This book deals with two major controversies relating to India's past. First. It has been asserted by many scholars, both Indian and foreign, that the Sarasvati mentioned in the Rigveda is the Helmand of Afghanistan. The author examines the entire Rigvedic evidence and demonstrates that it goes counter to aforesaid assumption. On the other hand, there are compelling geographical data in the Rigveda itself which unambiguously show that the Rigvedic Sarasvati is none other than the present-day Sarasvati-Ghaggar combine which flows through Haryana and Panjab. Though now it dries up near Sirsa, the dry bed, sometimes as much as 8 kilometers in width as picked up with Landsat imagery, shows that anciently it continued all the way down to the Rann of Kachchha. Second. It has no less vociferously been orchestrated that the Aryans "invaded" India, as result of which the Harappan Civilization became "extinct'. The author shows that there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest any invasion, much less by the Aryans. On the contrary, there is ample evidence to demonstrate that many of the present-day cultural traits are rooted in the Harappan Civilization. Thus, you should not feel surprised if you traveled 4500 years back in time to a Harappan settlement and found a lady busy applying sindura (vermilion) to her manga (line of partition of the hair on the head), or a farmer ploughing his field in the same criss-cross pattern as do the Haryanavis or Rajasthanis today. If you wanted to place an 'order' for tanduri rotis, you could very well do so with a Kalibanganite 4800 years ago. Yogic asanas, which have new-found lovers even in the west, were as much a pride of the Harappans. Or, should you feel like being greeted with a namaste, a Harappan would be only too glad to oblige you. The soul of India lives on!

The Saraswati Flows on the Continuity of Indian Culture

Politics & Social Sciences

B.B. Lal

Anthropology

Aryan Books International

For well over seven decades two theories have been building over vision of India`s past, viz. that: (i) there was an `Aryan Invasion` of India; and (ii) the invaders destroyed the Harppan Civilzation which became extinct. Although in his book, The Sarasvati Flows On, the present author completely demolished these theories, there are still a few scholars who cling to them. Resurrecting the `Aryan Invasion/Migration` theory a stalwart writes: `One thing seems certain; the speakers of Vedic Sanskriti came from elsewhere. This conclusion comes from Indo-European words fir trees which are species such as birch, Scotch pine, Linden, alder and oak. These are plants from a temperate environment and the fact that their names are shared among the early languages of the family suggests a homeland in this environment.` Let it be squarely stated that the earliest book of the Aryans, viz. the Rigveda, does not mention any of the species of cold-climate trees enumerated above. On the other hand, all the trees mentioned in the Rigveda, such as the Asvattha (Ficus religiosa L.), Khadira (Acacia catechu Wild.), Nyagrodha (Ficus beughaleusis L.), do not belong to cold climate but to a tropical one. Likewise, the Rigvedic fauna comprising such species as the lion, elephant, peacock, also belongs to a tropical climate. Furthermore, during the Rigvedic period the Sarasvati was a mighty river, but it dried up by the time of the Panchavimsa Brahmana. The evidence of archaeology, hydrology and radiocarbon dates shows that the Sarasvati dried up around 2000 BC. All this proves that the Rigveda antedated that magic figure. Again, the Rigvedic geography covers the area from the Ganga-Yamuna on the east to the west of the Indus. Likewise, the archaeological evidence shows that prior to 2000 BC it was the Harappan Civilization that flourished in this very region. Thus, the textual and archaeological data combine to establish a perfect spatial-cum-chronological oneness between the Rigvedic and Harappan cultures. And since, as demonstrated in this book, the Harappan were the sons of the soil, it squarely follows that Rigvedic people were indigenous.

The Homeland of the Aryans

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Rama: His Historicity, Mandir and Setu, Evidence of Literature, and Archaeology

Archaeology

Since 1997 Professor Lal has published four books dealing with various aspects of the archaeology of ancient India and the Vedic literature. But all these were research-oriented. He thus felt that there was a need to address the common reader. Hence the present book. Professor Lal tells the reader, with ample photographic illustrations, that almost every aspect of Indian culture is deeply rooted in the past, which is at least 5,000 years old. He then gives an integrated picture of the civilization of those days - variously called the Harappan, Indus or Indus-Sarasvati Civilization. Thereafter he deals with the ethnicity of the authors of this great civilization. With solid arguments, he refutes the theories that there was an 'Aryan Invasion' of India, which destroyed the Harappan Civilization or that there was an immigration of the (BMAC) people from Central Asia. He demonstrates that in all likelihood the Harappans themselves were the Vedic people and were indigenous. Further, archaeological and literary evidences combine to suggest that some time in the second millennium BCE a section of the Vedic people themselves emigrated westwards to Iran and even up to Turkey, contributing their mite to the local culture. It is hoped that the reader will enjoy going through this book.

How Deep Are the Roots of Indian Civilzation?: Archaeology Answers

Aryan Books

To the faithful, everything mentioned in the mahabharata is true to the very letter, whereas the skeptic holds that the epic is nothing more than a mere figment of imagination how, then, can one asertain tha truth? it is here that archaeology comes to our rescue in 1951-52, professor b b lal excavated the key-site of hastinapura, situated on the bank of the ganga, in meerut district of uttar pradesh over here he encouraged in the lower levels a settlement which was distinguished by a characteristic pottery called the painted grey ware, assignable to circa 1100-800 bc this pgw culture has since been discovered at all the mahabharata sites - a feature which binds them together the combined evidence of archaeology and literature duly establishes that the mahabharata is not a figment of imagination but has a basis in historical reality at the same time, ut is on record that the epic underwent eleven-time inflation - from 8800 to 100,000 verses - and hence it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff but let not the precious wheat be thrown away with the chaff

Historicity of the Mahabharata: Evidence of Literature, Art and Archaeology

Religion & Spirituality

For several decades it has been orchestrated that there was an Aryan Invasion of India which destroyed the Harappan Civilization. However, as shown in this book (pp. 10 ff.), there is no evidence whatsoever of any invasion or of the presence of an alien culture at any of the hundreds of Harappan sites. While one is glad to note that the Invasion theory is dead, it is a pity that it is being resurrected in a new avatar, namely that of Immigration , of people from the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex of Central Asia, who, the proponents think, were nomadic Aryans. This book advances cogent arguments to demonstrate that this new theory too is totally wrong (pp. 19 ff.). For all this mess, the dating of the Rigveda to 1,200 BCE by Max Muller is squarely responsible. The combined evidence of hydrology, archaeology and C-14 method of dating shows that the Rigveda is assignable to the 3rd-4th millennium BCE (pp. 118 ff.). The Rigveda (X. 75. 5-6) also tells us that the Vedic people occupied the entire territory from the Indus on the west to the upper reaches of the Ganga-Yamuna on the east. Archaeologically, during the aforesaid period and within the above-noted territory, there existed one and only one civilization, namely the Harappan. Hence, the Harappan Civilization and the Vedas are but two faces of the same coin (pp. 122-23). Further, the evidence from Kunal and Bhirrana (pp. 54-55) establishes that the roots of this civilization go back to the 6th-5th millennia BCE, indicating thereby that the Harappans were the sons of the soil and not aliens. Thus, the Vedic people, who were themselves the Harappans, were Indigenous and neither Invaders nor Immigrants .

The Rigvedic People: 'Invaders'?/'Immigrants'? or Indigenous?

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