Aryan Invasion Theory - Publication - Vivekananda Kendra

VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA
grammar of Sanskrit, Persian, Greek,
Latin, Celtic and Gothic. This discovery
resulted in the creation of a new field
called comparative linguistics which led
scholars to believe that all these
languages were derived from a pre-
Indo-European language which had its
origins somewhere in Northern Europe,
Central Asia, Southern Russia, India or
Anatolia.
Soon we got the Aryan Invasion Theory,
which claimed that Aryans, barbaric semi
nomadic tribes who spoke the Indo-
European language invaded India and
then composed the Vedas. A date of
between 1500 – 1200 B.C.E was also
proposed for the invasion. The word
Aryan comes from Sanskrit language
and means “noble” or “cultured” and
does not refer to a particular race or
language The whole Aryan Invasion
Theory is scholarly fiction according to
authors Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak
and David Frawley and they present both
literary and archaeological evidence for
it.
The literary history is provided by the
Vedic literature from the Rig-Veda to the
Upanishads. The Vedic Aryans were not
just cattle and sheep breeding semi
nomadic pastoralists, but city dwellers,
seafarers and merchants whose business
took them along the length of Saraswati,
Indus and also into the ocean. In the
ancient scriptures there is no reference
to a five river system, but to a seven river
system which was called sapta-saindhava
(land belonging to seven rivers) and the
center of the vedic times was not Punjab,
but some place further east on the
Saraswati.
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ARYAN INVASION THEORY
Satellite images have shown evidence of
paleo channels in Haryana believed to
be this mythical Saraswati. According to
geologists, before 1900 B.C.E, Saraswati
had shifted course at least four times.
Then major tectonic shifts occurred
which altered the flow of the river
resulting in the eventual drying.
Following this people migrated to the
Ganges valley which is described in the
Shatapata Brahmana.
Following the archaeological discovery
of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro,
hundreds of other sites were discovered
in the region like Ganweriwala,
Rakhigarhi, Dholavira, Kalibangan and
Lothal. The Harappan culture area far
exceeded the combined area occupied by
the Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations
and has provided various seals of
significance. This civilization declined
around 1900 B.C.E and the cause is
attributed to climate change or the
disappearance of substantial portions of
the Ghaggar Hakra river system.
The authors argue that the people of
Harappa were Vedic Aryans who had
reached India a long time back. Indo-
European speakers are now thought to
have been present in Anatolia at the
beginning of the Neolothic age.
Migrations would have happened during
the Harappan times as well, but the new
immigrants would have found a
prominent Sanskrit speaking Vedic
people in Harappa. It is possible that the
Vedic people walked on the streets of
Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa and even
possibly Mehrgarh and they did not
come as conquerors or destroyers from