Vedic-Harappan
Gallery Presented by N.S.
Rajaram
Contents
Harappan
Yoga
Swastika
OM
Sign
Harappan
horse: an irrelevant issue
This
poster shows some of the commonly occurring symbols at Harappan sites and
artifacts and show their connections to the Vedic literature, thereby proving
that Vedic and Harappan civilizations were one and the same.
Background
Going
back more than a hundred years, history books have claimed that the Vedic
Civilization of India began with an 'Aryan Invasion' from Eurasia, which took
place near 1500 BC. When the cities of the Harappan Civilization (or the Indus
Valley Civilization) were discovered, scholars claimed that they were part of a
pre-Vedic civilization destroyed by the invading Aryans. This continues to be
the position of many Indologists, especially in the West. This means that the
Harappan Civilization was totally unrelated to the Vedic.
A
careful examination of Harappan sites and artifacts shows this to be totally
unfounded. It shows that the Harappan Civilization carries the Vedic imprint at
every stage. In particular, it shows that Harappan artifacts are steeped in
Vedic symbolism. This means that the Harappan Civilization was Vedic, and there
was no break due to any invasion.
The
rest of this page demonstrates this basic fact — Vedic-Harappan — unity by
examining a few well-known Harappan symbols and their relationship to the Vedic
literature.
Harappan
Yoga
There
is evidence to show that the Harappans practiced Yoga. Given below are several
clay figurines from sites like Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and others showing various
Yogic postures. Yoga is essentially Vedic.
Swastika
To
see further this Vedic-Harappan connection , one can begin with familiar sacred
symbols like the swastika signs.
Harappan
sites are replete with the swastika. Swastika stands for svasti-ka, meaning
‘maker of welfare’. They appear singly as well as in combination with other
signs. The figure above shows a string of five swastikas. This is related to the
sacred panca-svasti mantra found in the Yajurveda (25.18 – 19), in which the
word ‘svasti’ (welfare) appears five times. It may be paraphrased as:
We
invoke him who may bring us welfare.
May
the respected Indra guard our welfare,
May
the omniscient Pushan guard our welfare,
May
the Universal Creator guard our welfare,
May
the Great Protector bring us welfare.
This
is an example of the deep connections between Harappan archaeology and the
Vedic
literature.
OM
Sign
Such
connections are not limited to the Rigveda and the Yajurveda; they span the
whole
gamut
of Vedic literature, including the Brahmanas, Upanishads and others. This can be
understood
by looking at the OM sign, known also as pranavakshara. The seal below is known
as
'onkara
mudra' or the OM seal.
The
figure above displays line drawings of the same seal in two positions—
original and rotated by 90 degrees. The one on the right — i.e. rotated by 90
degrees — is practically the Devanagari ‘om’. Other scripts like Kannada
and Telugu have retained the original orientation of the Harappan ‘om’,
while elongating it a little. All of them derive from the Harappan ‘Om’ and
have deep connections with Vedic thought as described below.
This
‘bow-shaped’ Harappan ‘Om’ is described in several places in the Vedic
literature. The
Mundaka
Upanishad (2.2.4) describes it as: “Pranava (Om) is the bow, the soul is the
arrow,
Brahma
is the target. With full concentration, aim at the target and strike, to become
one with
Brahma,
just as the arrow becomes one with the target.”
The
OM is intimately linked to the asvattha (pipul) leaf, which is another sacred
symbol in Vedic thought and even today. Here are more examples from the Vedic
literature.
The
Katha Upanishad (2.3.1) contains almost a visual description of the Om as an
ashvattha
(pipul) tree growing downward: “This is the eternal ashvattha tree, with the
root at the top (urdhvamoolo), but branches downwards. It is He that is called
the Shining One and Immortal.
All
the worlds are established in Him, none transcends Him.” The same idea is
echoed in the
Bhagavadgita
(15.1): “He who knows that ashvattha tree with its root above and branches
down, whose leaves are the Vedas said to be imperishable. And he who knows it
knows the Vedas.”
In
all this there is the symbolism of the ashvattha as the seat of sacred knowledge
(or Veda),
and
the abode of the Gods. This idea goes back to the Rigveda itself (X.97.5):
“Your abode is the ashvattha tree, your dwelling is made of its leaves.”
With such explicit Vedic symbolism, there cannot be the slightest doubt that
Harappan archaeology contains physical representations of Vedic ideas. What is
described is but a miniscule sample of the Vedic symbolism that pervades
Harappan archaeology.
Harappan
horse: an irrelevant issue
The
horse and the cow are mentioned often in the Rigveda, though they generally
carry
symbolic
rather than physical meaning. There is a widespread misconception that the
absence of the horse at Harappan sites shows that horses were unknown in India
until the invading (or migrating) Aryans brought them. ‘No horse at Harappa’
has assumed almost the status of a sacred dogma for the upholders of the foreign
origin of the Vedas. This is unfounded, for such ‘argument by absence’ is
hazardous at best. To take an example, the bull is quite common on the seals,
but the cow is never represented. We cannot from this conclude that the
Harappans raised bulls but were ignorant of the cow.
Given
below are images from two seals-- one containing the horse, and the other the
head of a horse. A horse figurine from Lothal is also given.
These
pictures make it clear that horses were known to the Harappans. This is not
limited to artists' depictions, which may be open to debate. The just released
and authoritative work The Dawn of Indian Civilization, Volume 1, Part 1
observes (pages 344 – 5): “… the horse was widely domesticated and used in
India during the third millennium BC over most of the area covered by the Indus-Sarasvati
[or Harappan] Civilization. Archaeologically this is most significant since the
evidence is widespread and not isolated.”
Actually,
the Harappans not only knew the horse, the whole issue is irrelevant. To prove
their point, scholars who insist on the non-Indian origin of the Vedas must
produce positive evidence: they must show that the horse described in the
Rigveda was brought from Central Asia. But this is contradicted by the Rigveda
itself. In verse I.162.18, the Rigveda describes the horse as having 34 ribs,
while the Central Asian horse has 18 pairs (36) of ribs. We find a similar
description in the Yajurveda also. This means that the horse described in the
Vedas is the native Indian breed and not the Central Asian. The 34-ribbed horse
has been known in India going back tens of thousands of years. This makes the
whole argument based on ‘No horse at Harappa’ not only false, but also
irrelevant.
Even
this misses the symbolic significance of the horse. Composite animals that
include the horse are described in the Rigveda. For example the Rigvedic verse
I.163.1 describes a mythical horse as: “possessed with wings of a falcon and
the limbs of a deer.” The figure below displays a vase found at Mehrgarh— a
pre-Harappan site — with a picture of this composite animal. Notice also the
ashvattha leaves, also linking it to Vedic thought. It is a very ancient
artifact from the pre-Harappan site of Mehrgarh. So parts of the Rigveda must be
at least that ancient, not brought into India by any ‘Aryan invaders’ in
1500 BC. Here is the vase with the image along with the ashvattha leaves, which
again shows the Vedic connection.
In
summary, the Vedic and Harappan civilizations were one. Harappan artifacts are
material representations of ideas and thoughts found in the Vedic literature.
The Harappans therefore were Vedic Harappans.
The
author, Dr. N.S. Rajaram is a mathematician and linguist who has written
extensively on ancient India. He is the author (with David Frawley) of Vedic
Aryans and the Origins of Civilization and The Deciphered Indus Script (with N.
Jha). He is currently working with Jha on the book Vedic Symbolism in Indus
Seals.