Last few months I have been reading a lot on Ancient Indian History and trying to make sense out of the sequence of events as described in various books.
One thing which all of us have studied in history books is the Aryan Invasion theory which blatantly claims that a group of people from Central Asia invaded the Indus valley Civilisation and killed the locals and started the glorious Vedic period in Indian history.
I am sure this has been puzzling for most people as to how can an evolved civilization like Indus valley be extinct by a group of invaders from North India? Why did the locals adopt hindu customs & religion and did not bring with them the custom / religion followed in Central Asia? Why vedas which are voluminous do not mention anything about Central Asia and almost everything is about Bharat?
How did Aryan Invasion Theory come into being?
During the excavation of Mohenjodao ruins in 1925, sixteen skeletons were found in Mohenjodaro’s ruins in 1925. Later, in 1947, Sir Mortimer Wheeler, a British archaeologist tried to correlate the Harapppan ruins with Rigveda and he concluded that men, women and children were massacred by the invading Aryans, then he made his infamous proclamation about Indra being guilty of Indus Valley destruction.
Looks like NCERT has already questioned the theory but for some reason, it is still part of many textbooks which our kids study till date.
In 1960s, the evidence of the massacre in Mohenjodaro was questioned by an archaeologist named George Dales. He demonstrated that the skeletons found at the site did not belong to the same period. He further concluded that there are no signs of destruction, war or any weapons. Thus ending the speculation about some invaders destroying the Harappan civilisation. This is how NCERT presented the Aryan Invasion Theory in a balanced manner. From the chapter on the Harappan Civilisation; Class-XII, Themes in Indian History-I, NCERT, page-18
Now let us look at other evidences which proves that the theory is based on a very weak ground and it is surprising how was it accepted by larger historical fraternity without a sound evidence :–
- There is no large culture / civilization in Central Asia around 1500 BCE and Indus valley was one of the largest civilization. How can one explain the demise of an established civilization by a group of nomads who were not advanced as the Indus people
- Vedas constantly venerated the land of Sapt Sindhu ( land of seven rivers) and there is no mention of a original land from where these people belonged to. Vedas also clearly tells that Vedic people had a good knowledge of surrounding geography of India but they do not mention anything about Central Asia
- The alleged Aryan Invaders were said to have introduced the horse to south Asia, and students have been taught that no horses lived there before 1500 BC. However, bones and teeth of the true horse have been found in Indus and pre-Indus sites in India, and identified as such by a zoologist, Sandor Bokonyi. At least one ceramic figurine of a horse was found by archeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler in an Indus site. Details about the horse matter can be found in archeologist Michel Danino’s paper, The Horse and The Aryan Debate. Further Recent discoveries in Sinhauli excavation in Uttar pradesh have shown horse carriages were being used in India even before 1500 BCE
- One can find multiple texts in Egypt, persia and greeks where they mention about “bharat” and how there were established trade links. There have been evidences that as far as 1500 BCE people in Indus valley were trading with people in Egypt, persia and africa. But none of the texts mentioned any sort of invasion from Central Asia.
- Mentioning a very nice post by Ranjiv Kurup who states that most of the Indian population seems to have originated from Indus valley people.
- One of the arguments given by proponents of Aryan Invasion theory is that there is similarities in languages between Indic and European languages. But that could possibly have happened because of outwardly movement of population from Indus valley
- Other argument given is the mention of horses in Vedic texts and no artefacts of horses found in Indus valley. But recent discoveries in Sinhauli also debunks the theory.
So basis so many observations made by people who have been studying Ancient Indian history, it is quite evident that Aryan Invasion theory is full of holes and was enforced upon the Indians to prove a point on white supremacy.
O'Santorini 