As far as I can remember I learnt that the following were the ancient civilization (in decreasing chronological order)
- Mesopotamia (
) Sumer Egypt
The above was taught to us in the schools. It was also a belief that Aryans came drove the Dravidians down south. This belief also aids disrespect for the languages both in the North as well as the South. Due to this any attempt to have a common language is met with resentment. The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) has also created much misconception about the culture in
2. The predominant model of Indo-European origins is the Kurgan hypothesis
The Out of India theory is popular with the Hindutva ideologist while the
The evidence of the oldest literary records of the Indo-European family of languages, the Rig Veda and the Avesta, as we have seen, clearly and unambiguously depicts a movement of the Indo-Iranians from the east to the west and northwest. If, therefore, the scholars,, by and large, remain strongly resistant to the Indian homeland theory, it is not because the facts of the case rule out this theory, but because a defence of the standard theory has become a dogma with the scholars, and any scholar, particularly an Indian one, who pursues the Indian homeland theory is automatically held suspect as a fundamentalist or a chauvinistic nationalist. Whatever the outcome is, we should wait for historians to come out with an answer which I think could be in the near future. It will be good to know the origin of our culture, civilization and what caused so many languages to develop. The Indo-European Homeland could soon be accepted.
This is what most of us believe (and a prevalent view in Europe and West)
Mehrgarh (Credit: Indus and Mehrgarh archaeological mission)
Mehrgarh was discovered and excavations begun by a French team led by Jean-François Jarrige; the site was excavated continuously between 1974 and 1986.
Excavations (Mehrgarh, Nausharo & Pirak) carried out at Mehrgarh by French Archeologists have proved that the Mehrgarh represents a highly developed civilization that existed there until around 8,000 years ago. Much older than the Sumer Civilization. Mehrgarh is now seen as a precursor to the Indus Valley Civilization. This discovery also changes whole lot of things about the Aryan Invasion, the Rig Veda, the Sanskrit (1700 BC), Tamil (300 BCE) and other ancient languages of this country. It also proves that Civilization started in Mehrgarh (now in
The prevalent belief regarding the age of the Vedas as between 1200 and 1000 BC is based purely upon an ad hoc pronouncement by Max Muller despite his admission in his last work that the date could as well be 1500 as 15,000 BC!. The proponents of Kurgan Hypothesis suggest that the Aryans came from Anatolia and were Hittites. The Hittites were an ancient people from KanešIndo-European language, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa (Hittite URUḪattuša) in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite empire was at its height, encompassing Anatolia, north-western Syria about as far south as the mouth of the Litani River (a territory known as Amqu), and eastward into upper Mesopotamia. There is now evidence that Rig Veda is older than the oldest Hittite works (which are currently believed to be the oldest literary works) and Sanskrit could prove to be the origin for all european languages. The Rig Veda hereafter is the most important document not only for Indology but most indo European studies in philology, religion, mythology or history. Archeological investigations in Pakistan and NW india pushes the date of Rig Veda to 3100 BC and sanskrit before that. There is no evidence furnished in support of any invasion or entry of people from Europe. PH Francfort utilizing images from the French satellite SPOT finds that the river saraswati is pre-harrapan and started drying 4000BC. Rig Veda knows two very large rivers Saraswati and Indus. With this evidence, the date of Rig Veda and Sanskrit can be pushed back to atleast 3800 BC. You can read in more detail on the A new date for the Rgveda Here. The origin of Dravidian Languages could be older than this. Some linguistic scholars incorporate the Dravidian languages into a larger Elamo-Dravidian language family, which includes the ancient Elamite language (Haltami) of what is now south-western Iran. Dravidian is one of the primary linguistic groups in the proposed Nostratic language system, linking almost all languages in North Africa, Europe and Western Asia into a common family with its origins in the Fertile Crescent sometime between the last Ice Age and the emergence of proto-Indo-European 4-6 thousand years BC. Dravidian grammatical impact on the structure and syntax of Indo-Aryan languages is considered far greater than the Indo-Aryan grammatical impact on Dravidian. Some linguists explain this anomaly by arguing that Middle Indo-Aryan and New Indo-Aryan were built on a Dravidian substratum.
The Indus Valley Civilization were known to Sumerians as Meluhha. Meluhha was
The word “Aryan” has been twisted to provide a racial connotation that it never had. “arya” referres to a quality of character: nobility, and “arya-varta” means the abode of noble people. Aryans never denotes a race of people as it is now taken as.
- Vedic Age - 7000-4000 BC
- End of Rig Vedic Age - 3750 BC
- End of Ramayana - Mahabharat Period - 3000 BC
- Development of Saraswati-Indus Civilization - 3000-2000 BC
- Decline of
Indusand Saraswati Civilization - 2200-1900 BC
- Period of Complete chaos and migration - 2000-1500 BC
- Period of evolution of Hindu culture - 1400 - 250 BC
Due to the drying up of Saraswati, Civilization moved to
The Indus Valley Civilization people were artists, craftsmen and traders. They were hard working people. They had a highly organized system of agriculture with large granaries and storehouses. They lived in highly planned cities with broad roads and two-storied terraced buildings. They had a script (developed probably from the Elamite script). They made beautiful objects of art, necklaces and other ornaments. They had sailboats and bullock carts. They had wind mills. They played chess. They had stringed musical instruments. They had trade contacts with all the civilisations of their time namely Sumerians, Egyptians and Chinese. They therefore to some extent would have mixed with people of these cultures also.. Theirs probably is the first globalised culture in the world. Their caravans went up to
The Indus valley region was made fertile by the rivers running down from the
The word Dravid was initially used in Sanskrit to refer to the
There is evidence for the beginning of rice cultivation in the