Nandita Krishna in her article “In Search of a River”:http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/colItems.asp?ID=SEC20031219073814 writes about the River Saraswati and the research about it
bq. The Ghaggar Valley is eight to twelve kilometres wide in many places, confirming that it was once a mighty river. The Ghaggar changed course several times due to earthquakes and floods. Satellite imagery revealed that this river once originated in the Siwalik Himalayas and ended in the Arabian Sea. The lost river could only have been the Sarasvati, for this is the only river known to Indian literature and tradition in that region that �disappeared�. All scientific studies conclude that this river had dried up by 2000 BC.
Now this date is significant for many reasons. Rig Veda mentions the river Saraswati more than any other river. If the river dried up by 2000 BC, this means that Rig Veda was composed before that.
Saraswati was known during the Bharata war.
bq. The Mahabharata mentions the Sarasvati, with the Kurukshetra battlefield located to its south. But desertification had begun by the epic period, for the Mahabharata says the river was �disappearing into the desert� and was later �lost�. From the descriptions in the Mahabharata, it appears that the river was still known and was in the process of disappearing.
3000 – 1700 BC, is the time of the Harappan Civilization, and if this is the time the Vedas were composed, it can mean only one thing — The Harappans were the Vedic people.
bq. It is ridiculous not to correlate the two. Archaeology and science are juxtaposing one over the other. What are they telling us? That the Rig Veda was composed by the Aryans long before 2000 BC. That it was composed on the banks of the Sindhu and Sarasvati at the same time that the Harappans were living there. That the Vedic Aryans lived in the cities of the Indus-Sarasvati Valley. That the Vedic Aryans had to be the Harappans. The date of 1500 BC for the Rig Veda never had a scientific basis, particularly in the absence of material culture to confirm it. It was decided by Max Muller on the basis of the biblical belief that the world was created in the fifth millennium BC!
While most history books give the timeline of 1700 – 900 BC for the Vedic period and think that it is different from the Harappan culture, this is the first time, I have seen an assertion that, both are the same.
Harappans = Vedic People ?
Published
The book “In search of the cradle of civilization” by George Feuerstein, Subhash Kak and David Frawley clearly demonstrates that the Indus-Saraswathi Civilization is in fact early Vedic Civilization with the help of evidences from archaeology, satellite surveys, literature etc. It is a very interesting read and rejects the Aryan Invasion theory altogether.
Anjali, I read this book a year back. Need to read again. Thanks.
Re Christmas Day as Dec 25.
Dec 25 is pretty close to the Winter Solistice, the day at which days begin to become longer and longer which is very noticible well away from the equator and of considerable importance if you have snow on the ground. Mid December was also the period when the romans celebrated Saturnalia, where social roles were inverted, slaves were allowed to act like freemen, etc. The solistices and equinoxes are celebrated by all Northern cultures, and I believe by most other cultures around the world.
The Gospels clearly state that Christ was born during a time of the year when shephers were guarding their flocks outside at night, which probably wasn’t December.
The early Christian church made many accomodations to the Paga world, and the date chosen to clebrate Christmas was one of them. The use of ‘Christmas trees’ in Northern Europe is another such accomodation. This is called ‘syncretism.’
When the Spaniards conquered Mexico the Church tried to introduce a Christianity ‘purified’ of its early Pagan/syncretistic elements. The result was a thoroughly syncretistic Mexican Chistianity, where the old Azetc and Mayan gods became associated with specific Christian saints, and the Christian saints and Mexican gods are celebrated together. I suppose the Indian equivalent would be the celebration of “the Feast of Mary Magdalen Kali.”
Hi! FIrst timer here.
See that we both share a very similar interest – that of Indian History.
About the post, David Frawley’s other book Gods Sages & Kings dates Vedic Aryan civilisation at 6000BC, and goes on to say that the Vedic people were the source of civilisation. Intereseting read. And can you tell me where I can find resources on Vedic and Harappan culture. I am trying to read up as much as possible but I am still unclear as to what resources there are.
Ravages, I don’t know to what depth you want to go. The books I have is India: a history by John Keay and Early India by Romila Thapar.
Thanks for your comments.
I am trying to go as deep as possible. Am just beginning to scratch the surface. I think I will buy Early India soon.
How is it, in terms of content and objectivity?
Ravages, I started reading Early India few weeks back. It is by Romila Thapar, a known “Eminent Historian”. So you can guess the objectivity level. Soon I will be making some posts with information from her book.
Aryans could not be indigenous! We found that late-Harappans were using stone tools (evidence published by us in Curr Sc-2009, BIPPA-2012 etc) and were so downtrodden They could not become Aryans with advanced technology, iron and chariots. Aryans had so migrated to NW India in groups since 2000BC or so and early parts of Rig Veda composed then; Ghagar-Hakra (Sarsvati) was in their memory still. No match is found in 2 cultures otherwise including script.