Veda04- Did some barbaric nomads compose the Vedas?

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Ruins of Indus valley civilization

 

We were discussing about the authorship of the ancient Vedas of India. One of the theories that were proposed was that of some barbaric nomads called Aryans who invaded India around 3500 years ago. It was they who composed the Vedas.

 

This theory has many supporters even today, however ridiculous its basis may sound. Especially in southern India, there are many people who identify themselves as the original inhabitants of India. They blame these Aryans as the people who subjugated them and drove them away from their homeland, namely Northern India. Some well-known Gurus from Southern India with a large following, fuel these sentiments.

 

But of late, there is substantial opposition to this theory from many Indian scholars. They give the following reasons to justify their opposition.

 

1. India was not really ‘primitive’ as these Aryan invasion theorists portray. The 5000 year old Indus valley civilization of Northern India and Pakistan is well known. They were very advanced civilizations unparalleled by any in the west in those times. Even recently, new archeological evidences are found in the Indian state of Gujarat that suggest existence of advanced civilization older than 9000 years.
   
2. Lot of new sites are discovered along the river bed of ancient river Saraswati whose mention is made in several places in the Vedas. The Hindus of India even today revere this river Saraswati as “Gupta Gaamini” a river that flows secretly. This river which might have been a mighty river in Vedic times is almost extinct today leaving behind only some satellite traceable river tracks. Geological study of these river beds at various layers indicate that this river dried several thousands of years ago. That pushes back the age of composition of the Vedas by several thousands of years.
3. One of the claims of the Aryan Invasion theorists was that the Aryans came to India on horseback. They say that horses were not indigenous to India and brought by the invading Aryans. Since mentions about horses are found in the Vedas, they say that these Vedas could not have been written by the indigenous people. But recently, horse skeletons are fond in archeological sites that dated much before the supposed Aryan invasion. The Archeologists have also confirmed that these horses were indigenous and not the ones that are found in central Asia.
4. DNA studies of skeletal remains found in some tombs of thousands of year-old archeological sites have confirmed that these DNAs match more with other Indians than that of people in central Asia. These archeological sites housed advanced and well-planned cities. And the conclusion was that the inhabitants of these cities were Indians and not some invading outsiders.
5. The claim of the Aryan invasion theorists that the languages spoken by the North Indian people are closer to Sanskrit than the languages of the south India, is also rebuffed. Even south Indian languages like Tamil which are often projected as the language of the original inhabitants of India, is supposed to contain 40% Sanskrit words.
6. Opposers of Aryan invasion theory have ridiculed the idea of skin color as a marker of ethnicity. The invasion theorists say that Aryans were white and that is the reason why North Indians are whiter than the southern Indians. The genetic experts among opposers point out that skin color has nothing do with any ethnicity. They say that it is only due to the adaptation of genes to climatic conditions. According to them, the so called ‘whites’ in Europe were originally black before they settled down in cold countries.
7. Some vocal opposers also list out astronomical events recorded in the Vedas to prove the antiquity of the Vedas. They back calculate the time of composition of these Vedas to as back as astounding 27000 years based on some of these events recorded in the Vedas.

 

 

Both within and outside India there are very vocal groups who harp on their respective viewpoints and finds, denigrating the finding of the other. The same find is sometimes interpreted differently depending on which bandwagon the person is. More than the love for knowing the truth, there seems to be many a hidden political agenda.

 

So, it is a highly debated issue. Ordinary people get totally confused by these arguments. I am not an expert in any of these specialized fields. But my study of ancient Vedic literature prevents me from concluding that whoever composed them were some barbaric invaders. They seem to be highly evolved people no matter where they are actually from.

 

Traditional Indians don’t care about any of these arguments. They firmly believe that the Vedas were not composed but only rediscovered by great sages when they were in deep states of meditation. They recognize sage Vyasa as someone who gathered what was a mass of ancient literature and classified them into Vedas as we find them today. And this Vyasa who is also the author of the great Indian Epic Mahabharata, is traditionally believed to have lived 5000 years ago in India.

 

There is an interesting counter to the Aryan invasion theory. We will discuss that 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