[world-vedic] VEDIC WORLD HISTORY PT 3

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Re: Antiquity and Continuity of Indian History (Part 3)

Prasad Gokhale <f0g1

Organization: University of New Brunswick

 

Antiquity and Continuity of Indian History : Part 3

(From Swayambhuva Manu to Gupta Dynasty)

 

Index

-----

 

7. Dasharadnya War

8. Vedics World-wide

9. The Saraswati-Sindhu Culture

 

 

7. Dasharadnya War

------------------

 

The Dasharadnya war (War of ten kings) took place between

Chayamana, king of Abhivarta - identified in south-eastern Iran -

and King Sudas, son of Divodasa, who presided over a kingdom to the

east of Sindhu. As far as the Vedic evidence goes, after his

victory over Chayamana, Sudas founded an empire on the banks of the

Ganga along with Vashistha, Vishwamitra and others, whose impact

later spread eastwards and southwards. The influence of these

triumphant Bharatas (Sudas) over the Iranian (Chayamana)

counterparts subsequently weakened in course of time. Thereafter,

the Iranians appear to have developed a particular way of life

under the advise of Sage Zarathustra, improving on the Vedic

sacrificial religion and yet retaining fire worship. The Vedics in

Afghanistan however maintained their relations with those to their

east, until a recent past, till the advent of Islam in these

regions.

 

The Dasyus were then the residents of some mountainous regions in

Iran, a very respectable people, who appear to have become

Zarathustra's followers, since the latter is referred to as

Dakhyuma (the temporal Lord) and Dakhyuma Suro (in Avesta,

Fr.Yashta.90). It is notable that he is called Suro (Sur) - the

learned - as opposed to Asur. This 'Asur'ians however were in turn

the residents of Mesopotamia (Assyria) situated on the banks of

river Euphrates. According to the Rgved, the Dasyus were believing

in false gods and were inhuman (7-59-11) and it is that

Zarathustra, the pious and learned one, was trying to bring these

people into the aryan way of life.

 

Spencer gives details from Malcom's "History of Ancient Persia" and

states that for 2598 years some four dynasties ruled over Persia

from Yama Vivanghao (Yama Vaivaswat in Sanskrit) in whose time the

Deluge commenced, i.e., in 9844 B.C. The rule of these four

dynasties ended therefore in approximately 7200 B.C. By this time,

Kai Vishtaspa became ruler of Persia. Sage Kaksivan (RV 1-122-13)

speaks of one Istasva who is identified with Vishtaspa by

E.S.Bharuca (quoted by Hodivala). This king is supposed to have

ruled for 120 years, and so his period can be fixed to about 7100

B.C. Iranian Zarathustra was a contemporary of king Vishtaspa, and

therefore his date can be worked out to be around 7100 B.C. On the

basis of astronomy, Spencer determines Zarathustra's date to be in

between 7388 to 7052 B.C., coinciding with the dates determined

above. This apparently is also the approximate date for the

occurrence of the Dasharadnya War. This War also appears to have

set the Vedics living in the Sapta-Sindhu homeland towards the

North, South, East and West directions.

 

Therefore, based on the internal evidence from the RgVed and

Avesta, the boundaries of Chayamana's kingdom were: on the west,

the Caspian Sea and the river Oxus - one of the sapta-sindhu rivers

now named as Amu-darya (as the Greeks Herodotus and Strabo lay

down, that this sea and the nearby mountain Caucasus got their

names from Sage Kaspios, obviously a reference to Sage Kashyapa of

the Rgved) and on the North the mountain ranges Pamir; on the east

spreading over an area a little beyond Hindukush and the eastern

most tributary of the Sindhu - the Shatudri (Sutlej) and the Ganga

and on the south, the Arabian sea.

 

 

8. Vedics World-Wide

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>From the foregoing discussion, it is now realized that the Vedics,

after leaving their original habitat in the North, spread downwards

settling down in various parts of the earth. Right from Turkey and

Egypt, the Vedics covered the region between the Caucasian

mountains and Caspian Sea down to Syria, Palestine and the ancient

Persian kingdoms of Babylon, Sumer, Ur, Kassite and towards

Afghanistan, Azerbaizan and then crossing the Hindukush mountains

towards east into the present day India. An impetus to the spread

and severance between the sapta-sindhu homeland of Vedics then came

about after the Dasharadnya War - the spread towards Greece and

northwards. Renfrew allows a date as early as 6000 B.C. for the

migration of Vedic aryans into Europe ("The Origins of Indo-

European Languages, Sc.Amer, Oct, 1989).

 

That the Vedics had migrated to Egypt is also suggested from the

geographical references in the Puraan. S.M.Ali in his "Geography of

the Puranas" writes that "they (Vedics) had knowledge of the

geography of the then known world. It is clear from the reference

to Nile in the Vayu Purana". Also, Prof. Brugsch Bey writes about

the Egyptian civilization in "History of Egypt" (quoted by

K.Venkatachalam in "Age of Buddha", p.76) that "We have a right to

more than suspect that India, eight thousand years ago, sent a

colony of emigrants who carried their arts and high civilization

into what is now known to us as Egypt. The Egyptians came,

according to their records, from a mysterious land (now known to

lie on the shores of the Indian ocean) ... led by Amen, Hor, Hathor

(Brahma, Hari, Rudra)..." These statements justify the "Aryam

Krunwanto Vishwam" (We will spread the Arya culture through out the

world) slogan of the Vedic people.

 

Tilak in "Orion" mentions that the Greeks, who were worshippers of

the Sun (Mitra), separated from their Vedic brethren about 3500

B.C. These perhaps were the people who moved westwards from the

Caspian sea (as the Greeks Herodotus and Strabo lay down, that this

sea and the nearby mountain Caucasus got their names from Sage

Kaspios, obviously a reference to Sage Kashyapa of the Rgved).

Pococke writes in "India in Greece" (quoted in Age of Buddha, by

K.Venkatachalam, p.75) , "The early civilization, the early arts,

the indubitably early literature of India are equally the

civilization of, the arts, and literature of Egypt and of Greece;

for geographical references conjoined to historical facts and

religious practices, now prove beyond all dispute than the latter

countries are the colonies of the former". The Greeks (and

Egyptians) derived their cosmogony from the Hindus is apparent from

their respective literature (Deshpandey, "Bharat: As seen and known

by foreigners").

 

An assessment of the spread of the Vedic culture in conjunction

with the study of the ancient literature, history, arts,

philosophy, cosmogony, etc. of peoples worldwide inculcates

sufficient doubt, and perhaps an cogent argument, to the pervasive

influence of the Vedic aryan thought. Count Bjornstierna in his

book "The Theogony of the Hindus" (p.168) rightly judges and

summarizes, "No nation on earth can vie with the Hindus in respect

of the antiquity of their religion. It is there (i.e. Aryavarta) we

must seek the cradle for the brahmin religion but for the cradle of

high civilization of the Hindus, which gradually extended itself in

the west to Ethiopia, to Egypt, to Phoenicia, in the eat to Siam,

to China and to Japan, in the south to Ceylon, to Java and to

Sumatra, and in the north to Persia, to Chaldia and to Colchis,

whence it came to Greece and to Rome and at length to the remote

abode of the Hyperboreans".

 

Charles Vallency quotes Sir William Jones as saying "It has been

proved by clear evidence and plain reasoning that a powerful

monarchy was established in Iran, long before the Assyrian or

Pishdadi government; that it was in truth a Hindu monarchy ... that

is subsisted many centuries.." (Collectania De Rebus Hibernicus,

p.465). Pococke observes, "that a system of Hinduism pervaded the

whole Babylonian and Assyrian empires" (India in Greece, p.178). It

is obvious that west asia, as was observed earlier, was very much

a part of the massive Vedic empire.

 

There are a number of references and admittances to the antiquity

of the Vedic culture, that the Hindus were the parent of the

literature and theogony of the world (W.D.Brown quoted in Bharat:

As seen and known by foreigners", p.13), that the world thought was

influenced by Hindu philosophy, and finally, according to Maxmuller

(in "History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature") the Veda is the

oldest book in existence ... and it carries us back to times of

which we have no records anywhere". The expanse and pervasiveness

of the Vedic thought is simply amazing and remarkable. P.N.Oak in

his celebrated book "World Vedic Heritage" provides an exhaustive

account of the vedics worldwide.

 

The Vedics seem to have settled in northern (and even in the South)

India long before the Dasharadnya War (7000 B.C.). Divodasa, father

of Sudas, had an empire in the regions of Punjab. The mountains of

Himalayas and the land of Kashmir are praised in the Rgved. The

Vedic settlements on the fertile banks of the Saraswati-Sindhu

rivers, and their influence has reached to the far-east and south

of India as well.

 

 

9. The Saraswati-Sindhu Culture (SSC)

----

 

A flourishing civilization along the banks of Indus (Sindhu) river,

called the Indus-valley civilization, has been an enigma after its

excavation in the early 20th century. In spite of the intensive

research conducted, many questions about this civilization yet

remain to be answered. However, it has been maintained that this

advanced culture had a non-aryan identity, destroyed by the

invading aryans. However, an examination of the artifacts located

at the unearthed sites present an different opinion.

 

The ethnic identity of the SS folks, whether they were aryans or

non-aryans has been addressed. It is assumed that these cities

succumbed to the invasions of the so-called aryans and that the

Vedic god Indra carried out all the destruction. Archaeologist

Dales points that there is no destruction level covering the latest

period of Mohenjodaro, no sign of extensive burning, no armour-clad

warriors and no weapons are conspicuously absent. He states, "Enemy

of the Harappans was nature and abetted by Harappans themselves,

who accelerated the spoliation of the landscape - Thus ended one of

the three civilizations of antiquity. Indra and the barbarian

hordes are exonerated" (quoted by Possehl in "Ancient Cities of the

Indus", 1979). The invasion theory does not stand an

anthropological scrutiny, since studies of the SS population prove

the genetic and somatic homogeneity of all. The Vedic literature

even though details many other things, does not speak of any

"formidable civilization" presenting an extensive fortified front

to the aryan invaders. There was no aryan invasion and therefore no

massacre of the population at Mohenjodaro.

 

In Mohenjodaro, a tablet dated 2600 B.C. is found which depicts

Lord Krishna in his childhood days (Agrawal, V.S., "India in the

days of Panini", 1953). This shows that Lord Krishna was popular at

least prior to this date, and also that the Indus Valley culture

was not destroyed by any outsiders. This culture was in continuity

with the Vedic culture prevalent on the banks of river Saraswati

and Sindhu from ancient times. The disappearance of these

settlements seems to have caused by natural calamities, by

earthquakes, flooding and perhaps, change in course of rivers.

 

The picture of the SSC that emerges is a huge dimensions, a superb

religious-cultural and trade empire spanning area of continental

sizes. Small settlements and a few city-centers of enormous are

also seen. These sites have been marked by a presence of planned

township, typical pottery and other artifacts. At Mehrgrah, charred

remains of wheat, barley and oats have been found along with

milling stones. Among floral remains, the finding of cotton seeds

forming part of cultivated crops is notable.

 

The motifs like Pipal leaf, which attained deification in the

later stages of the Veda, and Swastika which are supposed to be

religious are found in some pre-SS sites, suggesting a continuity

of from the Vedic culture. Sacrificial fire-alters and geometric

designs are found in most sites suggesting a Vedic religio-

ritualistic lifestyle of the people. A full set of terracotta

figures in Yogic and greeting postures in the Indian posture are

found at Mohenjo-daro and Harapppa. One famous seal found at the

sites is that of Pashupati, a human figure with headgear of horns

in seated in a contemplative yogic posture and surrounded by

animals. He has been identified as Rudra, the later Mahadeva. An

Atharvavedic hymn (2-34), attributed to Pashupati himself, exactly

describes this seal. Due to mutual cultural and trade contacts,

these SS seals, weights and beads have been found in Ur, Kish and

some parts of Sumeria.

 

The most enigmatic and baffling aspect of the Saraswati-Sindhu

culture has been their script. Due to a belief in aryans overriding

the "dravida" culture, attempts have been made to decipher SS

symbols into some form of a dravidian script. Recently, Dr.Rao has

convincingly deciphered the script and is a form of Sanskrit beyond

any doubt, perhaps, a form of Brahmi from which the current

devanagari script has evolved. This view is being accepted by many

scholars. The conclusion appears to fit in the logic since the

Harappa culture is only in continuance with the earlier Vedic

culture. However, since there was continuous contact between the

Vedic folks and Sumerians, Phoenicians, etc. is possible that the

SS script contains alphabetics from the semitic scripts. The

migration of indo-europeans along with the Indians from their

common habitat explains the close relationship between different

scripts.

 

The SS culture was anything but a part and parcel of the earlier

Vedic civilization, and also, an antecedent to the Hindu culture

that followed. The Saraswati-Sindhu phase represents a stage of

development, gathered from C-14 dating techniques of various

objects at different sites, during the period between 3000 B.C. to

about 2100 B.C. (Possehl, Ed., Ancient Cities of the Indus, 1979),

a little later than the Mahabharat civilization.

 

The datelines for the Mahabharat age have been well researched by

numerous scholars. For events prior to Mahabharat, only estimated

dates are available and those like Ramayan, at least for now, can

only be estimated from the Mahabharat epoch. It is with this

consideration that the time for the Mahabharat era is established,

even though Ramayanic era is known to have occurred prior to

Mahabharat.

 

[ Continued in Part 4 ]