Development of Hinduism

SR No.: 007303
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M M Ninan
Publisher: M M Ninan
Total Pages: 582
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

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2. DATES OF VEDAS
The True History and the Religion of India: A Concise Encyclopedia of Authentic Hinduism By Swami Prakashanand Saraswati
It is understandable if a devotee believes in this but for a student of history it is of no use. Unfortunately, the scholars dealing with the subject have taken refuge under this theory of self manifestation to explain away the historical facts,
Scientists use several methods to determine the period of Vedas. The first method is based on the texts itself and their references to the events and culture. There are several mentions of astronomical conjunctions. Assuming that they are not just conjectured relations and the authors were good in their astronomy Indologists can say that the Vedas were written after that event.
Vedas portrays a life culture and they indicate a period when the writers were nomads with little metallic implements. Their major vehicle was indeed horses.
Another method is linguistics. Here we have to consider not only the language but also the script. Scientists studied the change that occurs in phonemes in a language. The writing of the Vedas is another indication. Evidently Rig Veda was not written down earlier than the third century BC. How long did it survive without writing as an oral tradition?
The Rigveda is by far the most archaic of the Vedic texts preserved, and it retains many common Indo-Iranian elements, both in language and in content, that are not present in any other Vedic texts. Its creation must have taken place over several centuries, and apart from that of the youngest books (Mandalas 1 and 10), would have been complete-according to mainstream scholarship, not earlier than 1500 BCE.
There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities between the Rigveda and the early Iranian Avesta, deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times, often associated with the early Andronovo culture of ca. 2000 BC, when the earliest horse-drawn chariots have been found (at Sintashta, near the Ural mountains). Here is the safest possible assumption.
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