We were talking about the Vedas which are considered to be the repositories of knowledge.
If there is some repository of knowledge, the obvious inference is that it was composed by someone or by a group of people. But the adherents of the Vedas claim that the Vedas are apaurushEya – which means that they were not composed by anyone.
If we look around in the ancient world, we have the ancient Biblical scriptures which were either written down by various prophets or sometimes dictated by the God himself. The Persian God Ahura Mazda dictated their sacred books to Zarathustra. Quran was dictated by Allah to prophet Mohamad. Buddhist scriptures were collection of Buddha’s discourses. So, there has to be someone to whom we can trace the origins of any scripture. How can the Indians say that their scriptures had no composers!
One of the well-known commentators of the Vedas in recent times, namely Sayana argues at length to justify this claim. He clarifies that the names of people mentioned in the Vedas were only meant to illustrate some idea. Even the name of a sage associated with some Mantras was not really the author of those Mantras. These sages just ‘visualized’ those mantras when they were in deep state of meditation. They did not compose them. They merely discovered the Mantras which always existed!
On the other hand, we have several western historians who argue that the Vedas were actually composed by some nomadic tribes called Aryans who invaded India and settled there, may be 3000 years ago. This is the well-known, and now well contested, theory called the Aryan invasion theory.
According to these historians, these Aryan tribes originally were from central Asia. They were the forefathers of many of the European communities. Some of these people moved westwards and became Europeans. And some moved eastwards and conquered northern parts of India driving away the original aborigines to southern India. It is these Aryans who actually composed the Vedas since they were more advanced than the tribal who inhabited India till that time.
What is the basis of this theory?
The propounders of this Aryan Invasion theory offered following reasons why they felt so.
1. The language in which these Vedas were written was very similar to the languages spoken by many communities in Europe and it was quite different from the language spoken by the original people of India.2. The original Indians were not so advanced to have composed such vast scriptures which needed some scholarship. They were primitive people.3. If we see the people in India today, north Indians are relatively fair complexioned like the ‘whites’ of Europe as compared to the dark-skinned south Indians who were the original people of India.4. There is evidence of Vedic like culture that existed long ago in central Asia, more specifically in Iran. They too had scriptures very similar to the Vedas.
Max muller a Germany born British philologist is often credited with this theory which has many supporters even to this day both outside as well as within India.
And when did this invasion or migration take place, if at all?
These historians pegged the lower bound of this migration to 1500 years before Christ. Apparently, the reasons were more based on religious beliefs rather than any archeological finds. The reasons sound quite absurd today. But many believe that that was the reason for fixing this lower bound.
According to the Biblical belief, God created the earth around 4500 years ago. But centuries after he created the humans. God was quite unhappy with them and he brought about floods that almost destroyed the world. Only Noah and his family were spared. Noah was asked to escape in a ship along with his people. Everything else was destroyed. This is a well-known story which surprisingly has parallels in many other cultures. India has similar story of Manu.
After saving Noah and destroying rest of the bad guys, the flood receded and normalcy returned.
There was an interesting consequence. Any civilization that existed before the flood could not have survived the floods. Any new civilization has to be post flood. Composing big books like the Vedas will surely take centuries, if not more. So, the Vedas must have been composed at least 500 years after the floods.
Just back calculate. You will arrive at the magic dating of 3500 or 1500 B.C. for the composition of the Vedas, no matter who composed them! Since there was none who survived the flood except the Noah’s clan, they must be the Aryans who later migrated to India. They were also the authors of the Vedas since the aboriginals of India could not have written them.
On the face of it, this story sounds quite absurd. I can’t believe that a scholar like Max muller would have put forward such a dating. But even today many of the researchers of Indology both outside as well as within India keep quoting this date.
Were the Vedas really composed by some invading nomads? We will see this in the next episode.
A series discussing the most ancient of the Indian scriptures, nay the world scriptures namely the Vedas. © Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2021
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