[Y-Indology] Dr. S. Wells on early man in India

January 15, 2003

INDOLOGY, "Phillip Ernest"

<phillip.ernest@u...> wrote:

>>Dr. L. M. Fosse's words might be of use,

>Thank you. I guess the great indological example of this trend to

>reexamine the language-race equation is Asko Parpola's theory that

>the people of the Indus Valley Civilization eventually converted

>to the speech (among other things) of the small Aryan sub-group

>that had been living with them for some centuries (if I correctly

>understand what I have read). So the racial component in that

>cultural transformation would have been small. But the

>transformation was so great that invasion long seemed the

>only possible explanation.

A. Parpola and I. Mahadavan posit that the high Harappan language

was a form of ancient Dravidian, related to the languages spoken

now in the south. The Aryans ingressions took place after the

decline of the mature Harappan culture. Elite dominance, and

acculturation to speaking IA languages possibly happened thru' some

centuries. See prof. Witzel's summary of Aryan movements into India

in the post-Harappan times:

The latest issue of J. of IE studies (Fall/Winter 2002) has

important papers on this Indo-Aryan migration including

the archaeologist, Dr. D. P. Agarwal.

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