Aryan invasion a myth, argues former DG of ASI - B B Lal

November 23, 2002

Aryan invasion a myth, argues former DG of ASI

New Delhi, November 23: Former director-general of Archaeological

Survey of India (ASI) B.B. Lal on Saturday dubbed the hypothesis

of "Aryan invasion of India" a myth. He alleged that it was still

accepted for reasons other than historical.

"The theory that there was an Aryan invasion of India is completely

wrong," Lal stressed in a seminar in New Delhi and alleged that

political reasons were behind its being in the textbooks.

The dating of the Vedas to 1200 BC by Max Muller was ad hoc and even

he confessed it to his colleagues, Lal claimed and argued that the

Rig Veda could not be later than 2000 BC.

He also discounted the discovery of skeletons at Mohenjodaro site,

the basis for hypothesising an invasion and said, "the hard fact is

that these came from various levels, some from the middle and some

from the late, and some were found in deposits after the site was

abandoned".

There were no remains of weapons and material culture of the

invaders at the site, the former director-general said.

He also came down on those historians who assert that

the 'Dravidians' are descendants of Harappans who dispersed after

the 'Aryan invasion'. None of the four southern states of Tamil

Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala has any Harappan sites,

but sites of Neolithic culture, Lal said.

"Do the proponents of this theory expect us to believe that urban

Harappans, on being sent away to south India, shed overnight their

urban characteristics and took to a stone age way of living?" asks

Lal.

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