In 1921, archaeologists uncovered evidence
of an ancient civilization along the Indus River,
which today runs through northwest India into
Pakistan. The so-called Indus Valley civilization
(also known as the "Harappan civilization" for one
of its chief cities) is thought to have originated
as early as 7000 BC and to have reached is height
between 2300 to 2000 BC, at which point it
encompassed over 750,000 square miles and traded
with Mesopotamia.
Some writings of this period has been discovered,
but unfortunately in such small amounts that they
have yet to be deciphered. Knowledge of this great
civilization's religion must therefore be based on
physical evidence alone. Baths have been found that
may indicate ritual bathing, a component of modern
Hinduism. Some altar-like structures may be evidence
of animal sacrifice, and terracotta figures may
represent deities. An important seal features a
horned figure surrounded by animals, which some
conjecture is a prototype of Shiva, but it could be
a bull parallel to that found on Mesopotamian seals.
Since the 1980s, this "Aryan Invasion" hypothesis
has been strongly challenged as a myth propagated by
colonial scholars who sought to reinforce the idea
that anything valuable in India must have come from
elsewhere. Critics of the hypothesis note that there
is lack of evidence of any conquest, among other
historical and archaeological problems.
Between about 2000 and 1500 BCE not an invasion but
a continuing spread of Indo-Aryan speakers occurred,
carrying them much farther into India, to the east
and south, and coinciding with a growing cultural
interaction between the native population and the
new arrivals. From these processes a new cultural
synthesis emerged, giving rise by the end of the 2nd
millennium to the conscious expressions of Aryan
ethnicity found in the Rigveda, particularly in the
later hymns.
Proponents of this hypothesis point to similarities
between Zoroastrianism (the ancient religion of
Iran) and the Vedic religion of ancient India, as
well as similar finds in ancient cemeteries in
modern-day India and Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In
addition, no trace of horses or chariots have been
found in the remains of the Indus Valley culture,
but were central to Aryan military and ritual life.
But according to mythological evidence
The Mahabharat war (3139 BC) had shattered the
economy and abolished many localized civilizations
of India. There were thousands of kings and millions
of people who died in that war. That much loss of
population in those days was a big thing, and, as a
consequence of the war, big patches of uninhabited
land lay stretched across the subcontinent. There
were no common roads in those days to join two
distant states of India, and thus, the communication
between them was bleak. In that situation, the
people, living in different locations of India,
developed their own culture and their own
communicating language which had classical or
locally spoken Sanskrit background and the image of
original Bhartiya civilization.
Time went on and gradually Brahmi script and Pali
language developed in India. Pali language was
liberally used to write the tenets of Buddhism. The
prime Vedic civilization of Bharatvarsh would have
been concentrated in Mathura, Allahabad and Varanasi
areas which were always the center of Bhartiya
culture and scriptural education.
People living around the Indus valley gradually
developed their civilization. It was later on called
the Harappan culture or Harappan civilization and
was considered to exist around 2700-2500 BC. But it
appears that that civilization was totally out of
touch with the mainstream of Bhartiya culture,
that’s why their linguistic and literary
developments remained in a very primitive shape. The
inscriptions of Harappan civilization are found on
seals and tablets in the form of signs which very
much resemble Phoenician and Semitic signs that were
developed around 1500 to 1000 BC and which became
the prototype for the development of all the writing
systems of the western world.
But, on the other hand, we have the historical
record, documented in the Bhagwatam itself (Bhag.
Ma. 6/94, 95, 96) that in 3072 BC, 2872 BC and 2842
BC, three public programs of the recitation of the
Bhagwatam and the discourses on Krishn leelas had
happened in which Saints and the devotees
participated.
We have thus two entirely different views about the
civilization of India in almost the same period of
time. To understand this situation I will give you
an example: Suppose someone, who has never been to
India and has only heard about it becomes curious
and desires to see India. He and his younger brother
in two helicopters approach India and prepare to
land. One person lands near Bhabha Research Center
(Bombay), interviews some people and talks to the
research scientists of the Center and departs for
his homeland. The other person loses the track and
ends up landing in a jungle clearing where the
tribal natives (called the adivasis) come to see the
helicopter which is like a celestial machine for
them. The person, baffled with the findings and
unable to understand the tribal language, comes back
home, disgusted and disappointed, where he finds his
brother excitedly talking about all the good things
of India. Both brothers tell their stories and both
find it hard to believe each other. But both are
facts, and both situations simultaneously exist.
Thus, during the period of the Harappan culture, in
some areas of the Ganges valley, India did have its
advanced civilization and the scholars of Sanskrit
language because the discourses on the Bhagwatam
were in Sanskrit language; and you should know that
India is never bereft of such Sages and Saints who
hold the knowledge of all the scriptures in their
Divine mind.
When the historians write the history of India, even
if they are sincere in their efforts, still they try
to patch up the Harappan culture with Vedic culture
and, in a worldly manner, they try to determine the
advancement of the Sanskrit language which is
eternally perfect. Such a notion is absolutely
wrong. They think that they are trying to be logical
in their historical research, but they forget this
fact that one cannot determine the history of
Bharatvarsh on meager archaeological findings of
coins, toys and pots. Whereas the general history of
Bharatvarsh is already written in its scriptures and
the Puranas whose texts and the philosophical
descriptions are the outcome of the Gracious and
benevolent minds of eternal Saints. |