As a friend correctly pointed out - we can't study history now. That's because it would take too much time to reach a level where you could even call it your hobby. Then again, by those standards, most of us can't discuss current affairs either. But we can still listen to our music. Society accepts that we don't need to justify our choice of music to the others - we can just "do our own thing". Ancient India is also just my own thing - I can't justify it by corroborating, cross-examining or validating what any author says. I have not given it time. But for Ancient India, I am willing to be the brash teenager with headphones plugged into his ears, paying little attention to the sage advice being given by Old Uncle John to the driver of the public bus. You can share my headphones too and decide for yourselves if this is your thing too.
Ramakrishnan Srinivasan is a man of varied interests, has worked as an engineer, management consultant and industrialist and has authored books on philosophy and religion. It seems he has spent a decade researching ancient history. His book is titled History of Ancient India and has been published by the Art of Living, Sri Sri Publications Trust. It is a must read for everyone who feels that Indian history as in our textooks is a bit incomplete; that we are probably a much older civilization and that there's something wrong with the idea that the Aryans were just invaders from the mid-west. The book tells us that there was no Aryan invasion ever, that the saptarshi era started way before the Harappan civilization, that the Harappan culture was an integral part of the development of the Aryan culture in India, that the evidence much more favors a migration of Aryans from India to the west (rather than the other way around), and that all this probably started in the now-submerged area of Kumari Khanda, south of cape Comorin, in what is today the Indian Ocean. The book is replete with references to and quotations from both Indian and Western historians, most of whom have no doubt that it is time to say farewell to the Aryan invasion theory (AIT), and some of whom have concluded that Kumari Khanda, south of current India, was indeed the cradle of modern civilisation. Below are a few salient points, chapter by chapter.
Ch. 1: Prologue
1. Indian people were praised highly by Megasthenes, Huen Tsang, Abul Fazl and several other travellers for being honest, straightforward and just. If modern reality is different, the invaders and their culture have a lot to do with it.
2. India was not only very rich in flora and fauna, it was also the source of most of the famous legends in other countries. Most European languages have been derived from Sanskrit and Max Muller himself wrote that the Indian was the most ancient civilization known.
3. Not only does Ancient Tamil literature contain numerous references to Tamilians migrating to the north, this is also accepted now in various encyclopedic works, e.g., Bhavan's series on History and Culture of the Indian people. While ancient tools have been found in almost every part of India and the question can't be easily resolved,the findings from the pre-laterite boulder conglomerate in Vadamadurai and the favourable climate in the region lend support to the theory that early man in India originated in South India and migrated towards Punjab at the close of the first ice age. Linguistic and cultural evidence also points to this. The brahui language in Baluchistan is Dravidian. The Aryan language, rituals and mythology show a clear Dravidian influence. The seals found in the Mohenjodaro-Harappa region appear to be Tamil, to Henry Heras, who has been quoted and supported by many other historians too. The Harappan civilization is widely held to have been constituted by Dravidian and Austric people.
4. Tamil is the oldest known language, and the oldest available text - Tolkappiam, written by Tolkappiar - is believed to be older than Panini's Sanskrit grammar. While Tolkappiam refers to many older books too, including the grammar wriiten by Tolkappiar's guru, Agasthyar, these books are no longer available today, except for a rew references and quotations in books like Tolkappiam. Importantly, there is no literature avaliable describing life prior to the last ice age, so our knowledge of civilization (and languages) is mostly restricted to that after, say, 10,000 BCE. Based on what's available in literature today, Tamil seems to be the oldest language.
5. None of this means, however, that the Aryans were outsiders or invaders, Arya was a name given to the elite. The rishis of the Vedas, who lived in the Himalayas and Vindhyas, were respected and advanced people. Their forbears in later generations were called Brahmins. Many of the Brahmins were Tamilians and in any case, they were all indigenous people. (Earlier, there was a lot of movement of people from one occupation to the other too.) The Vedas have many references to the Saraswati river flowing in full spate. This river, according to modern evidence, had dried up by 1900 BCE. The verses of the Vedas are therefore at least from 3000 BCE if not earlier. No question of them being written by invaders who arrived around 1500 BCE. The Aryan invasion theory seems to have been perpetrated by the colonial rulers for their own interests, Today, with more than 100 years of additional evidence, most historians have discarded it. In fact, the whole concept of race is under question these days, because skin color and many such variations are merely climatic influences. The race theory may perpetrate the wrong belief that the Dravidians suffered at the hands of the Aryans who drove them down south. None of this is backed by evidence. As the book brings out in subsequent chapters, there may have been entry into and exit from this ancient civilization, possibly at times due to some people being unable to fit into the pattern of the elite, but none of it supports the idea of outsife invasions and subjugation of the local populace by a cruel elite.
Ch. 2: Introduction
This chapter presents a bit more evidence in favor of Aryans migrating west, rather than being of western origin. To continue with the one people theme, the existence in society of four kinds of occupations mentioned in the Tolkappiam itself has been highlighted.The author also shows how these four strata were not water-tight compartments at that time. The present names of these "varnas" seem to have been given by the Jains much later. The names in Tolkappiam are: Vediars, Vendars, Vanigars and Vellalars. A quotation from the RigVeda has been given which says that no one is superior or inferior and that all are brothers and should strive for collective progress. Additionally, it mentions that the way the Aryan invasion theory (AIT) needs to be discarded, another change needed is to discard a Harappa centric approach to ancient India. However, not much is said in this chapter about the latter point. The story of Lemuria, or Kumari Khanda of Tamil literature, is introduced only in subsequent chapters.
Ch. 3: The Myth of an Aryan Race
This chapter again focuses more on the evidence for Indian Aryans migrating to the West and on the proof for the Aryans and Dravidians being one people from the same culture. Several historians attest to the continuity of Indian culture right since 8000 BCE and to the lack of any evidence of any outside culture coming in and subjugating a local civilization in the pre- Christian era. The Aryans or Devas were the early homo sapiens, born of Indian hominid parents, who had discovered fire and used to keep wood burning near themselves all the time. Over time, they mingled with the rest of the groups and tried to lead the others into their way of life. Some of these illustrious ones conducted research into different areas, like medicine, agriculture and technology too and thus retained a prominent position in the larger group. Later, they decided to migrate and make the entire world Aryan. Surely there were groups who broke away or joined in, but none of that matches with the picture of a barbaric tribe of invaders painted by the AIT.
Ch. 4: True Perspective of History
1. Genetic studies bring out only two major groups with the Indian people - those closer to the North Indian type have similarities with many groups in Europe and Asia. However, those who are closer to the South Indian type are not similar to any groups outside India. The Southern type is older and dated to about 65000 yrs ago, while the other group dates back to about 45000 yrs ago. While some experts believe that the Southerners may have been the earliest human migrants from Africa, it is also possible that they may have been a proper Indian group. Either way, early Indian humans were settled more in the south. A 1976 study of Afric, India and the Mediterranean shows that only in India (the Shivaliks) do the genes of apes and modern men match. So it is also possible that even the earliest humans evolved in the Indian subcontinent. From there on, coming to civilization after the last ice age, there is ample evidence for historians to aver that the resemblance between Aryans and Europeans is likely to have been due to westward migration of Aryans from India to the west, and not the other way round.
2. Much more difficult to explain is the striking similarity in the scripts of Harappa, Easter Island and other South American civilizations in Peru and Bolivia. Ancient legends from these areas all refer to technology coming to them from a far more advanced civilization. For a while, some experts hypothesized that this advanced civilization called Lemuria could have been in the Pacific ocean, Ramakrishna Srinivasan says that any such civilization must meet some conditions - it should have some references in ancient literature, its script should also be similar to the scripts in newer colonies, it should have had large seafaring capabilities (boats that could take 200 people or so at a time), there should be connecting links to the later civilizations in the form of pottery, pyramids, etc. When all such considerations are kept in mind, he says, Kumari Khanda, south of the present Indian subcontinent, turns out to be the hands down winner as the candidate for Lemuria or Mu, as it was also called by some older groups. The Pacific theory seems far fetched. No evidence of ancient pottery there, nor anything to prove that there was a large continent there which later submerged, and local legends in the Pacific island theselves talk of some other homeland from where their technology was received. In Kumari, we have all of this. Western theories even a hundred years ago were unwilling to allow a non-Weatern cradle for even the post ice age civilization, for fear that it may diminish the status of Christianity by pointing to eastern civilizations which were more advanced. This is another factor which has led to only a gradual acceptance of the possibility that in the world after the last ice age, an eastern continent may have helped the entire world develop culture and science.
3. Ancient Indians talked of three main landmasses and seven continents. Sakadweep, one of the seven continents, is mentioned to be south of Cape Comorin in the Bhavishya Puran, and is supposed to have been named after Saka (teak wood) trees there. It is notable that teak was one of the top exports of the Tamils in ancient times. A "Chart of the World" dated 1886, kept in a museum in Honululu shows a large continent to the south of present India, spreading up to Madagascar in the west and to Fiji in the east. The name of the island is Lemuria, Oppenheimer and others mention that Lemuria submerged into the sea in three large convulsions, the last having occured around 1628 BCE, which completely submerged the continent, This is exactly the account in Tamil literature too. With each major convulsion, a part of the Kumari continent submerged, and due to this, the Tamil Sangams (literary conferences) had to be moved north successively. Literature available starts from only the third Sangam, but the first two find ample mention in the available literature. The Lemurians had advanced to the level where they did not prefer to take successive births to work out the mistakes of their past lives.Rather, they worked out their remaining "karma" in another plane beyond earth. This is similar to the Hindu (yogic) idea of jeevanmuktas, who could move out of the cycle of rebirths by self realization. Not surprisingly, therefore, some western authorities are also now convinced of Kumari being the submerged Lemuria. What's more, authors like Frank Joseph, who had earlier considered Lemuria to be in the Pacific, have changed their positions in letters written to colleagues when the additional evidence was brought to their notice.
4. Just a few weeks ago, there were press reports that geologists have recently confirmed that Maldives is just the tip of a large island in the Indian ocean, which today lies submerged. This was in response to evidence put forth in 2012 by geologists from Maldives, which brought the attention of the scientific community back to this question. This piece is of course not in Srinivasan's book, because the book was published in 2015 itself. However, Srinivasan quotes older studies which support the idea that there are islands which were once at sea level in the Indian ocean, which have now submerged. In the reports a few weeks ago, it was mentioned that the extent of this submerged continent is not clea yet, but it is clear that there was a larger landmass around Maldives, a continent which is not seen today.
This, then, is the true historical perspective friends - as put forth by Ramakrishnan Srinivasan. Kumari Khandam is the birthplace at least of modern technology and culture, from where it spread north to Harappa, Punjab, and then to Europe and Asia. It may or may not have been the birthplace of modern humans. The Aryans were the elite or the shininig stars of this evolving mix of northern and southern Indians, and this began at least around 8000 BCE. The same culture also sent its emissaries (or, perhaps had to send, due to natural calamities) to North and South America as well. Maybe in another discussion, we will look at the next few chapters of the book as well, where the spread of Aryans from the West and the idea of a composite Indian civilization, from which there may have been some exits due to conflicts too, has been further supported by literary, linguistic and archeological evidence.
Sadanand Tutakne
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