Aryan Invasion Theory - Publication - Vivekananda Kendra

VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKA
outside India, but lived and even built the
cities in the Land of Seven Rivers.
There are reasons to believe that the Rig-
Veda was composed much before
Muller’s imaginary date. The authors
claim that some of the oldest hymns of
Rig-Veda were composed before the
decline of Saraswati. According to
them, Rig-Veda fills the gap between the
Neolithic town of Mehrgarh and the
Indus-Saraswati civilization. One of the
stellar patterns suggested by the hymns
of the Rig Veda could only have occurred
in the period from 4500 to 2500 B.C.E.
Still Max Muller quite arbitarily came up
with a date of 1500 – 1200 B.C.E for the
Vedas and it has been repeated
constantly by various historians. The Rig
Veda speaks about the seven rivers and
if they were composed by people who
came from outside in 1500 B.C.E, then
they would not have known about the
two vanished rivers.
Among the artifacts obtained from the
Indus-Saraswati region is the pashupathi
seal named so after the Hindu God Shiva.
The seal shows a seated figure, in a yogic
posture, with headgear surrounded by
animals. Rudra/Shiva is the most
prominent deity of the Yajur Veda and
this links the Harappan religion with
Vedic texts. Polished stones which look
like the linga and recently the swastika
was also found in Indus Valley.
Numerous clay figurines have been found
in Harappa which show a Mother
Godess cult and Godesses are common
in Hinduism even now.
There is also evidence of tree worship in
Harappan times as mentioned in Rig
165
ARYAN INVASION THEORY
Veda and Atharva Veda. The core of the
Vedic religion was sacrifice and fire altars
have been found in several Indus sites.
In Kalibangan seven rectangular fire
altars have been found aligned northsouth
beside a well which parallels the
six Vedic dishnya hearths. With all the
evidence the authors conclude that the
Vedic and Indus-Saraswati civilization is
one and the same and Rig-Veda and other
sacred hymns were the product of the
people who created the urban civilization
of the Land of the Seven Rivers.
According to the Aryan Invasion/
Migration theory Aryans came and
conquered the dark skinned Dasyus. In
Sanskrit dasa means servant and could
have been the opposite of the Aryans.
The battle between the Aryans and
Dasyus could be a metaphor for the fight
between light and darkness like the
struggle between the Egyptian God Ra
and the demons of darkness or the
Zoroastrian conflict between Ahura
Mazda and Ahriman. This reference
which appears once in the entire Vedic
literature became the cornerstone for
the Aryan invasion theory. The Dasyus
were not Dravidians or non-Aryans, but
fallen Aryans or members of the warrior
class who had become unspiritual. Arya
and dasyu are terms not describing race,
but behavior.
Some of their arguments are not that
convincing. For example, they cite that
priesthood played an important part of
Harappans and similarly emphasis on
priesthood is found in Vedic literature
and hence Harappa was vedic.
Priesthood was an important part of
Egyptians, and Zoroastrians as well. The