Aryan Invasion Theory Myth
Contents
1. A
crucial international historians' conference
A crucial international October historians' conference held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, reexamined ancient Indian history. It resolved that "Recent archaeological discoveries have fully established that there was a continuous evolution of civilization on the Indian subcontinent from about 5000 bce, that remained uninterrupted through 1000 bce;...no scope whatsoever to support an 'Aryan invasion' theory. The term Arya in Indian literature has no racial or linguistic connotations." Vested interests in Western academia protect the old theory, which permeates millions of books and contemporary Indian social theory. In 1995, one of the India's most knowledgable and objective historians, Shiva G. Bajpai, said, "the data against the invasion theory is speculative." After recent investigation he told Hinduism Today, "I am now convinced. There was no invasion. I may present the findings in a new framework at the next World Sanskrit Conference in Bangalore."
Source: http://www.hinduismtoday.com/1997/2/
2.
Ancient archeological sites in India and Pakistan
Today at Kauai Aadheenam
May 10, 1999 - Shubha
Hot Masala: Global News Mix
Breaking News From Ancient Archeological Sites in India and Pakistan
Communications That Share Remarkable Discoveries and Historic
Breakthroughs
Date: 5/9/99 7:38 PM From: navaratna rajaram
Dear
John!
Trust this finds you well. Given below is a discussion of the 'olest
writing' including my decipherment of it using Jha's methodology combined with
my interpolation technique.
Please share it with others who might be interested.
Sincerely, Rajaram
From: "navaratna rajaram"
[email protected] Reply-To:
[email protected] To:
[email protected] Subject: Re: BBC
ANCIENT WRITING Deciphered Date: Sat, 08 May
1999 22:41:36 PDT
Dear Sri Tiwar:
This is a very dramatic discovery. The writing is more primitive that the
Harappan, to be expected as it is 500 to a 1000 years older that the examples of
writing from the seals.
I have deciphered it and the reading is:ILAVARTATE VARA = ILA AVARTATE VARA
This means 'Ila surrounds (or protects) the blessed land (vara).' Ila is another
name for the Sarasvati river. This could also refer to the land known as
Ilavrita, part of Jambudvipa. Its king was also called Ilavrita who received it
as a gift from his father Agnidru. So if take 'vara' to mean 'gift' it means 'Ila
surrounds or protects the land gifted.' The two are not significantly different.
Technically also it is interesting because it seems to confirm my suggestion
that pre-Harappan writing, when discovered, would use doubled consonants to
indicate vowel beginnings. This is what we see here. The first letter ('l') is
doubled indicating that the vowel has to be supplied by the reader. Most
interestingly, while the Harappan seals reflect the Yajurveda-Brahmana culture,
this pre-Harappan writing touches the Rigveda. This also supports the chronology
formulated by David Frawley and me, suggesting that the bulk of the Rigveda was
completed by 3750 BC.
A tremendously important discovery, but we need more examples. Thank you very
much for bringing it to my attention. I'll send a press release with this
information. Sincerely, Rajaram
From: "shyam tiwari" [email protected]
Reply-To: [email protected] To:
[email protected] Subject: Re: BBC
REPORT ON ANCIENT WRITING Date: Thu, 06 May
1999 07:03:49 PDT
Namaste,
The photo is available at the BBC internet site
mentioned in the news report.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_334000/334517.stm
Regards,
Shyam Tiwari
From: "navaratna rajaram"
[email protected] Reply-To:
[email protected] To:
[email protected] Subject: Re: BBC
REPORT ON ANCIENT WRITING Date: Wed, 05 May
1999 22:08:58 PDT
If I receive a clear photograph and/or a RELIABLE artist's rendering of it I can
give it try and also check with Jha. I have not seen the phot. So I am not ven
sure that it is writing. If it is writing, it is obviously of great importance.
Sincerely N.S. Rajaram
From: "shyam tiwari" [email protected]
Reply-To: [email protected] To:
[email protected] Subject: Re: BBC
REPORT ON ANCIENT WRITING Date: Wed, 05 May
1999 05:56:12 PDT
Namaste Rjaramji,
Is it possible to read what has been written on this fragment of the pottery
photograph in the
BBC report?
Regards,
Shyam Tiwari
From: "navaratna rajaram"
[email protected] Reply-To:
[email protected] To:
[email protected] Subject: Re: BBC
REPORT ON ANCIENT WRITING Date: Tue, 04 May
1999 22:09:48 PDT
The report essentially follows the old model of separating the Harappan (Indus)
civlization from
the Vedic. This is build on the presumption of the 'Aryan invasion' which is
foundation of much of western Indology, followed by the JNU types. This has been
shattered by recent studies. The Harappan civilization and language are LATE
VEDIC -- belonging to the Brahman-Sutra period.
As I pointed out in my interview (published in TOI, Bombay edition, April 27),
Jha and I have
read more than 2000 seals. The complete decipherment and the readings will be
included in
my forthcoming book with Jha, THE DECIPHERED INDUS SCRIPT. The oldest writing
found at Harappa might be datable to 3500 BC, but the structure of the script
suggests that the Harappan script is an intermediate script that was evolving
towards an alphabet. We have called it a proto-alphabet. I have also traced some
of the Harappan signs to symbolic art in some pre-historic caves in Central
India. My main point is that the opinions expressed by Western Indologists are
based on obsolete models and ignorance of language and paleography. Just
because Champollion used the Rosetta stone to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs, it
doesn't mean
that is the only approach to any decpherment. Linear B deciphered by Ventris and
the Brahmi by
Prinsep did not use bilingual 'Rosetta stones'. Neither do Jha and I find any
need for a bilingual
text. There are also technical reasons why a bilingual text of the size needed
to decipher the
Harappan script is unlikely. I have given a popular description of the script
and its decipherment in my recent FROM SARASVATI RIVER TO THE INDUS SCRIPT
published by Mitra-Madhyama. I don't have the ordering information with me but
I'll send it in my next message.
Sometime this month I'll have a website on the latest on the Indus script. In
the meantime, for
background information on the Harappan civilization and the Vedic, please visit
my
website:
http://members.tripod.com/nsrajaram/kalidas.html
The main point is: though the archaeological discoveries by Western
workers is valuable,
their interpretations are based on obsolete 'Indology' which is a dead field. In
addition, they
are completely ignorant of both language and script. How then do they hope to
know what the
Harappans wrote?
Sincerely, N.S. Rajaram
From: "L. Suresh Kumar-LSK"
[email protected] Reply-To:
[email protected] To:
[email protected] Subject: BBC Date: Tue,
04 May 1999 18:24:10 EDT
----Original Message Follows---- From:
To: [email protected] Subject: BBC Date: Tue,
04 May 1999 22:08:01 GMT
Hi LSK; Please read this news article.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_334000/334517.stm
Tuesday, May 4, 1999 Published at 08:10 GMT
09:10 UK
Sci/Tech
'Earliest writing' found The fragments of pottery are about 5,500 years old
Exclusive by BBC News Online Science Editor Dr
David Whitehouse The first known examples of writing may have been
unearthed at an archaeological dig in Pakistan. So-called 'plant-like' and
'trident-shaped' markings have been found on fragments of pottery dating back
5500 years. They were found at a site called Harappa in the region where the
great Harappan or Indus civilisation flourished four and a half thousand years
ago. Harappa was originally a small settlement in
3500 BC but by 2600 BC it had developed into a major urban centre. The earliest
known writing was etched onto jars before and after firing. Experts believe they
may have indicated the contents of the jar or be signs associated with a deity.
According to Dr Richard Meadow of Harvard
University, the director of the Harappa Archaeological Research Project, these
primitive
inscriptions found on pottery may pre-date all other known writing. Last year it
was suggested that the oldest writing might have come from Egypt. Clay tablets
containing primitive words were uncovered in southern Egypt at the tomb of a
king named Scorpion. They were carbon-dated to 3300-3200 BC. This is about the
same time, or slightly earlier, to the primitive writing developed by the
Sumerians of the Mesopotamian civilisation around 3100 BC. "It's a big
question as to if we can call what we have found true writing," he told BBC
News Online, "but we have found symbols that have similarities to what
became Indus script. "One of our research aims is to find more examples of
these ancient symbols and follow them as they changed and became a writing
system," he added. One major problem in determining what the symbols mean
is that no one understands the Indus language. It was unique and is now dead. Dr
Meadow points out that nothing similar to the 'Rosetta Stone' exists for the
Harappan text. The Rosetta Stone, housed in the British museum since 1802, is a
large slab of black basalt uniquely inscribed with the same text in both
Egyptian hieroglyphs and Greek. Its discovery allowed researchers to decipher
the ancient Egyptian script for the first time. The Harappan language died out
and did not form the basis of other languages. "So probably we will never
know what the symbols mean," Dr Meadow told BBC News Online from Harappa.
What historians know of the Harappan civilisation makes them unique. Their
society did not like great differences between social classes or the display of
wealth by rulers. They did not leave behind large monuments or rich graves. They
appear to be a peaceful people who displayed their art in smaller works of
stone. Their society seems to have petered out. Around 1900 BC Harappa and other
urban centres started to decline as people left them to move east to what is now
India and the Ganges.
This discovery will add to the debate about the origins of the written word.It
probably suggests that writing developed independently in at least three places
- Egypt, Mesopotamia and Harappa betweenn 3500 BC and 3100 BC. REGARDS nanjappa
X-Originating-IP: [203.197.190.30]
From: "navaratna rajaram" [email protected]
To: [email protected] Cc:
[email protected] Subject: Fwd: Re: BBC ANCIENT
WRITING Deciphered
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Send your input to:
[email protected]
News Release
Hinduism Today Bound Annual
Available Soon!
Don't miss the complete bound annual of Hinduism Today December 1996-
December 1997 in one volume and January 1998-December 1998 in one volume. These
are in the process of being bound. Hard cover, library quality, gold stamped
cover with table of contents for the issues of each year. Approximately $50.00
each.
These are limited editions. There will only be 200 copies made and the
demand will be brisk. We are introducing them first to Gurudeva's sishya,
students and "internet friends." If you wish to reserve copies, do so
immediately, before we "go public" with the availablity of these
much-to-be-sought after color chronicles of the Hindu Renaissance as it nears
the end of the millenium! Once we do "go public" we expect a quick
sell out, so get your reservations in now!
Send your reservations to
ASAP. We will notify you when the volumes are ready so that you may send
your payment.
Source: http://www.gurudeva.dynip.com/~htoday/today/Archives/Past/1999/May/May101999/news.html
3. Aryan invasion theory by Dinesh Agrawal
Aryan Invasion Theory
By Dinesh Agrawal
My Turn
Hinduism Today
July, 1996, Volume 18, Number 7
The Aryan 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 and the future of Indian
nationalism.
The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) [see also Book Review, page 9 left
column] denies the indigenous origin and evolution of the sources of India's
glorious Vedic culture and heritage. Such a proposition defies common sense and
available scriptural, archaeological and historical evidence. For thousands of
years Hindu society has looked upon the Vedas as the fountainhead of all
knowledge--spiritual and secular--and the mainstay of Hindu culture, its
heritage and existence. Never have our historical or religious records
questioned this fact. And now, suddenly, in the last century or so, it has been
propagated that the Vedas do not belong to Hindus, they were the creation of a
barbaric horde of nomadic tribes who descended upon North India and destroyed an
advanced indigenous civilization. A nomadic, barbaric horde of invaders cannot
by any stretch of imagination produce the kind of sublime wisdom or pure and
pristine spiritual experiences of the highest order as one finds in the Vedic
literature.
AIT is merely a proposed "theory," and not a factual event.
Theories are modified, discredited, nay even rejected with the emergence of new
knowledge and data pertaining to the subject matter of the theories. The most
weird aspect of the AIT is that it has its origin not in any Indian record but
in European politics and 19th century German nationalism. AIT has no support
either in North Indian literature, tradition, science or in any of the South
Indian, Dravidian (inhabitants of South India, who were supposed to be the
victims of the so-called Aryan invasion) literature and tradition. There was
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 Indian school
curriculum.
A major flaw of the invasion theory was that it had no explanation for why Vedic literature that was assumed to go back into the second millennium bce had no reference to any region outside of India. Also, the astronomical references in the Rig Veda allude to events in the third millennium bce and even earlier, indicating the origin of Vedic hymns earlier than 3000 bce. The contributions of the Vedic world to philosophy, mathematics, logic, astronomy, medicine and other sciences provide one of the foundations upon which rests the common heritage of mankind. These are well recognized but cannot be reconciled if the Vedas were composed after 1500 bce. Further, if it is assumed that the so-called Aryans invaded the townships in the Harappan 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 was originated by the Dravidian, who were then allegedly pushed down to the south by Aryans, how come there is no Aryan-Dravidian divide in the respective literatures and historical tradition? The North and South of India have never been known to be culturally hostile to each other. Also, was South India uninhabitated 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?
If the Aryan Hindus were outsiders, why don't they name places outside
India as their most holy places or motherland? 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. These are some of the obvious
serious objections, inconsistencies and glaring anomalies for which the
advocates of the invasion theory have no convincing or plausible explanations.
Dr. Dinesh Agrawal is an Associate Professor of Materials Program, at
Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is also active on the Internet in
propagating the message of Hinduism and India.
Source: Hinduism Today, July, 1996, Volume 18, Number 7
http://www.hinduismtoday.com/1996/7/
4. Barrier's bridge to Bharat
Hinduism Today, May 1994
Barrier's Bridge to Bharat
Over the years, Hinduism Today has received testimony of how easy it is
to buy books from India (once unheard-of humbug) through South Asia Books. In a
flurry of faxes we asked Professor Barrier to tell us more about himself and his
company. Below are his words.
The Mission of South Asia Books
South Asia Books provides an accessible supply of books and information
on publications from India. I serve as a broker for manuscripts, help Indian and
American dealers and increasingly sell textbooks into many courses-especially
those relating to history and religion. My other goal is to develop a mass
market. I do this by warehousing books delivered by large sea-cargos (5,000
pounds every four weeks) and then keeping the prices down. I try to price so
that with discounts I get within a reasonable range of the Rupee price.
I spend about 20-25 hours a week in my academic profession. I teach
Modern Indian history-including courses on Asian and Indian civilization,
Gandhi, Nonviolence in Modern World History, and modern religion and political
movements in India-head important committees, write and publish. I have written
7 books and numerous articles. The other 35 hours a week goes into the book
business.
Views of a Veda Vendor
In my opinion, books on Hinduism in the US are often too academic. Those
from India often have poor quality production and do not answer some of the
questions asked by lay people. There is actually a small market here among
Indians, who often do not buy either scholarly or popular books. My experience
suggests that far more Americans buy books on Hinduism than Indians.
The Aryan invasion theories are being totally reworked, whether by
textual analysis or good solid archaeology. These works suggest modifications
are taking place of earlier ideas either dominated by Westerners or nationalist
historians who played up some myths about Aryans. We are now getting to the real
story.
Source: http://www.hinduismtoday.com/1994/5/
5. Beyond decipherment: Message of the Indus seals
Today at Kauai Aadheenam
September 20, 1998 - Shubha
Hot Masala: Global News Mix
EXCITING NEWS ON INDUS VALLEY SCRIPT!
We share with you here this remarkable revelation from a paper on Vedic
Seals by N. S. Rajaram, presented at a recent conference of leading historians
on Vedic history.
BEYOND DECIPHERMENT: MESSAGE OF THE INDUS SEALS
N. S. Rajaram
(Based on The Deciphered Indus Script by N.Jha and N.S. Rajaram)
Background
The year 1996-97, the fiftieth year of Indian independence, was
important in more respects than one. In that year Natwar Jha published his
monograph Vedic Glossary on Indus Seals containing a complete decipherment of
the Indus script along with more than a hundred deciphered readings. Shortly
after its publication, I began my collaboration with Jha leading to our soon to
be published book The Deciphered Indus Script. In our book, we present
deciphered readings of well over five hundred texts with Vedic references and
explanations. Since many of the messages are repeated on different seals, they
probably cover between 1500 and 2000 seals, or about half the known corpus. We
have read more that are not included in our book for reasons mainly of
logistics.
The main conclusion to follow from our work is that the Harappan
Civilization, of which the seals are a product, belonged to the latter part of
the Vedic Age. It has close connections with Vedantic works like the Sutras and
the Upanishads. The style of writing reflects the short aphorisms found in Sutra
works. The imagery and symbolism are strongly Vedic. The vocabulary depends
heavily on the Vedic glossary Nighantu and its commentary by Yaska known as the
Nirukta. The name of Yaska is found on at least two seals ‹ possibly three.
There are references to Vedic kings and sages as well place names. Of particular
interest are references to Plakshagra ‹ the birthplace of the Sarasvati River,
and Sapta Apah or the Land of the Seven Rivers.
This means that the Rigveda must already have been quite ancient by the
time of the Harappan Civilization. Since the Harappan Civilization was known to
be flourishing in the 3100 1900 BC period, the Rigveda must have been in
existence by 4000 BC. This now receives archaeological support following R.S.
Bisht¹s investigation of the great Harappan city of Dholavira. Bisht (and other
archaeologists) have concluded that the Vedic Aryans of the Sarasvati heartland
were the people who created the Harappan cities and the civilization associated
with it. Our deciphered readings tell us the same thing.
Message of the Indus seals
I will not present the decipherment here which both Jha and I have
discussed in detail at other places. I will only note that the script is a
highly complex hybrid that includes (1) an alphabetical subset; (2) a large
number of composite signs; and (3) numerous pictorial symbols. The language of
the Harappan texts is Vedic Sanskrit, and the script itself is heavily
influenced by the rules of Sanskrit grammar and phonetics. It is clear that the
later Brahmi script is a derivative of the Harappan that evolved borrowing
heavily from its alphabetical subset. In fact, there exist examples of writing
that combine features of both. It is therefore reasonable to call the Harappan
script Old Brahmi or Proto Brahmi. Its decipherment was the result of more than
twenty years of research by Jha ‹ a Vedic scholar and paleographer of
considerable distinction. As previously observed, Jha and I have read close to
2000 seals; for most of these we have also found references in the Vedic
literature, particularly the Nighantu and the Nirukta of Yaska. With this body
of material, we are now in a position to take a broad look at what these seals
have to say about the people who created them. This is particularly necessary in
the light of a couple of highly publicized claims over the contents of the seals
made in the last few months. One linguist (Malati Shengde) has claimed that the
language of the Harappans was Akkadian, a West Asiatic language. This claim,
made without being able to read the writing, is not supported by our
decipherment. The language of the seals is Vedic Sanskrit, with close links to
Vedantic works like the Upanishads. For instance, we have found and deciphered a
seal which contains the word shadagama (shat agama) ‹ a reference to the six
schools Vedantic knowledge. This shows that they must already have been in
existence before 2000 BC. (Most of the seals were created in the 3100 1900 BC
period.)
Another recent claim by a retired archaeologist (M.V. Krishna Rao) relates to
the career of Sri Rama. According to Krishna Rao, the Harappan seals tell us
that Rama was born not in Ayodhya, but in the present state of Haryana. He
further claims that according to his study of the seals, Rama invaded Babylon
and defeated and killed the famous Babylonian ruler Hammurabi whom he equates
with Ravana! This account, if true, would call for a radical revision of both
Indian and Babylonian history. Hammurabi is a well-known historical figure. He
is known to have died in 1750 BC of natural causes and not killed in battle. His
date therefore is too late to have found mention in the Harappan seals. We have
no such sensational findings to report. Our fairly extensive readings indicate
that the seals contain little in the way of history. To begin with, the writings
on the seals are brief, with an average length of five to six characters. This
makes them unsuitable for recording historical details. Whatever historical
information we do find is incidental. There are occasional references to Vedic
kings like Sudasa, Yadu and Puru, and to sages like Kutsa and Paila. We find
also references to ancient places like Plaksagra (birthplace of the Sarasvati
river), Sapta-Apah or the Land of the Seven Rivers referred to in the Vedic
literature. But such Œhistorical¹ seals are few and far between; they probably
do not exceed five percent of the total. Other historical information has to be
inferred from indirect messages like the one about the six schools of Vedanta
mentioned earlier.
References to Rama We do find references to Rama, but they are nowhere
near as dramatic as his invasion of Babylonia and the killing of
Hammurabi-Ravana. Seals speak of kanta-rama or ŒBeloved Rama¹, and
kanta-atma-rama or ŒBeloved Soul Rama¹. One seal in particular speaks of
samatvi sa ha rama meaning ŒRama treated all with equality¹. All this finds
echo in the Valmiki Ramayana as Œarya sarva samashcaiva sadaiva priyadarshanah¹,
or ŒArya to whom all were equal and was dear to everyone.¹
There is also a reference to Rama performing a successful fire ritual
(or launching a fire missile) which again is mentioned in the Ramayana. There is
another reference to Rama¹s successful crossing of the sea which again touches
on the Ramayana. Of particular interest is the presence of ŒRama¹ in at least
one West Asiatic seal from pre-Sargon layer in southern Mesopotamia. We know
from Zoroastrian scripture that Rama was well known in ancient West Asia. The
readings suggest that this goes back to a period long before 2500 BC. What is
interesting in all this is that Rama is treated as an ideal man and ruler loved
by everyone; nowhere have we found anything to suggest that he was regarded as
divine. All this suggests that history books are in need of major revision. The
Aryan invasion stands shattered, the Proto Dravidians are found to be a myth,
and the cradle of civilization ‹ assuming there was such a thing ‹ is not
Mesopotamia but Vedic India. Also, a version of the story of Rama existed five
thousand years ago, and known both in India and West Asia. And the Sanskrit
language ‹ at least the Vedic version of it ‹ is of untold antiquity; it was
certainly not brought to India by invading nomads in the second millennium.
Floods and maritime activity
To return to the seals and their contents, such Œhistorical¹ seals are exceptional. A great majority of the seals are different in character and content. Often their texts can be quite mundane. We find a reference to a craftsman by name Ravi whose products last twice as long as those made by other craftsmen (dvi-ayuh). One inscription speaks of a short-tempered mother-in-law; there is even mention of relieving fever with the help of water from a saligrama (fossil stone) ‹ a remedy still followed in many Indian households. We find numerous references to rivers (apah) and Œflows¹ (retah), suggesting the existence of an extensive system of waterways. We have texts like a madra retah (flow to the Madra country), and a vatsa retah (flow to the Vatsa country) indicating their presence. The Vedic Civilization was of course largely a maritime one, as indeed was the Harappan ‹ a fact noted by David Frawley. The seals confirm it. There is recent archaeological evidence suggesting the presence of Indian cotton in Mexico and Peru dating to 2500 BC and earlier (Rajaram and Frawley 1997), which again suggests maritime activity. As noted earlier, archaeological evidence also supports the fact that the Vedic people (and the Harappans) engaged in maritime activity. References to floods are common, and can sometimes be quite vivid. There is a particularly dramatic inscription, which speaks of workers laboring all night by fire, trying to stem the floods. The readings suggest that the floods were due to the encroachment of seawater and not necessarily the rivers. These messages should be of interest to archaeologists who have noted the damage to sites due to floods and salination. The great Harappan city of Dholavira in Gujarat is a striking example.
Vedic symbolism
While historical references are rare, and many seals contain much
mundane material, a substantial number of seals have messages reflecting Vedic
symbolism. This symbolism can be quite profound, and one has to dig deep into
the Vedic and Vedantic literature in trying to interpret them. But once
understood, it helps to explain the symbolism of the images on the seals also.
This can be illustrated with the help of the famous Pashupati seal, alongside
its deciphered text.
The seal contains a meditating horned deity surrounded by five animals.
The animals are ‹ elephant, musk deer, buffalo, tiger and rhinoceros. These
five animals are often identified with the five senses, and the five associated
elements ‹ fire, water, space, wind and earth (or soil). These elements that
go to make up the material universe are known in the Vedic literature as panca
maha-bhutas or the Five Great Elements. The reading on the seal is ishadyatah
marah. Mara is the force opposed to creation ‹ one that causes the destruction
of the universe. The seal message means: Mara is controlled by Ishvara. The
seated deity is of course a representation of Ishvara.
Hindu cosmology holds that both creation and destruction of the universe
result from the action of the Five Great Elements. So Mara, the destructive
force, is also composed of the Five Great Elements. With this background, the
deciphered message ishadyatah marah allows us to interpret the symbolism of the
famous Pashupati seal. It expresses the profound idea, that, in every cosmic
cycle, both the creation and the destruction of the universe are caused by the
action of the panca maha-bhutas (Five Great Elements) under the control of
Ishvara. This remarkable interpretation was decoded and brought to my notice by
Jha.
We find numerous such seals with close links to the Vedic and Vedantic
literature; our book includes several such interpretations. The written messages
are brief in the form known as Œsutras¹ to Sanskrit scholars. These are short
formula-like aphorisms made famous by such works as Panini¹s grammar, and
Patanjali¹s celebrated Yogasutra. They invariably need elaboration. An example
is the message ishadyatah marah just described. The seals are products of the
same cultural, and, no doubt, historical milieu. Thus they confirm the earlier
findings of Sethna and this writer that the Harappan Civilization overlapped
with the Sutra period. This is what Frawley and I in our book have called the ŒSutra-Harappa-
Sumeria equation¹. (We have also found mathematical formulas on a few seals.)
All this provides a window on the Harappan world, and calls for a complete
revision of Vedic history and chronology.
Conclusion
In summary, one may say that the deciphered seals, while they may not
contain much in the way of history, they do provide a clear historical context
for the Harappans by establishing a firm link between Harappan archaeology and
the Vedic literature. Thanks to the deciphered seals, the Harappans, who until
now had been left dangling like the legendary king Trishanku, find at last a
place in history ‹ in Vedic India. The Harappans were the Vedic Harappans. The
Rigveda therefore must go back well into the fifth millennium. If there was a
cradle of civilization, it was Vedic India, not Sumeria. This recognition is
bound to bring about a revolution in our understanding of history.
REFERENCES
Jha, N. (1996) Vedic Glossary on Indus Seals. Ganga-Kaveri Publishing
House, Varanasi.
Jha, N. and N.S. Rajaram (To appear) The Deciphered Indus Script: Methodology,
Readings, Interpretation.
Rajaram, N.S. (1996) ŒJha¹s Decipherment of the Indus Script¹, in the
Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society (October-December 1996).
Rajaram, N.S. and David Frawley (1997) Vedic Aryans and the Origins of
Civilization: A Literary and Scientific Perspective, 2nd edition. Voice of
India, New Delhi.
Send your input to:
[email protected]
Source: http://www.gurudeva.dynip.com/~htoday/today/Archives/Past/1998/September/September201998/news.html
6. Cracking the Indus Valley Code
PUBLISHING
Book Barons of Delhi
Decades-old publishing dynasties protect, promote and preserve dharma
Interviews and reporting By Prabha Bhardwaj, New Delhi
Hinduism Today, May 1998
[...]
LANGUAGE
Cracking the Indus Valley Code
Two bold researchers say the ancient seals have surrendered their
secrets
With Dr. N.S. Rajaram, Bangalore
I have worked with outstanding scientists at NASA, including Nobel
laureates," Dr. N.S. Rajaram told Hinduism Today. "Never have I met a
genius like Dr. Natwar Jha. His command of language and ability to correlate
details is astounding." Jha's prodigious abilities may well earn him a
coveted place in history as the man who finally deciphered the confounding
script of the Indus Valley civilization. The remains of that civilization were
discovered by British explorers in 1875 in what is now Pakistan. Yet, much about
the people who inhabited these urban centers remains in the dark because the
script they used, specimens of which are available on 4,000 small soapstone
seals, has long baffled scholars.
Natwar Jha, a 58-year-old Vedic scholar and paleographer from West
Bengal, may have found the solution to the great problem. In a slim volume of 60
pages titled Vedic Glossary on Indus Seals, Jha has provided both the key to the
ancient script as well as a large number of readings. After a careful
examination of his work, the American Vedic scholar Vamadeva Shastri (David
Frawley) and N.S. Rajaram, both experts in the Indus civilization, believe his
reading to be substantially correct. By applying Jha's methods they found they
could independently read a large number of seals. The breakthrough was reported
in the Indian press in November, 1997, but most scholars have yet to even hear
of it, much less study Jha's book.
Is it reasonable that an unknown scholar working in a rural part of West
Bengal could make such a breakthrough? At least two of the great decipherments
of history--Egyptian hieroglyphics and Minoan "Linear B" script--were
cracked by outside amateurs. Thomas Young, a brilliant English doctor and
physicist, deciphered hieroglyphics on the famed Rosetta Stone in 1815. The
Linear B script was deciphered only in 1952 by the determined amateur Michael
Ventris, a British architect. Outsiders, in fact, have a decided advantage over
those logically more qualified for the work, for they do not share the
prejudices and misconceptions which may have taken deep root among scholars.
The first and biggest misconception corrected by Jha concerned who
inhabited the Indus Valley. Most scholars believe it was a Dravidian-speaking
people who were driven out of the area in 1500 bce by an invasion of Aryans from
the north and west. They therefore assumed the script to be an ancient form of a
Dravidian language, perhaps Tamil. All attempts to provide a Dravidian
interpretation for the script have failed. But in the last ten years, a strong
minority of scholars and others have challenged the Aryan Invasion theory as
wrong and proposed that the people of the Indus Valley are the ancestors of
people who live in India today. Accepting this point of view, Jha proceeded on
the assumption the seals were in an ancient form of Sanskrit.
Jha decided to search for Vedic words on the seals. In this he was
helped by an ancient work known as the Nighantu. It is a glossary of Sanskrit
words compiled by the sage Yaska. Jha also found that the "Shanti Parva"
of the Mahabharata (the ancient history of India) preserves an account of
Yaska's search for older, "buried" glossaries--perhaps the seals--in
compiling his own. From this Jha concluded that some of the seals must contain
words found in Yaska's Nighantu. This conclusion was critical, for it greatly
narrowed what he was looking for. The Nighantu is a late Vedic work, dealing
with the words of ancillary Vedic texts. The entire Rig Veda would already have
been in existence for thousands of years at the time the seals were produced.
It has long been known that there was a correspondence between the Indus
script and characters in other ancient scripts of the Indian sub-continent and
neighboring regions. Especially it had been demonstrated that there was some
relationship between the Indus script and the most ancient forms of Brahmi, the
predecessor to the Sanskrit Devanagiri script. In an amazing feat of
correlation, Jha compared all of the characters from all languages and produced
a concordance of similar characters and sounds. He found that letters of most of
the ancient scripts were related to Indus signs.
By painstaking cross-referencing, he slowly hit upon the meaning of
individual symbols, and found words from the Nighantu on the seals. After
several hundred seals, he arrived at a relatively consistent system of
translation that anyone can apply. Now the job is to verify and refine his work.
TO CONTACT DR. N. JHA AND TO ORDER COPIES OF VEDIC GLOSSARY ON INDUS
SEALS WRITE: GANGA KAVERI PUBLISHING HOUSE, D. 35/77, JANGAMAWADIMATH, VARANASI
221 001 INDIA. N.S. RAJARAM, F2 "RAJATHA MANOR," 42 PETALAMMA TEMPLE
ROAD, BASAVANAGUDI, BANGALORE 4, INDIA.
Source: Hinduism Today, May 1998
http://www.hinduismtoday.com/1998/5/
7. Fixing history
PUBLISHING
Book Barons of Delhi
Decades-old publishing dynasties protect, promote and preserve dharma
Interviews and reporting By Prabha Bhardwaj, New Delhi
Hinduism Today, May 1998
[...]
ARCHAEOLOGY
Fixing History
B.B. Lal's book buries the Aryan Invasion myth by exhuming India's true
antiquity
The outstanding feature of Professor Lal's book," says famed
historian Shiva G. Bajpai, "is that in one volume you have the most
comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of all the major archaeological sites of
the Indus-Saraswati civilization." Lal's book, The Earliest Civilization of
South Asia, delineates in 300 pages of readable text, as well as abundant
photographs of excavated sights and artifacts, an extensive and engaging account
of the Indus Valley Civilization's chronology, economy, religion,
socio-political stratification, script as well as causes of decline and legacy.
Hinduism Today correspondent, Archana Dongre interviewed the learned author and
seasoned archaeologist, now 76, both in Los Angeles and in Delhi.
On the Aryan Invasion theory
The Indus civilization came to a peak from 2600 bce to 1900 bce.
Marauding Aryans [war-like tribes from central Asia, central to an invasion
theory long believed by Western Indologists] can no longer be held responsible
for the destruction of the Harappan civilization. Perhaps climactic changes,
environmental degradation and a steep fall in trade robbed the civilization of
its affluence.
On why the Aryan Invasion is still taught
No overnight change is possible for many teachers and scholars. Let them
first realize that there was no evidence of Aryan invasion. Also let them
understand that the geography of the Rig Veda coincides with that of Harappan
civilization. The equation of Harappans being Dravidians [that is, the present
residents of South India who speak Tamil, Telugu and related Dravidian
languages] does not exist. Max Muller's theory that the Harappans were driven
away to the south by marauding Aryans does not hold true, also because we do not
have a single Harappan site in South India, south of the river Godavari [as
would be expected if the Harappans were pushed to the South].
On who lived in Indus Valley
The flourishing trade, affluence, social order and a lifestyle of luxury
had attracted to Indus Valley, the earliest civilization of South Asia, people
from varied races and regions, even outside of the continent. Skeletons
excavated indicate that the population comprised Mediterraneans, Caucasoids,
Armenoids, Alpines, Australoids and Mongoloids [meaning people from as far away
as China and Europe were living in Indus Valley].
On yajna fire worship
Fire altars [which figure prominently in the ancient Vedic texts] have
been found in Banawali, Lothal and Kalibangan cities of the Indus Valley. They
are found in houses and also in public places. In Kalibangan, a row of seven
fire altars has been found in the southern half of the "Citadel,"
major part of the city. My chapter on religion in The Earliest Civilization of
South Asia deals extensively with fire altars, built in such a way that the
worshipper can sit facing the east [an important point, for the fire altars
described in the Vedas all allow the worshipper to face east].
On the date of the Vedas
The river Saraswati was a major river both in the Vedas and in the Harappan civilization, flowing from the Himalayan mountains to the Bay of Bengal. [Long thought mythical, it was recently rediscovered in the deserts of Rajasthan from satellite images]. The sites at Kalibangan were ruined around 1900 bce due to the drying up of Saraswati [caused by massive climatic changes and shifts in the Earth's surface]. The Vedas must date before that. Sanskrit probably existed 2000 years before 1900 bce [putting the origin of Sanskrit before 4000 bce]. It can easily take two millenniums for a language to originate and develop to the level of versifying and compositions in meters.
On Natwar Jha's Indus seal translations
I have not evaluated his book [see page 32, in which Jha claims to have
translated the seals]. When it came out, my book was already in print. But I
have devoted an entire chapter to the "Script and Language" in my
book, and I have shown how the methodology of various scholars, the ones who are
trying to read Sanskrit in it, and others who want to read Proto-Dravidian in
it, have gone wrong. The simple test is that there should be uniformity.
Whatever value you give to a symbol it should be uniform throughout.
On the nature of the script
The Harappan script is neither logographic, that is, comprised of
pictures which corresponded to words, nor alphabetic, that is comprised of
letters which formed words. It may have been at some transitional stage between
the logographic and the alphabetic, perhaps nearer the latter [a conclusion also
reached by Jha].
On his personal religious beliefs
I do not believe in external rituals like havana (fire worship) or puja,
but in the constant search for the ultimate truth through one's own experience,
swanubhava. I was initiated many years ago by Gurudeva R. D. Ranade, who was a
professor of philosophy and later vice chancellor of the Allahabad University. I
also believe in meditation and yoga. Meditation and yoga practices enable one to
have a tensionless, quiet mind. The mental energy is conserved. I believe in
unconditional, complete surrender to the God's wish. Then you are free from
problems.
PROF. B.B. LAL, F-7 HAUZ KHAS ENCLAVE, NEW DELHI 110016 INDIA. THE
EARLIEST CIVILIZATION OF SOUTH ASIA IS AVAILABLE FROM ARYAN BOOKS INTERNATIONAL,
4378/4B POOJA APARTMENTS, 4, ANSARI ROAD, DARYA GANJ, NEW DELHI 110002 INDIA.