Pakistan is a paradigm example of a failed state that has undergone an extremely dangerous form of radical Islamisation.
Demise of the Aryan Invasion Theory
By Dr.Dinesh AgrawalAryan Race and Invasion Theory is not a subject of academic
interest only, rather it conditions our perception of India's historical
evolution, the sources of her ancient glorious heritage, and indigenous
socio-economic-political institutions which have been developed over the
millennia. Consequently, the validity or invalidity of this theory has an
obvious and strong bearing on the contemporary Indian political and social
landscape as well as the future of Indian nationalism. The subject matter is as
relevant today as it was a hundred years ago when it was cleverly introduced in
the school text books by British rulers. The last couple of decades have
witnessed a growing interest among scholars, social scientists, and many
nationalist Indians in this some what vapid and prosaic subject due to their
aunguish on the great damage this theory has wrought on the psyche of the Indian
society, and its tremendous contribution in creating apparently lasting schism
between the different sections of the Hindu society. This subject must
especially and urgently interest to all those people who are committed to the
ideology of Hindutva, for one of the primary and fundamental premises of
Hindutva philosophy lies in the fact that the Indian cultural nationalism has
been evolved and fostered over the millenia by our ancient rishis who at the
banks of holy rivers of Saptasindhu had composed the Vedic literature - the very
foundation of Indian civilization, and realised the eternal truth about the
Creator, His creation, and means to preserve it. The fact that these pioneers of
the ancient Vedic culture and hence the Hinduism were indigenous people of
mother India, is mendaciously denied by the Aryan Invasion theory which
professes their foreign origin. If such a false theory is allowed to perpetuate
and given credence without any tenable and reliable basis, the very raison
d'etre of Hindutva is endangered. In this essay, an attempt has been made to
expose the myth of Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) based on scriptural,
archaeological evidences and proper interpretation of Vedic verses, and present
the factual situation of the ancient Vedic society and how it progressed and
evolved into all-embracing and catholic principle, now known as Hindusim.
The Aryan issue is quite controversial and has been the focus of historians,
archaeologists, Indologists, and sociologists for over a century. AIT is merely
a proposed 'theory', and not a factual event. And theories keep modifying, are
discredited, nay even rejected with the emergence of new knowledge and data
pertaining to the subject matter of the theories. The AIT can not be accepted as
Gospel truth knowing fully well its shaky and dubious foundations, and now with
the emergence of new information and an objective analysis of the archaeological
data and scriptures, the validity of AIT is seriously challenged and it stands
totally untenable. The most weird aspect of the AIT is that it has its origin
not in any Indian records (no where in any of the ancient Indian scriptures or
epics or Puranas, etc. is there any mention of this AIT, sounds really
incredible!), but in European politics and German nationalism of 19th century.
AIT has no support either in Indian literature, tradition, science, or not even
in any of the south Indian (Dravidians, inhabitants of south India, who were
supposed to be the victims of the so-called Aryan invasion) literature and
tradition. So a product of European politics of the 19th century was forced on
Indian history only to serve the imperialist policy of British colonialists to
divide the Indian society on ethnic and religious lines in order to continue
their reign on the one hand and accentuate the religious aims of Christian
missionaries on the other. There is absolutely no reference in Indian traditions
and literature of an Aryan Invasion of Northern India, until the British
imperialists imposed this theory on an unsuspecting and gullible Indian society
and introduced it to the school curriculum. The irony is that this is still
taught in our schools as an unmitigated truth, and the authorities who set the
curriculum of Indian history books are not yet prepared to accept the verdict,
and make the amends. This is truly a shame! Now, more and more evidence is
emerging which not only challenges the old myth of Aryan Invasion, but also is
destroying all the pillars on which the entire edifice of AIT had been
assiduously but cleverly built.
It is a known fact that most of the original proponents of AIT were not
historians or archaeologists but had missionary and political axe to grind. Max
Muller in fact had been paid by the East India Company to further its colonial
aims, and others like Lassen and Weber were ardent German nationalists, with
hardly any authority or knowledge on India, only motivated by the superiority of
German race/nationalism through white Aryan race theory. And as everybody knows
this eventually ended up in the most calamitous event of 20th century: the World
War II. Even in the early times of the AIT's onward journey of acceptability,
there were numerous challengers like C.J.H. Hayes, Boyed C. Shafer and Hans Kohn
who made a deep study of the evolution and character of nationalism in Europe.
They had exposed the unscientificness of many of the budding social sciences
which were utilized in the 19th century to create the myth of Aryan Race Theory.
In the last couple of decades, the discovery of the lost track of the Rig
Vedic river Saraswati, the excavation of a chain of Harappan sites from Ropar in
the Punjab to Lothal and Dhaulavira in Gujarat all along this lost track, the
discovery of the archaeological remains of Vedis (alters) and Yupas connected
with Vedic Yajnas (sacrifices) at Harrapan sites like Kalibangan, decipherment
of the Harappan/Indus script by many scholars as a language belonging to Vedic
Sanskrit family, the view of the archaeologists like Prof. Dales, Prof. Allchin
etc. that the end of the Harappan civilization came not because of the so called
Aryan invasion but as a result of a series of floods, the discovery of the lost
Dwarka city beneath the sea water near Gujarat coast and its similarity with
Harappan civilization - all these new findings and an objective, accurate and
contextual interpretation of Vedas indicate convincingly towards the full
identity of the Harappan/Indus civilization with post Vedic civilization, and
demand a re-examination of the entire gamut of Aryan Race/Invasion Theories
which have been forcefully pushed down the throats of Indian society by some
European manipulators and Marxist historians all these years.
For thousands of years the Hindu society has looked upon the Vedas as the
fountainhead of all knowledge: spiritual and secular, and the mainstay of Hindu
culture, heritage and its existence. Never our historical or religious records
have questioned this fact. Even western and far eastern travellers who have
documented their experiences during their prolonged stay and sojourn in India
have testified the importance of Vedic literature and its indigenous origin. And
now, suddenly, in the last century or so, these the so-called European scholars
are pontificating us that the Vedas do not belong to Hindus, they were the
creation of a barbaric horde of nomadic tribes descended upon north India and
destroyed an advanced indigenous civilization. They even suggest that the
Sanskrit language is of non-Indian origin. This is all absurd, preposterous, and
defies the commonsense. A nomadic, barbaric horde of invaders cannot from any
stretch of imagination produce the kind of sublime wisdom, pure and pristine
spiritual experiences of the highest order, a universal philosophy of religious
tolerance and harmony for the entire mankind, one finds in the Vedic literature.
Now let us examine the origin and the conditions in which this historical
fraud was concocted.
Max Muller, a renowned Indologist from Germany, is credited with the
popularization of the Aryan racial theory in the middle of 19th century. Though
later on when Muller's reputation as a Sanskrit scholar was getting damaged, and
he was challenged by his peers, since nowhere in the Sanskrit literature, the
term Arya denoted a racial people, he recanted and pronounced that Aryan meant
only a linguistic family and never applied to a race. But the damage was already
done. The German and French political and nationalist groups exploited this
racial phenomenon to propagate the supremacy of an assumed Aryan race of white
people, which Hitler used to its extreme absurdities for his barbaric crusade to
terrorize Jews and other societies. This culminated in the holocaust of millions
of innocent people. Though now this racial nonsense has mostly been discarded in
Europe, but in India it is still being exploited and used to divide and
denigrate the Hindu society. Our aim is to expose myth about AIT, and establish
the truth of the identity of the pioneers of the Vedic civilization and set the
historical events after the Vedic period in proper perspective and in realistic
time frame.
What, really, is the
Aryan Invasion
Theory?
According to this theory, northern India was invaded and conquered by
nomadic, light-skinned RACE of a people called 'ARYANS' who
descended from Central Asia (or some unknown land ?) around 1500 BC, and
destroyed an earlier and more advanced civilization of the people habitated in
the Indus Valley and imposed upon them their culture and language. These Indus
Valley people were supposed to be either Dravidian, or AUSTRICS or now--days'
Shudra class etc.
The main elements on which the entire structure of AIT has been built are:
Arya is a racial group, their invasion, they were nomadic, light-skinned, their
original home was outside India, their invasion occurred around 1500 BC, they
destroyed an advanced civilization of Indus valley, etc. And what are the
evidences AIT advocates present in support of all these wild conjectures:
- Invasion: Mention of Conflicts in Vedic literature, findings of skeletons
at the excavated sites of Mohanjodro and Harappa
- Nomadic, Light-skinned: Pure conjecture and misinterpretation of Vedic
hymns.
- Non-Aryan/Dravidian Nature of Indus civilization: absence of horse, Shiva
worshippers, chariots, Racial differences, etc.
- Date of Invasion, 1500 BC: Arbitrary and speculative, in Mesopotamia and
Iraq the presence of the people worshipping Vedic gods around 1700BC, Biblical
chronology.
Major Flaws in the
Aryan Invasion
Theory
A major flaw of the invasion theory was that it had no explanation for why
the Vedic literature that was assumed to go back into the second millennium BC
had no reference to any region outside of India. Also the astronomical
references in the Rig Veda allude to events in the third millennium BC and even
earlier, indicating origin ofVedic hymns earlier than 3000BC. The contributions
of the Vedic world to philosophy, mathematics, logic, astronomy, medicine and
other sciences provide one of the foundations on which rests the common heritage
of mankind, is well recognized but cannot be reconciled if Vedas were composed
after 1500BC. Further, if it is assumed that the so-called Aryans invaded the
townships in the Harappa valley and destroyed its habitants and their
civilization, how come after doing that they did not occupy these towns? The
excavations of these sites indicate that the townships were abandoned. And if
the Harappan civilization had a Dravidian origin, who were allegedly pushed down
to the south by Aryans, how come there is no Aryan-Dravidian divide in the
respective literatures and historical traditions. The North and South have never
been known to be culturally hostile to each other. Prior to the descent of
British on Indian scene, there was a continuous interaction and cultural
exchange between the two regions. The Sanskrit language, the so-called Aryan
language was the lingua-franca of the entire society for thousands of years. The
three greatest figures of later Hinduism - Shankaracharya, Madhavacharya and
Ramanujam were Southerners who are universally respected in the North, and who
have written commentaries on Vedic scriptures in Sanskrit only for the benefit
of the entire population. Even in the ancient times some of the great Sutra
authors like Baudhayana and Apastamba were from South. Agastya, a celebrated
Vedic rishi, is widely venerated in the South as the one who introduced Vedic
learning to the South India. And also was the South India un-inhabitated prior
to the pushing of the original population of Indus Valley? If not, who were the
original inhabitants of South India, who accepted the newcomers without any
hostility or fight?
There is enough positive evidence in support of the religious rites of the
Harappans being similar to those of the Vedic Aryans. Their religious motifs,
deities and sacrificial altars bespeak of Aryan faith, indicating continuity and
identity of Vedic culture with the Indus valley civilization.
If the Aryan Hindus were outsiders, why don't they name places outside India
as their most holy places? Why should they sing paeans in the praise of India's
numerous rivers crisscrossing the entire peninsula, and mountains - repositories
of life giving water and natural resources, nay even bestow them a status of
goddesses and gods. If Aryans were outsiders why should they consider this land
as the 'holy land' and not their original land as the 'holy land' or motherland?
For the Muslims, their holy placeis Mecca. For the Catholics it is Rome or
Jerusalem. For the Hindus, their pilgrim centers range from Kailash in the
North, to Rameshwaram in the South; and from Hingalaj (Sindh) in the West to
Parusuram Kund (Arunchala Pradesh) in the East. The seven holy cities of
Hinduism include Kanchipurum in the south, Dwaraka in the west and Ujjain in
central India. The twelve jyotirlings include Ramashwaram in Tamil Nadu,
Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh, Nashik in Maharashtra, Somnath in Gujarat and Kashi
in Uttar Pradesh. All these are located in greater India only. No Hindu from any
part of India has felt a stranger in any other part of India when on a
pilgrimage. The seven holy rivers in Hinduism, indeed, seem to chart out the map
of the holy land. The Sindhu and the Saraswati (now extinct) originating from
the Himalayas and move westward and southwards into the western sea; the Ganga
and the Yamuna also start in the Himalayas and move eastward into the
north-eastern sea; the Narmada starts in central India and the Godavari starts
in western India, while the Kaveri winds its way through the south to move into
the southern sea. More than a thousand years ago, Adi Shankaracharya, who was
born in Kerala, established several mathas (religious and spiritual centers)
including at Badrinath in the north (UP), Puri in the east (Orissa), Dwaraka in
the west (Gujarat), and at Shringeri and Kanchi in the south. That is India,
that is Bharat, that is Hinduism.
These are some of the obvious serious objections, inconsistencies, and
glaring anomalies to which the invasionists have no convincing or plausible
explanations which could reconcile the above facts with the Aryan invasion
theory and destruction of Indus Valley civilization.
Now let us examine the facts about the so-called evidences in support of AIT:
- Real Meaning of the word Arya
In 1853, Max Muller introduced the word 'Arya' into the English and
European usage as applying to a racial and linguistic group when propounding
the Aryan Racial theory. However, in 1888, he himself refuted his own theory
and wrote:
" I have declared again and again that if I say Aryas, I mean neither
blood nor bones, nor hair, nor skull; I mean simply those who speak an Aryan
language... to me an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan
eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a
dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar." (Max Muller,
Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas, 1888, pg 120).
In Vedic Literature, the word Arya is nowhere defined in connection with
either race or language. Instead it refers to: gentleman, good-natured,
righteous person, noble-man, and is often used like 'Sir' or 'Shree' before
the name of a person like Aryaputra, Aryakanya, etc.
In Ramayan (Valmiki), Rama is described as an Arya in the following words:
Arya - who cared for the equality to all and was dear to everyone.
Etymologically, according to Max Muller, the word Arya was derived from ar-,
"plough, to cultivate". Therefore, Arya means - "cultivator"
agriculturer (civilized sedentary, as opposed to nomads and hunter-gatherers),
landlord;
V.S. Apte's Sanskrit-English dictionary relates the word Arya to the root
r-,to which a prefix a has been appended to give a negating meaning. And
therefore the meaning of Arya is given as "excellent, best", followed
by "respectable" and as a noun, "master, lord, worthy, honorable,
excellent", upholder of Arya values, and further: teacher, employer,
master, father-in-law, friend, Buddha.
So nowhere either in the religious scriptures or by tradition the word Arya
denotes a race or language. To impose such a meaning on this epithet is an
absolute intellectual dishonesty, deliberate falsification of the facts, and
deceptive-scholarship. There are only four primary races, namely, Caucasian,
the Mangolian, the Australians and the Negroid. Both the Aryans and Dravidians
are related branches of the Caucasian race generally placed in the same
Mediterranean sub-branch. The difference between the so-called Aryans of the
north and the Dravidians of the south or other communities of Indian
subcontinent is not a racial type. Biologically all are the same Caucasian
type, only when closer to the equator the skin gets darker, and under the
influence of constant heat the bodily frame tends to get a little smaller. And
these differences can not be the basis of two altogether different races.
Similar differences one can observe even more distinctly among the people of
pure Caucasian white race of Europe. Caucasian can be of any color ranging
from pure white to almost pure black, with every shade of brown in between.
Similarly, the Mongolian race is not yellow. Many Chinese have skin whiter
than many so-called Caucasians. Further, a recent landmark global study in
population genetics by a team of internationally reputed scientists over 50
years (The History and Geography of Human Genes, by Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo
Menozzi and Alberto Piazza, Princeton University Press) reveals that the
people habitated in the Indian subcontinent and nearby including Europe, all
belong to one single race of Caucasion type. According to this study, there is
essentially, and has been no difference racially between north Indians and the
so-called Dravidian South Indians. The racial composition has remained almost
the same for millennia. This study also confirms that there is no race called
as an Aryan race.
- The voluminous references to various wars and conflicts in Rigveda are
frequently cited as the proof of an invasion and wars between invading
white-skinned Aryans and dark-skinned indigenous people. Well, the so-called
conflicts and wars mentioned in the Rigveda can be categorized mainly in the
following three types:
A. Conflicts between the forces of nature: Indra, the Thunder-God of
the Rig Veda, occupies a central position in the naturalistic aspects of the
Rigvedic religion, since it is he who forces the clouds to part with their
all-important wealth, the rain. In this task he is pitted against all sorts of
demons and spirits whose main activity is the prevention of rainfall and
sunshine. Rain, being the highest wealth, is depicted in terms of more
terrestrial forms of wealth, such as cows or soma. The clouds are depicted in
terms of their physical appearance: as mountains, as the black abodes of the
demons who retain the celestial waters of the heavens (i.e. the rains), or as
the black demons themselves. This is in no way be construed as the war between
white Aryans and black Dravidians. This is a perverted interpretation from
those who have not understood the meaning and purport of the Vedic culture and
philosophy. Most of the verses which mention the wars/conflicts are composed
using poetic imagery, and depict the celestial battles of the natural forces,
and often take greater and greater recourse to terrestrial terminology and
anthropomorphic depictions. The descriptions acquire an increasing tendency to
shift from naturalism to mythology. And it is these mythological descriptions
which are grabbed at by invasion theorists as descriptions of wars between
invading Aryans and indigenous non-Aryans. An example of such distorted
interpretation is made of the following verse:
The body lay in the midst of waters that are neither still nor flowing. The
waters press against the secret opening of the Vrtra (the coverer) who lay in
deep darkness whose enemy is Indra. Mastered by the enemy, the waters held
back like cattle restrained by a trader. Indra crushed the vrtra and broke
open the withholding outlet of the river. (Rig Veda, I.32.10-11)
This verse is a beautiful poetic and metamorphical description of snow-clad
dark mountains where the life-sustaining water to feed the rivers flowing in
the Aryavarta is held by the hardened ice caps (vrtra demon) and Indra, the
rain god by allowing the sun to light its rays on the mountains makes the ice
caps break and hence release the water. The invasionists interpret this verse
literally on human plane, as the slaying of vrtra, the leader of dark skinned
Dravidian people of Indus valley by invading white-skinned Aryan king Indra.
This is an absurd and ludicrous interpretation of an obvious conflict between
the natural forces.
B. Conflict between Vedic and Iranian people: Another category of
conflicts in the Rigveda represents the genuine conflict between the Vedic
people and the Iranians. At one time Iranians and Vedic people formed one
society and were living harmoniously in the northern part of India practising
Vedic culture, but at some point in the history for some serious philosophical
dispute, the society got divided and one section moved to further north-west,
now known as Iran. However, the conflict and controversy were continued
between the two groups often resulting into even physical fights. The Iranians
not only called their God Ahura (Vedic Asura) and their demons Daevas (Vedic
Devas), but they also called themselves Dahas and Dahyus (Vedic Dasas, and
Dasyus). The oldest Iranian texts, moreover depict the conflicts between the
daeva-worshippers and the Dahyus on behalf of the Dahyus, as the Vedic texts
depict them on behalf of the Deva-worshippers. Indra, the dominant God of the
Rigveda, is represented in the Iranian texts by a demon Indra. What this all
indicate that wars or conflicts of this second category are not between Aryans
and non-Aryans, but between two estranged groups of the same parent society
which got divided by some philosophical dichotomy. Vedas even mention the gods
of Dasyus as Arya also.
C. Conflicts between various indigenous tribal groups over natural
resources and various minor kingdoms to gain supremacy over the land and its
expansion: A global phenomenon known to share the natural resources like,
water, cattle, vegetation and land, and expand the geographical boundaries of
the existing kingdoms. This conflict in no way suggests any war or invasion by
outsiders on the indigenous people.
- It is argued that in the excavations at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro the human
skeletons found do prove that a massacre had taken place at these townships by
invading armies of Aryan nomads. Prof. G. F. Dales (Former head of department
of Southasean Archaeology and Anthropology, Berkeley University, USA) in his "The
Mythical Massacre at Mohenjo-daro, Expedition Vol VI,3: 1964 states
the following about this evidence:
What of these skeletal remains that have taken on such undeserved
importance? Nine years of extensive excavations at Mohenjo-daro (1922-31) - a
city of three miles in circuit - yielded the total of some 37 skeletons, or
parts thereof, that can be attributed with some certainty to the period of the
Indus civilizations. Some of these were found in contorted positions and
groupings that suggest anything but orderly burials. Many are either
disarticulated or incomplete. They were all found in the area of the Lower
Town - probably the residential district. Not a single body was found within
the area of the fortified citadel where one could reasonably expect the final
defence of this thriving capital city to have been made.
He further questions: Where are the burned fortresses, the arrow heads,
weapons, pieces of armour, the smashed chariots and bodies of in the invaders
and defenders? Despite the extensive excavations at the largest Harappan
sites, there is not a single bit of evidence that can be brought forth as
unconditional proof of an armed conquest and the destruction on the supposed
scale of the Aryan invasion.
Colin Renfrew, Prof. of Archeology at Cambridge, in his famous work, "Archeology
and Language : The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins", Cambridge Univ.
Press, 1988, makes the following comments about the real meaning and
interpretation of Rig Vedic hymns:
"Many scholars have pointed out that an enemy quite frequently smitten in
these hymns is the Dasyu. The Dasyus have been thought by some commentators to
represent the original, non-Vedic-speaking population of the area, expelled by
the incursion of the war like Aryas in their war-chariots. As far as I can see
there is nothing in the Hymns of the Rigveda which demonstrates that the
Vedic-speaking population were intrusive to the area: this comes rather from a
historical assumption about the 'coming' of the Indo-Europeans. It is
certainly true that the gods invoked do aid the Aryas by over-throwing forts,
but this does not in itself establish that the Aryas had no forts themselves.
Nor does the fleetness in battle, provided by horses (who were clearly used
primarily for pulling chariots), in itself suggest that the writers of these
hymns were nomads. Indeed the chariot is not a vehicle especially associated
with nomads. This was clearly a heroic society, glorifying in battle. Some of
these hymns, though repetitive, are very beautiful pieces of poetry, and they
are not by any means all warlike.
...When Wheeler speaks of the Aryan invasion of the Land of the Seven
Rivers, the Punjab', he has no warranty at all, so far as I can see. If one
checks the dozen references in the Rigveda to the Seven Rivers, there is
nothing in any of them that to me which implies an invasion: the land of the
Seven Rivers is the land of the Rigveda, the scene of the action. Nothing
implies that the Aryas were strangers there. Nor is it implied that the
inhabitants of the walled cities (including the Dasyus) were any more
aboriginal than the Aryas themselves. Most of the references, indeed, are very
general ones such as the beginning of the Hymn to Indra (Hymn 102 of
Book 9).
To thee the Mighty One I bring this mighty Hymn, for thy desire hath been
gratified by my praise. In Indra, yea in him victorious through his strength,
the Gods have joyed at feast, and when the Soma flowed.
The Seven Rivers bear his glory far and wide, and heaven and sky and earth
display his comely form. The Sun and Moon in change alternate run their course
that we, O Indra, may behold and may have faith . . .
The Rigveda gives no grounds for believing that the Aryas themselves lacked
for forts, strongholds and citadels. Recent work on the decline of the Indus
Valley civilization shows that it did not have a single, simple cause:
certainly there are no grounds for blaming its demise upon invading hordes.
This seems instead to have been a system collapse, and local movements of
people may have followed it."
M.S. Elphinstone (1841): (first governor of Bombay Presidency, 1819-27) in
his magnum opus, History of India, writes:
Hindu scripture.... "It is opposed to their (Hindus) foreign origin, that
neither in the Code (of Manu) nor, I believe, in the Vedas, nor in any book
that is certainly older than the code, is there any allusion to a prior
residence or to a knowledge of more than the name of any country out of India.
Even mythology goes no further than the Himalayan chain, in which is fixed the
habitation of the gods...
...To say that it spread from a central point is an unwarranted assumption,
and even to analogy; for, emigration and civilization have not spread in a
circle, but from east to west. Where, also, could the central point be, from
which a language could spread over India, Greece, and Italy and yet leave
Chaldea, Syria and Arabia untouched?
And, Elphinstone's final verdict:
There is no reason whatever for thinking that the Hindus ever inhabitated
any country but their present one, and as little for denying that they may
have done so before the earliest trace of their records or tradition.
So what these eminent scholars have concluded based on the archaeological
and literary evidence that there was no invasion by the so-called Aryans,
there was no massacre at Harappan and Mohanjo-dara sites, Aryans were
indigenous people, and the decline of the Indus valley civilization is due to
some natural calamity.
- Presence of Horse at Indus-Saraswati sites
It is argued that the Aryans were horse riding, used chariots for
transport, and since no signs of horse was found at the sites of Harappa and
Mohanjo-daro, the habitants of Indus valley cannot be Aryans. Well, this was
the case in the 1930-40 when the excavation of many sites were not completed.
Now numerous excavated sites along Indus valley and along the dried Saraswati
river have produced bones of domesticated horses. Dr. SR Rao, the world
renowned scholar of archeology, informs us that horse bones have been found
both from the 'Mature Harappan' and 'Late Harappan' levels. Many other
scholars since then have also unearthed numerous bones of horses: both
domesticated and combat types. This simply debunks the non-Aryan nature of the
habitants of the Indus valley and also identifies the Vedic culture with the
Indus valley civilization.
- Origin of Siva-worship
The advocates of AIT argue that the inhabitants of Indus valley were Siva
worshippers and since Siva cult is more prevalent among the South Indian
Dravidians, therefore the habitants of Indus valley were Dravidians. But Shiva
worship is not alien to Vedic culture, and not confined to South India only.
The words Siva and Shambhu are not derived from the Tamil words civa (to
redden, to become angry) and cembu (copper, the red metal), but from the
Sanskrit roots si (therefore meaning "auspicious, gracious, benevolent,
helpful kind") and sam (therefore meaning "being or existing for happiness or
welfare, granting or causing happiness, benevolent, helpful, kind"), and the
words are used in this sense only, right from their very first occurrence.
(Sanskrit- English Dictionary by Sir M. Monier-Williams).
Moreover, most important symbols of Shaivites are located in North India:
Kashi is the most revered and auspicious seat of Shaivism which is in the
north, the traditional holy abode of Shiva is Kailash mountain which is in the
far-north, there are passages in Rigvada which mention Siva and Rudra and
consider him an important deity. Indra himself is called Shiva several times
in Rig Veda (2:20:3, 6:45:17, 8:93:3). So Siva is not a Dravidian god only,
and by no means a non-Vedic god. The proponents of AIT also present
terra-cotta lumps found in the fire-alters at the Harappan and other sites as
an evidence of Shiva linga, implying the Shiva cult was prevalent among the
Indus valley people. But these terra-cotta lumps have been proved to be the
measures for weighing the commodities by the shopkeepers and merchants. Their
weights have been found in perfect integral ratios, in the manner like 1 gm, 2
gms, 5 gms, 10 gms etc. They were not used as the Shiva lingas for worship,
but as the weight measurements.
- Discovery of the Submerged city of Krishna's
Dwaraka
The discovery of this city is very significant and a kind of clinching
evidence in discarding the Aryan invasion as well as its proposed date of
1500BC. Its discovery not only establishes the authenticity of Mahabharat war
and the main events described in the epic, but clinches the traditional
antiquity of Mahabharat and Ramayana periods. So far the AIT advocates used to
either dismiss the Mahabharat epic as a fictional work of a highly talented
poet or would place it around 1000 BC. But the remains of this submerged city
along the coast of Gujarat were dated 3000BC to 1500BC. In Mahabharat's Musal
Parva, the Dwarka is mentioned as being gradually swallowed by the ocean.
Krishna had forewarned the residents of Dwaraka to vacate the city before the
sea submerged it. The Sabha Parva gives a detailed account of Krishna's flight
from Mathura with his followers to Dwaraka to escape continuous attacks of
Jarasandh's on Mathura and save the lives of its subjects. For this reason,
Krishna is also known as RANCHHOR (one who runs away from the battle-field).
Dr. SR Rao and his team in 1984-88 (Marine Archaeology Unit) undertook an
extensive search of this city along the coast of Gujarat where the
Dwarikadeesh temple stands now, and finally they succeeded in unearthing the
ruins of this submerged city off the Gujarat coast.
- Saraswati River Discovered
It is well known that in the Rig Veda, the honor of the greatest and the
holiest of rivers was not bestowed upon the Ganga, but upon Saraswati, now a
dry river, but once a mighty flowing river all the way from the Himalayas to
the ocean across the Rajasthan desert. The Ganga is mentioned only once while
the Saraswati is mentioned at least 60 times. Extensive research by the late
Dr. Wakankar has shown that the Saraswati changed her course several times,
going completely dry around 1900 BC. The latest satellite data combined with
field archaeological studies have shown that the Rig Vedic Saraswati had
stopped being a perennial river long before 3000 BC.
As Paul-Henri Francfort of CNRS, Paris recently observed, "...we now know,
thanks to the field work of the Indo-French expedition that when the
proto-historic people settled in this area, no large river had flowed there
for a long time."
The proto-historic people he refers to are the early Harappans of 3000 BC.
But satellite 'photos show that a great prehistoric river that was over 7
kilometers wide did indeed flow through the area at one time. This was the
Saraswati described in the Rig Veda. Numerous archaeological sites have also
been located along the course of this great prehistoric river thereby
confirming Vedic accounts. The great Saraswati that flowed "from the mountain
to the sea" is now seen to belong to a date long an terior to 3000 BC. This
means that the Rig Veda describes the geography of North India long before
3000 BC. All this shows that the Rig Veda must have been in existence no later
than 3500 BC. (Aryan Invasion of India: The Myth and the Truth By N.S. Rajaram)
River Saraswati IN RIGVEDA
The river called Saraswati is the most important of the rivers mentioned in
the Rig Veda. The image of this 'great goddess stream' dominates the text. It
is not only the most sacred river but the Goddess of wisdom. She is said to be
the Mother of the Veda.
A few Rig Vedic hymns which mention Saraswati river are presented below:
ambitame naditame devitame sarasvati (II.41.16)
(The best mother, the best river, the best Goddess, Saraswati)
maho arnah saraswati pra cetayati ketuna dhiyo visva virajati (I.3.12)
(Saraswati like a great ocean appears with her ray, she rules all
inspirations)
ni tva dadhe vara a prthivya ilayspade sudinatve ahnam:
drsadvatyam manuse apayayam sarasvatyam revad agne didhi (III.23.4)
(We set you down, oh sacred fire, at the most holy place on Earth, in
the land of Ila, in the clear brightness of the days. On the Drishadvati, the
Apaya and the Saraswati rivers, shine out brilliantly for men)
citra id raja rajaka id anyake sarasvatim anu;
parjanya iva tatanadhi vrstya sahasram ayuta dadat (VIII.21.18)
(Splendor is the king, all others are princes, who dwell along the
Saraswati river. Like the Rain God extending with rain he grants a thousand
times ten thousand cattle)
Saraswati like a bronze city: ayasi puh;
surpassing all other rivers and waters: visva apo mahina sindhur
anyah;
pure in her course from the mountains to the sea: sucir yati
girbhya a samudrat (VII.95.1-2)
All this indicates that the composers of the Vedic literature were quite
familiar with the Saraswati river, and were inspired by its beauty and its
vasteness that they composed several hymns in her praise and glorification.
This also indicates that the Vedas are much older than Mahabharat period which
mentions Saraswati as a dying river.
- Decipherment of Indus Script
Dr. SR Rao, who has deciphered the Indus script, is an ex-head of
Archaeological Survey of India, a renowned Marine archaeologist, has been
studying archeology since 1948 and has discovered and excavated numerous Indus
sites. He has authored several monumental works on Harappan civilization and
Indus script. To summarize his method of decipherment of Indus script, he
assigned to each Indus basic letter the same sound-value as the West Asian
letter which closely resembled it. After assigning these values to the Indus
letters, he proceeded to try to read the inscriptions on the Indus seals. The
language that emerged turned out to be an "Aryan" one belonging to Sanskrit
family. The people who resided at Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, and other sites were
culturally Aryan is thus confirmed by the decipherment of the Harappan script
and its identity with Sanskrit family. The Harappa culture was a part of a
continuing evolution of the Vedic culture which had developed on the banks of
Saraswati river. And it should be rightly termed as Vedic-Saraswati
civilization.
Among the many words yielded by Dr. Rao's decipherment are the numerals
aeka, tra, chatus, panta, happta/sapta, dasa, dvadasa and sata (1,3,4,5,7,
10,100) and the names of Vedic personalities like Atri, Kasyapa, Gara, Manu,
Sara, Trita, Daksa, Druhu, Kasu, and many common Sanskrit words like, apa
(water), gatha, tar (savior), trika, da, dyau (heaven), dashada, anna (food),
pa(protector), para (supreme), maha, mahat, moks, etc.
While the direct connection between the late Indus script (1600 BC) and the
Brahmi script could not be definitely established earlier, more and more
inscriptions have been found all over the country in the last few years,
dating 1000 BC, 700 BC, and so on, which have bridged the gap between the two.
Now it is evident that the Brahmi script evolved directly from the Indus
script. (Sources: Decipherment of the Indus Script, Dawn and Development of
Indus Civilization, Lothal and the Indus Civilization, all by S. R. Rao)
- New Archaeological findings
Since the first discovery of buried townships of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
on the Ravi and Sindhu rivers in 1922, respectively, numerous other
settlements, now number over 2500 stretching from Baluchistan to the Ganga and
beyond and down to Tapti valley, covering nearly a million and half square
kilometers, have been unearthed by various archaeologists. And, the fact which
was not known 70 years ago, but archaeologists now know, is that about 75% of
these settlements are concentrated not along the Sindhu or even the Ganga, but
along the now dried up Saraswati river. This calamity - the drying up of the
Saraswati - and not any invasion was what led to the disruption and
abandonment of the settlements along Saraswati river by the people who lived a
Vedic life. The drying up of the Saraswati river was a catastrophe of the vast
magnitude, which led to a massive outflow of people, especially the elite,
went into Iran, Mesopotamia and other neighboring regions. Around the same
time (2000-1900 BC), there were constant floods or/and prolonged draughts
along the Sindhu river and its tributaries which forced the inhabitants of the
Indus valley to move to other safer and greener locations, and hence a slow
but continuous migration of these highly civilized and prosperous Vedic people
took place. Some of them moved to south east, and some to north west, and even
towards European regions. For the next thousand years and more, dynasties and
rulers with Indian names appear and disappear all over the West Asia
confirming the migration of people from East towards West. There was no
destruction of an existing civilization or invasion by any racial nomads of
any kind to cause the destruction or abandonment of these settlements.
- Chronology of the pre-historic period of India
According to the invasionists, the Indian civilization or the Indus Valley
civilization is only 4000-5000 years old. They place the end of this
civilization around 1900BC, and invasion of Aryans around 1500BC. There is
also no plausible explanation from these invasion advocates for a gap of 400
years between the end of the Indus Valley civilization (IVC) and the
appearance of Aryans on the Indian scene if Aryans were responsible for the
destruction of the IVC. They propose the period of 1400-1300 BC as the
beginning of the Vedic age when the Vedas were composed and Aryans began to
impose their culture and religion on the indigenous population of the northern
India. The Ramayana and Mahabharat, if considered as real events, must be
according to them arbitr- arily be dated in the period 1200-1000BC. And only
after 1000BC, the historic accounts of empire building, Buddha's birth etc.
have to be dated. This chronology first proposed by Max Muller was primarily
based on his firm belief in the Biblical date of the creation of the world,
i.e. October 23, 4004 BC. Such chronology contradicts all the archaeological
evidences, scriptural testimonies, traditional beliefs, and most importantly
defies the commonsense and scientific method. Therefore, based on Vedic
testimonies, Puranic references, archaeological evidences, and all the
accounts presented here above, the most realistic and accurate chronological
events of the pre-historic period of India should be fixed as follows:
- Vedic Age - 7000-4000 BC
- End of Rig Vedic Age - 3750 BC
- End of Ramayana - Mahabharat Period - 3000 BC
- Development of Saraswati-Indus Civilization - 3000-2000 BC
- Decline of Indus and Saraswati Civilization - 2200-1900 BC
- Period of Complete chaos and migration - 2000-1500 BC
- Period of evolution of syncretic Hindu culture - 1400 - 250 BC
David
Frawley's Paradox
The Harappans of the Indus Valley have left profuse archaeological records
over a vast region - from the borders of Iran and beyond Afghanistan to eastern
UP and Tapti valley, and must have supported over 30 million people and believed
to be living an advanced civilization. And yet these people have left absolutely
no literary records. Sounds incredible! The Vedic Aryans and their successors on
the other hand have left us a literature that is probably the largest and most
profound in the world. But according to the AIT there is absolutely no
archaeological record that they ever existed. Either on the Indian soil or
outside its boundaries. So we have concrete history and archeology of a vast
civilization of 'Dravidians' lasting thousands of years that left no literature,
and a huge literature by the Vedic Aryans who left no history and no
archaeological records. The situation gets more absurd when we consider that
there is profuse archaeological and literary records indicating a substantial
movement of Indian Aryans out of India into Iran and West Asia around 2000 BC.
So, how can all these obvious anomalies and serious flaws be reconciled? By
accepting the truth that the so-called Aryans were the original people habitants
of the townships along the Indus, Ravi, Saraswati and other rivers of the vast
northern region of the Indian subcontinent. And no invasion by nomadic hordes
from outside India ever occurred and the civilization was not destroyed but the
population simply moved to other areas, and developed a new syncretic
civilization and culture by mutual interaction and exchange of ideas.
The Vedic seers in Vedic literature have proclaimed and practiced the
following all-embracing, catholic, and harmonious principles for a peaceful
coexistence of various communities. How can such people be accused of
annihilater of a civilization, murderer of innocent people, and destroying large
number of cities?
ahm bhumimdadamaryam (Rgveda)
Creater declares: I have bestowed this land to Aryas.
Kirnvanto Vishwaryam (Rgbeda)
Make the entire world noble.
Aa na bhadra katavo yanto vishwatah (Rgveda)
Let noble thoughts come from all sides.
Mata Bhumih putro ham prithvyah (Atharv veda)
Earth is my mother, and I am her son.
Vasudeva kutumbubakam
The entire universe is one family.
Consequences of the Aryan Invasion
Theory in Context of
India
So, What are the facts?
Now, based on what has been presented above, following facts about an ancient
and glorious period of India clearly emerge:
- The Aryan Invasion and Racial theories, and Aryan-Dravidian conflicts are
a 19th century fabrication by some European scholar. They are being exploited
even now for political reasons.
- The hymns of Rigveda had been composed and completed by 3700BC, this can
be scientifically proved.
- The language of the Indus script is related to Sanskrit, the language of
Vedas.
- The Indus valley civilization should be aptly called as Saraswati Vedic
civilization, as the new evidences and right interpretation of the
archaeological findings indicate.
- There is now strong evidence that the movement of the ancient Aryan people
was from east to west, and this is how the European languages have strong
association and origin in the Vedic Sanskrit language.
- The ending of Indus Valley and the Saraswati civilization was due to the
constant floods and drought in the Indus area and the drying up of the
Saraswati river. This had caused a massive emigration of the habitants to
safer and interior areas of the Indian subcontinent and even towards the west.
- There was no destruction of the civilization in the Indus valley due to
any invasion of any barbaric hordes.
- The Vedic literature has no mention of any invasion or destruction of a
civilization.
- There is no evidence in any of the literature which indicate any
Aryan-Dravidian or North-South divide, they were never culturally hostile to
each other.
- The population living in the Indus valley and surrounding the dried up
Saraswati river practiced the Vedic culture and religion.
References
Most of the material presented above has been taken from the following books.
1. The Aryan Invasion Theory and Indian Nationalism (1993) By
Shrikant G. Talageri (Voice of India)
2. The Astronomical Code of India (1992) By Subhash Kak
3. Vedic Aryans and the Origins of Civilization (1995) By N.S.
Rajaram and David Frawley (World Heritage Press)
4. Aryan Invasion of India: The Myth and the Truth By N.S.
Rajaram (Voice of India Publication)
5. Indigenous Indians: Agastya to Ambedkar (1993) By Koenraad
Elst
6. New Light on The Aryan Problem: Manthan Oct. 1994 (Journal of
Deendayal Research Institute)
7. Dawn and Development of the Indus Civilization (1991) By
S.R. Rao (Aditya Prakashan)
