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Vedic texts contain interesting astronomical lore. The Vedic calendar was based upon astronomical sightings of the equinoxes and solstices which change periodically owing to the precession of the earth on its axis. Such texts as Vedanga Jyotish(*38) speak of a time when the vernal equinox was in the middle of the constellation (Nakshatra) Aslesha (a point about 23 degrees 20 minutes Cancer). This would have occurred around 1400 BC. Many Brahmanas, and the Yajur and Atharva Vedas speak of the vernal equinox in the Krittikas (Pleiades; early Taurus) and the summer solstice (ayana) in Magha (early Leo).(*39) This yields a date of around 2500 BC. Yet earlier astronomical eras than these are mentioned but these two have numerous references to substantiate them. They prove that the Vedic culture existed at the time of the Harappan culture and already had a sophisticated system of astronomy.

Such references were merely ignored or pronounced unintelligible by Western scholars because they yielded too early a date for the Vedas than what was presumed, not because such references did not exist. One point raised by Western scholars was that there was nothing archeological to substantiate such positions and the dates reveal. Now we see there is indeed that archeological evidence through the Harappan or Sarasvati civilization.

Had such astronomical references been found in ancient Greek texts, we might add, they would have been hailed as great scientific achievements, among the greatest of ancient humanity. It is only because they occurred in Hindu texts that they have not been given proper credit. On the contrary we are told that the Hindus were unscientific, which has often been an excuse to ignore the scientific achievements mentioned in the Vedas.

Recently Subhash Kak has also discovered an astronomical code in the structure of the Rig Veda that shows a knowledge of the periods of the planets, as well as reflecting a location for the hymns around 22 degrees north, or the point where the Sarasvati used to enter the ocean.(*40)

Painted Grey Ware

One of the more recent archeological ideas is that the Vedic culture is evidenced by Painted Grey Ware pottery in north India, which appears to date around 1000 BC and was found in the same region between the Ganges and Yamuna as later Vedic culture is related to. It is thought to be an inferior grade of pottery and to be associated with the use of iron that the Vedas are thought to mention. However, it is associated with a pig and rice culture, not the cow and barley culture of the Vedas. Moreover it is now found to be an organic development of indigenous pottery, not an introduction of invaders.

Painted Grey Ware culture represents an indigenous cultural development and does not reflect any cultural intrusion from the West, that is, an Indo-Aryan invasion. Therefore, there is no archeological evidence corroborating the fact of an Indo-Aryan invasion.(*41)

Painted Grey Ware is associated with sites that occur after the drying up of the Sarasvati river, which further indicates its post-Vedic nature.

In addition, the Aryans in the Middle East, most notably the Hittites, have now been found to have been in that region at least as early as 2200 BC, wherein they are already mentioned in Sumerian literature. In fact they derived their script from that of the third dynasty of Sumeria. Any Aryan invasion into the Middle East has been pushed back some centuries, though the evidence so far is that the people of the mountain regions of the Middle East were Indo-Europeans as far as recorded history can be traced.

The Indo-European Kassites of the ancient Middle East worshipped Vedic Gods like Surya and the Maruts, as well as one named Himalaya. The Hittites and Mittani signed a treaty with the name of the Vedic Gods - Indra, Mitra, Varuna and Nasatyas - around 1400 BC. The Hittites have a treatise on chariot racing written in almost pure Sanskrit. The Indo-Europeans of the ancient Middle East spoke Indo-Aryan, not Indo-Iranian languages and thereby show a Vedic culture in that region of the world as well.(*42) This shows that Vedic culture extended from India to Anatolia by 2000 BC.

When the Linear B of the Minoan Script, dating from 1500-1100 BC, was deciphered it proved to be an earlier form of the Greek language. This has pushed the Greek presence in Greece back to 2000 or even 3000 BC, changing the Aryan entrance into this region back many centuries. It may well be that the early Minoan culture spoke a Greek or Indo-European language.

As there is no longer any invasion of Aryan peoples into Greece and the Middle East around 1500 BC, and as their presence in the region must be pushed back probably a thousand years or more, there is no necessity to make an Aryan invasion of India at this time to coincide along with it. On the contrary if the Aryan entrance into these regions must be pushed back, so must their entry into India.

The Indus Valley culture had a form of writing, evidenced by numerous seals found in the ruins. On the assumption of the Aryan invasion it was assumed to be non-Vedic and probably Dravidian, though this was never proved. Now it has been shown that the majority of the late Indus signs are identical with those of early Brahmi, the oldest Sanskritic script, and that there is an organic development between the two scripts. The scripts show a continuity which suggests that they reflect the same language and culture.

Prevalent models, primarily the work of Subhash Kak, show an Indo-European basis for that language.(*43) This is based on a discovery that the script uses a genitive (possessive) case, which is typical of Indo-European but not Dravidian languages. However there are not yet long enough inscriptions to guarantee a proper decipherment. Based upon the location of the culture Subhash Kak is suggesting that the script be renamed "Sarasvati script."

According to proponents of the Aryan invasion theory the only thing that really marks the Aryans is their language. No other specific cultural trait or artefact can be clearly related to them. Yet even here we have a paradox. Sanskrit is supposed to be the language of primitive invaders and yet it is, by the opinion of many, one of if not the most refined language in the world. It has been regarded as the best language for computers because of its clarity. It is also a highly self-contained language developing organically out of specific roots, quite unlike English which is a mixture of various different languages like old German, Danish and French, with an admixture of Greek and Latin, reflecting a land that was invaded by many different peoples.

Moreover Sanskrit is a highly musical and metrical language. It possesses the oldest and most sophisticated grammatical science, going back to a period before the Buddha to the time of Panini and before, as he mentions several older grammatical traditions, some of which can be found in Vedic texts. Even the oldest Sanskrit, that of the Rig Veda, is done in complex meters and filled with various sophisticated plays on the sounds of words. It is a language filled with synonyms indicating a long and rich development. Above all it has an entire mysticism of sound, mantra and the Divine Word.

In other words Sanskrit does not appear as the legacy of barbarian hordes but that of an old, venerable, sophisticated poetic culture. Such a language requires a culture to produce it. This refined language fits quite well with the refined culture of Harappa but not with that of the Aryan invasion.

Under the idea that all civilization came from the Middle East, it was assumed that Harappan culture derived its impetus from the Middle East, probably Sumeria. Recent French excavations have shown that all the antecedents of the Indus culture can found within the Indian subcontinent going back before 6500 BC as revealed by the Mehrgarh site near the Bolan Pass in Pakistan. Mehrgarh is the largest village/town culture of its period anywhere in the world and develops into the Indus culture by a series of stages, showing the evolution of agriculture and arts and crafts typical of Harappa.(*44)

In short, Western scholars are also beginning to reject the Aryan invasion or any outside oRigin for Hindu civilization:

Current archaeological data do not support the existence of an Indo-Aryan or European invasion into South Asia at any time in the pre-or protohistoric periods. Instead, it is possible to document archaeologically a series of cultural changes reflecting indigenous cultural development from prehistoric to historic periods.

The Indo-Aryan invasion as an academic concept in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe reflected the cultural milieu of the period. Linguistic data were used to validate the concept that in turn was used to interpret archaeological and anthropological data.(*45)

The idea of the Aryan invasion was the product of linguistic speculation and archeological data was twisted into that model. Now the archeological data is shown either not to fit the theory or the date ascribed to it, while the literary evidence (the Vedas) never did. Even scholars who are still postulating a common Aryan homeland in Europe or Central Asia are making the period of diffusion from it from 4000 to 6000 BC, or early enough to allow an entry of Indo-Aryans into India before the beginning of the Harappan culture.

Colin Renfrew, places the Indo-Europeans in Greece as early as 6000 BC. He suggests such a possible early date for their entry into India as well:

As far as I can see there is nothing in the Hymns of the Rig Veda which demonstrates that the Vedic-speaking population were intrusive to the area: this comes rather from a historical assumption of the "coming of the Indo-Europeans."(*46)

When Wheeler speaks of "the Aryan invasion of the Land of the Seven Rivers, the Punjab," he has no warranty at all, so far as I can see. If one checks the dozen references in the Rig Veda to the Seven Rivers, there is nothing in them that to me implies an invasion: the land of the Seven Rivers is the land of the Rig Veda, the scene of action.(*47)

Despite Wheeler's comments, it is difficult to see what is particularly non-Aryan about the Indus Valley civilization.(*48)

Renfrew suggests that the Indus Valley civilization was in fact Indo-Aryan:

This hypothesis that early Indo-European languages were spoken in north India with Pakistan and on the Iranian plateau at the sixth millennium BC has the merit of harmonizing symmetrically with the theory for the oRigin of the Indo-European languages in Europe. It also emphasizes the continuity in the Indus Valley and adjacent areas from the early neolithic through to the floruit of the Indus Valley civilization.(*49)

In addition, it does not mean that the Rig Veda dates from the Harappan era. Harappan culture resembles that of the Yajur Veda and the Brahmanas, or the later Vedic era. If anything the Rig Veda appears to reflect the pre-Indus period in India, when the Sarasvati river was more prominent.

The New Model of ancient India that has emerged from the collapse of the Aryan invasion theory is that of an indigenous development of civilization in ancient India from the Mehrgarh site of 6500 BC. The people in this tradition are the same basic ethnic groups as in India today, with their same basic types of languages Indo-European and Dravidian. There is a progressive process of the domestication of animals, particularly cattle, the development of agriculture, beginning with barley and then later wheat and rice, and the use of metal, beginning with copper and culminating in iron, along with the development villages and towns. Later Harappan (Sarasvati) civilization 3100-1900 BC shows massive cities, complex agriculture and metallurgy, sophistication of arts and crafts, and precision in weights and measures. This Sarasvati civilization was a center of trading and for the diffusion of civilization throughout south and west Asia, which often dominated the Mesopotamian region.

Post-Harappan civilization 1900-1000 BC shows the abandonment of the Harappan towns owing to ecological and river changes but without a real break in the continuity of the culture. There is a decentralization and relocation in which the same basic agricultural and artistic traditions continue, along with a few significant urban sites like Dwaraka. This gradually develops into the Gangetic civilization of the first millennium BC, which is the classical civilization of ancient India, which retains its memory of its oRigin in the Sarasvati region through the Vedas.

The layers of Vedic literature fit in perfectly well with this sequence:

1. 6500-3100 BC, Pre-Harappan, early Rig Vedic

2. 3100-1900 BC, Mature Harappan 3100-1900, period of the Four Vedas

3. 1900-1000 BC, Late Harappan, late Vedic and Brahmana period

The sequence of development in the literature does not parallel a migration into India but the historical development of civilization in India from the Sarasvati to the Ganges.

We have examined the Aryan invasion theory and seen how it has continually failed to prove itself. It has tried to readjust itself to new evidence that has gradually undermined it and now leaves nothing left to hold it up. Therefore we must look at the history of India and the world in the light of the collapse of the invasion theory. The acceptance of a Vedic nature to Harappan and pre-Harappan civilization creates a revolution in our view of history, not just of India but of the entire world.

First it equates Indo-European peoples with one of the largest and oldest of ancient civilizations not in Europe or the Middle East but in South Asia. The idea that the Indo-Europeans were originally nomads or primitive in culture and took over civilization from the people of the Middle East is thereby called into question. The Indo-Europeans appear as early and independent inventors of civilization of a sophisticated urban basis by the third millennium BC. This suggests a greater antiquity and sophistication for other Indo-European cultures, those of Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. The origins of European culture may lie not with the ancient Greeks but with the Hindus and be found in the Vedas, not as the record of nomadic Indo-European culture but of early Indo-European urban civilization.

Second it turns the ancient Vedas of India into an authentic record of a culture at least as old as the third millennium BC. As the Vedic literary record is very large, it indicates that we retain a priceless treasure, a well preserved literary record from our ancient ancestors over four thousand years old, complete with accents and commentaries. The Vedas are chanted by Brahmins today much as they were over four thousand years ago in the Indus-Sarasvati culture. We could only compare this to the condition if ancient Egyptian teachings still being chanted today in modern Egypt. This means that the Vedas should be examined by all people who wish to truly understand ancient humanity. It requires a reexamination of the Vedas and taking their statements seriously when they speak of the vastness and sophisticated nature of their culture.

Third it makes Vedic India perhaps the oldest, largest and most central of the world's cultures. Some have proposed that the Harappan culture is the oldest in the world because of its size and uniformity. That this culture was able to preserve its continuity would add much weight to the argument. This would require that we must reexamine Vedic India to understand the root of civilization from which we have developed, or perhaps fallen.

In this regard the great Dravidian and Munda (aboriginal) connections inherent in the Vedas and in ancient India need to be examined. Not only does this reinterpretation of the Vedas push Indo-European civilization back further, it also breaks down the divide between Indo-European and other cultures. Vedic literature may therefore allow us to link up many ancient cultures and see the greater commonality of ancient civilization.

Fourth it indicates that traditional literature and ancient calendars all over the world have to be taken more seriously, not only Hindu but Chinese, Mayan and others. It shows that the ancients are not as bad historians as we have thought, but that we are bad interpreters of their literature. It would require a totally different look at the ancient world.

In closing, it is important to examine the social and political implications of the Aryan invasion idea:

First it served to divide India into a northern Aryan and southern Dravidian culture which were made hostile to each other. This kept the Hindus divided and is still a source of social tension. It created the ideas of an Aryan and a Dravidian "race" in India as two distinct entities, even though there never was any real scientific basis for this idea.

Second, it gave the British an excuse for their conquest of India. They could claim to be doing only what the Aryan ancestors of the Hindus had previously done millennia ago. This same justification could be used by the Muslims or any other invaders of India.

Third, it served to make Vedic culture later than and possibly derived from the Middle Eastern. It made the ancient civilization of India fragmented, with the Harappan culture mysteriously disappearing without a trace, making the development of civilization in India appear broken. With the proximity and relationship of Middle Eastern civilization with the Bible and Christianity, this kept the Hindu religion as a sidelight to the development of religion and civilization in the West.

Fourth, it allowed the sciences of India to be given a Greek basis, as any Vedic basis for sciences like astronomy was largely disqualified by the primitive nature of the Vedic culture (even though the Vedas commonly mention sophisticated mathematical and astronomical data). This served to make Indian culture subservient to that of Greece and Europe.

Fifth, it gave the Marxists a good basis for projecting their class struggle model of society on to India, with the invading Brahmins oppressing the indigenous Shudras (lower castes). Even today the invasion theory is used to inflame the sentiments of the backward classes in India against the Brahmins who, by this idea, originally invaded India and conquered and enslaved the indigenous population and turned them into Shudras.

The Aryan invasion theory discredited not only the Vedas, but the genealogies of the Puranas, and their long lists of kings before the Buddha or Krishna were left without any historical basis (or somehow turned into pre-Vedic or non-Aryan people). The Mahabharata, instead of a civil war in which all the main kings of India participated as it is described, became a local skirmish among petty princes that was later exaggerated by poets. In short, the Aryan invasion theory discredited the most of the Hindu tradition and almost all its ancient literature. It turned its scriptures and sages into fantasies and exaggerations.

This served a social, political and economic purpose of domination, proving the superiority of Western culture, religion, or political systems and the Aryan invasion theory was often quoted for this purpose. It makes Hindus feel that their culture is not the great thing that their sages and ancestors had said it was. It causes them to feel ashamed of their culture - that its basis is neither historical nor scientific but only imaginary, while being actually rooted in invasion and oppression. It makes them feel that the main line of civilization was developed first in the Middle East and then in Europe and that the culture of India is peripheral and secondary to the real development of world culture. Such a view does not appear to be good scholarship or archaeological proof but only cultural imperialism. Western Vedic scholars did in the intellectual sphere what the British army did in the political realm - discredit, divide and conquer the Hindus.

Unfortunately those challenging the theory, even on the most objective archeological grounds like the rediscovery of the Sarasvati river, have been accused of political motives, often by the very groups who have been using the invasion theory for their own political advantage, like Marxists thinkers in India. Those rejecting the Aryan invasion may even be called "communal" for bringing out evidence that may give pride to the majority community in India.

In short, the compelling reasons for the Aryan invasion theory were neither literary or archeological but political and religious - that is to say, not scholarship but prejudice. Such prejudice may not have been intentional but deep-seated political and religious views easily cloud and blur our thinking. We are only now learning to examine our cultural prejudices in looking at the world. This is one of the great necessities of the global era. That nineteenth century views of history may be as biased or out of date as nineteenth century views of science or politics should not surprise us.

What has happened in India, the misinterpretation of its ancient history and a new move to restore validity to it, is reflected in much of the new archeology developing throughout the world, particularly when native people take up the task of interpreting their own history. The misinterpretation of the Vedas was part of a general inability to understand or recognize ancient cultures outside of the Middle East (in fact many of these were also misinterpreted). We can expect new discoveries in other parts of the world showing a greater antiquity and sophistication to a number of cultures.

Unfortunately the Eurocentric approach of the Aryan invasion theory has not been questioned more, particularly by Hindus. Strangely, even the anti-colonial Marxists have taken it up this colonial view as their own. Even though Indian Vedic scholars like Dayananda Sarasvati, Tilak and Aurobindo rejected it, most Hindus today passively accept it. They allow Western, often Christian scholars to interpret their history for them and quite naturally Hinduism is kept in a reduced role. Many Hindus still accept, read or even honor the translations of the Vedas done by such nineteenth century Christian missionary scholars as Muller, Griffith, Monier-Williams and H.H. Wilson. Would modern Christians accept an interpretation of the Bible or Biblical history done by Hindus aimed at converting them to Hinduism? Universities in India still use these Western history books and Western Vedic translations that propound these views which denigrate their own culture and country.

The modern Western academic world is sensitive to criticisms of cultural and social biases. For scholars to take a stand against this biased interpretation of the Vedas would indeed cause a reexamination of many of these historical ideas which cannot stand objective scrutiny. But if Hindu scholars are silent or passively accept the misinterpretation of their culture, it will undoubtedly continue, but they will have no one to blame but themselves. It is not an issue to be taken lightly because how a culture is defined historically creates the perspective from which it is viewed in the modern social and intellectual context all over the world. Tolerance is not in allowing a false view of ones own culture and religion to be propagated without question. That is merely self-betrayal.