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Demise of the Aryan Invasion Theory

By Dr.Dinesh Agrawal
_________________________________________________________________

Aryan Race and 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 as well as the future of Indian
nationalism. The subject matter is as relevant today as it was a
hundred years ago when it was cleverly introduced in the school text
books by British rulers. The last couple of decades have witnessed a
growing interest among scholars, social scientists, and many
nationalist Indians in this some what vapid and prosaic subject due to
their aunguish on the great damage this theory has wrought on the
psyche of the Indian society, and its tremendous contribution in
creating apparently lasting schism between the different sections of
the Hindu society. This subject must especially and urgently interest
to all those people who are committed to the ideology of Hindutva, for
one of the primary and fundamental premises of Hindutva philosophy
lies in the fact that the Indian cultural nationalism has been evolved
and fostered over the millenia by our ancient rishis who at the banks
of holy rivers of Saptasindhu had composed the Vedic literature - the
very foundation of Indian civilization, and realised the eternal truth
about the Creator, His creation, and means to preserve it. The fact
that these pioneers of the ancient Vedic culture and hence the
Hinduism were indigenous people of mother India, is mendaciously
denied by the Aryan Invasion theory which professes their foreign
origin. If such a false theory is allowed to perpetuate and given
credence without any tenable and reliable basis, the very raison
d'etre of Hindutva is endangered. In this essay, an attempt has been
made to expose the myth of Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) based on
scriptural, archaeological evidences and proper interpretation of
Vedic verses, and present the factual situation of the ancient Vedic
society and how it progressed and evolved into all-embracing and
catholic principle, now known as Hindusim.

The Aryan issue is quite controversial and has been the focus of
historians, archaeologists, Indologists, and sociologists for over a
century. AIT is merely a proposed 'theory', and not a factual event.
And theories keep modifying, are discredited, nay even rejected with
the emergence of new knowledge and data pertaining to the subject
matter of the theories. The AIT can not be accepted as Gospel truth
knowing fully well its shaky and dubious foundations, and now with the
emergence of new information and an objective analysis of the
archaeological data and scriptures, the validity of AIT is seriously
challenged and it stands totally untenable. The most weird aspect of
the AIT is that it has its origin not in any Indian records (no where
in any of the ancient Indian scriptures or epics or Puranas, etc. is
there any mention of this AIT, sounds really incredible!), but in
European politics and German nationalism of 19th century. AIT has no
support either in Indian literature, tradition, science, or not even
in any of the south Indian (Dravidians, inhabitants of south India,
who were supposed to be the victims of the so-called Aryan invasion)
literature and tradition. So a product of European politics of the
19th century was forced on Indian history only to serve the
imperialist policy of British colonialists to divide the Indian
society on ethnic and religious lines in order to continue their reign
on the one hand and accentuate the religious aims of Christian
missionaries on the other. There is 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 school
curriculum. The irony is that this is still taught in our schools as
an unmitigated truth, and the authorities who set the curriculum of
Indian history books are not yet prepared to accept the verdict, and
make the amends. This is truly a shame! Now, more and more evidence is
emerging which not only challenges the old myth of Aryan Invasion, but
also is destroying all the pillars on which the entire edifice of AIT
had been assiduously but cleverly built.

It is a known fact that most of the original proponents of AIT were
not historians or archaeologists but had missionary and political axe
to grind. Max Muller in fact had been paid by the East India Company
to further its colonial aims, and others like Lassen and Weber were
ardent German nationalists, with hardly any authority or knowledge on
India, only motivated by the superiority of German race/nationalism
through white Aryan race theory. And as everybody knows this
eventually ended up in the most calamitous event of 20th century: the
World War II. Even in the early times of the AIT's onward journey of
acceptability, there were numerous challengers like C.J.H. Hayes,
Boyed C. Shafer and Hans Kohn who made a deep study of the evolution
and character of nationalism in Europe. They had exposed the
unscientificness of many of the budding social sciences which were
utilized in the 19th century to create the myth of Aryan Race Theory.

In the last couple of decades, the discovery of the lost track of the
Rig Vedic river Saraswati, the excavation of a chain of Harappan sites
from Ropar in the Punjab to Lothal and Dhaulavira in Gujarat all along
this lost track, the discovery of the archaeological remains of Vedis
(alters) and Yupas connected with Vedic Yajnas (sacrifices) at
Harrapan sites like Kalibangan, decipherment of the Harappan/Indus
script by many scholars as a language belonging to Vedic Sanskrit
family, the view of the archaeologists like Prof. Dales, Prof. Allchin
etc. that the end of the Harappan civilization came not because of the
so called Aryan invasion but as a result of a series of floods, the
discovery of the lost Dwarka city beneath the sea water near Gujarat
coast and its similarity with Harappan civilization - all these new
findings and an objective, accurate and contextual interpretation of
Vedas indicate convincingly towards the full identity of the
Harappan/Indus civilization with post Vedic civilization, and demand a
re-examination of the entire gamut of Aryan Race/Invasion Theories
which have been forcefully pushed down the throats of Indian society
by some European manipulators and Marxist historians all these years.

For thousands of years the Hindu society has looked upon the Vedas as
the fountainhead of all knowledge: spiritual and secular, and the
mainstay of Hindu culture, heritage and its existence. Never our
historical or religious records have questioned this fact. Even
western and far eastern travellers who have documented their
experiences during their prolonged stay and sojourn in India have
testified the importance of Vedic literature and its indigenous
origin. And now, suddenly, in the last century or so, these the
so-called European scholars are pontificating us that the Vedas do not
belong to Hindus, they were the creation of a barbaric horde of
nomadic tribes descended upon north India and destroyed an advanced
indigenous civilization. They even suggest that the Sanskrit language
is of non-Indian origin. This is all absurd, preposterous, and defies
the commonsense. A nomadic, barbaric horde of invaders cannot from any
stretch of imagination produce the kind of sublime wisdom, pure and
pristine spiritual experiences of the highest order, a universal
philosophy of religious tolerance and harmony for the entire mankind,
one finds in the Vedic literature.

Now let us examine the origin and the conditions in which this
historical fraud was concocted.

Max Muller, a renowned Indologist from Germany, is credited with the
popularization of the Aryan racial theory in the middle of 19th
century. Though later on when Muller's reputation as a Sanskrit
scholar was getting damaged, and he was challenged by his peers, since
nowhere in the Sanskrit literature, the term Arya denoted a racial
people, he recanted and pronounced that Aryan meant only a linguistic
family and never applied to a race. But the damage was already done.
The German and French political and nationalist groups exploited this
racial phenomenon to propagate the supremacy of an assumed Aryan race
of white people, which Hitler used to its extreme absurdities for his
barbaric crusade to terrorize Jews and other societies. This
culminated in the holocaust of millions of innocent people. Though now
this racial nonsense has mostly been discarded in Europe, but in India
it is still being exploited and used to divide and denigrate the Hindu
society. Our aim is to expose myth about AIT, and establish the truth
of the identity of the pioneers of the Vedic civilization and set the
historical events after the Vedic period in proper perspective and in
realistic time frame.
______________________________________________________________________

What, really, is the Aryan Invasion Theory?

According to this theory, northern India was invaded and conquered by
nomadic, light-skinned RACE of a people called 'ARYANS' who descended
from Central Asia (or some unknown land ?) around 1500 BC, and
destroyed an earlier and more advanced civilization of the people
habitated in the Indus Valley and imposed upon them their culture and
language. These Indus Valley people were supposed to be either
Dravidian, or AUSTRICS or now--days' Shudra class etc.

The main elements on which the entire structure of AIT has been built
are: Arya is a racial group, their invasion, they were nomadic,
light-skinned, their original home was outside India, their invasion
occurred around 1500 BC, they destroyed an advanced civilization of
Indus valley, etc. And what are the evidences AIT advocates present in
support of all these wild conjectures:
* Invasion: Mention of Conflicts in Vedic literature, findings of
skeletons at the excavated sites of Mohanjodro and Harappa
* Nomadic, Light-skinned: Pure conjecture and misinterpretation of
Vedic hymns.
* Non-Aryan/Dravidian Nature of Indus civilization: absence of
horse, Shiva worshippers, chariots, Racial differences, etc.
* Date of Invasion, 1500 BC: Arbitrary and speculative, in
Mesopotamia and Iraq the presence of the people worshipping Vedic
gods around 1700BC, Biblical chronology.
______________________________________________________________________

Major Flaws in the Aryan Invasion Theory

A major flaw of the invasion theory was that it had no explanation for
why the Vedic literature that was assumed to go back into the second
millennium BC had no reference to any region outside of India. Also
the astronomical references in the Rig Veda allude to events in the
third millennium BC and even earlier, indicating origin ofVedic hymns
earlier than 3000BC. The contributions of the Vedic world to
philosophy, mathematics, logic, astronomy, medicine and other sciences
provide one of the foundations on which rests the common heritage of
mankind, is well recognized but cannot be reconciled if Vedas were
composed after 1500BC. Further, if it is assumed that the so-called
Aryans invaded the townships in the Harappa 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 had a
Dravidian origin, who were allegedly pushed down to the south by
Aryans, how come there is no Aryan-Dravidian divide in the respective
literatures and historical traditions. The North and South have never
been known to be culturally hostile to each other. Prior to the
descent of British on Indian scene, there was a continuous interaction
and cultural exchange between the two regions. The Sanskrit language,
the so-called Aryan language was the lingua-franca of the entire
society for thousands of years. The three greatest figures of later
Hinduism - Shankaracharya, Madhavacharya and Ramanujam were
Southerners who are universally respected in the North, and who have
written commentaries on Vedic scriptures in Sanskrit only for the
benefit of the entire population. Even in the ancient times some of
the great Sutra authors like Baudhayana and Apastamba were from South.
Agastya, a celebrated Vedic rishi, is widely venerated in the South as
the one who introduced Vedic learning to the South India. And also was
the South India un-inhabitated 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?

There is enough positive evidence in support of the religious rites of
the Harappans being similar to those of the Vedic Aryans. Their
religious motifs, deities and sacrificial altars bespeak of Aryan
faith, indicating continuity and identity of Vedic culture with the
Indus valley civilization.

If the Aryan Hindus were outsiders, why don't they name places outside
India as their most holy places? 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. If
Aryans were outsiders why should they consider this land as the 'holy
land' and not their original land as the 'holy land' or motherland?
For the Muslims, their holy placeis Mecca. For the Catholics it is
Rome or Jerusalem. For the Hindus, their pilgrim centers range from
Kailash in the North, to Rameshwaram in the South; and from Hingalaj
(Sindh) in the West to Parusuram Kund (Arunchala Pradesh) in the East.
The seven holy cities of Hinduism include Kanchipurum in the south,
Dwaraka in the west and Ujjain in central India. The twelve
jyotirlings include Ramashwaram in Tamil Nadu, Srisailam in Andhra
Pradesh, Nashik in Maharashtra, Somnath in Gujarat and Kashi in Uttar
Pradesh. All these are located in greater India only. No Hindu from
any part of India has felt a stranger in any other part of India when
on a pilgrimage. The seven holy rivers in Hinduism, indeed, seem to
chart out the map of the holy land. The Sindhu and the Saraswati (now
extinct) originating from the Himalayas and move westward and
southwards into the western sea; the Ganga and the Yamuna also start
in the Himalayas and move eastward into the north-eastern sea; the
Narmada starts in central India and the Godavari starts in western
India, while the Kaveri winds its way through the south to move into
the southern sea. More than a thousand years ago, Adi Shankaracharya,
who was born in Kerala, established several mathas (religious and
spiritual centers) including at Badrinath in the north (UP), Puri in
the east (Orissa), Dwaraka in the west (Gujarat), and at Shringeri and
Kanchi in the south. That is India, that is Bharat, that is Hinduism.

These are some of the obvious serious objections, inconsistencies, and
glaring anomalies to which the invasionists have no convincing or
plausible explanations which could reconcile the above facts with the
Aryan invasion theory and destruction of Indus Valley civilization.

Now let us examine the facts about the so-called evidences in support
of AIT:
1. Real Meaning of the word Arya
In 1853, Max Muller introduced the word 'Arya' into the English
and European usage as applying to a racial and linguistic group
when propounding the Aryan Racial theory. However, in 1888, he
himself refuted his own theory and wrote:
" I have declared again and again that if I say Aryas, I mean
neither blood nor bones, nor hair, nor skull; I mean simply those
who speak an Aryan language... to me an ethnologist who speaks of
Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner
as a linguist who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a
brachycephalic grammar." (Max Muller, Biographies of Words and the
Home of the Aryas, 1888, pg 120).
In Vedic Literature, the word Arya is nowhere defined in
connection with either race or language. Instead it refers to:
gentleman, good-natured, righteous person, noble-man, and is often
used like 'Sir' or 'Shree' before the name of a person like
Aryaputra, Aryakanya, etc.
In Ramayan (Valmiki), Rama is described as an Arya in the
following words: Arya - who cared for the equality to all and was
dear to everyone.
Etymologically, according to Max Muller, the word Arya was derived
from ar-, "plough, to cultivate". Therefore, Arya means -
"cultivator" agriculturer (civilized sedentary, as opposed to
nomads and hunter-gatherers), landlord;
V.S. Apte's Sanskrit-English dictionary relates the word Arya to
the root r-,to which a prefix a has been appended to give a
negating meaning. And therefore the meaning of Arya is given as
"excellent, best", followed by "respectable" and as a noun,
"master, lord, worthy, honorable, excellent", upholder of Arya
values, and further: teacher, employer, master, father-in-law,
friend, Buddha.
So nowhere either in the religious scriptures or by tradition the
word Arya denotes a race or language. To impose such a meaning on
this epithet is an absolute intellectual dishonesty, deliberate
falsification of the facts, and deceptive-scholarship. There are
only four primary races, namely, Caucasian, the Mangolian, the
Australians and the Negroid. Both the Aryans and Dravidians are
related branches of the Caucasian race generally placed in the
same Mediterranean sub-branch. The difference between the
so-called Aryans of the north and the Dravidians of the south or
other communities of Indian subcontinent is not a racial type.
Biologically all are the same Caucasian type, only when closer to
the equator the skin gets darker, and under the influence of
constant heat the bodily frame tends to get a little smaller. And
these differences can not be the basis of two altogether different
races. Similar differences one can observe even more distinctly
among the people of pure Caucasian white race of Europe. Caucasian
can be of any color ranging from pure white to almost pure black,
with every shade of brown in between. Similarly, the Mongolian
race is not yellow. Many Chinese have skin whiter than many
so-called Caucasians. Further, a recent landmark global study in
population genetics by a team of internationally reputed
scientists over 50 years (The History and Geography of Human
Genes, by Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi and Alberto Piazza,
Princeton University Press) reveals that the people habitated in
the Indian subcontinent and nearby including Europe, all belong to
one single race of Caucasion type. According to this study, there
is essentially, and has been no difference racially between north
Indians and the so-called Dravidian South Indians. The racial
composition has remained almost the same for millennia. This study
also confirms that there is no race called as an Aryan race.
2. The voluminous references to various wars and conflicts in Rigveda
are frequently cited as the proof of an invasion and wars between
invading white-skinned Aryans and dark-skinned indigenous people.
Well, the so-called conflicts and wars mentioned in the Rigveda
can be categorized mainly in the following three types:
A. Conflicts between the forces of nature: Indra, the Thunder-God
of the Rig Veda, occupies a central position in the naturalistic
aspects of the Rigvedic religion, since it is he who forces the
clouds to part with their all-important wealth, the rain. In this
task he is pitted against all sorts of demons and spirits whose
main activity is the prevention of rainfall and sunshine. Rain,
being the highest wealth, is depicted in terms of more terrestrial
forms of wealth, such as cows or soma. The clouds are depicted in
terms of their physical appearance: as mountains, as the black
abodes of the demons who retain the celestial waters of the
heavens (i.e. the rains), or as the black demons themselves. This
is in no way be construed as the war between white Aryans and
black Dravidians. This is a perverted interpretation from those
who have not understood the meaning and purport of the Vedic
culture and philosophy. Most of the verses which mention the
wars/conflicts are composed using poetic imagery, and depict the
celestial battles of the natural forces, and often take greater
and greater recourse to terrestrial terminology and
anthropomorphic depictions. The descriptions acquire an increasing
tendency to shift from naturalism to mythology. And it is these
mythological descriptions which are grabbed at by invasion
theorists as descriptions of wars between invading Aryans and
indigenous non-Aryans. An example of such distorted interpretation
is made of the following verse:
The body lay in the midst of waters that are neither still nor
flowing. The waters press against the secret opening of the Vrtra
(the coverer) who lay in deep darkness whose enemy is Indra.
Mastered by the enemy, the waters held back like cattle restrained
by a trader. Indra crushed the vrtra and broke open the
withholding outlet of the river. (Rig Veda, I.32.10-11)
This verse is a beautiful poetic and metamorphical description of
snow-clad dark mountains where the life-sustaining water to feed
the rivers flowing in the Aryavarta is held by the hardened ice
caps (vrtra demon) and Indra, the rain god by allowing the sun to
light its rays on the mountains makes the ice caps break and hence
release the water. The invasionists interpret this verse literally
on human plane, as the slaying of vrtra, the leader of dark
skinned Dravidian people of Indus valley by invading white-skinned
Aryan king Indra. This is an absurd and ludicrous interpretation
of an obvious conflict between the natural forces.
B. Conflict between Vedic and Iranian people: Another category of
conflicts in the Rigveda represents the genuine conflict between
the Vedic people and the Iranians. At one time Iranians and Vedic
people formed one society and were living harmoniously in the
northern part of India practising Vedic culture, but at some point
in the history for some serious philosophical dispute, the society
got divided and one section moved to further north-west, now known
as Iran. However, the conflict and controversy were continued
between the two groups often resulting into even physical fights.
The Iranians not only called their God Ahura (Vedic Asura) and
their demons Daevas (Vedic Devas), but they also called themselves
Dahas and Dahyus (Vedic Dasas, and Dasyus). The oldest Iranian
texts, moreover depict the conflicts between the daeva-worshippers
and the Dahyus on behalf of the Dahyus, as the Vedic texts depict
them on behalf of the Deva-worshippers. Indra, the dominant God of
the Rigveda, is represented in the Iranian texts by a demon Indra.
What this all indicate that wars or conflicts of this second
category are not between Aryans and non-Aryans, but between two
estranged groups of the same parent society which got divided by
some philosophical dichotomy. Vedas even mention the gods of
Dasyus as Arya also.
C. Conflicts between various indigenous tribal groups over natural
resources and various minor kingdoms to gain supremacy over the
land and its expansion: A global phenomenon known to share the
natural resources like, water, cattle, vegetation and land, and
expand the geographical boundaries of the existing kingdoms. This
conflict in no way suggests any war or invasion by outsiders on
the indigenous people.
3. It is argued that in the excavations at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro
the human skeletons found do prove that a massacre had taken place
at these townships by invading armies of Aryan nomads. Prof. G. F.
Dales (Former head of department of Southasean Archaeology and
Anthropology, Berkeley University, USA) in his "The Mythical
Massacre at Mohenjo-daro, Expedition Vol VI,3: 1964 states the
following about this evidence:
What of these skeletal remains that have taken on such undeserved
importance? Nine years of extensive excavations at Mohenjo-daro
(1922-31) - a city of three miles in circuit - yielded the total
of some 37 skeletons, or parts thereof, that can be attributed
with some certainty to the period of the Indus civilizations. Some
of these were found in contorted positions and groupings that
suggest anything but orderly burials. Many are either
disarticulated or incomplete. They were all found in the area of
the Lower Town - probably the residential district. Not a single
body was found within the area of the fortified citadel where one
could reasonably expect the final defence of this thriving capital
city to have been made.
He further questions: Where are the burned fortresses, the arrow
heads, weapons, pieces of armour, the smashed chariots and bodies
of in the invaders and defenders? 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.
Colin Renfrew, Prof. of Archeology at Cambridge, in his famous
work, "Archeology and Language : The Puzzle of Indo-European
Origins", Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988, makes the following
comments about the real meaning and interpretation of Rig Vedic
hymns:
"Many scholars have pointed out that an enemy quite frequently
smitten in these hymns is the Dasyu. The Dasyus have been thought
by some commentators to represent the original, non-Vedic-speaking
population of the area, expelled by the incursion of the war like
Aryas in their war-chariots. As far as I can see there is nothing
in the Hymns of the Rigveda which demonstrates that the
Vedic-speaking population were intrusive to the area: this comes
rather from a historical assumption about the 'coming' of the
Indo-Europeans. It is certainly true that the gods invoked do aid
the Aryas by over-throwing forts, but this does not in itself
establish that the Aryas had no forts themselves. Nor does the
fleetness in battle, provided by horses (who were clearly used
primarily for pulling chariots), in itself suggest that the
writers of these hymns were nomads. Indeed the chariot is not a
vehicle especially associated with nomads. This was clearly a
heroic society, glorifying in battle. Some of these hymns, though
repetitive, are very beautiful pieces of poetry, and they are not
by any means all warlike.
...When Wheeler speaks of the Aryan invasion of the Land of the
Seven Rivers, the Punjab', he has no warranty at all, so far as I
can see. If one checks the dozen references in the Rigveda to the
Seven Rivers, there is nothing in any of them that to me which
implies an invasion: the land of the Seven Rivers is the land of
the Rigveda, the scene of the action. Nothing implies that the
Aryas were strangers there. Nor is it implied that the inhabitants
of the walled cities (including the Dasyus) were any more
aboriginal than the Aryas themselves. Most of the references,
indeed, are very general ones such as the beginning of the Hymn to
Indra (Hymn 102 of Book 9).
To thee the Mighty One I bring this mighty Hymn, for thy desire
hath been gratified by my praise. In Indra, yea in him victorious
through his strength, the Gods have joyed at feast, and when the
Soma flowed.
The Seven Rivers bear his glory far and wide, and heaven and sky
and earth display his comely form. The Sun and Moon in change
alternate run their course that we, O Indra, may behold and may
have faith . . .
The Rigveda gives no grounds for believing that the Aryas
themselves lacked for forts, strongholds and citadels. Recent work
on the decline of the Indus Valley civilization shows that it did
not have a single, simple cause: certainly there are no grounds
for blaming its demise upon invading hordes. This seems instead to
have been a system collapse, and local movements of people may
have followed it."
M.S. Elphinstone (1841): (first governor of Bombay Presidency,
1819-27) in his magnum opus, History of India, writes:
Hindu scripture.... "It is opposed to their (Hindus) foreign
origin, that neither in the Code (of Manu) nor, I believe, in the
Vedas, nor in any book that is certainly older than the code, is
there any allusion to a prior residence or to a knowledge of more
than the name of any country out of India. Even mythology goes no
further than the Himalayan chain, in which is fixed the habitation
of the gods...
...To say that it spread from a central point is an unwarranted
assumption, and even to analogy; for, emigration and civilization
have not spread in a circle, but from east to west. Where, also,
could the central point be, from which a language could spread
over India, Greece, and Italy and yet leave Chaldea, Syria and
Arabia untouched?
And, Elphinstone's final verdict:
There is no reason whatever for thinking that the Hindus ever
inhabitated any country but their present one, and as little for
denying that they may have done so before the earliest trace of
their records or tradition.
So what these eminent scholars have concluded based on the
archaeological and literary evidence that there was no invasion by
the so-called Aryans, there was no massacre at Harappan and
Mohanjo-dara sites, Aryans were indigenous people, and the decline
of the Indus valley civilization is due to some natural calamity.
4. Presence of Horse at Indus-Saraswati sites
It is argued that the Aryans were horse riding, used chariots for
transport, and since no signs of horse was found at the sites of
Harappa and Mohanjo-daro, the habitants of Indus valley cannot be
Aryans. Well, this was the case in the 1930-40 when the excavation
of many sites were not completed. Now numerous excavated sites
along Indus valley and along the dried Saraswati river have
produced bones of domesticated horses. Dr. SR Rao, the world
renowned scholar of archeology, informs us that horse bones have
been found both from the 'Mature Harappan' and 'Late Harappan'
levels. Many other scholars since then have also unearthed
numerous bones of horses: both domesticated and combat types. This
simply debunks the non-Aryan nature of the habitants of the Indus
valley and also identifies the Vedic culture with the Indus valley
civilization.
5. Origin of Siva-worship
The advocates of AIT argue that the inhabitants of Indus valley
were Siva worshippers and since Siva cult is more prevalent among
the South Indian Dravidians, therefore the habitants of Indus
valley were Dravidians. But Shiva worship is not alien to Vedic
culture, and not confined to South India only. The words Siva and
Shambhu are not derived from the Tamil words civa (to redden, to
become angry) and cembu (copper, the red metal), but from the
Sanskrit roots si (therefore meaning "auspicious, gracious,
benevolent, helpful kind") and sam (therefore meaning "being or
existing for happiness or welfare, granting or causing happiness,
benevolent, helpful, kind"), and the words are used in this sense
only, right from their very first occurrence. (Sanskrit- English
Dictionary by Sir M. Monier-Williams).
Moreover, most important symbols of Shaivites are located in North
India: Kashi is the most revered and auspicious seat of Shaivism
which is in the north, the traditional holy abode of Shiva is
Kailash mountain which is in the far-north, there are passages in
Rigvada which mention Siva and Rudra and consider him an important
deity. Indra himself is called Shiva several times in Rig Veda
(2:20:3, 6:45:17, 8:93:3). So Siva is not a Dravidian god only,
and by no means a non-Vedic god. The proponents of AIT also
present terra-cotta lumps found in the fire-alters at the Harappan
and other sites as an evidence of Shiva linga, implying the Shiva
cult was prevalent among the Indus valley people. But these
terra-cotta lumps have been proved to be the measures for weighing
the commodities by the shopkeepers and merchants. Their weights
have been found in perfect integral ratios, in the manner like 1
gm, 2 gms, 5 gms, 10 gms etc. They were not used as the Shiva
lingas for worship, but as the weight measurements.
6. Discovery of the Submerged city of Krishna's Dwaraka
The discovery of this city is very significant and a kind of
clinching evidence in discarding the Aryan invasion as well as its
proposed date of 1500BC. Its discovery not only establishes the
authenticity of Mahabharat war and the main events described in
the epic, but clinches the traditional antiquity of Mahabharat and
Ramayana periods. So far the AIT advocates used to either dismiss
the Mahabharat epic as a fictional work of a highly talented poet
or would place it around 1000 BC. But the remains of this
submerged city along the coast of Gujarat were dated 3000BC to
1500BC. In Mahabharat's Musal Parva, the Dwarka is mentioned as
being gradually swallowed by the ocean. Krishna had forewarned the
residents of Dwaraka to vacate the city before the sea submerged
it. The Sabha Parva gives a detailed account of Krishna's flight
from Mathura with his followers to Dwaraka to escape continuous
attacks of Jarasandh's on Mathura and save the lives of its
subjects. For this reason, Krishna is also known as RANCHHOR (one
who runs away from the battle-field). Dr. SR Rao and his team in
1984-88 (Marine Archaeology Unit) undertook an extensive search of
this city along the coast of Gujarat where the Dwarikadeesh temple
stands now, and finally they succeeded in unearthing the ruins of
this submerged city off the Gujarat coast.
7. Saraswati River Discovered
It is well known that in the Rig Veda, the honor of the greatest
and the holiest of rivers was not bestowed upon the Ganga, but
upon Saraswati, now a dry river, but once a mighty flowing river
all the way from the Himalayas to the ocean across the Rajasthan
desert. The Ganga is mentioned only once while the Saraswati is
mentioned at least 60 times. Extensive research by the late Dr.
Wakankar has shown that the Saraswati changed her course several
times, going completely dry around 1900 BC. The latest satellite
data combined with field archaeological studies have shown that
the Rig Vedic Saraswati had stopped being a perennial river long
before 3000 BC.
As Paul-Henri Francfort of CNRS, Paris recently observed, "...we
now know, thanks to the field work of the Indo-French expedition
that when the proto-historic people settled in this area, no large
river had flowed there for a long time."
The proto-historic people he refers to are the early Harappans of
3000 BC. But satellite 'photos show that a great prehistoric river
that was over 7 kilometers wide did indeed flow through the area
at one time. This was the Saraswati described in the Rig Veda.
Numerous archaeological sites have also been located along the
course of this great prehistoric river thereby confirming Vedic
accounts. The great Saraswati that flowed "from the mountain to
the sea" is now seen to belong to a date long an terior to 3000
BC. This means that the Rig Veda describes the geography of North
India long before 3000 BC. All this shows that the Rig Veda must
have been in existence no later than 3500 BC. (Aryan Invasion of
India: The Myth and the Truth By N.S. Rajaram)
River Saraswati IN RIGVEDA 
The river called Saraswati is the most important of the rivers
mentioned in the Rig Veda. The image of this 'great goddess
stream' dominates the text. It is not only the most sacred river
but the Goddess of wisdom. She is said to be the Mother of the
Veda.
A few Rig Vedic hymns which mention Saraswati river are presented
below:

ambitame naditame devitame sarasvati (II.41.16)
(The best mother, the best river, the best Goddess, Saraswati)

maho arnah saraswati pra cetayati ketuna dhiyo visva virajati (I.3.12)
(Saraswati like a great ocean appears with her ray, she rules all
inspirations)

ni tva dadhe vara a prthivya ilayspade sudinatve ahnam:
drsadvatyam manuse apayayam sarasvatyam revad agne didhi (III.23.4)
(We set you down, oh sacred fire, at the most holy place on Earth, in
the land of Ila, in the clear brightness of the days. On the
Drishadvati, the Apaya and the Saraswati rivers, shine out brilliantly
for men)

citra id raja rajaka id anyake sarasvatim anu;
parjanya iva tatanadhi vrstya sahasram ayuta dadat (VIII.21.18)
(Splendor is the king, all others are princes, who dwell along the
Saraswati river. Like the Rain God extending with rain he grants a
thousand times ten thousand cattle)

Saraswati like a bronze city: ayasi puh; 

surpassing all other rivers and waters: visva apo mahina sindhur
anyah; 

pure in her course from the mountains to the sea: sucir yati girbhya a
samudrat (VII.95.1-2)
All this indicates that the composers of the Vedic literature were
quite familiar with the Saraswati river, and were inspired by its
beauty and its vasteness that they composed several hymns in her
praise and glorification. This also indicates that the Vedas are
much older than Mahabharat period which mentions Saraswati as a
dying river.
8. Decipherment of Indus Script
Dr. SR Rao, who has deciphered the Indus script, is an ex-head of
Archaeological Survey of India, a renowned Marine archaeologist,
has been studying archeology since 1948 and has discovered and
excavated numerous Indus sites. He has authored several monumental
works on Harappan civilization and Indus script. To summarize his
method of decipherment of Indus script, he assigned to each Indus
basic letter the same sound-value as the West Asian letter which
closely resembled it. After assigning these values to the Indus
letters, he proceeded to try to read the inscriptions on the Indus
seals. The language that emerged turned out to be an "Aryan" one
belonging to Sanskrit family. The people who resided at Harappa,
Mohenjo-Daro, and other sites were culturally Aryan is thus
confirmed by the decipherment of the Harappan script and its
identity with Sanskrit family. The Harappa culture was a part of a
continuing evolution of the Vedic culture which had developed on
the banks of Saraswati river. And it should be rightly termed as
Vedic-Saraswati civilization.
Among the many words yielded by Dr. Rao's decipherment are the
numerals aeka, tra, chatus, panta, happta/sapta, dasa, dvadasa and
sata (1,3,4,5,7, 10,100) and the names of Vedic personalities like
Atri, Kasyapa, Gara, Manu, Sara, Trita, Daksa, Druhu, Kasu, and
many common Sanskrit words like, apa (water), gatha, tar (savior),
trika, da, dyau (heaven), dashada, anna (food), pa(protector),
para (supreme), maha, mahat, moks, etc.
While the direct connection between the late Indus script (1600
BC) and the Brahmi script could not be definitely established
earlier, more and more inscriptions have been found all over the
country in the last few years, dating 1000 BC, 700 BC, and so on,
which have bridged the gap between the two. Now it is evident that
the Brahmi script evolved directly from the Indus script.
(Sources: Decipherment of the Indus Script, Dawn and Development
of Indus Civilization, Lothal and the Indus Civilization, all by
S. R. Rao)
9. New Archaeological findings
Since the first discovery of buried townships of Harappa and
Mohenjo-Daro on the Ravi and Sindhu rivers in 1922, respectively,
numerous other settlements, now number over 2500 stretching from
Baluchistan to the Ganga and beyond and down to Tapti valley,
covering nearly a million and half square kilometers, have been
unearthed by various archaeologists. And, the fact which was not
known 70 years ago, but archaeologists now know, is that about 75%
of these settlements are concentrated not along the Sindhu or even
the Ganga, but along the now dried up Saraswati river. This
calamity - the drying up of the Saraswati - and not any invasion
was what led to the disruption and abandonment of the settlements
along Saraswati river by the people who lived a Vedic life. The
drying up of the Saraswati river was a catastrophe of the vast
magnitude, which led to a massive outflow of people, especially
the elite, went into Iran, Mesopotamia and other neighboring
regions. Around the same time (2000-1900 BC), there were constant
floods or/and prolonged draughts along the Sindhu river and its
tributaries which forced the inhabitants of the Indus valley to
move to other safer and greener locations, and hence a slow but
continuous migration of these highly civilized and prosperous
Vedic people took place. Some of them moved to south east, and
some to north west, and even towards European regions. For the
next thousand years and more, dynasties and rulers with Indian
names appear and disappear all over the West Asia confirming the
migration of people from East towards West. There was no
destruction of an existing civilization or invasion by any racial
nomads of any kind to cause the destruction or abandonment of
these settlements.
10. Chronology of the pre-historic period of India
According to the invasionists, the Indian civilization or the
Indus Valley civilization is only 4000-5000 years old. They place
the end of this civilization around 1900BC, and invasion of Aryans
around 1500BC. There is also no plausible explanation from these
invasion advocates for a gap of 400 years between the end of the
Indus Valley civilization (IVC) and the appearance of Aryans on
the Indian scene if Aryans were responsible for the destruction of
the IVC. They propose the period of 1400-1300 BC as the beginning
of the Vedic age when the Vedas were composed and Aryans began to
impose their culture and religion on the indigenous population of
the northern India. The Ramayana and Mahabharat, if considered as
real events, must be according to them arbitr- arily be dated in
the period 1200-1000BC. And only after 1000BC, the historic
accounts of empire building, Buddha's birth etc. have to be dated.
This chronology first proposed by Max Muller was primarily based
on his firm belief in the Biblical date of the creation of the
world, i.e. October 23, 4004 BC. Such chronology contradicts all
the archaeological evidences, scriptural testimonies, traditional
beliefs, and most importantly defies the commonsense and
scientific method. Therefore, based on Vedic testimonies, Puranic
references, archaeological evidences, and all the accounts
presented here above, the most realistic and accurate
chronological events of the pre-historic period of India should be
fixed as follows:
+ Vedic Age - 7000-4000 BC
+ End of Rig Vedic Age - 3750 BC
+ End of Ramayana - Mahabharat Period - 3000 BC
+ Development of Saraswati-Indus Civilization - 3000-2000 BC
+ Decline of Indus and Saraswati Civilization - 2200-1900 BC
+ Period of Complete chaos and migration - 2000-1500 BC
+ Period of evolution of syncretic Hindu culture - 1400 - 250
BC
______________________________________________________________________

David Frawley's Paradox

The Harappans of the Indus Valley have left profuse archaeological
records over a vast region - from the borders of Iran and beyond
Afghanistan to eastern UP and Tapti valley, and must have supported
over 30 million people and believed to be living an advanced
civilization. And yet these people have left absolutely no literary
records. Sounds incredible! The Vedic Aryans and their successors on
the other hand have left us a literature that is probably the largest
and most profound in the world. But according to the AIT there is
absolutely no archaeological record that they ever existed. Either on
the Indian soil or outside its boundaries. So we have concrete history
and archeology of a vast civilization of 'Dravidians' lasting
thousands of years that left no literature, and a huge literature by
the Vedic Aryans who left no history and no archaeological records.
The situation gets more absurd when we consider that there is profuse
archaeological and literary records indicating a substantial movement
of Indian Aryans out of India into Iran and West Asia around 2000 BC.

So, how can all these obvious anomalies and serious flaws be
reconciled? By accepting the truth that the so-called Aryans were the
original people habitants of the townships along the Indus, Ravi,
Saraswati and other rivers of the vast northern region of the Indian
subcontinent. And no invasion by nomadic hordes from outside India
ever occurred and the civilization was not destroyed but the
population simply moved to other areas, and developed a new syncretic
civilization and culture by mutual interaction and exchange of ideas.

The Vedic seers in Vedic literature have proclaimed and practiced the
following all-embracing, catholic, and harmonious principles for a
peaceful coexistence of various communities. How can such people be
accused of annihilater of a civilization, murderer of innocent people,
and destroying large number of cities?

ahm bhumimdadamaryam (Rgveda)
Creater declares: I have bestowed this land to Aryas.

Kirnvanto Vishwaryam (Rgbeda)
Make the entire world noble.

Aa na bhadra katavo yanto vishwatah (Rgveda)
Let noble thoughts come from all sides.

Mata Bhumih putro ham prithvyah (Atharv veda)
Earth is my mother, and I am her son.

Vasudeva kutumbubakam
The entire universe is one family.
______________________________________________________________________

Consequences of the Aryan Invasion Theory in Context of India
* It serves to divide artificially India into a northern Aryan and
southern Dravidian culture which were made hostile to each other
by various interested parties: A major source of social tension in
south Indian states.
* It gave an easy excuse to the Britishers to justify their conquest
over India as well as validating the various conquests and mayhems
of invading armies of religious fanatics from Arab lands and
central Asia. The argument goes that they were doing only what
Aryan ancestors of the Hindus had previously done millennia ago to
the indigenous population.
* As a corollary, the theory makes Vedic culture later than and
possibly derived from Middle Eastern cultures, especially the
Greek culture: An absurd proposition.
* Since the identification of Christianity and the Middle Eastern
cultures, the Hindu religion and Indian civilization are
considered as a sidelight to the development of religion and
civilization in the west: A deliberate and dishonest undermining
of the antiquity and the greatness of the ancient Indian culture.
* It allows the science of India to be given a Greek basis, as any
Vedic basis was largely disqualified by the primitive nature of
the Vedic culture: In fact the opposite is true.
* If the theory of Aryan invasion and its proposed period were true,
this discredited not only the Vedas but the genealogies of the
Puranas, and all the kings mentioned in these scriptures including
Lord Krishna, Rama, Buddha etc. would become as fictional
characters with no historical basis: Which simply means disowning
and discarding the very basis and raison de'etre of the Hindu
civilization.
* The Mahabharat, instead of being a civil war of global proportion
in which all the main kings of India participated as is described
in the epic, would be dismissed as a local skirmish among petty
princes that was later exaggerated by poets.
* In other words, the Aryan Invasion Theory invalidates and
discredits the most Hindu traditions and almost all its vast and
rich literary and civilizational heritage. It turns its scriptures
and sages into fantasies and exaggerations.
* On the basis of this theory, the propaganda by the Macaulayists
was made that there was nothing great in the Hindu culture and
their ancestors and sages. And most Hindus fell for this devious
plan. It made Hindus feel ashamed of their culture - that its
basis was neither historical nor scientific, the Vedas were the
work of nomadic shepherds and not the divine revelations or
eternal truth perceived by the rishis during their spiritual
journey, and hence there is nothing to feel proud about India's
past, nothing to be proud of being Hindu.
In short such a view and this concocted Aryan Invasion theory by a
few European historians in order to prove the supremacy of
Christianity and Western civilization, served (and still serving)
the purpose: 'divide and conquer the Hindus'.
______________________________________________________________________

Swami Vivekananda on Aryan Invasion Theory

"Our archaeologists' dreams of India being full of dark-eyed
aborigines, and the bright Aryans came from - the Lord knows where.
According to some, they came from Central Tibet; others will have it
that they came from Central Asia. There are patriotic Englishmen who
think that the Aryans were all red haired. Others, according to their
idea, think that they were all black-haired. If the writer happens to
be a black-haired man, the Aryans were all black-haired. Of late,
there was an attempt made to prove that the Aryans lived on Swiss
lake. I should not be sorry if they had been all drowned there, theory
and all. Some say now that they lived at the North Pole. Lord bless
the Aryans and their habitations! As for as the truth of these
theories, there is notone word in our scriptures, not one, to prove
that the Aryans came from anywhere outside of India, and in ancient
India was included Afghanistan. There it ends..."

"And the theory that the Shudra caste were all non-Aryans and they
were a multitude, is equally illogical and irrational. It could not
have been possible in those days that a few Aryans settled and lived
there with a hundred thousand slaves at their command. The slaves
would have eaten them up, made chutney of them in five minutes. The
only explanation is to be found in the Mahabharat, which says that in
the beginning of the Satya Yoga there was only one caste, the
Brahmins, and then by differences of occupations they went on dividing
themselves into different castes, and that is the only true and
rational explanation that has been given. And in the coming Satya Yuga
all other castes will have to go back to the same condition." (The
Complete Work of Swami Vivekananda, Vol.III Page 293.)
______________________________________________________________________

So, What are the facts?

Now, based on what has been presented above, following facts about an
ancient and glorious period of India clearly emerge:
1. The Aryan Invasion and Racial theories, and Aryan-Dravidian
conflicts are a 19th century fabrication by some European scholar.
They are being exploited even now for political reasons.
2. The hymns of Rigveda had been composed and completed by 3700BC,
this can be scientifically proved.
3. The language of the Indus script is related to Sanskrit, the
language of Vedas.
4. The Indus valley civilization should be aptly called as Saraswati
Vedic civilization, as the new evidences and right interpretation
of the archaeological findings indicate.
5. There is now strong evidence that the movement of the ancient
Aryan people was from east to west, and this is how the European
languages have strong association and origin in the Vedic Sanskrit
language.
6. The ending of Indus Valley and the Saraswati civilization was due
to the constant floods and drought in the Indus area and the
drying up of the Saraswati river. This had caused a massive
emigration of the habitants to safer and interior areas of the
Indian subcontinent and even towards the west.
7. There was no destruction of the civilization in the Indus valley
due to any invasion of any barbaric hordes.
8. The Vedic literature has no mention of any invasion or destruction
of a civilization.
9. There is no evidence in any of the literature which indicate any
Aryan-Dravidian or North-South divide, they were never culturally
hostile to each other.
10. The population living in the Indus valley and surrounding the
dried up Saraswati river practiced the Vedic culture and religion.
_________________________________________________________________

References

Most of the material presented above has been taken from the following
books.

1. The Aryan Invasion Theory and Indian Nationalism (1993) By Shrikant
G. Talageri (Voice of India)

2. The Astronomical Code of India (1992) By Subhash Kak

3. Vedic Aryans and the Origins of Civilization (1995) By N.S. Rajaram
and David Frawley (World Heritage Press)

4. Aryan Invasion of India: The Myth and the Truth By N.S. Rajaram
(Voice of India Publication)

5. Indigenous Indians: Agastya to Ambedkar (1993) By Koenraad Elst

6. New Light on The Aryan Problem: Manthan Oct. 1994 (Journal of
Deendayal Research Institute)

7. Dawn and Development of the Indus Civilization (1991) By S.R. Rao
(Aditya Prakashan)
_________________________________________________________________

Dinesh Agrawal
2500 Buchenhorst Road, State College, PA 16801 USA
_________________________________________________________________

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