[world-vedic] Central Asia+Vedic/Indian Culture

[Guest guest]

By Victor Solovyov Ph.D.

(excerpt from "Glimpses of Ancient India Through Soviet Eyes")

 

Contacts between the peoples of Central Asia and India date back to thousands of

years. Archeologists have found great similarity between the stone implements of

north-western India and Southern Tajikistan. Research shows that a part of the

populations of ancient Khorezm (a city in the north of modern Tajikistan),

thousnads of kilometres from India, came from the south of the Indian

sub-continent in the late Bronze Age.

 

The intensity of cultural contacts is above all proved by archeological finds.

Archeologists have found ornamented Indian cornelian beads in the graves of Saka

Nomads in the eastern Pamirs dating between the 5th and 3rd centuries B.C. At

the site of the Ancient town of Dalverzintep, in the south of Uzbekistan, they

found a hidden treasure of gold items, including beautiful pieces of Indian

jewellery and gold bars with their weights written in the Kharoshthi script,(an

ancient Indian script).

 

>From the 5th to 8th centuries A.D. contacts between Central Asia and India

flourished largely due to the spread of Buddhism in Central Asia. One Buddhist

centre was located in Toharistan and the other Semirechye. Buddhism was

proffessed by different groups of the Central Asian populations-towns folk,

peasants and nobility. Archeologists found many Buddhist temples with large

libraries. Some of the books and manuscripts have been brought to India.

 

It is possible that Vedic Hinduism had also begun to spread in Central Asia.The

wall paintings of ancient Penjikent in Northern Tajikistan portray a large

dancing Shiva, painted in blue. Indian traditions and lore were well known to

the Sogdians who used them as subjects for their wall paintings.

 

The formation of the Great Moghul empire by Babur in the 16th Century A.D. gave

a fresh impetus to the development of contacts between central Asia and India.

Exchanges of diplomats and visits to India by Central Asian scholars, artists,

and poets became a regular practice. Indian merchants living in colonies in

large central Asian cities enjoyed the same rights as local residents.

 

Centuries of contacts between Central Asia and India account for their cultural

affinity. At the earlier stages of history they can be traced by archeological

finds, in later times by written sources. The examples cited show only some of

the contacts between the Central Asian and Indian peoples. they led to cultural

exchanges and mutual enrichment. Viktor Solovyov

===============================================================================

 

------

eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/vediculture

Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com