than compare the statements of a linguist. The late Murray Emeneau, a well-known linguist claimed:

This Aryan invasion is our linguistic doctrine, which has been help now for more than a century and half. There seems to be no reason to distrust the arguments for it, in spite of the traditional Hindu ignorance of any such invasion.

In making this claim Emeneau betrays his theological bent of mind by holding on to a doctrine, a dogma. He though admitted that he had no evidence for such a dogma, it had to be accepted on faith. On the other hand when archaeologist Jim Shaffer says:

Current archaeological data do not support the existence of an Indo-Aryan or European invasion into South Asia any time in the pre- or proto historic periods…

Shaffer is expressing his views as a empirical scientist looking at the evidence before him. This shows the fundamental difference between science and theology.

Moreover AIT is based on linguistics (Philology) and is not a quantitative science. It cannot be used to determine dates and events that took place thousands of years ago.

A proper understanding of ecology and natural history – not linguistic theories – holds the key to understanding ancient civilisations. Secondly theology is the most deceptive art; it carries an appearance of sound logic but rests on no empirical foundation. Theology is not useful for uncovering truth but promoting preconception and built in dogma often leading to concealment of truth and even falsification while creating an illusion of logical rigor. Ancient Greeks called it ‘sophistry’. Hidus call it mithyaa-vaada, false erudition.

Ref: Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram

Please also read more from the same series

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and_03.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/no-horse-at-harappa-sarasvati-river-and.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/global-drought-ended-harappa-not-any.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/reference-to-sarasvati-in-rigveda.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/sarasvati-great-mother-of-us-all.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-chronology-harappa-sutra.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-indian-history-retrofitted-into.html 

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/10/4-recommended-books-for-all-ancient.html 

Synopses from the book Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram Part 1

The invading Aryans have no memory of their original homeland

One of the most important anomalies in the AIT, which is worth pointing out, is that the Aryans know of no homeland but India. Though the Vedas and the Puranas have been memorized and preserved for thousands of years, the same people have no memory of having come from any foreign land. Also, there is no archaeological evidence of such a massive invasion for such a massive invasion in ancient times. But we are asked to believe that the Aryans, generations of whom were able to memorise and orally preserve voluminous records like the Vedas and the Puranas for thousands years were incapable of remembering the name of their homeland. Their memory was so bad that they thought India itself was their original home. This is first of the many contradiction of the AIT.

Ref: Sarasvati and the Vedic Civilisation by NS Rajaram

Note: By contrast if we look at Babur the Muslim Mughal invader who came from Uzbekistan who completely disliked India, its weather, its flora, fauna and more importantly its people in his biography Baburnama pines for his homeland paying rich tribute to Samarkand. Wouldn’t the Aryan invaders have done the same? But there is no such evidence in the Vedas or elsewhere. All geographical references present in the Vedas are about India and not of any foreign land. 


From the same series please also read

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/synopses-from-book-sarasvati-and-vedic_02.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/excerpts-from-book-sarasvati-river-and_03.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/no-horse-at-harappa-sarasvati-river-and.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/global-drought-ended-harappa-not-any.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/reference-to-sarasvati-in-rigveda.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/11/sarasvati-great-mother-of-us-all.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-chronology-harappa-sutra.html

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/12/ancient-indian-history-retrofitted-into.html 

http://sowingseedsofthought.blogspot.com/2010/10/4-recommended-books-for-all-ancient.html