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Reincarnation_Res

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RESURRECTION AND REINCARNATION<br />

M.M.NINAN<br />

founded Mitanni kingdom in northern Syria (ca.1500-1300 BCE). Both groups were<br />

rooted in the Andronovo-culture in the Bactria-Margiana era, in present northern<br />

Afganistan, and related to the Indo-Iranians, from which they split-off around 1800-<br />

1600 BCE.<br />

The Aryan invasion/migration theory has been challenged by some researchers,<br />

due to a lack of archaeological evidence and signs of cultural continuity,<br />

hypothesizing instead a slow process of acculturation or transformation.<br />

Nevertheless, linguistic and archaeological data clearly show a cultural change after<br />

1750 BCE, with the linguistic and religious data clearly showing links with Indo-<br />

European languages and religion. According to Singh, "The dominant view is that<br />

the Indo-Aryans came to the subcontinent as immigrants."<br />

The Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the<br />

hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion, and the Indo-Iranian religion. According<br />

to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European<br />

immigrants in the contact zone between the Zeravshan River (present-day<br />

Uzbekistan) and (present-day) Iran. It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian<br />

and new Indo-European elements", (Anthony, David W. (2007), The Horse The<br />

Wheel And Language. How Bronze-Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped<br />

The Modern World, Princeton University Press ) which borrowed "distinctive religious<br />

beliefs and practices" from the Bactria–Margiana Culture.<br />

There are indeed no references to reincarnation in the Rig Veda. Or for that matter<br />

in the other Vedas (Sama, Yajur and Atharva). <strong>Reincarnation</strong>, or transmigration of<br />

the soul, was also known as metempsychosis (Latin through Greek: ‘meta’-after,<br />

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