Highest Sageness -43

Demolished once for all: Aryan Invasion Theory

Girilal Jain  (  - 1933)  doyen of Indian journalists and editor of The Times of India from 1978-1988, was a passionate crusader of the Hindu cause. Author of The Hindu Phenomenon, he has observed in his masterful review of Shrikant G. Talageri's ‘Aryan Invasion Theory and Indian Nationalism,’ published in 1993 thus:

“An unknown Indian has taken on proponents of the Aryan invasion/migration theory, demolished their case, and established that northern India is the original home of the Aryans and the Indo-European family of languages. The importance of this remarkable achievement cannot be exaggerated. In course of time, it can compel the revision of the history not only of Indian but also world civilization.” 
Since then, Talageri, a not-so-unknown Indian now, has come up with two more works. His ‘The Rigveda: A Historical Analysis’ (2000) established that Vedic Aryans were inhabitants of the area to the east of Punjab, traditionally known as Aryavarta; that the region of Saptasindhu formed the western periphery of their activities and that the Aryans migrated from the east to the west within India and beyond it. For this, he relied solely on a detailed analysis of the Rigveda.

His latest book, “The Rigveda and the Avesta: the Final Evidence,” seeks to prove conclusively beyond all reasonable doubt that India was the original homeland of the Indo-European family of languages, that the Rigvedic people were settled in areas around and to the east of the Sarasvati river in at least the third millennium BCE if not earlier, that the proto-Iranians who later became Zoroastrians were settled in the areas to the west of the Vedic Aryans, and that both started expanding westward around that period.

As the name of the book suggests, Talageri collects, collates and compares a massive amount of evidence from the Rigveda and the Avesta and also marshals undisputed recorded facts from Mesopotamian history about the Mitanni and the Kassites to support his conclusions. He relies on non-controversial data such as names of people, animals and places, and on the provenance and numerical frequency of their occurrences, rather than subjective interpretations of esoteric texts.

We teach our children even today as settled facts that nomadic Aryans invaded/migrated to India around 1500 BCE, destroyed the Indus Valley culture and began what is known as the Vedic Age, and produced Rigveda around 1200 BCE. However, this is only a theory, and an extremely weak one at that.

That there is not a shred of evidence for it in either the ancient literature or archaeology, that it is based on nothing more solid than some striking similarities among the Indo-European languages, that there is an overwhelming body of solid evidence against it, and that even the linguistic data supporting it can be better explained by an alternative opposite theory, has not daunted its proponents who are deeply entrenched in the academia, media and, worst of all, in politics.

Originally cooked up by 19th century European scholars to serve the interests of India’s colonial masters, the theory has now been appropriated by current political ideologies whose sole purpose is to keep India weak, divided and confused. It is used to deepen and exploit regional, linguistic and racial cleavages in Indian society, deny nativity and originality to Hindu civilization, and justify later invasions: if Aryans came from outside, how can the Hindus cavil at Muslim or European invaders?

This is not the first time that the Aryan Invasion Theory has been disproved. It has been demolished several times over in the past. Talageri’s specialty is that he uses only objective, non-controversial and verifiable data from ancient texts to support his conclusions. Talageri’s point of departure is the internal chronology of the Rigveda. The Rigveda, the oldest book in the world and the most primary source of knowledge about ancient India, consists of 1028 hymns divided in ten Books, or Mandalas. The composition of these hymns, their collation and compilation in the present form, must have been a gradual process stretching over a vast geographical expanse, spanning several centuries if not millennia, and involving generations of seers, kings and other actors.

That argument can be simply stated. Rigveda and Avesta have a lot in common—names of people, animals, meters, geography. However, the Early Books of Rigveda have very little in common with Avesta, while the Middle Books have a little more. But it is the Late Books of Rigveda that have a lot in common with Avesta, pointing to a period of contemporary development.

Apart from names and name-elements, there is the evidence of the development and use of meters used in various hymns of the different Books. The earliest hymns in the Avesta, the Gathas, composed by Zarathustra, use the six-line Mahapankti meter, which is used only in the Late Books of the Rigveda. On this parameter also, the evidence points to the same conclusion: the common development of the joint Indo-Iranian culture represented by these two sacred books took place in the period of Late Books of Rigveda. The Early and the Middle Books of Rigveda belong to a period which is older than the period of the development of this joint culture. 

The geographical evidence of Rigveda is very clear and unambiguous. It shows that the Vedic Aryans, in the period of the Early and the Middle books, were inhabitants of interior parts of India, to the east of river Sarasvati and were only just expanding into and becoming acquainted with areas further west. The geographical horizon of the Rigveda extends from (at least) western Uttar Pradesh in the east to eastern and southern Afghanistan in the West. Let us divide it in three regions: the eastern region comprising the Sarasvati and areas to its east, mainly modern Haryana and western UP; the western region comprising the Indus and areas to its west, mainly the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan, Afghanistan and contiguous areas of southern Central Asia; and the central region comprising Saptasindhu or Punjab between the Sarasvati and Indus.

The eastern region is clearly known to the whole of the Rigveda. Copious references to the rivers such as Sarasvati, Drshadvati, Hariyupiya, Yavyavati, Ashmanvati, Yamuna, Ganga, places such as Ilayaspada, Kikata, and animals such as elephant, buffalo, peacock and spotted deer are scattered all over the Rigveda, but particularly in the Early books. In sharp contrast, the western region is totally unknown to the Early Books, only very newly familiar to the Middle Books, but quite familiar to the Late Books. The western places (except a solitary reference to Gandharva in a late hymn), animals, lakes and mountains are totally unknown to the Early as well as the Middle Books, and exactly three rivers are mentioned in Book IV, which represents the western-most thrust of the Vedic Aryans in the Middle period.
The late books, on the other hand, are strewn with references to rivers such as Sindhu, Amitabha, Rasa, Svetya, Kubha, Krumu, Gomati, Sarayu and Susoma; places such as Gandhari, mountains such as Arjikya and Mujawat, lakes such as Saryanavat, and animals such as Bactrian camel, Afghan horse, mountain sheep, mountain goat and boar.

Most interesting are the references to the central region—the Saptasindhu or Punjab between Indus and Sarasvati. Very significantly, the Nadi Sukta lists the rivers from the east to the west. Book VI, the oldest book, does not know any of the five rivers of Punjab. The second oldest book, Book III, mentions only the two easternmost rivers—Vipas (Beas) and Sutudri (Sutlej). The third oldest book, Book VII, mentions Parushni (Ravi), the third river from the east, with reference to the Battle of Ten Kings in which the non-Vedic enemies figure as western people of the fourth river Asikni (Chenab). Even the phrase Saptasindhu first appears in the Middle Books.

As Girilal Jain had observed, “if it can be established that the movement of the users of the Indo-European speech in India in ancient times was from the east to the west and not vice-versa, the invasion/migration theory, as it has been propounded, cannot stand.”

This makes the Rigvedic Age contemporaneous with the Indus Valley culture. Far from being the destroyers of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, Vedic Aryans turn out to be the architects of those great cities. This is what Girilal Jain meant when he said that in course of time Talageri’s research can compel the revision of the history not only of Indian, but also world civilization.

(source: Demolished once for all: Aryan Invasion Theory - By Virendra Parekh - vijayvaani.com). Refer to chapter on First Indologists and European Imperialism.  

Watch video - The Myth of Aryan invasion theory - Part I and Part II and Part III and Myth of Aryan Dravidian Divide and Dwaraka - A Lost City of Lord Sri Krishna.

This is not the first time that the Aryan Invasion Theory has been disproved. It has been demolished several times over in the past. Talageri’s specialty is that he uses only objective, non-controversial and verifiable data from ancient texts to support his conclusions. Talageri’s point of departure is the internal chronology of the Rigveda. The Rigveda, the oldest book in the world and the most primary source of knowledge about ancient India, consists of 1028 hymns divided in ten Books, or Mandalas. The composition of these hymns, their collation and compilation in the present form, must have been a gradual process stretching over a vast geographical expanse, spanning several centuries if not millennia, and involving generations of seers, kings and other actors.

That argument can be simply stated. Rigveda and Avesta have a lot in common—names of people, animals, meters, geography. However, the Early Books of Rigveda have very little in common with Avesta, while the Middle Books have a little more. But it is the Late Books of Rigveda that have a lot in common with Avesta, pointing to a period of contemporary development.

Apart from names and name-elements, there is the evidence of the development and use of meters used in various hymns of the different Books. The earliest hymns in the Avesta, the Gathas, composed by Zarathustra, use the six-line Mahapankti meter, which is used only in the Late Books of the Rigveda. On this parameter also, the evidence points to the same conclusion: the common development of the joint Indo-Iranian culture represented by these two sacred books took place in the period of Late Books of Rigveda. The Early and the Middle Books of Rigveda belong to a period which is older than the period of the development of this joint culture. 

The geographical evidence of Rigveda is very clear and unambiguous. It shows that the Vedic Aryans, in the period of the Early and the Middle books, were inhabitants of interior parts of India, to the east of river Sarasvati and were only just expanding into and becoming acquainted with areas further west. The geographical horizon of the Rigveda extends from (at least) western Uttar Pradesh in the east to eastern and southern Afghanistan in the West. Let us divide it in three regions: the eastern region comprising the Sarasvati and areas to its east, mainly modern Haryana and western UP; the western region comprising the Indus and areas to its west, mainly the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan, Afghanistan and contiguous areas of southern Central Asia; and the central region comprising Saptasindhu or Punjab between the Sarasvati and Indus.

The eastern region is clearly known to the whole of the Rigveda.
references to the rivers such as Sarasvati, Drshadvati, Hariyupiya, Yavyavati, Ashmanvati, Yamuna, Ganga, places such as Ilayaspada, Kikata, and animals such as elephant, buffalo, peacock and spotted deer are scattered all over the Rigveda, but particularly in the Early books. In sharp contrast, the western region is totally unknown to the Early Books, only very newly familiar to the Middle Books, but quite familiar to the Late Books. The western places (except a solitary reference to Gandharva in a late hymn), animals, lakes and mountains are totally unknown to the Early as well as the Middle Books, and exactly three rivers are mentioned in Book IV, which represents the western-most thrust of the Vedic Aryans in the Middle period.
The late books, on the other hand, are strewn with references to rivers such as Sindhu, Amitabha, Rasa, Svetya, Kubha, Krumu, Gomati, Sarayu and Susoma; places such as Gandhari, mountains such as Arjikya and Mujawat, lakes such as Saryanavat, and animals such as Bactrian camel, Afghan horse, mountain sheep, mountain goat and boar.

Most interesting are the references to the central region—the Saptasindhu or Punjab between Indus and Sarasvati. Very significantly, the Nadi Sukta lists the rivers from the east to the west. Book VI, the oldest book, does not know any of the five rivers of Punjab. The second oldest book, Book III, mentions only the two easternmost rivers—Vipas (Beas) and Sutudri (Sutlej). The third oldest book, Book VII, mentions Parushni (Ravi), the third river from the east, with reference to the Battle of Ten Kings in which the non-Vedic enemies figure as western people of the fourth river Asikni (Chenab). Even the phrase Saptasindhu first appears in the Middle Books.

As Girilal Jain had observed, “if it can be established that the movement of the users of the Indo-European speech in India in ancient times was from the east to the west and not vice-versa, the invasion/migration theory, as it has been propounded, cannot stand.”

This makes the Rigvedic Age contemporaneous with the Indus Valley culture. Far from being the destroyers of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, Vedic Aryans turn out to be the architects of those great cities. This is what Girilal Jain meant when he said that in course of time Talageri’s research can compel the revision of the history not only of Indian, but also world civilization.

(source: Demolished once for all: Aryan Invasion Theory - By Virendra Parekh - vijayvaani.com). Refer to chapter on First Indologists and European Imperialism.  

Watch video - The Myth of Aryan invasion theory - Part I and Part II and Part III and Myth of Aryan Dravidian Divide and Dwaraka - A Lost City of Lord Sri Krishna.

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The Aryan myth in perspective - History, science and politics

To a historian of science, there is a remarkable similarity between the attitudes of theologians in Galileo’s time and of philologists and anthropologists in our own. They cannot accept the fact that the very foundation of their discipline—not just the Aryan invasion theory—has collapsed. Natural history and genetics have demolished their theories as well as their methods. And like Galileo’s adversaries, they too have chosen to resort to politics and propaganda, though the forces they invoke lack the authority of the Church in Galileo’s time.

A Racist Myth that refuses to die

When judged by evidence and logic, the various Aryan theories, especially the Aryan invasion theory (AIT) must be regarded one of the weakest intellectual exercises in recent history— an intellectual failure of the first magnitude. But if longevity and capacity for survival are measures of success, then the Aryan myth—it is hardly a theory—must be counted among the most successful

It is now more than a century since the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) made its way into history books and encyclopedias the world over, as the basis for the history of ancient India and the source of the Vedic civilization. Though linguistic in origin, the climate in which it evolved—dominated by British colonialism and German nationalism—ensured that it soon acquired a political and even biological form, giving rise to such notions as the Aryan race and the Aryan nation. Government departments in British India like the Anthropological Survey mixed up physical appearance and character traits and made it a tool of divide and rule.

Because of its European origin and orientation, there were attempts to shift the origin of the Vedic Civilization and its language to sources in lands closer to Europe . This gave rise to an academic discipline called Indo-European Studies, devoted to exploring the origin of Europeans, their language and culture. A major result of this approach has been to make India and its culture including the Vedas to be of non-Indian origin. The Aryan invasion (or migration) has been the lynchpin of this discipline.

While the defeat of Nazi Germany and end of European colonialism put an end to the political needs of these theories, they have survived in Western academia because of the heavy investment that scholars have made in Indo-European studies. Recent findings in science, particularly in population genetics have delivered a mortal blow to the Aryan Invasion Theory. This has led its proponents to resort to propaganda and political lobbying to save it by overturning scientific and historical facts.

This campaigning, like during the recent controversy over the revision of California schools curriculum, is only the latest manifestation of the kind of struggle that is waged whenever new discoveries overthrow old ideas. The most famous of these took place in the time of Galileo. In the end, the supporters of Indo-European studies are no more likely to succeed than Galileo’s opponents, who too had the support of powerful political and religious interests. Ultimately, it is truth not personalities that will prevail though the battle for truth is likely to be prolonged. It is best to take a long-term view and prepare the ground for a new generation of researchers.

It [Aryan invasion theory] gave a historical precedent to justify the role and status of the British Raj, who could argue that they were transforming India for the better in the same way that the Aryans had done thousands of years earlier

That is to say, the British presented themselves as a ‘new and improved brand of Aryans’ that were only completing the work left undone by their ancestors in the hoary past. Today it is sustained by ‘special interests’ rather than special conditions that no longer exist. These new interests include political chauvinism in India and the survival of Indo-European studies as a discipline in Western academia. It is only a matter of time before this vestige of colonial politics disappears from the scene making way for a more objective approach to the study of ancient India . This is already happening. In the interim, the kind of dispute and controversy witnessed in California are only natural.

The seriousness of this struggle for survival of this academic discipline, and its practitioners cannot be underestimated. This existential fear is what is behind the desperate actions bordering on the bizarre of some Western Indologists , notably the Harvard Indologist Michael Witzel and his colleagues.

On the scientific side, the emergence of molecular biology and the growth of population genetics in the second half of the twentieth century have delivered the coup de grace to this pseudo-discipline. The story that science has to tell us is very different from what had been believed for well over a century

(source: The Aryan myth in perspective - History, science and politics - By N S Rajaram).  For more refer to chapter on Aryan Invasion Theory, European Imperialism and First Indologist.For more refer to chapter on Aryan Invasion Theory, European Imperialism and First Indologist.

Watch video - The Myth of Aryan invasion theory - Part I and Part II and Part III and Myth of Aryan Dravidian Divide and Dwaraka - A Lost City of Lord Sri Krishna.

Evidence from Archaeology
Soon after the discovery of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, their remote antiquity signaled the start of a virtual comedy of errors. The myth of the bloody end of the Harappan civilization at the hands of the fierce Aryans came from a man who had directed the Archaeological Survey of India from 1943 to 1948. The most glaring inconsistencies the owners of the said skeletons were later proved by the great U.S. archaeologist George F. Dales to have lived in different periods. Moreover, neither weapons nor any signs of war were found at the supposed sites of the "mythical massacre," as he called it:
 "Where are the burned fortresses, the arrow heads, weapons, pieces of armor, the smashed chariots, and bodies of the invaders and defenders." asked Dales, who, in 1964 conducted a detailed study of Wheeler's stratigraphy. "Despite the extensive excavations at the largest Harappan sites, there is not a single bit of evidence that can be brought forth as unconditional proof of an armed conquest and the destruction on the supposed scale of the Aryan invasion." U.S. anthropologist, K. A. R. Kennedy showed that the supposed injuries left on the bones of some skeletons had actually healed well before death. As a result, "the destruction of the Indus cities by invading tribes of Aryans, says the U.S. archaeologist Richard H. Meadow, "has long since been discounted by serious scholars" (though some of our textbooks still swear by it ). 
Not a single finding in the Indus-Saraswati region can be associated with the ingress of an Aryan people (or any other people, for that matter) - neither pottery nor utensils nor tools nor weapons nor graves nor any form of art. Oddly, the "invaders" left no trace of their arrival.  J. M. Kenoyer, who is still pursuing excavations at Harappa:
"There is no archaeological or biological evidence for invasions or mass migrations into the Indus valley between the end of the Harappan phase, about 1900 B.C. and the beginning of the Early Historic period around 600 B.C. "
Jim G. Shaffer, another U.S. archaeologist with first-hand experience of Harappan site:
"Current archaeological data do not support the existence of an Indo-Aryan or European invasion into South Asia any time in the pre- or protohistoric periods."
Many Indian archaeologists share those views. For instance S. R. Rao " "There is no indication of any invasion of Indus towns nor is any artefact attributable to the so-called 'invaders.' 
Or again, B. B. Lal: "The supporters of the Aryan-invasion theory have not been able to cite even a single example where is evidence of 'invaders.' represented either by weapons of warfare or even of cultural remains left by them." Similar assertions could be quoted from other noted archaeologists such as (alphabetically) Madhav Acharya, R.S. Bisht, Dilip K. Chakrabarti, M.K. Dhavalikar, S. P. Gupta, Jagat Pati Joshi, V.N. Mishra, A.M. Shastri, K.M. Srivastava, V. S. Wakankar and others.
Despite this remarkable agreement, a few historians and archaeologist have opted to stick to the invasion construct, partly as a facile explaination of the linguistic kinship between Sanskrit and Indo-European languages, and partly because it is not easy to demolish a whole structure accepted as gospel truth for a lifetime. So, to account to its absence of evidence those scholars have had to tone down the old invasion, which now becomes a mere "migration" or "small bands" of Indo-Aryans, in a "series of waves" confession of failure. 
With a touch of irony, J. F. Jarrige, the French archaeologist who has led excavations at Mehrgarh, remarks: "Phoenix-like, the theory of the invaders, preferably Indo-Europeans, always rises from its ashes." 
(source: The Invasion That Never Was - By Michel Danino and Sujata Nahar
"The Harappan civilization mysteriously disappeared in 1900 BC, after almost 2,000 years of continuous existence. Some researchers have argued that the civilization slowly declined because of changing trade patterns; others, now mostly discredited, blamed Aryan invaders from the north. Prasad and Nur blame earthquakes. Last January, a catastrophic earthquake struck the southern edge of the former Harappan territory, a coastal area near the border between India and Pakistan. In 1819, a similar earthquake raised an 80 to 100-kilometer (50 to 62 mile) ridge of earth about 20 feet (6 meters), creating an artificial dam known as the "Allah Bund" (God's Dam). Both earthquakes are evidence that the Harappan region, though not near a traditional fault zone, is seismically active."
(source: Ancient civilizations shaken by quakes, say Stanford scientists - Space Daily).

And now a team of geologists from the Stanford University in California believes that the real blame probably lies with the massive earthquakes that struck the region in the past.

Manika Prasad, a research associate in the Rock Physics Laboratory at Stanford, has catalogued and studied the ancient earthquakes that shook the Indian sub-continent. He now believes that it was a massive earthquake that shook the foundations of the Harappan civilisation, taking it to the brink of extinction.

The Harappan civilisation mysteriously disappeared in 1900 BC, after almost 2,000 years of existence.

Some researchers have argued that the civilization slowly declined because of changing trade patterns; others, now mostly discredited, blamed Aryan invaders from the north.
(source: Did quakes make Harappa disappear? NewIndpress.com). 
Watch video - The Myth of Aryan invasion theory - Part I and Part II and Part III and Myth of Aryan Dravidian Divide and Dwaraka - A Lost City of Lord Sri Krishna.
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City older than Mohenjodaro unearthed
http://www.timesofindia.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=2140338028

Indian scientists have made an archaeological find dating back to 7500 BC suggesting the world's oldest cities came up about 4,000 years earlier than is currently believed, a top government official said on Wednesday.

The scientists found pieces of wood, remains of pots, fossil bones and what appeared like construction material just off the coast of Surat, Science and Technology Minister Murli Manohar Joshi told a news conference.
"Some of these artefacts recovered by the NIOT (National Institute of Ocean Technology) from the site such as the log of wood date back to 7500 BC, which is indicative of a very ancient culture in the present Gulf of Cambay, that got submerged subsequently," Joshi said.

Current belief is that the first cities appeared around 3500 BC in the valley of Sumer, where Iraq now stands, a statement issued by the government said. "We can safely say from the antiquities and the acoustic images of the geometric structures that there was human activity in the region more than 9,500 years ago (7500 BC)," S. N. Rajguru, an independent archaeologist, said.

The findings, if confirmed, will dislodge the Harappan Civilisation dating back to 2500 BC as India's oldest civilization.

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Oldest Harappan signboard at Kutch township

Meticulous planning and architectural brilliance in the layout of the city are the established and striking features of the Harappan civilisation. 

Recent excavations at the small township of Dholavira, in Kutch, Gujarat, have presented to the world some of the oldest stadiums and sign board.  

One of the stadiums is huge. The multipurpose structure, with terraced seats for spectators, around 800 feet in length (around 283 metres) can accommodate as many as 10,000 persons. The other stadium is much smaller in size.  

"It is believed that the bigger stadium was used for a variety of purposes, maybe for makeshift bazaars. This would be similar to exhibition grounds coming up these days," said former joint director general of Archeological Survey of India, Dr R S Bisht who was delivering a special lecture on "Dholavira revisited' at Panjab University on Wednesday.  

Apart from the world's first stadiums, Bisht also talked about what could be the world's oldest signboard which was also discovered at the site. The "signboard", with undecipherable inscriptions of the Indus valley civilisation, dates back to the 3000 BC to 1500 BC.  It is believed that the stone signboard was hung on a wooden plank in front of the gate. This could be the oldest signboard known to us," said Bisht. The excavations began under Bisht's stewardship in 1990.  

The dimensions of the town of Dholavira (777.1 metres in length and 668.7 meters in width) establishes that the Harappans had great knowledge of trigonometry.  

They were also mathematical experts as all the dimensions at the site are based on squares and cubes, he added. "The site is between the two rivulets, Mansa and Manhar. Harappans had also built dams to conserve the precious commodity of water," added Bisht.  He also put up a slide show of the remains of the extensive water reservoirs, castle and roads.  He said, "Harappans never allowed vehicular traffic inside their cities which explains the condition of their roads which remained as they were for a long time," he said.  

While natural calamities are widely believed to be the reason for the decline of civilisations, for Dholavira it is believed that the damage was due to frequent earthquakes. "The first quake hit the township around 2800 BC, the second around 2500 BC, and the third around 2000 BC," said Bisht.

(source: Oldest Harappan signboard at Kutch township - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/505144.cms).

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Skeletons, script found at ancient burial site in Tamil Nadu
May 25 2004 - An urn containing a human skull and bones unearthed by the Archaeological Survey of India at Adhichanallur, near Tirunelveli town in Tamil Nadu. Twelve of these urns (below) contain human skeletons. Three of them, which may be 2,800 years old, bear inscriptions that resemble the early Tamil Brahmi script. 
In spectacular finds, the Archaeological Survey of India, Chennai Circle, has unearthed a dozen 2,800-year-old human skeletons intact in urns at Adichanallur, 24 km from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. Three of these urns contain writing resembling the early Tamil Brahmi script. The dozen urns containing the skeletons form a part of about 100 fully intact urns unearthed in various trenches at the site, where excavation is under way. The urns were found at a depth of two to three metres. The finds may revolutionise theories about the origin of ancient culture in Tamil Nadu and the origin of writing in South Asia. 
T. Satyamurthy, Superintending Archaeologist, ASI, Chennai Circle, the director of excavation at Adichanallur, said: "People generally think that megalithic culture is the earliest culture in South India, especially in Tamil Nadu. In our excavation [at Adichanallur], we have come across a culture earlier than the megalithic period." The megalithic period in South India ranges from 3rd century B.C. to 3rd century A.D.  At Adichanallur, pottery belonging to the early historic period, which stretches from 3rd century B.C. to 3rd century A.D., was found on the upper layers of the trenches and the urns were found below. 
So the discoveries at Adichanallur may go back to 7th or 8th century B.C., probably earlier than the Sangam period, Dr. Satyamurthy said.

(source: Skeletons, script found at ancient burial site in Tamil Nadu - hindu.com). For more refer to Vedic Roots of Early Tamil Culture - By Michel Danino

9,500-Year-Old City Found Underwater Off India

Discovery in Bay of Cambay Will Force Western Archaeologists to Rewrite History. 

The civilization of Ancient Egypt occurred in a past so remote that today it seems mystical. The pyramids and other temples, with their hieroglyphics depicting a flourishing civilization, have a mysterious, almost magical appeal. It seems inconceivable that people of an advanced society could have walked those ancient streets.

Now, it was announced in January, a civilization has been uncovered that would have appeared just as ancient to the people who built the pyramids as the pyramids seem to us.

According to marine scientists in India, archaeological remains of this lost city have been discovered 36 metres (120 feet) underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India. And carbon dating says that they are 9,500 years old.

This news completely contradicts the position of most Western historians and archaeologists, who (because it did not fit their theories) have always rejected, ignored, or suppressed evidence of an older view of mankind's existence on planet Earth. Human civilization is now provably much more ancient than many have believed.

According to the BBC's Tom Housden, reporting on the Cambay find:

The vast city — which is five miles long and two miles wide — is believed to predate the oldest known remains in the subcontinent by more than 5,000 years.

The site was discovered by chance last year by oceanographers from India's National Institute of Ocean Technology, who were conducting a survey of pollution.

Using sidescan sonar, which sends a beam of sound waves down to the bottom of the ocean, they identified huge geometrical structures at a depth of 120 feet.

Debris recovered from the site — including construction material, pottery, sections of walls, beads, sculpture, and human bones and teeth — has been carbon dated and found to be nearly 9,500 years old (BBC article).

Several reports confirm this estimate. Housden added, "The whole model of the origins of civilisation will have to be remade from scratch."

Unheard-of Scope of Cambay Ruins

The BBC article tells us that the remains of this ancient city stand upon "enormous foundations." Marine archaeologists discovered them with a technology known as "sub-bottom profiling."

Author and filmmaker Graham Hancock, an authority on archaeological investigations of ancient civilizations, reportedly said that the evidence was compelling. For example, he said that the oceanographers had found two large blocks that were larger than anything that's ever been found. "Cities on this scale," Hancock told BBC Online, "are not known in the archaeological record until roughly 4,500 years ago when the first big cities begin to appear in Mesopotamia.

Theorists are postulating that the area where this city exists was submerged when the ice caps melted at the end of the last Ice Age.

"A month ago in mid-January [2002]," says Hancock on his website, "marine scientists in India announced they had sonar images of square and rectangular shapes about 130 feet down off the northwestern coast of India in the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay). . . . [There are] sonar shapes with 90-degree angles. The Indian Minister of Science and Technology ordered that the site be dredged. What was found has surprised archaeologists around the world" (GrahamHancock.com/news.)

Large Symbols Like Peruvian Signs Found on Gujarat Hillside

Vadodara, Gujarat, India. August 6, 2006: Geologists have discovered a striking archaeological feature on a hillock in the Kutch district of the western Indian state of Gujarat. This feature is shaped like the Roman numeral VI. Each arm of this feature is a trench that is about two meters wide, two meters deep and more than 100 meters long. The feature has evoked the curiosity of archaeologists because such signs have mostly been observed so far in Peru. The team, led by Dr RV Karanth, a former professor of geology at the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara, Gujarat, has been involved in a palaeoseismological study of the Kutch region for the past 11 years Palaeoseismology involves the study of sediments, landforms and other geological evidence of past earthquakes to unravel their history and determine the nature and occurrence of present-day earthquakes. This feature was discovered at a hillock 3km from the sleepy oasis township of Khavda, which is also known as the gateway to the Rann of Kutch, an extensive salt marsh of western India and southeast Pakistan between the Gulf of Kutch and the Indus river delta.

Dr. Karanth says such trenches have not been noticed elsewhere in the region. Archaeologists, he says, can now pursue further research. Geometric lines and animal shapes etched into the desert plain by people of the Nazca civilisation (AD 1-700) of Peru are well known. "But such signs on hill-slopes have not been reported from Peru," says Dr. Karanth. He says that one of the prominent explanations given for the Peruvian features is that they may have been constructed to make astronomical observations and calculations. "The Tropic of Cancer passes through Kutch. So if this structure is man-made, it is likely that the slope of the hillock was utilized for making certain astronomical calculations in the past," explains the geologist. Interestingly, there are numerous indications to suggest that Harappans were well-versed in astronomy. The straight streets of that time were oriented in the cardinal directions - east, west, north and south. Linkages between ancient Harappan scripts and latter Vedic texts also suggest that Harappan priest-astronomers tracked the progress of various planets and mapped the sky. Dr. Karanth has also discovered ruins of a fort-wall, houses, storage tank and a temple on the hilltop.

(source: Large Symbols Like Peruvian Signs Found on Gujarat Hillside - bbcnews.co.uk).

The Find Includes Human Remains

Linda Moulton Howe, who investigates occurrences of this type worldwide, interviewed Michael Cremo about this new discovery. Cremo is a researcher and author of the book Forbidden Archaeology. Cremo, Howe said, has visited India and attended local meetings about the Cambay site.

"Within the past few months," Cremo told her, "the engineers began some dredging operations there and they pulled up human fossil bones, fossil wood, stone tools, pieces of pottery, and many other things that indicated that it indeed was a human habitation site that they had. And they were able to do more intensive sonar work there and were able to identify more structures. They appeared to have been laid out on the bank of a river that had been flowing from the Indian subcontinent out into that area."

According to Howe:

Even if we don't know what the cultural background of the people is, if it does happen to be a city that is 9500 years old, that is older than the Sumerian civilization by several thousand years. It is older than the Egyptian, older than the Chinese. So it would radically affect our whole picture of the development of urban civilization on this planet.

Now, if it further happens that additional research is able to identify the culture of the people who lived in that city that's now underwater — if it turns out they are a Vedic people, which I think is quite probable given the location of this off the coast of India — I think that would radically change the whole picture of Indian history which has basically been written by Western archaeologists.

(source: 9,500-Year-Old City Found Underwater Off India).

Indian civilisation '9,000 years old'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1763000/1763950.stm  
Marine scientists in India say an archaeological site off India's western coast may be up to 9,000 years old.
The revelation comes about 18 months after acoustic images from the sea-bed suggested the presence of built-up structures resembling the ancient Harappan civilisation, which dates back around 4,000 years. The Harappan civilisation is the oldest in the subcontinent. Although Palaeolithic sites dating back around 20,000 years have been found on the coast of India's western state of Gujarat before, this is the first time there are indications of man-made structures as old as 9,500 years found deep beneath the sea surface.
Known as the Gulf of Cambay, the area has been subject to a great deal of archaeological interest due to its proximity to another ancient submerged site - Dwaraka - in the nearby Gulf of Kutch. But investigations in the Cambay region have been made more difficult by strong tidal currents running at around two to three metres per second. They impede any sustained underwater studies. Marine scientists led by the Madras-based National Institute of Ocean Technology said they got around this problem by taking acoustic images off the sea-bed and using dredging equipment to extract artefacts.
Gulf of Cambay has a city older than Sumer
http://www.indian-express.com/ie20020117/top6.html  
Watch video - The Myth of Aryan invasion theory - Part I and Part II and Part III and Myth of Aryan Dravidian Divide and Dwaraka - A Lost City of Lord Sri Krishna.
Marine archaeology and the study of the past

What was found in the Gulf? Several rectangular to round pieces made of rock and mortar with perfectly shaped holes (some rectangular), obviously man-made; stone cylindrical rods with vertical holes, probably used as necklaces (as in Harappa); rolled rods and well-turned cylindrical rock pieces; fused rock articles; thin triangular and round rock pieces; chert blades, cut into long flat pieces; macro tools resembling axes, stone blades, choppers, chisel, etc. and micro tools made of basalt, chalcedony and chert, besides a pestle and fish hook; ladle-shaped objects made of agate or steatite; semi-precious stones and beads made of opal, agate, carnelian, steatite, quartz, malachite, and topaz; potsherds, including sun-dried gray and kiln-baked red.

But these were not all. Human and animal (deer and duck) figurines, a hand with what appears to be a carving of a bangle, a few fossilised human bones and a flat rock piece with a sort of script have made the finds more exciting.

Paleo channels 20 to 40 metres deep and over 9 kms long, adjoined by basement-like features of major structures in a grid pattern, resembling an urban habitation site, were observed. These include a 40m x 24m tank-like depression with steps leading to a deeper portion (like the Great Bath of Mohenjo Daro?), a 200m x 45m platform-like structure, a 79m x 50m buried structure and what appears to be a 41m x 20m wall, with a relief of about 3m above the seabed. Most important, a chunk of carbonised teak wood was picked up, which was dated using 14C (Carbon dating) methodology by the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleo Botany, Lucknow, and the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, gave an interim calibrated age of 8150-7650 BP (before present). This is the information that came in for much public flak and acrimony, with some historians and media stories even casting doubts on the authenticity of the scientific testing and the results, an untenable accusation. Foreign laboratories upheld the results, a certification which should not have been necessary, and about which there has been no response from the doubters. Another reason given for doubt was that the wood could have floated into the area from anywhere else. But the scientists present at the workshop debunked that objection, showing how the current patterns meant that the water circulates within the Gulf and is not exchanged with the Arabian Sea.

Marine archaeology in India is still at its infancy. It needs up-to-date scientific equipment, such as remote controlled robots, and trained divers and diving equipment. All this costs money.

(source: Marine archaeology and the study of the past - By Nanditha Krishn - newindpress.com).
Aryan Invasion Bites the Dust
In the rewriting of Indian history that is currently underway, the Seminar on Aryan/Non-Aryan Contributions held on June 23 – 25 at the Center of Indic Studies, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth is likely to prove seminal. At the Seminar, now becoming known as the Dartmouth Conference, advocates of the Aryan theories, including the Aryan invasion, were forced to confront data from a wide range of sources including historical, astronomical, genetic and archaeological that simply could not be brushed away by appealing to linguistics.

Most telling of all was the genetic evidence pointing to the fact that Indians have lived where they are today for the better part of 50,000 years and no Aryan invasion took place. The genetic data was presented by two leading workers in the field— Dr. Peter Underhill of Stanford University and Dr. V.K. Kashyap of the National Institute of Biologicals of New Delhi. Their findings overwhelmingly contradict the notion of any Aryan invasion and/or migration for the origin of Indian civilization.

Dr. B.B. Lal, India’s senior most archaeologist, made a masterly presentation summarizing the whole gamut of archaeological discoveries from the Sarasvati river to the various Harappan sites pointing out how they bear the stamp of Vedic ideas and thoroughly contradict the Aryan invasion. Rajaram highlighted the fact that the Rigveda came before the Harappan civilization, and Harappan archaeology belongs to later phase of the Vedic civilization, the period that produced the Brahmanas, Upanishads and the Sutras.

All this means that Harappan archaeology records the material remains of the Vedic civilization, especial of the later phase, when the ideas found the Veda Samhitas saw exposition, consolidation and codification in the Vedantic literature. This is clear from the Vedic symbols like the svastika, om, ashvattha leaves and others found on Harappan artifacts especially the seals.

(source:  Aryan Invasion Bites the Dust - By N S Rajaram - saag.org).
Lost city found off Indian coast

An ancient underwater city has been discovered off the coast of south-eastern India. Divers from India and England made the discovery based on the statements of local fishermen and the old Indian legend of the Seven Pagodas.

The ruins, which are off the coast of Mahabalipuram, cover many square miles and seem to prove that a major city once stood there. A further expedition to the region is now being arranged which will take place at the beginning of 2003.  
(source: Lost city found off Indian coast - BBC news.com April 11, 02).

Mahabalipuram remains open debate on origin of civilization
By Shyam Bhatia - LONDON, Aug 15 

This hidden underwater city off Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu had previously been the stuff of legend. Some fishermen had always spoken of the exotic temple tops they had seen occasionally emerge from the sea, but few outside their own small communities had taken serious note of their stories.

Now Graham Hancock’s discovery earlier this year of a lost civilization that thrived some 30 miles off the coast of Chennai is forcing scientists to revise their theories and pay serious attention to his claim that civilization did not start in Mesopotamia, but rather in cities like the underwater Mahabalipuram that were drowned in floods at the end of the last ice age between 7,000 and 20,000 years ago. A leading UK expert on ice age sea levels has told him the site where he dived is indeed some 6,000 years old.

“We can no longer think of the so-called Fertile Crescent of Sumeria as the cradle of civilization”, says Hancock. “What seems more likely from the large body of evidence I have compiled is that there were a number of cities built before this time which were submerged by rising sea levels at the end of the last ice age. Mahabalipuram, I suspect, is one of these.” The strongest evidence supporting his theory comes from the Department of Geological Sciences at Durham University in the UK where geo-physicist Dr Glenn Milne has built up a sophisticated computer data base that prints out the images of shorelines from any time in history.

After Hancock sent him his data from Mahabalipuram, Hancock told him the site as at least 6,000 years old. “Assuming there was no tectonic movement at the site, and it looks like there wasn’t, then it appears that the area was flooded by a rise in sea levels about 6,000 years ago”, Milne says. “The computer programme is accurate to within 1,000 years either side of the allotted date.”

Hancock says Milne’s reaction has vindicated him. “It proved that the methods I was using, the combination of deciphering ancient myths and new technology, actually worked”, he argues. “Of course I still keeping an open mind, but it does suggest I am on the right track after all. Its mainstream archaeology and science that are blinkered.” 

(source: Deccan Herald August 16' 02).  For more refer to Underground: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization – By Graham Hancock  p. 374).

Structures have also been found off the Poom Puhar coast, but South Indian history is nothing more than a footnote in Indian history books. So two major archaeological finds whimpered into oblivion after a few magazine articles. Any other country would have celebrated them.

(source: Marine archaeology and the study of the past - By Nanditha Krishn - newindpress.com).

City Under the Sea

A spectacular underwater archaeological find by a joint British-Indian diving team that could rewrite history. Who would have thought a city that could be older than the Harappan civilization could be lying beneath water right off the coast of Mahabalipuram?

Sometimes, it pays to listen to the stories of humble fishermen. Local fishermen in the coast of Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu have for centuries believed in that a great flood consumed a city over 1,000 years ago in a single day when the gods grew jealous of its beauty.

The myths of Mahabalipuram were written down by British traveler J. Goldingham, who visited the town in 1798, at which time it was known to sailors as the Seven Pagodas. Legend had it that six temples were submerged beneath the waves, with the seventh temple still standing on the seashore.

(For more information on this refer to http://www.india-atlantis.org/).

(source: City Under the Sea http://india.krishna.org/Articles/2002/10/006.html).

Fossil hints at India's mythical river

Geologists in India say they have found an elephant fossil in the Thar desert of Rajasthan, supporting earlier theories that the vast desert was once a fertile area.

They said the discovery also lent credence to popular belief that a mighty river, named in the ancient Hindu Vedic texts as Saraswati, flowed through the region thousands of years ago. The significance of the river, mentioned in Vedic texts, is immense.
Senior geologist BS Paliwal said the elephant fossil was discovered in a village in Nagaur district, about 300 kilometres from the state capital of Jaipur, during gypsum mining.

"It proves again that there were once rivers like Saraswati and civilisations were flourishing at their banks," Professor Paliwal said.

Geologists had a few years ago found fossils of fish in Jaisalmer, a district further west from the site of the present find. These fossils were dated to be nearly 180 million years old. Geologists said the find was evidence that large water bodies once existed in the region.

(source: Fossil hints at India's mythical river - BBC December 2, 02). 

Submerged city may be older than Mesopotamia
There is growing evidence that the East Coast of India was the real cradle of modern civilization. Perhaps it's time to rewrite the history books...?

A submerged coastal city near Poompuhar in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, is the focus of a major expedition being conducted jointly by the Indian Naval Hydrographic Department (INHD) and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Both the organizations are trying to piece together the city's past, which some noted marine archaeologists consider to be the birthplace of modern civilization. The once flourishing port city is located about one mile off the Nagapattinam coast.
"We have been able to locate a section of the city at a depth of 7 m and will soon start operations to recover objects that will help ascertain its past," said Rear Admiral K.R. Srinivasan, chief hydrographer to the Indian government. English marine archaeologist Graham Hancock, who conducted an underwater exploration in the area in 2001, believes that the Poompuhar site could be older than Sumeria in Mesopotamia, where modern civilization is believed to have originated nearly 5,000 years ago.
It led Hancock to surmise that the city could have been submerged by a tidal wave as high as 400 ft somewhere between 17,000 and 7,000 years ago.
(source: Submerged city may be older than Mesopotamia - By Utpal Parashar - hindustantimes.com)

Conclusion
In the words of author Michel Danino: " With the distorting glass which the Aryan invasion theory imposed on India's past now shattered, it is only a matter of time before all the pieces are removed. One point now established is the antiquity of the Veda. Though Indian tradition and seers always held the Veda to be "many thousands of years old," Max Muller and his school brought this down to 1200-1000 B.C. But the Vedic nature of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization and the presence of the Vedic people along the Sarasvati in full flow now pushes this date back to at least 2500-3000 BC. That would have come as no surprise to Voltaire, who remarked with much commonsense: 
"It does not behove us, who were only savages and barbarians when these Indian and Chinese peoples were civilized and learned, to dispute their antiquity."
The discovery of Dr. Subhash Kak, (professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Louisiana State University), of an astronomical code embedded in the Rig-Veda has led to new insights in this field; it showed that the ancient Rishis knew the distance between the Sun and the Earth to be about 108 times the Sun's diameter (the same with the Moon's distance from the Earth); they had also observed the periods of five planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), and determined the solar year to last between 365 and 366 days - all this several thousand years before similar knowledge showed up in Egypt, Babylonia or Greece.
Mathematics, astronomy, language, script, and a perennial culture. That is exactly what the famous U.S. historian Will Durant meant when he wrote in the 1950s:
"India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all."
Sources for this chapter : The Invasion That Never Was - By Michel Danino and Sujata Nahar
In Search Of The Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India - By Georg Feurerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley
The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage - By Will Durant
Colonial Indology: Sociopolitics of the Ancient Indian Past - By Dilip K. Chakrabarti
Proof of Vedic Culture's Global Existence - By Stephen Knapp
The Genius of India - By Guy Sorman  ('Le Genie de l'Inde')

***
The rest of the chapter begins  -  Aryan Invasion Theory
For more information please read the articles in the link listed below:
Articles on Aryan invasion theory
Origins of Vedic Civilization - By Kenneth Chandler
Voice of India
http://www.voi.org/general_inbox/Kazanas/ejvs7_3.pdf 


Did You Know?
Gundestrup Cauldron
In 1891, a huge silver bowl containing seven decorated plates was unearthed in a peat bog in Denmark dates to 150 BC. Apparently it shows strong evidence -- including goddess-images similar to Lakshmi and Hariti and a god-image similar to Vishnu -- of cross-cultural connections between Indic civilizations and those of far northern Europe. Dr. Subhash Kak (professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Louisiana State University) has noted the apparent connections between Celtic/Druidic pre-Christian cultures of Europe and Hindu practices in his book, In Search Of The Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India - By Georg Feurerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley
According to him, Indic people were apparently present in Palestine, Turkey, Babylon in the 2nd millennium BCE. The names of the ruling dynasties of these places and some Sanskritic inscriptions tell us this. The father of the beautiful Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt, was a king of the Near East named Tusharatha or Dasharatha.
The Puranas also say an Indian tribe called the Druhyus emigrated West. Whether they emigrated all the way to Europe, we cannot say. What is likely to have happened is that an Indic element became the political and religious aristocracy in many countries, all the way up to Europe. This may also explain the parallels between Indian and European mythology. 
(source: 'Our school books talk about Socrates, Plato and Aristotle but don't mention Yajnavalkya, Panini and Patanjali' - Rediff.com)
Pashupati, Lord Shiva is the friend of animals. This indicates that he must have been a common deity of pre-Christian Europe. (For more refer to Indian Paganism).

The image of the Pashupati seal  and of the same Yogi on the Gundestrup Cauldron from Western  Europe shown on the left tells the story of the Aryan Invasion and the nineteenth century discipline called Indology that created the theory. The Pashupati seal from India is nearly five thousand years old, while the Gundestrup Cauldron was made a little over two thousand years ago. 
This means: while scholars have been telling us about an 'invasion' of Indo-Europeans from Eurasia to India, what evidence there is tells us exactly the opposite— a recorded movement in ancient times from India to West Asia and Europe.
(source: Unraveling of the Aryan Invasion Myth )

Om Tat Sat 

                                                        

(Continued...) 

( My humble Pranam, Honour  and also gratefulness  to   Ms. Sushma Londhe ji for her  noble, magnanimous and eminent works on the   peerless  Wisdom of our Sacred Scriptures)

  

_{(My humble salutations to   , H H Swamyjis, Hindu Wisdom, great Universal Philosophers, Historians, Professors and Devotees   for the discovering  collection)}

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