The Problem Of Aryan Origins

From an Indian Point of View






Analytic Review of the Chapters

CHAPTER

Page

1. The theory of an invasion of Dravidian India by the Rigvedic Aryans in the 2nd millennium B.C.

1

Its unhealthy effect on North-South relationship today

1

Were the Rigvedic Aryans really outsiders and invaders?

1

The right attitude and approach to the problem

1-2

Four crucial historical questions to be faced for the correct answer

2-3

2. Any archaeological evidence? Negative answers from G. R. Dales and Sir Mortimer Wheeler, the champion of the invasion-hypothesis and of the theory that the Rigvedic Aryans destroyed the Harappā Culture

4

The case for Painted Grey Ware (PGW)

5

India's PGW and Shahi Tump's quite different and chronologically wide apart

5-6

The argument from "Aryan" pins and axes

6-7

Walter Fairservis, Jr.'s case for the Gandhara Grave Culture: archaeological and literary

7-8

Everything hinges on the presence of the horse: did the Harappā Culture (2500-1500 B.C.) know the domesticated horse?

8

The Horse bones of Harappān Surkotada

9

The kind of invasion, if at all, by the Gandhara Grave Culture

9-10

Archaeological evidence inadequate: what about literary evidence?

10

Negative answers from Rigvedic study by the very supporters of the invasion-theory: E. J. Rapson, A.B. Keith, S.K. Chatterji, B. K. Ghosh

10-12

The Rigvedic blank in contrast to the Irānians' trAditīon of Airiyānam vaējo (Aryan homeland)

12-13

Negative testimony about Aryan invasion from A. H. Dani and F. Khan

13

A. L. Basham's plea for "historical geography" a failure

13-14

The Puranas' negative pronouncement, confirming the Rigveda's testimony of an inland position looking westward

14-15

The Rigvedics autochthones for all practical purposes

15-16

The negative argument from memory of original home by migrating races

16-17

3. Sri Aurobindo's view of the invasion-theory and of the racial opposition

18-19


Page 136


Recent study of skeletonic material from Harappán sites finds a class unifying Mediterranean and Indo-European types

19-20

Harappán population more or less the same as the population now in the Punjāb and Saurāshtra

20

Anthropologically, India at present a predominantly dolichocephalic (long-headed) country

21

Veddid, Dravidian, Indo-Aryan

21-22

The evolution of the Dravidians within India

22

Indo-Aryans and Dravidians racially related in India

22-23

The Dravidians and the several immigrations into peninsular India

23-24

A single multi-charactered race in India at all times

24

Sri Aurobindo's outlook on Aryan-Dravidian difference and on Sanskrit-Tamil dissimilarity

24-26

Scholars' opinion: cultural and non-racial particulars in the Rigveda

26

Sri Aurobindo on old Sanskrit writings as unifying the linguistic diversities of the world's various Aryan tongues

27-28

Sri Aurobindo on Tamil's affinity with old Sanskrit

28

Sri Aurobindo not particular about the labels "Aryan" and "Dravidian"

28

What is important is to recognise one homogeneous race and culture

28-29

A feature of Rigvedic Sanskrit which is not in the other Aryan languages: the cerebral letters

28-29

Several theories about their emergence

28-29

R. Swaminatha Aiyar's remarkable revision of current notions about Tamil and Sanskrit

29-30

Sri Aurobindo's relationship to and difference from him

30

4. The Mitanni documents of the Maryanni clature

31

Theif Rigvedic affinities

31-32

Any pointers to a common source of the Iranian and Indo-Aryan languages from the Mitanni documents?

32-33

Thieme's demonstration of the Rigvedism of the Mitanni treaty

33-35

The Maryann's source on the borders of india

35

What is earlier: the Rigveda or the Harappá Culture?

36

5. The argument from the horse: the evidence of Surkotada

37

The argument from iron: Majumdar's judgement, Macdonell's verdict, Sankalia's dating

37-38

The three religious cruxes: (1) the worship of the Mother-Goddess, (2) the worship of icons, (3) the worship of the Bull

38-42


Page 137



The question of Shiva and the Harappā Culture

42-43

Is Shiva a Dravidian God? - the views of Wilson, Griffith, Sten Konow, R. Swaminatha Aiyar and Sri Aurobindo

43-46

A fact brought home by Wüst about the three-headed God

46

Three-headedness in the Rigveda

46

The discovery of "fire-altars" at Harappān sites

46-47

6. Only solid wheels in Harappān toy-carts

48

Spoked circles on stamp-seals, weapons and potsherds

48-49

The circle an ancient sun-symbol but without inner spokes

49

Spoked circles as chariot-wheels in the Mycenaean syllabary of c. 1400 B.C

49

These ideograms pictorial, denoting chariots

50

Even outside the script, Mycefnaean representations of chariots with the same spoked circles

50

Logically the Harappān spoked circles must be chariot-wheels

50

Harappān sign of a man straddling two spoked wheels

50-51

It resembles Assyrian chariot-drivers painted on pottery

51-52

Could the "spokes" be wooden supports over solid wheels?

52-53

The Harappāns' sufficiently developed metallurgy according to Basham, Sankalia, Piggott

53-54

Does the Tell Halaf painted pot of c. 4000 B.C Suggest a spoked chariot-wheel?

54

No wheeled vehicles before c. 3500 B.C.

54

No spoked wheels outside Harappān India

54

The most logical background a preceding Indian civilization knowing such wheels

54

The Rigvedic Civilization fits the role perfectly

54-55

Why were the spokes exclusive to the Rigveda and the Harappa Culture?

55

7. No pre-Harappān civilization excavated up till 1963

56

The situation quite changed now

56

Three things to be considered in deciding whether Vedic Aryan traces are present in the pre-Harappān period

56-57

Not possible to prove even any post-Harappān culture Aryan

57

Differing values of horse-evidence according to periods

57-58

Horse-finds at Rānā Ghundāī I

58

Zeuner's criticism invalid

58-59

Horse-figurine at Pertano Ghundai

59

Equine evidences at Kili Ghul Mohammad

59

Horse-knowing RG culture below Harappā and Mohenjo-dāro

59-61

Archaeological evidence demanded for pre-Harappān Aryan Vedism

61


Page 138



The recent extensive proof of a pre-Harappān Civilization

62-63

This civilization was in the main seat of the Rigveda's composition: the Sarasvati-Drishadvati valley

62

A proper background created by pre-Harappān Aryan Vedism

63

Horse-knowing RG culture at all pre-Harappān sites

63-64

Uniformity of such a culture must make the pre-Harappān Civilization "Aryan"

64

But pre-Harappān Aryanism could be part Vedic part non- Vedic

65

The Rigveda still earlier

65

Sri Aurobindo on Rigvedic antiquity

65

The most probable time of the Rigveda: 3500-3000 B.C

66

8. Post-Rigvedic colonizing streams from India: the Maryanni, the Kassites

67

Earlier exploration of various parts of India

67

Aryanism existing already outside India in remote antiquity

68

Skull-evidence, interrelated potteries

68-69

Horse-bones at Anau, Sialk, Shah Tepe: Zeuner's criticisms answered

69-72

Horse-bones at Susa and Mesopotamian sites

72-73

Horse-bones at Tripolye in the Ukraine

74

Belt of Aryanism from Tripolye to Rigvedic India which was the most advanced part

74-75

9. Airiyānam vaējo in the oxus-Jaxartes plains ?

77

Final origin of the Aryans still a mystery

77

Possibly an almost world-wide common Aryan culture in antiquity with perhaps India its centre but not necessarily its pristine foyer

77-78

Indirect hints in the Rigveda about a very ancient home

78

Sri Aurobindo's pointers to the Arctic regions from the Rigvedic Dawn

78-81

Sri Aurobindo's comments on the views of Tilak and T. ParamaŚiva Aiyar

81-82

Arctic memories in the Rigveda sole clues, if at all, to ultimate Aryan origins

82

Perhaps supporting clues in the Avesta

82-83

10. The time-gap to be bridged between the Rigveda's age and that of the Mitanni documents

84

Causes for persistence of archaic language

84-85

Explanation of the Maryanni's Rigvedic speech-forms in c1360 B.C.

85


Page 140



Confirmation from the Vedic words today in the area between the Hindu Kush and the Punjāb

86

Explanation of the Maryann's affinity to Rigvedism: persistence of Rigvedic gods in later times

86

Example of the Kalash-Kafirs in our own age

86-87

Original provenance of the Maryanni and the Kassites

87-88

The case of the Hittites

88-89

11. Relation between the Achaemenid Inscriptions and the Avesta

90

Relation between the Avesta and the Rigveda

90

Relation between modern English and Chaucer

90-91

Relation between Pānini's Sanskrit and the Rigveda

91

Different rates of language-change - even between neighbouring countries

91-92

Winternitz and Woolner on rate of language-change

92-93

Avestan scholars and the linguistic argument

93

The Rigvedic language and the Puranic trAditīon of the VedicSakhas

93-94

No linguistic ground for c. 1500 B.C. for the Rigveda

94

12. The Harappān fortified cities and the Rigvedic purah

95

The "massacre" at Mohenjo-dāro in Sind

95

Wheeler's clinching argument from the purah

95-96

Flaw in his argument for the so-called massacre

96-97

No sign of attack on Harappā in the Punjāb

97

No such sign even at Sind's Chanhu-dāro

97-98

Peaceful overlap and fusion, at Bhagwanpura, of the Harappā Culture and the people of Painted Grey Ware

98

The question of destruction at Gumla in the north-west

98-100

Pre-Harappān, Proto-Harappān, Semi-Harappān, Harappān

101

Wheeler's warning against an excessive Aryan "preoccupation"

101

Archaeologist Lai's denial that the "massacre" skeletons at Mohenjo-dāro all belong to one and the same latest level of occupation

101

Physical anthropologist Kennedy's information that the skeletons belong to persons who died because of some water-borne diseases and malaria rather than a "massacre"

101-102

No proof of Aryan destruction of the Harappā Culture

102

If purah means "fortified cities", the Rigvedics cannot be-post Harappān since no Harappān forts were destroyed by "Aryan" attack

103

Can purah mean "fortified cities"?

104


Page 141



Purah as pens of cows and horses

104

What about the magnitude of purah indicated in the Rigveda at times?

104-105

Literal interpretation of these indications rules out the Harappan cities

105

Actually, these cities, with a few exceptions, were not laid out for defence

105-106

A clear dilemma

106

If the Rigvedics cannot be placed in c. 1500 B.C. what is the alternative?

106

13. Sri Aurobindo's revolutionary step of totally symbolic interpretation

107

Proper background to the highly developed Upanishads required

107

A background like the Orphic and Eleusinian Mysteries before Pythagoras and Plato

107

The Rigveda belongs to the oldest Age of Mysteries with inner and outer meanings

107

The Upanishad's forms and symbols and the Brāhmaṇas' substance as pointers to such an age

108

Some direct affirmations by the Rigveda of its own spiritual sense

108

Frequent appeal by the Upanishads to the Rigveda's truths

108

Persistent popular trAditīon of the Rigveda as Mantra

108-109

Sri Aurobindo's denial of Dasa-Dasyus as human beings

109

The words anas ("noseless") and kṛiṣṇa-tvāch ("black-skinned") for Dasa-Dasyus

109

Macdonell and Keith on Dasa-Dasyus as demons at times

109

Their argument for Dasa-Dasyus as human beings at other times

109-110

Even Dasa-Dasyus with individualizing names and parentage are opposed not to men but to the Gods

110

Dasa-Dasyus as Asuras

110-111

Gods also have individualizing names and parents

111

Dasyus born of Diti, like the Gods from Aditī, and opposed both to the Gods and the Gods' followers

111

Dasa-Dasyus called "non-men"

111-112

"Non-men" no mere hyperbole for "inhuman"

112

Panis as Dasa-Dasyus

112

All Dasa-Dasyus characterized as non-worshippers

113

The true sense of anas and kṛiṣṇa-tvāch

113

Macdonell and Keith on another meaning than "noseless"

114

Dasa-colour and Arya-colour

114


Page 142



A master-clue to the real character of Dasyus

114-115

The total situation, according to Sri Aurobindo, deciding Rigvedic exegesis

115

Earlier and later meanings of "Asura, Raksha, Piśācha"

115-117

Only one possible objection and Sri Aurobindo's answer

117

The Rigveda's specific implication against presence of human enemies

117

No fight of different races, only co-existence of two cults

118-119

Non-historical nature of the Rigvedic "forts"

119-120

The forts destroyed only with Mantras, not weapons

120-121

Even the weapons mentioned are symbolic

121

On all counts there could have been no Aryan Rigvedic invasion of India. It is absurd to build on the idea of it an answer to the problem of Aryan origins

121

APPENDIX

1. Indologists on Harappā and Hariyūpiyā

125

Wheeler on the Vrichivants as foes of Indra and on their defeat

125

The Vrichivants near the Ravi on which Harappā stands

125

The Rigveda on the relative positions of the Vrichivants and their Aryan enemies; the latter well to the east of the Indus and facing westward

126

The Vrichivants themselves clearly Aryans in the Rigveda

127

Even if foes of Indra, they need not be non-Aryans, for even Aryans who have turned hostile are called animdra

Rigveda

127

Indra's role in the destruction of the Vrichivants

128

The Rigveda's Hariyūpiyā far removed in implication from the Indus Valley Civilization's Punjāb capital

129

No certainty from the Rigveda whether Hariyūpiyā was a river or a town. The turn of the language seems to be in favour of the former

129

2. Burrow's contention that arma, armaka mean a ruined site or settlement and his theory that the terms imply the destruction of Harappān cities by Aryan invaders

130

The theory possible only if an Aryan invasion in c. assumed in spite of the grave objections we have raised

130

Even if it were assumed, would the terms always signify material ruins?

130

Armaka occurs only once in the Rigveda and with very enigmatic associations: sorceresses and evil spirits opposed to Indra

130

The place concerned is variously called "Vailasthānaka", "Vailasthāna" and "Mahāvailastha"

131


Page 143



"Vaila" an adjective from the noun "vila" (hole, cave, tunnel). So the names have to do with a hole and "Mahāvailastha" should stand for "Great-holed place"

131

In the Rigveda we have Indra uncovering "the hole of Vala of the Cows" and Indra opening "the pen of the Cow and the Horse, like a city"

132

The true sense here not only of the Rigvedic pur, translated "city", but also of the Rigvedic "hole"

132

Who was Vala and what were the Cows hidden in his hole? Burrow's own comment on the hymn concerned throws an aura of eerie strangeness incompatible with any earthly habitation, Harappān or another

132-133

Who were the enemies "overpowered and slain" and lying

"shattered all around Vailasthāna"?

133

Vala is the chief of the Dasa-Dasyu demons named Panis

133

The Panis are Vala's followers when they withhold the cows and Vritra's when they withhold the waters

133

Indra is named both "Vala-slayer" and "Vritra-slayer"

133

Brihaspati also breaks open cities, overpowers foes, wins great pens of cows, seeks conquest of the world of Swar and slays the foe by the hymn of illumination

133

Close resemblance here with Burrow's verse about "enemies overpowered and slain", and the pens of cows conjure up "Mahāvailastha"

133

The inimical Panis who lie shattered around "Vailasthāna" seem to be of the same company as the evil spirits and demons there: both are non-human

133

The cows appear to be symbolic, associated as they are with Swar, the sun-world, and with "the hymn of illumination", the victorious spiritual Word, Mantra

133-134

Sri Aurobindo has pointed out several passages where the cow symbolism is undeniable: L 92. 4; IV. 52. 5; VII. 79. 2

134

The odds certainly are that the Rigveda's armaka

non-Harappān but also non-material

134

To confirm this reading we have only to see in Griffith's translation the parts of the hymn which Burrow has not cited

134-135

Griffith's own comment is that the hymn is wholly a prayer for the destruction of non-human witches, goblins and evil spirits of various sorts

135

Burrow's intepretation utterly gratuitous

135


Page 144










Let us co-create the website.

Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.

Image Description
Connect for updates