Indias Ancient Past Hidden facts Retold :
The
word “Aryan" roots from the Sanskrit language and is the English version
of arya, meaning “noble" or “cultured.". Thus originally the Sanskrit
word arya did not refer to a particular race or language but to a moral quality
or mental disposition—that of nobility—uniting those of like mind into a felt
kinship with one another.
Aryans and their relation with Indo-European languages......
What
the Aryans of India, the Iranians of Persia, and the Celts of Ireland have in
common, first and foremost, is their Indo-European language. That the languages
spoken by these peoples are related was not known until the late eighteenth
century. In 1 786 Sir William Jones, a British judge at the High Court in
Calcutta and one of the pioneer Sanskrit, noticed to his great surprise that
there are striking similarities in the vocabulary and grammar of Sanskrit,
Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, and Gothic. A particularly striking example of
family resemblance between the various Indo-European languages is afforded by
the word “mother," which has the following cognates: mata (Sanskrit),
matér, mata (Latin), mathair (Irish Celtic), mathir (Persian), Mutter (German),
módir (Icelandic), moder (Swedish), mor (Danish and Norwegian), moeder (Dutch
and Flemish), mère (French), madre (Spanish), mde (Portuguese), mama
(Rumanian), matko (Czech and Polish), ma(Russian), maika (Bulgarian), motina
(Lithuanian), mate (Latvian), and mair (Armenian). Contemporary scholars
believe that the original Indo- European speakers—or Proto-Indo-European
speakers—were located somewhere in the steppes of southern Russia near the
Caspian Sea. From there they supposedly spread to Europe, the Middle East (notably
Iran), and India. Goddess
worshipers.
Gimbutas reconstruction of history and pastoralists in steppes russia
In
Gimbutas's reconstruction of history, “Old Europe" prior to 4500 B.c. was
exclusively inhabited by people who spoke non-Indo-European languages and had a
culture that was “ probably matrilinear, agricultural and sedentary,
egalitarian and peaceful." The worship of the Mother Creatrix in her
various forms was at the center of the worldview of those pre-Indo- Europeans.After
that golden era, Indo-European invaders from the steppes of Russia invaded
Europe in three major waves between 4500 and 2500 B.c. Gimbutas characterized
the intruding culture as “patriarchal, stratified, pastoral, mobile, and
war-oriented." She called these invaders Kurgans—from kurgan meaning
“barrow" in Russian because they buried their dead in round barrows.
Gimbutas
believes that when the Indo-European invaders largely replaced the Goddesses of
Old Europe with male divinities, they effectively interrupted a continuous
cultural tradition that had its roots in the Upper Paleolithic twenty thousand
years earlier. As a result of these violent Indo-European invasions, the
traditions of Old Europe and the Indo-Europeans became inextricably mingled,
with the latter dominating the former.
Mohen jodaro and Harappan Civilizations, how far its spreads acrosss India...
The
Harappa site was in a poor state when archaeologists finally began to excavate
it seriously. When the Lahore-Multan railway line was built, engineers had
mined the ancient bricks to lay the one- hundred-mile-long roadbed. What
invaluable evidence was destroyed in that plundering for progress will never be
known.
Since
the archaeological discovery of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, hundreds of other
sites have been discovered. These include major sites at Ganweriwala,
Kakhigarhi, Dholavira, Kalibangan, and Lothal, the first three comparable in
size to Mohenjo-Daro. The Harappan world appears to have covered an area of
around 300,000 square miles, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the
Godavari River in modern Karnataka in the south, and from the Indus River
valleys in the west to the plains of the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers in the east.
Additional sites have been found in Afghanistan to the Amu Darya River, thus
bringing part of the Iranian world into the Harappan cultural field. A recent
count has identified over 2,500 settlements belonging to various periods. Most
of the sites are situated on the eastern side of the greater Indus plain. This
plain, which is now mostly desert, was formerly watered by several rivers,
including a river that was larger than the Indus.
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| INDUS CIVLIZATION |
Indus
Civilization reached maturity during the period from 2700 B.c. to 1900 b.c generally called the Harappan Age. In 1931, Sir John Marshall had proposed the
period from 3100 b.c. to 2750 b.c. as the golden age of Harappa. Thirty years
later this date was modified by Sir Mortimer Wheeler to 2500 b.c. to 1500 b.c.
Other scholars have fixed the beginnings to 2800 B.c. and the terminal date to
1800 b.c. More and more the consensus moves toward 1900 b.c. as the date for
the conclusion of the flowering of the great cities.
Influence and Migration of Indus Civilization outside India.
Crete Greece Largest Island where Minoan civilization flourished, is influenced
from Indus civilization, the following descriptions reveals the similarity
based on bull leaping, Goddess cult, water management, Worshipping trees,
Sacred caves and pillars, crescent symbols, Sacrifices.
it
possible that a group of Indus tribes settled in Crete sometime around 1700
BCE, soon after the Indus Valley civilization started to collapse at around
1900 BCE, and took with them their cultural practices and technological skills?
Bull-leaping and the lost-wax method of bronze casting appears in Minoan Crete
roughly 200 years after the collapse of the Indus civilization. So, the timing
is just about right. There is a sufficiently large window of time for a
migration to have taken place.
Could
it be, therefore, that certain Indus tribes migrated to Minoan Crete sometime
around 1700 BCE? If so, elements of the Indus Valley culture should be
reflected in the social, religious, and technological aspects of the Minoan
society. In this brief comparative study of the two cultures, evidently there
are number of interesting parallels between the two civilizations, which
indicates deep cultural interactions.
At
the Harappa site a building twice the size of the sacred complex at
Mohenjo-Daro was found, and archaeologists have identified it as a granary.
Granaries and storage areas also have been found at the so-called palaces of
Minoan Crete and have been taken to indicate the control of food surplus by the
priestly elite. As Marinatos suggested, this surplus could have been used for
feasting, as a relief during famine, or in payment of labor rendered to the
temple complex.
One
seal in particular has stirred the imagination of scholars.
The
pashupati seal, after the Hindu God Shiva, who is characterized as the “Lord of
the Beasts,” pashu meaning “beast” and pati meaning “lord." This seal
shows a seated figure with horned headgear, surrounded by an elephant (facing
the opposite direction from the other animals), a rhinoceros, a buffalo, and a
tiger. Beneath his throne like seat are a pair of antelopes. The figure’s face
is mask like and could be that of a buffalo. What has often been interpreted as
an erect phallus could be part of the belt. On the chest are either ornaments
or, more likely, painted marks reminiscent of the kind of sectarian signs
displayed on the foreheads and chests of holy men, or sadhus, in later
Hinduism.
How Indian vedic society is misinterpreted by Europeans...
However,
anxious to vindicate their invasion theory, scholars like Wheeler referred to
hymns from the Rig- Veda that speak of the destruction of fortresses or
strongholds (pura) and the Aryans' hatred toward the Dasus or Dasyus, whom
scholars identified with the Harappans. They completely ignored, however,
contradictory references to the Vedic people as builders of cities, as
agriculturalists, and as fighting intertribal battles rather than wars against
indigenous non-Indo-European peoples. They also overlooked the fact that the
epithet “conqueror of cities" is widely applied to overlords of fully
sedentary communities in other parts of the ancient world. We must not limit it
to nomadic rulers. Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro had been in decline or were
abandoned many centuries prior to the alleged intrusion of nomadic Aryans.
Catastrophes
that might caused civilizations to disintegrate .......
Clearly, something happened to bring this great civilization to its knees, but
it was not any brutal invasion by nomads from the northwest. The catastrophe
that befell the people of the Indus cities was of an entirely different order
and far more devastating than any pillaging tribes could ever be. when
we look into the past we always look at it through the lens of the present,
inevitably distorting what we see. Nature's
cataclysmic changes have shaped much of early culture and thought—leading to
the creation of astro- nomical/astrological and calendrical/divinatoty sciences
at an early phase in the history of civilization.
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| Flood in Anatolia 1500BC |
Occurred
at around 8000 B.c., 6000 B.c., 3100 B.c., and 1100 B.c. Temperatures also were
unusually low during the “Little Ice Age" period from 1200 a.d. to 1800
a.d. Treering analysis revealed that 536 B.c. started a fifteen-year decline in
tree growth, which has been associated with a meteorite impact. According to
the statistical analysis of British astronomers Victor Clube and Bill Napier,
during the past five thousand years there were several dozen collisions with
meteorites weighing tens of thousands of tons and several collisions in the
100- to 1,000-megaton range. Especially the large meteorites would have
interrupted civilized life for a period of time. history.
There have been large-scale catastrophes in historical times that changed the
destiny of whole cultures, which demonstrate that our planet is far ' less
stable than many geologists would have us believe.
For
instance, about 1250 B.c. extensive flooding seems to have occurred in Anatolia
(modern Turkey), burying the Bronze Age city of Tiryns. About the same time an
earthquake destroyed the rich merchant city of Troy (archaeological level VI).
It is quite likely that the two events were connected.
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| Minoan Eruption Santorini Thera |
Three
hundred and seventy-eight years earlier (according to treering analysis
validated by radiocarbon dating), the volcano on the small Greek island of
Santorini (Thera) blew up and triggered earthquakes and a tsunami that
devastated large areas of land not only on mainland Greece but across the
Mediterranean in Egypt and Palestine. This catastrophe brought down the fine
Minoan civilization, centering on the large island of Crete. Dwellings,
temples, and “palaces" were destroyed by fire, ash, or flooding. The
resulting social, economic, and political chaos appears to have been exploited
by ruthless kings from mainland Greece, who seized the opportunity to deal the
deathblow to the Minoan civilization. Although the death was slow, it was
certain, and by 1200 s.c. this great civilization, which had emerged around
3000 B.c.. was no more.
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| Thera Volcanic eruption and its shock waves |
This
particular natural disaster might even offer an explanation for an important
event in the remembered history of the Hebrews: Moses parting the waters of the
Sea of Reeds (often erroneously translated as the red sea. the
earthquakes associated with the eruption of Thera temporarily drained the Sea
of Reeds and that this catastrophe became merged with the Exodus story? In
light of the other phenomena described in the Hebrew literature as part of this
catastrophe—from fiery ash raining down to thunderous noise and enveloping
darkness—there is a high probability that this explanation is correct. Volcanic
eruptions followed by radical climatic changes, leading to a
three-hundred-year-long drought, are now thought to also have been the cause of
the collapse of the Mesopotamian empire of Akkad.
Untold History of River Saraswathi, sprouting valley for civilizations.
Our
history books know nothing of the primordial tradition of spirituality—the
legacy left behind by our remote ancestors through the oral traditions of
India,Sumer, Egypt, and other cultures. That primordial tradition revolved
around three things: first, the intercourse between humanity and the divine or
higher powers; second, human beings who represent the good and those who are
"fallen"; third, cycles of civilization that end in various
cataclysms. today,
many more sites of that civilization are located not along the Indus but in the
middle of the desert, buried under mountains of sand. Obviously, when these
vanished towns were still going concerns they could not possibly have thrived
in a desert environment. Indeed, as satellite photographs have revealed, what
is now the Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, was once
traversed by a great river with its own fertile banks. Geologists have
identified this moribund river, an extension of the present- day Ghaggar, as
the Sarasvati mentioned in the Vedic scriptures. This great river flowed from
the Tibetan Himalayas into the Arabian Sea, covering a distance similar to the
Indus.
Ghaggar-Drishdvati
Tributary of Saraswathi
The Palaeo-Ghaggar must have been a mighty river with broad channels once
flowing through the Thar region, when the climate favoured abundant monsoon pre-cipitation
in the Sub-Himalayan region. Presently, the River Ghaggar is too small to
have contributed significantly to the Thar sediments. The suggestion of glacial sources,and
the Yamuna and Satluj rivers draining to the River Saraswati through
Ghaggar before they were pirated by the Ganga and Indus respectively. Ghaggar-Harappan Civilization
was a ‘true river valley civilization’ supported by monsoonal rainfall in
the Sub-Himalayan catchment,the reduction of which was responsible for the
extinction of the river and the associated civilization. The Ghaggar’s Harappan
culture presents a unique example unlike the other cultures of the world.
Most of the cultural collapses in the world have been attributed to the
occurrence of droughts in the region, while the Ghaggar-Harappan culture
survived aridity, which was already being experienced since 3500 BC in this
region. They survived because of Ghaggar’s connection to a wetter source
area, a feature similar to some of the peninsular rivers today.
Source
and Route of Vedic Saraswathi and its Tributaries
The River Ghaggar originating in the Sub-Himalayas
flows through the northern part of the Thar today as an ephemeral river
mainly
during the SW monsoon season and disappears in the desert. However, the
river seems to have played a key role in the development of the Harappans
The Ghaggar river has been identified with the mighty glacial-fed river Saraswati,which
is described in the oldest religious document written in Sanskrit, the
Rig-Veda (1500 BC) Based on geomorphological studies and identification of clasts
in the river channels of outer Himalayas, it has been suggested that the
palaeo-Ghaggar (alias Saraswati)had its catchment in the glaciated Higher
Himalayas. Another prevalent hypothesis is that the ancestral channels of
Yamuna and Satluj once fed the Saraswati The antecedent Yamuna and Satluj
rivers originate from the gla-ciated
Higher and Tibetan Himalayas respectively, and limit the expansion of the
Thar Desert in the east and north. If water availability is the key
climate determinant for life and the region was already experiencing aridity,
the palaeo-Ghaggar must have been perennial for the Harappans to flourish.
Clearly,
the Sarasvati and its many tributaries, which also show up on satellite
photographs, formed an immense system that supplied
a large area with ample water and fertile soil. More than that, the photographs
revealed artificial canals carrying water to more remote locations for the
cultivation of crops.Scientists are as yet undecided whether the canals
were filled only during the monsoon months or throughout the year.
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| Vedic Kingdoms flourished on the shores of vedic rivers. |
Rig veda
happened on the shores of Saraswathi.
If
archaeologists had looked beyond the ruins and artifacts they were able to
recover from the soil around the Indus River, and had taken note of the most
ancient and sacred Hindu scripture—the Rig- Veda—they would not have been
surprised by the treasures hidden beneath the sands of the sprawling Thar
Desert. The Rg- Veda unquestionably speaks of a mighty river—the Sarasvati
(“She who flows")—that should not be identified with the Indus but the
Ghaggar (or Hakra, as another portion of it is known in Pakistan). For the
composers of the Rig- Veda, the Sarasvati was the largest of seven rivers
forming the life support of the Vedic civilization.
Vedic Rivers
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| Vedic rivers and its modern names. |
The area of northwestern India, which was the heartland
of the early Indic civilization, is today known as the Punjab. The Sanskrit
equivalent is panca-ap, meaning “five waters," referring to the Jhelum,
Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej, which flow into the Indus. In ancient times we
find no reference to a five-river region. But the texts speak of a seven-river
region, which was called sapta-saindhava or “land belonging to the seven
rivers," of which the largest and most central was the Sarasvati.The name
sapta-saindhava is derived from the Sanskrit sapta (“seven") and sindhu
(“stream"), the latter giving rise to the modern words Indus and Sindh.
This expression suggests that in Vedic times the Punjab as we know it today did
not exist and that the center of the seven-river region was further east on the
Sarasvati. Often mentioned in the early Sanskrit scriptures are the Indus
itself, the Sarasvati, the Parushni (modern Ravi), and the Yamuna (Jumna). The
Drishadvati, which has been identified with the now small rivers Chautang and
Naiwala, has but a single reference in the Vedas. According to the Manu-Samhita
, the “land of the brahmins" once lay between the Sarasvati and the
Drishadvati.
What might have caused the
Vedic River Sarawathi to dry out...
Originally, the Sarasvati flowed through Rajasthan and
poured itself into the Gulf of Kutch near the Rathiawar peninsula. Kutch itself
was once an island at the mouth of the Sarasvati. htiest of all the
rivers of northern India was the Sarasvati. What, then. caused the disastrous drying out
of the Sarasvati/ Ghaggar/Hakra River, its tributaries, and the countless
artificial canals? What happened to stop the flow of life in the numerous towns
once fed and interconnected by this large riverine system? How was all the fertile
soil that once framed the river replaced by sand? What changed dAround 1900
B.c., over a comparatively short period of time, major tectonic shifts occurred
possibly accompanied by volcanic eruptions, which drastically altered the flow
of rivers. Prior to its final demise, the Sarasvati River had shifted course at
least four times, gradually turning the region around it into inhospitable
desert. Such geological changes are endemic to northern India and result from
the pressure of the Indian plate pushing into Asia and raising the Himalayas,
which is occurring at this very moment. Various speculative scenarios are
possible for the extinction of this mighty river. Here is our own
reconstruction of that catastrophic event:
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| India attaching itself to Asia |
Tectonic
Shifts and its consequence on Indic civilizations...
Around
four thousand years ago, the earth buckled under a large area of northwestern
India, as it is still prone to do today. But at that time, the buckling was
sufficiently pronounced to have far-reaching consequences. Perhaps the ground
under the cities, towns, and villages of the early Jndic civilization rose
imperceptibly, and the devastating effects became apparent only over a number
of years. Perhaps the buckling announced itself locally in a series of
devastating earthquakes, followed by long-term geographic and climatic changes. e
favor the second explanation, because northwestern India is known to be prone
to earthquakes. While we have as yet no clear-cut evidence of Harappan sites
having been destroyed by earthquakes, a number of sites were destroyed or
damaged by floods, and many others were abandoned because of changing river
courses. The event would have had to take place rather quickly to allow for
sites to be abandoned altogether, particularly those on the Indus where water
continued to be available. At any rate, the geological alteration caused the
drying-up of the Sarasvati River and most of its tributaries. We also can
imagine the water from the Himalayas seeking new pathways. causing a similar
devastation in other areas.
Flooding
over Indus basins due to breaking of natural dams in kashmir valley...
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| Kashmir Valley-Natural dam holding water |
The
Indian scholar Ram Nath Kak has suggested that, as part of this cataclysm, the
natural dam holding the waters in the Kashmir Valley, which was originally a
giant lake, broke;this made the valley habitable, but the immense volume of
water coming down the Indus River flooded riverine cities such as Mohenjo-Daro,
hastening their demise. Floods were also caused by the Sutlej, which shifted
its course from the Sarasvati to the Indus.The cataclysm left behind desiccated
river beds, empty canals, parched soil and, finally, abandoned towns and
villages. Gradually, as trees and crops died for lack of water, wind-blown sand
filled the gaping river beds, crumbling canals, and vacant towns and villages.
Indus people migrations across India and their history of
sustenance
Drying
rivers became stagnant pools of undrinkable water, too shallow to navigate with
trade vessels and soon bereft of fish for food. Once arable soil became baked
and sterile under the hot Indian sun, yielding no more sustenance for either
the peasant families or the urbanites. With the disappearance of the once lush
vegetation, the climate changed as well, yielding fewer and inadequate rains
that never allowed the soil to recover. many
people succumbed to illness as a result of malnutrition or from exhaustion or
misfortune during their exodus from the cities and villages. Some families must
have headed north toward the Himalayas. Others may well have braved the trek
westward across an increasingly deserted landscape, until they reached
relatives or friends in the settlements of the Indus. Yet others must have
migrated south in the hope of land and livelihood nearer the ocean.
Those
heading westward will have found that the region of the Indus River had
suffered great adversity as well. We can imagine dams breaking under the stress
from the tectonic uplift and flooding the towns and smaller settlements along
its banks. In fact, the earth has continued to shift under the Indus
settlements. The three lowest levels of occupation at Mohenjo-Daro are under
water, preventing archaeologists from recovering the telltale signs of their
history.
Most
people appear to have migrated not toward the Indus but eastward into the
fertile valley of the Ganges and its tributaries.
The Gangetic
valley had been inhabited at least since 5000 B.c. It is possible that some of
the families might have had relatives in that part of India. At any rate, the
emigrés encountered new difficulties and dangers there. For the thickly
forested and swampy area, with heavy monsoon rains, was teaming with wild
beasts. The refugees from the calamitous Indus-Sarasvati region had to clear
the forests in order to build new settlements, plant gardens, plow fields, and
create grazing land for their livestock. Because the
Shatapatha-Brahmana does not mention the drying up of the Sarasvati itself as
the reason for the eastward migration of the brahmins and their people, we may
assume that this migration likely took place prior to 1900 B.c. Perhaps it
occurred several hundred years earlier when the signs of spreading
environmental disaster were becoming obvious to the inhabitants of northwestern
India.
Similarly, the
ancient Indic civilization did not become extinct but simply shifted its center
of vitality eastward toward the Ganges. It took, however, thirty or more
generations before what has been called a “second urbanization" in the
Ganges and Yamuna Valleys took place, starting around 1000 B.c. or perhaps a
century later, though the Dwaraka site of 1500 B.c. suggests at least a smaller
intermediate period of urbanization as well. Remembrance of the period of
forest living in the Gangetic region before this second urbanization may be
contained in the sacred books appropriately called Aranyakas, or “forest
books.” The Aranyakas and the Upanishads, by this reckoning, should belong to
the second millennium B.c. The Gangetic
urbanization, representing the fourth phase in India's urban adventure, brings
us to the beginning of “historical” times, with the reasonably well-
established dates for Gautama the Buddha (563-483 B.c.) and Mahavira (540-468
B.c.).
The early Indic
civilization, as we know it from towns like Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, but even
from the much earlier settlement of Mehrgarh, was multiracial and multiethnic,
similar in composition to the groups living in India today. Today we must
consider the Vedic peoples as an integral part of the early Indic civilization.
They walked the streets of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, if not old Mehrgarh, and
had their businesses there and in other towns and villages along the Sarasvati
and Indus Rivers and their many tributaries.
Vedas faithful record of Indus-Saraswathi Civilization.
The Vedas are a
remarkably faithful record of many of the beliefs and practices of that
Indus-Saraswathi civilization. The Rig- Veda is the oldest surviving body of
work of any civilization. It fills the gap between the early culture of the
Neolithic town of Mehrgarh and the subsequent civilization of the Indus and
Sarasvati Rivers. Some Brahmanas mention the Sarasvati River as an important
place of habitation, these later works show signs of an eastward migration of
the Vedic peoples. As the later Vedic literature unfolds, the Sarasvati recedes
more and more into the background and the Ganges gradually comes to the
fore.
The Puranas,
composed in post-Vedic times, have almost totally forgotten about the Sarasvati
and give all praise to the Ganges River. Unfortunately, we no longer have the
original Purana, which is mentioned in the early Vedic literature. Significantly,
certain hymns in the Rig- Veda suggest a much earlier date than 2000 B.c. Thus
statements in the Vedas refer to astronomical configurations that could only
have occurred in the period from 2000 B.c. to 6000 B.c.5.
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| After Draconics , Polaris is our pole star |
Around
3000 B.c. it was Alpha Draconis rather than Alpha Polaris, our current pole
star. Alpha Draconis, also known as Thuban, is a medium-bright star in the tail
of the constellation Draco, the Dragon, which winds halfway round the celestial
pole. At that time, the seven main stars of the Big Dipper also were close to
the polar axis, which may explain the prominence of the “seven seers"
(sapta-nshi) associated with that constellation. Alpha Draconis was considered
to be the eighth seer, who, according to the Taittiriya- Aranyaka, does not
depart from Meru, the cosmic mountain, corresponding to the celestial pole. The
fact that the Rig- Veda mentions a stellar configuration that corresponds to a
date from 6000 B.c. to 7000 B.c.-the astronomical Ashvini era—must not be
merely denied but properly explained. Vedic
Aryans were more than wandering herders. They also were city dwellers and
enthusiastic seafarers and merchants whose business took them the whole length
of the great Sarasvati and Indus Rivers, as well as out into the oceans.
Origin of Vedic Clans
As
we have repeatedly emphasized, the Vedic peoples did not come as conquerors and
destroyers from outside India, but lived in and even built the cities in the
Land of the Seven Rivers. In several Rig-Vedic hymns, God Agni (associated with
fire) is invoked to protect the Aryans with a hundred cities. 10 If they had no
cities, the prayer would be nonsensical. It is clear from the Vedic
hymns that the tribes conquered by King Sudas had the same culture but were
deemed renegades, who followed different priests, perhaps challenging the
ruling orthodoxy and, above all, who were led by kings considered to be
unrighteous. The Dasyus are usually described as fallen kshatriyas, or members
of the warrior class, who have become unspiritual, flouting the proper
rituals.
In hymn of the Rig- Veda, the Dasyus are identified with the Panis, the
well-to-do merchants who are said to be harmful in their speech and without
faith. Perhaps, from the point of view of the Vedic orthodoxy, they were what
we would now call materialists. They may have been blinded by the allurements
of the cities and were possibly a little jaded from their travels in foreign
lands, where they encountered other customs and beliefs. not impossible, to
reach any definite picture of them as actual people.
Kind Sudas and his war against ten kings.
King
Sudas's war against the ten kings, mentioned above, was a defensive battle
against hostile forces that had formed an overpowering coalition, which was
seeking to strangulate Sudas's righteous kingdom at the Sarasvati River. As the
Vedic hymns relate, Sudas miraculously triumphed over his enemies—not least
thanks to the prayers of the chief priest Vasishtha, if we can believe his own
testimony, as given in the Rig- Veda Vasishtha and his fellow priests
apparently enabled Sudas's army to cross the river during a flood, while the
priesthood of the hostile alliance failed to do the same, thus causing the
drowning of even the swiftest warriors. Vishwamitra was the guru for the ten
kings which were later called dasyus.
Battle
of ten kings made the following changes to India
1. Ruler of bharatas King sudas extended his reign to punjab,haryana , delhi
meerut.
2.
sudas conducted ashwamedha and proclaim him as chakravarthi means the chakra or
wheel which can roll anywhere .
3.
defeated tribes flee outside of india to afganistan ,the druhya tribe settled
in afganistan and was later called Gandharam.
4.
another tribe survived in india and was called purus , king porus was the
descendants of puru tribe.
5.
Pakhta tribe later was called pashtun, which can be seen in afganistan and
north western pakistan.
6.
Parsu tribes represents the predecessor of persian tribes. avesta sacred
zoroastrian book came to iran from outside, the book is identical to rigveda.
7.
Yesidis lived in mountains of kurds in north iraq, armenia ,turkey their
sacred god was tawuse melek means Peacock, they dont have peacocks in iraq
certainly it might have been taken from harappan civilization when they
migrated after the disintegration due to droughts and floods .
8.
In zoroastrian tradition of persians asuras were denoted by ahura mazda means
god. In bharatha they were considered as demons.
Much later, Moses is credited with working a similar miracle for the Hebrews,
who safely crossed the Sea of Reeds, wh Sudas,
head of the Tritsus, is also said to have destroyed or conquered seven towns,
which appear to have been cities of his adversarial kinsmen. The civil war
fought by Sudas supposedly claimed the lives of 66,660 enemies, reminding one
of other Vedic battles that speak of 60,000 or 100,000 among the conquered. In
later Vedic literature we learn that the sons of Sudas themselves fell from the
Aryan way of life and consequently were called rakshasas, or “demons."
They are accused of killing the hundred sons of the great seer Vasishtha, who guided
Sudas. We also learn that the Kavashas, who had been among those defeated by
Sudas, were reinstated and became the chief priests (purohita) of the Kum
dynasty, the most celebrated of the royal dynasties of ancient India. One of
the Kavashas, Tura Kavasheya, even heads an important list of Upanishadic
sages! Clearly, arya and dasyu are terms describing not race but
behavior.
Divodasa the ruler of Kashi.
 |
| Varuna and Asi Rivers Joins ganga in north and south the land in between these two spots is Kasi. |
Another,
earlier king by the name of Divodasa is mentioned in the eighth book of the
Rig-Veda as the destroyer of the hundred towns of Shambara. Aided by God Indra,
Divodasa also “caused the seven rivers to flow to the sea." Some
interpreters have taken this to mean that he demolished the artificial dams
regulating the flow of the rivers in northern India, with the result that the
land below the dams was devastated by flooding. However, the release of the
seven rivers appears to have primarily a spiritual significance. It is
possible, though, that in addition to its symbolic message the myth remembers a
huge flood. Be that as it may, we have no firm historical information about
either Divodasa or the conquered King Shambara, but both lived before Sudas.
Confrontations between vedic clans....
In
another Rig-Vedic hymn , Divodasa is described as defeating the Turvashas and
the Yadus, two of the five main Vedic tribes, suggesting that Shambara was of
the same group. This idea is confirmed in various Puranas, where Divodasa, king
of Kashi (Varanasi or Benares), is reported as having defeated the Yadus.As a
matter of fact, most of the battles mentioned in the Purana literature are
against the Yadus, who are the branch of the Vedic people most frequently
called Dasyus or given other similar derogatory names. The sixth incarnation
(avatara) of God Vishnu, who bears the name Parashu Rama (“Rama with the
Axe"), is specifically said to have come into being in order to defeat the
Yadus. The great king Sagara of Ayodhya is also said to have defeated them after
they had overrun all of northern India.
Who is Ravana.... Is he Deva or dasyu... Is he Indian or Srilankan...
Even
demon-ruler Ravana, who was defeated by King Rama, is related in the Ramayana
epic to the demon Lavana, who ruled Mathura, one of the main cities of the
Yadus. Furthermore, the first people from northern India to come to Sri Lanka
(formerly Ceylon), where Ravana ruled, are said to have hailed from Gujarat, a
land of the Yadus. Significantly, the Ramayana speaks of Ravana as a brahmin
and a chanter of the Sama- Veda. Incidentally, even Vritra, the Vedic archdemon
who is killed by Indra, is thought to have been a brahmin. It is also important
to note that the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, Lord Krishna, took birth among
these same Yadus, who also produced a number of pious kings and sages. In light
of this evidence, it is safe to assume that the Vedic and Puranic battles—when
they are not purely allegorical—are among peoples of the same culture but of
different spiritual status as a result of their behavior.
We
also want to emphasize that mere pastoralists, as the Aryans have always been
described, do not build towns or ships, establish kingdoms, or maintain
organized armies. They certainly do not venture out into the ocean in pursuit
of commerce with other nations. Goddesses
are common in rural Hinduism even today. Goddesses are even mentioned in many
hymns of the Rig- Veda, thus clearly contradicting popular scholarly opinion,
which characterizes the Vedic religion as male oriented.
Reference
book: In search of the cradle of Civilization
