Eternal India Encyclopedia

LURE - THRU THE AGES

Eternal India encyclopedia

HARAPPA AND THE ARYAN INVASION THEORY

4004 B.C. for the creation of the world and about 2400 B.C. for the Biblical Flood. Based on this Max Muller assigned 1500 B.C. for the beginning of the Aryan invasion and 1200 B .C. for the composition of the Rig Veda, the most important of the ancient Indian scriptures. While this may sound extraordinary to the modem student, it should be noted that the Biblical creation theory was the only one available at the time in Europe. Darwin's theory of Evolution and his Origin of the Species appeared only in 1859 and was fiercely resisted for several decades. As recently as 1890, most schools still taught the Biblical account of the creation. In Max Muller's defence it must be noted that he himself was never dogmatic about his dates admitting: "Whether the Vedic hymns were written in 1000, 1500 or 2000 or 3000 B.C. no power on earth will ever determine." Future events have shown this pronouncement to have been remarkably prophetic. Beginning in about 1921, the work of British and Indian archaeolo- gists notably John Marshall, Daya Ram Sahni and R.D. Bannerji revealed the existence of a vast civilization stretching from the borders of Iran to East Uttar Pradesh and sites as far south as the Godavari Valley. This is now famous as the Harappan Civilization of the Indus Valley. It was identified as having been in existence more than a thousand years before the supposed Aryan invasion in 1500 B .C. This brought seriously into question the whole idea of the invading Aryans as the bringers of civilization into India. Historians reacted by suggest- ing that the ruins were caused by the depredations of the invading Aryans who defeated the 'Dravidian' inhabitants of the Indus Valley and sought to find accounts of the episode in the Rig Veda itself. But this changes the whole character of the Aryans as bringers of civiliza- tion and the original natives as a 'rabble of aboriginal savages'; the invading Aryans now become the barbarians who destroyed the great civilization created by the native people. As a result, despite numer- ous ingenious attempts at reconciling such contradictions, the Aryan invasion theory is seen to be seriously in conflict with archaeology. Linguistics by itself has proven unequal to the formidable task of re- creating the history of ancient India even if its theories about ancient languages are basically correct. Age of Science and Technology: Ecological dynamics model The discovery of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro brings into question the whole foundation of ancient Indian history built on the assumption of the Aryan invasion. Historians at first tried to make the ending of the Harappan civilization coincide with the date of the Aryan invasion in 1500 B.C. and use it as support for the theory. This is now recognized to be several centuries too late. After applying the necessary correc- tions and calibrations it is impossible to place the ending of the Harap- pan civilization any later than 1900 B.C., while the most recent data indicate that even this may be too late by a century or more. Thus, 3000- 2000 B.C. may be taken as a convenient estimate for the mature Harappan civilization. In addition, archaeologists have noted no rec- ords of destruction that would point to any invasion as the cause. As a result of very important explorations carried out by H. Weiss of Yale University, Mary-Ann Courty of CNRS France as well as numerous Indian and Western archaeologists like S.R. Rao, Jim Shaffer and others, it may safely be stated that the end of the Harappan civilization was caused by global climate change - a severe drought that began in 2200 B.C. and lasted for nearly three centuries. This great natural ca- lamity affected ancient civilizations across an immense belt from the Aegean to India.

As a result of a historical accident, the first European students of India happened to be linguists drawn to the study of Sanskrit stimulated by the discovery of its close connections to classical European lan- guages like Greek, and the linguistic wonders found in the work of ancient Indian grammarians like Panini. For this reason, until recently, the history of ancient India has been dominated by the theories of lin- guists like Frederick Max Muller. Further, some of the leading Indologists of the nineteenth century including Max Muller himself happened also to be ardent German nationalists who looked to ancient Indian language and tradition as their spiritual wellspring. It is only in this century, particularly since the discovery by archae- ologists of the great Indus Valley Civilization, that the beginnings of a scientific approach to the study of ancient India became a reality. In the past two decades archaeology has been greatly supplemented by data from marine archaeology, satellite photography, metallurgy and mathematics as well as increasing recognition of the importance of ecological changes in the study of ancient societies like India. As a result there is now a sea-change in our perception of ancient India and an ongoing revolution in research methods that combine the latest scientific techniques with a critical yet constructive use of ancient Indian records. Age of linguistic theories: Aryan invasion model Going back at least to the late sixteenth century some European visitors to India had been struck by the remarkable affinities which they found between Sanskrit and European languages. But it was Sir William Jones, a Calcutta Judge and the founder of the Asiatic Society, who launched the study of comparative linguistics with the following observation: "The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of wonderful structure; more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of the verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three without believing them to have sprung from some common source." This famous statement by Jones on February 2, 1786 is still regarded as the basis for ancient Indian history by many historians. A whole approach to ancient history arose stemming from the study of Sanskrit and other languages of Europe and Asia. In the circumstances it should come as no surprise that linguists like Max Muller and Albrecht Weber should have formulated a model of ancient Indian history based on their own theories in comparative linguistics. Although he was not its originator, Max Muller was the most influential proponent of this approach to Indian history. As formulated by him, a people called the Aryans, a branch of the Indo-Europeans living originally in Central Asia invaded India and overcame the natives who, according to this theory, were a "rabble of aboriginal savages", while another branch of the same Indo-Europeans migrated to Europe and became the ancestors of the modem Europeans. This is the famous Aryan invasion theory that is still treated as a historical fact by many historians both in India and the West. According to this theory both the Vedas and the Sanskrit language were brought into India by these Aryan invaders. To arrive at a date for this invasion, Max Muller relied on the only model for ancient history then available in Europe - the Biblical account of Creation. This theory was believed to assign 23rd October