Once upon a time in India - I
(All the claims in this article are purely based on guesswork and my imagination to solve mysterious history of IVC (Indus Valley Civilization) and Vedic civilization, and do not depend on any sources but wiki. Third Party citation needed along with expert comments on History of India!)
It all lies in Source Dude... All is in source! Somebody said. (No ... not somebody, its always Google ... whenever dumb engineers like you stuck ... you search around for Source ... :D kidding). It happened on a lonely Thanksgiving weekend ... I was struck by a desire to search the roots! Roots of your family (Waw ... you alone in US searching for family roots somewhere way below in south konkan with internet .. gotta be kidding dud!) Dont worry guys ... my sub is so hopeless that it can hit someone and put him in tartarus! And in my search of roots I stumbled accross ... a link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitpavan#Origins)! A Bizzare claim that goes on like this :
*** The admixture and PC analyses reflected genetic association of Chitpavan-brahmin with Iranian, Ashkenazi-Jews (Turkey), Greeks (East Europe) and to some extent with Central Asian Turkish populations elucidating their distinct Nordic, “Scytho-Iranian” ancestry. The Caucasian link of Chitpavanbrahmin has also been inferred from biparental microsatellites variations. ****
This instantly rang bells into mind about widely disputed Theory of So called Aryan Invasion of India!!! Was it a oriental mind game played by Britishers to which dignitaries like Lokmanya fall? Someone may argue against it but... then ... What is the source of similarities between Latin/Greek and Sanskrit ( Guys I am not linguistic ... its just the claim found on another wiki ) Why is the word Arya described as a race with superiour qualitites both in India and in Europe (Although defamed by Hitler) ? So many questions along with these genetic similarities between well protected bloodlines of Indian Higher class ( am getting a feeling of writing dark lord's thoughts, Pure Blood :D !). Arguably everyone will agree that these lines (pompous Higher classes Indians) were fiercely protected on the basis of caste system. This system can provide details of the genetic tree or the grand design of human race evolution in Indian Subcontinent(chalo atleast kisi chij ke liye to useless caste system useful rahegi!)
Enough of guessworks dude ... Where is the proof except that in Genetic similarities why there is no such proof? If Aryans were so cultured, why nothing is been written down? Or atleast, why no volume depicts this invasion ... this so called theory? I always wondered, Indian mythological books provide so accurate depiction of starts and astronimical events, why all these other details are not recorded at all? And by the way, with the few scholers(http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/mahabharat/mahab_vartak.html) have used these events with most sophisticed softwares (????) to determine the date of the WAR which comes around to be 5561 B.C!!! Awesome! So India was populated before the Harrappa and Mohenjodero huh? I have started believing so ...
So where are the references ... no archiological sites ... no nothing ??? Can we expect to have ruins of this particular age in a country which inhibitated by us for so long? Its highly impossible. Definitely, there can be some ruins relics still around, but it will require an extensive search and money (:P Yeah!) So we will have to look into our historic documents to have some clues around!
And thats the goal of this blog series ... (I know I will be joining the wagan of lot of people going into Anals of History and trying to figure our roots! To the Source dude ... lets get going)
It all begining with Story of Kashyapa (Founder of Kashmir!)... (As the wiki(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashyapa) and stories told by my Granny, Kashyapa was an ancient sage, he was the father of the Devas, Asuras, Nagas and all of humanity. He married Aditi, with whom he fathered Agni, the Adityas, and most importantly Lord Vishnu took his fifth avtar as Vamana, the son of Aditi, in the seventh Manvantara(We are living in Seventh Manvantara!). With his second wife, Diti, he begot the Daityas. Diti and Aditi were daughters of King Daksha Prajapati and sisters to Sati (You must be knowing the Sati, story of Sati and ShivShankar ... Classic and Epic Poem of Love and Sacrifice and Revenge!... I dont know why Indian Movie makers always fly to Newyork to make love stories, when we have innumerable ones around!). But where's Manu, our great great ,.... great grand dad? Lets leave him ... and concentrate on Deva's and Daityas!
I dont have the details of how earth (Rather India I would say) was devided into these sons. But traditionally, If we look, Dev folks were residing in Heaven ... Somewhere Up (Hey, doesn't that mean North ??) and Danavas or Daityas somewhere down in Patala ... (South :D) and we humans descendents of Manu (BTW, I found that Manu descended from Vivasan son of Kashyap, and later known as Vaivasvata Manu, here is the entire geneology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikshvaku_dynasty including from Manu to Nanda's and Mauryas!) were in between ... somewhere thats on Prithvi! Living apart the sapta swargas and sapta patapals and prithvi, I dont want to get into mythological impllications but want to study everything as just human. If we look at this story, we can conclude that Deva and Danav were sons of Kashyap and Brothers in Blood! But yet somehow they became archenimies? Why? As all men goes with it, it must have been power! They must have wanted to control whole world for them and not leaving it for anyone else (So human!)
As the stories tell, somehow, Deva's were give Heavens and Daitya's were given Patala's. Looking at the glories that were in heaven, Daitya's started fighting for it! And the battles hornes began!
But, how's this related to Aryan Invasion theory? This is where the my gray cells start pouring my theories!
If we look at various incidences, described in Rigveda the story of Indra, Vritra, Sambara Nahusha and all, it looks like complete a push on Asur kingdoms from Humans lead by surs or devas downwards or southwards.
Here are some etimological and mythological references from Norse and Zorostrian streams which points to some interesting findings going in similar timelines with Vedic civilization.
1. In norse + German mythology Æsir/aesirs (similar to Asurs ??) were a group of gods opposing to another group of gods vanir (Varun ??? :D)! In Norse Mythology, which was restricted in Europe Vanir group was subdued (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86sir%E2%80%93Vanir_War)(or removed/displaced from this place?). These people had established early settlements from Russia, Germany to Scotland and Greenland refer Andronovo.
2. In Zorostrian, there is a story of Thraetaona who battles serpent Aži Dahaka (In Rigved, Vritra is also called Ahi!) who interestingly worship Rivers and has impregnable fortress like sambara's 99 fortress for Vritra. Mother of Vritra is Danu, Girl of Daksha and wife of Kashyapa and mother to all Danavas! And she's goddess of Rivers. As a word for "rain" or "liquid", danu is compared to Avestan danu "river", and further to river names like Don, Danube, Dneiper, Dniestr, etc. There is also a Danu river in Nepal.
3. In Zorostrian, a highly armoured god Verethragna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verethragna is described to have a arch enemy as Indra ... (Huh?).
4. Another and very important conincidence here is Haoma (Soma). In another episode, Viva?hat is the first of the humans to press haoma, for which Hom rewards him with a son, Jamshid. Yasna 9.3-11 has Zoroaster asking the divinity who (first) prepared haoma and for what reward, to which Haoma recalls Vivahngvant (Persian: Vivahat) to whom Yima Xshaeta (Jamshid) is born; Athwya (Abtin) to whom Thraetaona (Feredon) is born; and Thrita to whom Urvaxshaya and Keresaspa (Karshasp and Garshasp) are born. The latter two are also characters in priestly heroic tradition, and among conservative Zoroastrians of the hereditary priesthood, Haoma is still prayed to by those wanting children (in particular, honorable sons who will also become priests). The account given in the Indian Vedas closely agrees with that of the Iranian Avesta. The first preparers of Soma are listed as Vivasvat, who is the father of Yama and Manu.
5. One textual reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_migration#Textual_references suggests earliest written evidence for an Indo-Aryan language is found not in India, but in northern Syria in Hittite records regarding one of their neighbors, the Hurrian-speaking Mitanni. In a treaty with the Hittites, the king of Mitanni, after swearing by a series of Hurrian gods, swears by the gods Mitrašil, Uruvanaššil, Indara, and Našatianna, who correspond to the Vedic gods Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and Nasatya (Asvin).
The sole point of mentioning this episode here is that Rigveda and Zorostrian mythology are so closely describing particular events which are so commmon that the two religions must be closely associated.
Or!
Were they two groups fighting with each other traversing iranian plattues thru middle east asia dragged into India?
Or!
Were they same civilization parted due to very uncommon situation, DRYING UP SARASWATI?
I am actually going up with this ... Reverse Aryan Invasion! Group of People actually moved from Sindhu Saraswati Civilization to upwards (WoW, What a Guess!). It actually explains and fits story of kashyapa, in higher mountains of Himalaya and Hindukusha, lang grabbing by humans lead by Deva's.
But lets first look up what veda says about Saraswati:
So many questions but no answers. All we know is that group of people started migrating from Westernmost part of ancient India to Gangetic plains. But I am not sure whether this westernmost part actually came from northwest of india ... Somehow somewhere in time, in India, people started moving to east, to Ganges plains and then downwards! This again is a postulation from events described in Rigveda. The holiest book describes the mighty rivers of northen indian subcontinent ... The land of five rivers, Great Sindhu and Greatest of All Saraswati river. Ganga and Yamuna do have some verses to themselves, but prominent place is retained by Sindhu, and Saraswati for one obvious reason, writers of Rigveda must be residing on the banks on Sindhu and saraswati and dependent on it heavily so the vast praises! And if you look at the settlements of Harrappa - Mohendojaro Civilization or Sindhu ( Should it be called Sindhu Saraswati Civilization?) they are in between Sindhu and Ghaggar-Hakra River dry basin in current days. Theories say Ghaggar-Hakra was ancient Saraswati which dried up! ... Could this be the point which Rigveda is trying to indicate in story of Vritra that Vritra took up all the water and then Indra destroying Vritra, freeing up rivers or lands or rivers for everyone (Punjab ??). This might be the start of eastward pushing with Vishnu taking land from Bali (king of fertile lands, definitely from Ganges Plains!) pushing him downwards! Then came the Ramayana (At this time, dandakaranya was boundary which means region below current Narmada river)... further push to south and then finally entire Indian Subcontinent consumed by people around Sindhu Saraswati! Then come mahabharata ... where are the mighty kingdomes of asurs/daitya's the way they were described in Puranas, Veda's and Ramayanas ... Gone! India Cleansed - up!
I am ending this entry here ... but will take up each of the milestones, Rigveda story of Indra ... Vishnu taking lands from Bali ... Ramayana planned acquisition in subsequent series!
