Aryan Invasion Theory - Publication - Vivekananda Kendra

VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA
Danino explains lucidly how Satellite
pictures and studies of tectonics revealed
seismic factors that changed the history
of a river and gave birth to mythologies
that a nation would preserve for
millennia to come. This scientific thriller
starts with the famous ‘Remote Sensing
of the ‘Lost’ Sarasvati River’ paper by
Yashpal et al Danino concludes:
Overall the ISRO study confirms the
existence of numerous paleochannels
and proposes the most likely courses for
the Sarasvati – not as neat as the single
line we see on many maps (including
mine). It is a welcome reminder of the
complexity of the region’s history. (p.72)
The scientific search for Saraswathi has
a multi-disciplinary approach. In the
north-western part of Jaisalmer district
BARC scientists discover that the
groundwater there is not a static water
table but a subterraneous flow whose
stable isotope content compared to that
of Himalayan rivers with absence of any
modern recharge. An isotopic
confirmation of a mythological river now
unfolds in the pages. A 1999 study again
showed that in the Jaisalmer region
despite some of the tubewells had been
in use for up to forty years, their output
was stable and there was no sign of
water table receding. Danino recalls with
wonder the words of Mahabharatha
“invisible current through the bowels of
the earth” (p.75)
Then Danino takes on a grand
archeological tour through the
Saraswathi-Sindhu civilization which has
often been presented in our dilapidated
textbooks through certain yester-century
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ARYAN INVASION THEORY
photographs and line drawings of select
features. However in the tour we are
taken by Danino we are shown the
exciting new discoveries of the latest
archeological excavations. Fire temple in
Banwali (p.157), a tiled floor in
Kalibangan (p.160), Lothal’s huge bakedbrick
basin with artist impression of the
same (pp.162-3), rock-cut reservoir at
Dholavitra… all these throw up a new
world before our eyes. The photos even
in black and white are so beautiful and
excite our interest in the subject. The
author has got them from Archeological
Survey of India which begs the question
why our textbooks could never do that.
Here is a side note. In post-independent
India the famous historian K.M.Panikkar
wrote a note to Jawaharlal Nehru the
first Prime Minister of India asking him
to sanction explorations of
Archeological Survey of India in “the
desert area in Bikaner and Jaisalmer
through which ancient Saraswati flowed
into the Gulf of Kutch at one time” and
Nehru sanctioned the project. (p.135)
Danino’s own thesis backed by
archeological and geological data unfolds
now in the book. Saraswathi river played
an important part in the evolution and
later a critical transformation of what is
called the Harappan culture which
should be more aptly called Saraswathi-
Sindhu culture. The modern Indian
culture has strong cultural continuity
with this riverine civilization. Like the
dynamic water of the Himalayan river
still running under the deserts of
Rajasthan nourishing people there, the
cultural-spiritual continuity with the
Saraswathi-Indus culture sustains in
ways we know not consciously. What is