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
Indo-European languages (Language Family Tree - Indo-European) is now called Proto-IndoEuropean.
First it was thought that India was the possible origin of all civilization (Enlightenment scholars like Voltaire). The famous German philosopher Kant placed the origin of mankind in Tibet. Eighteenth century German scholar, Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829), supposed that a new people had formed itself in northern India, swarmed towards the West, populating Europe. Later it was postulated that the original home of Indo-Europeans was Central Asia, (because of common word roots for winter and snow, but not for rice or ocean, also presence of horse - so the original home must hav been a cold place away from the oceans) and various groups of people migrated south to occupy India and Iran, West to occupy Europe. French writer Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882) proposed that Eurpean aristocracy was Aryan, peasants were not Aryan and Anti-Semitic ideas against the Jews was born.
German scholar Max Muller (1823-1900), who picked up this prevelent theory, explained that Indo Aryans came to India from north west and conquered the Dravidian people who lived there, pushing them to the south, sometime around 1500 to 1000 B.C. He thought the high castes were Aryan people, while the lower castes non-Aryan (just like it was argued in Erupoe). After the excavations and discovery of Indus valley civilization (Harappa, Mohanjodaro - 1920 AD), Sir Mortimer Wheeler a British archeologist, in 1946 theorized that Aryans invaded the cities of Indus Valley bringing that non-aryan civilization to an end. Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) became the accepted theory.
In recent times there is little support for the theory of an invading army of Aryans coming down from Eurasia and destroying the cities of settlers on the Indus valley or elsewhere. There is no archaeological evidence for destruction of IVC civilization by invading armies in Indus Valley civilization sites or elsewhere. AIT has been replaced by a migration theory, which talks about movement of people from Steppe of Central Asia to Europe and south and east Asia, spreading IndoEuropean languages (The Spread of Indo-European and Turkish Peoples off the Steppe). Indian civilization is thought to be the product of these migrating people and those who already existed here (Romila Thapar - The Aryan Question Revisited,
http://members.tripod.com/ascjnu/aryan.html). Now it is thought that Indus Valley Civilization was abandoned because of shift in river courses rather than because of an invading army of Aryans. Tributeries of Saraswathi diverted to join Jamuna around 1700 BC, leading to drying up of Saraswathi, probably causing the abandonment of settlements and eventual decline of IVC.
Some writers, aligned with the ideology of Hindutva, dismiss Aryan Invasion Theory as colonial propaganda.
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