Table Of ContentThe Elusive Aryans
The Elusive Aryans:
Archaeological Search and Vedic Research;
The Origin of the Hindus
By
Pradhan S.V.
The Elusive Aryans:
Archaeological Search and Vedic Research;
The Origin of the Hindus,
By Pradhan S.V.
This book first published 2014
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2014 by Pradhan S.V.
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-4438-6032-8, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-6032-1
For Aparna and Niren
“We have been hitherto working naively, building on each other’s myths.”
—Colin Renfrew,
Archaeology and Language, p. 287.
“We see in large measure that our identity, or at least our sense of it, lies
with our own pasts. We are what we have become. To understand this, and
these processes, we need also to know, or at any rate to begin to
understand, what we were and where we have come from.”
—Colin Renfrew, Ibid.
"Mistakes will be made, of course; but the attempt not only to describe but
also to understand both language and life is imperative in our century. One
thing is certain: the refusal to posit the good problem will never solve it."
—G. Bonfante,
"The Neolinguistic Position," Language, 23, (1947), p. 354.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface ....................................................................................................... xii
Acknowledgments .................................................................................. xviii
Abbreviations ........................................................................................... xix
Introduction ................................................................................................. 1
Digging Around the Concept of Arya
1. The Politics of Aryan Identity
2. Intellectuals and Aryan Identity
3. Limitations of pre-Indus Indology
4. Philologists on the Aryan tradition:
(A) Hillebrandt
(B) Oldenberg
(C) Eggeling
5. Two waves of Aryans: a linguistic hypothesis: Hoernle and Grierson
6. The impact of Soviet Archaeology on the Aryan question
Part I: Archaeological Search
Chapter One ............................................................................................... 28
Archaeologists and Archaeological Cultures
1. Archaeological visibility
2. The Pioneers:
(A) Gordon Childe
(B) Robert Heine-Geldern
3. Mid-Twentieth century British archaeologists:
(A) Stuart Piggott
(B) D.H. Gordon
(C) Raymond Allchin
4. Re-defining the D(cid:407)sas: Asko Parpola
5. New voices in archaeology:
(A) Colin Renfrew: Aryans as Neolithic hunters and Iron Age
pastoral nomads
(B) Jim Shaffer: the end of “linguistic tyranny”
(C) Kenneth A.R.Kennedy: what do the skeletons say?
viii Table of Contents
6. Candidates for Aryan culture:
(A) Jhukar
(B) Cemetery H
(C) G(cid:407)ndh(cid:407)ra Graves Culture
(D) Painted Gray Ware
(E) Central Asian funeral customs and their echoes in India
7. Archaeological search: an overview
Part II: Vedic Research
Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 76
Rivers in the (cid:1791)gveda: from the Ras(cid:407) to the Yamun(cid:407)
1. The Nad(cid:431)s(cid:460)kta
2. The mystery of the Ras(cid:407)
3. The Sarasvat(cid:431):
(A) Sarasvat(cid:431) of Book VI
(B) Sarasvat(cid:431) in the late (cid:1791)gveda and the Br(cid:407)hma(cid:2502)as
(C) Sarasvat(cid:431) in the Mah(cid:407)bh(cid:407)rata
4. (cid:285)utudri and Vip(cid:407)(cid:286)
5. The Rivers of Kuruk(cid:2530)etra and archaeology:
(A) The Yamun(cid:407): the eastern boundary in the (cid:1791)gveda
(B) “Armakas” (ruins) and dry river beds
Chapter Three .......................................................................................... 105
Tribes in the (cid:1791)gveda
1. The Sauma Aryans
2. The Purus and the significance of their “m(cid:2522)dhrav(cid:407)k”
(broken speech)
3. The Northwestern tribes:
(A) The Pakhtas, Bhal(cid:407)nas, and (cid:285)ivas
(B) The Pa(cid:2502)is
(C) The significance of the P(cid:407)r(cid:407)vatas
(D) The significance of the P(cid:2522)thu-Par(cid:286)us
4. The D(cid:407)sas:
(A) Introduction
(B) The D(cid:407)sa language
(C) The religion of the D(cid:407)sas
5. Integration and assimilation of Sauma Aryans, D(cid:407)sas,
and indigenous tribes
The Elusive Aryans: Archaeological Search and Vedic Research ix
Chapter Four ............................................................................................ 133
Indra
1. Indra from the Family Books to Books I and X
2. Indra Myths:
(A) Minor Myths: (i) Indra’s parricide (ii) Indra’s new roles
as a healer and fertility god (iii) K(cid:2522)(cid:286)(cid:407)nu (iv) Rauhi(cid:2502)a: ascent
to heaven (v) the myth of the camasa (vi) Dadhyac: the myth
of resurrection
(B) The V(cid:2522)tra myth: (i) V(cid:2522)tra (ii) Vala (iii) (cid:285)u(cid:2530)(cid:2502)a
(C) Re-interpretation of the V(cid:2522)tra myth: (i) late Family Books
and the late (cid:1791)gveda (ii) the Orientalist interpretation
of the V(cid:2522)tra myth
Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 153
Varu(cid:2502)a: Two Traditions
1. Varu(cid:2502)a in the (cid:1791)gveda
2. Varu(cid:2502)a in the rituals
Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 161
The A(cid:286)vins
1. Period and region
2. The A(cid:286)vins and sur(cid:407)
Chapter Seven .......................................................................................... 168
Rudra
1. Rudra in the (cid:1791)gveda
2. Rudra in the rituals
3. Rudra as (cid:285)iva(cid:286)a(cid:2500)kara in the Mah(cid:407)bh(cid:407)rata
Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 178
Vi(cid:286)(cid:2502)u
1. Vi(cid:286)(cid:2502)u in the (cid:1791)gveda:
(A) Early (cid:1791)gveda
(B) Vi(cid:286)(cid:2502)u as a god of fertility
(C) “Paramam padam”: the highest step
2. Vi(cid:286)(cid:2502)u in the rituals
3. The region of Vi(cid:286)(cid:2502)u worship
Chapter Nine ............................................................................................ 186
Praj(cid:407)pati
x Table of Contents
Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 190
Beyond the Family Books, Towards Metaphysics:
The Philosophical S(cid:460)ktas
1. The philosophical s(cid:460)ktas (X 90, 121 and 129):
(A) Puru(cid:2530)a s(cid:460)kta
(B) N(cid:407)sad(cid:431)ya s(cid:460)kta
(C) “K” s(cid:460)kta
Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 195
Rituals (1)—Soma Sacrifice: From the Early (cid:1791)gveda to the Yajurveda
1. Soma sacrifice:
(A) Indo-Iranian and Early (cid:1791)gvedic
(B) Soma sacrifice or agni(cid:2530)(cid:2540)oma in Yajurveda (V(cid:407)jasaney(cid:431) Sa(cid:2496)hit(cid:407))
(C) Agni(cid:2530)(cid:2540)oma in Yajurveda as a synthesis of separate ritualistic
traditions
(D) Rituals and Asuras
Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 205
Rituals (2)—Agnicayana: The Ascent to Heaven
1. The myth of Praj(cid:407)pati’s dismemberment and its rationale
2. Agnicayana as a separate sacrificial tradition
3. Synthesis of soma and agnicayana traditions
Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 214
The Upani(cid:2530)adic Tradition and its Native Roots
Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 220
The Upani(cid:2530)ads of the Brahmanic, Brahmanopani(cid:2530)adic and Upani(cid:2530)adic
Periods
1. Upani(cid:2530)ads of the Brahmanic period (I):
(A) B(cid:1792)had(cid:407)ra(cid:1772)yaka and Kena
(B) Aitareya and Taittir(cid:431)ya Upani(cid:2530)ads
2. Upani(cid:2530)ads of the Brahmanopani(cid:2530)adic period (II):
(A) B(cid:407)(cid:1800)kala and Ch(cid:407)ndogya
(B) B(cid:2522)had(cid:407)ran(cid:2502)yaka and Ch(cid:407)galeya
(C) (cid:430)(cid:286)(cid:407)v(cid:407)sya
3. Upani(cid:2530)ads of the Upani(cid:2530)adic period (III A): Theistic Upani(cid:2530)ads:
(A) Mu(cid:1772)(cid:1714)aka
(B) (cid:285)vet(cid:407)(cid:286)vatara
(C) Ka(cid:1810)ha
