AumAn Outline for Research in Pre-History of IndiaS.N.MahalingamSuperintending Engineer TN PWD(Retd)Preamble:The Aryan and Dravidian enigma is still remains unresolved as we gothrough the recent papers in the various seminars. The point is stillwe rely on the spade work done by the European masters on this subjectwhich was based on the Sanskrit scriptures and archaeological data. Hevarious results obtained is due to the different interpretations of thescriptures and archaeological data. The author of this article gotinterested in this subject from his school days and read many works andfrom the knowledge thus obtained and his mulling over this subject fordecades (Is it intuitive contemplation?),and the recent study of somehistorical, religious and philosophical works urged him to puteverything on paper. As he has not taken any notes from his studies inthe earlier days he could not furnish them. However some referenceshave been given.
Prevedic period:
The Aryans, a nomadic tribe, hunters and shepherds appears to havestarted their journey in search of greener pastures for their cattle.They stayed for brief periods in places and due to population pressurea portion of them moved to newer places. As they were nomadic tribesthey did not build any structures for living and contented to live inthe habitat provided by the nature for which they were habituated.Perhaps due to this they despised any buildings and destroyed them asthe aryans will not live in them. Likewise they killed all humans whowill not be useful to them, as they have to share the resources withthem. This went on for hundreds of years and the invasions happened inwave like patterns. So the historians stated that 'the waves of Aryanhordes' invaded the India or successive floods of invasions etc.They appear to have passed through Mesopotamia, Persia and Afghanistanand reached India. In those earlier periods Afghanistan, Gandhara, wasalso considered as a part of India and perhaps due to this now it isincluded in the SAARC.The invasion by waves of Aryans caused destruction to a very largescale such that nothing that can be called as heritage of thatconquered country remained and only the Aryan culture prevailed.During their invasion of Mesopotamia, they have to encounter ordinaryfolks as well as artisans and men of learning and men well versed inarts. Here they developed some respect for learning and perhaps learnthow to read the stars and also learnt about fabulous India advanced inarts and culture. They picked up some of their culture and probablytaken with them the men of learning with their manuscripts along withthem. Probably the Aryans and the learned men accompanying them whenthey were in Persia composed the initial portions of Rig-Vedaeulogizing the Vedic gods which are similar to the gods of Persiaduring that period. The authors might be both Aryans and theMesopotamians traveling with them and Persians.
Vedic Period and later:
The same scenario was enacted in Afghanistan and Punjab during theirinvasion. On entering Punjab they were amazed at the buildings ofvarious types and the luxurious living conditions of the locals. Asusual they chose to kill every person men, women and children whoeveris not useful to them and destroyed all the buildings due to theiraversion, but spared learned men and their manuscripts. They destroyedtemples also as they despised saivisim of the natives and the phallicsymbol of Siva. If the Somnath temple has existed during that periodthey would have destroyed it. Probably in Kasi or Varanasi the nativeswould have guarded their saivaite temples if they had existed duringtheir period of invasion.During the periods of peace the some of the Aryans spent time todiscuss with the descendants of learned men picked up in MesopotamiaPersia Afghanistan and India about the contents of the manuscripts andas they were in different languages decided to translate them intotheir language. As their language Vedic was ill-equipped for that, allthe learned men of these cultured made a language suitable fortranslating the colleted manuscripts into the new language samskrit,theperfect language. So the ancient Sanskrit literature, including thelater verses of Rig-Veda as well as the Vedas down could be theadaptations of the works of Mesopotamia, Persia and Indian. Theyadapted the literature to suit their culture, perhaps a hybrid culture,at this period. Perhaps they may be original Vedic literature composedduring that period by both the Aryan and non-Aryan scholars. The nameof the rishis ending with Maharshi may be taken as belonging non-aryans.The scholars were puzzled why the ancient written manuscripts are notavailable to corroborate the archaeological findings or theestablishment of facts about the people who inhabited these regions?The answer that this author can give is in the form of anotherquestion. What we will do after reading a news paper? We collect thenews paper till the end of the month and sell to the street hawker whopurchases the old newspaper. They did the same thing with themanuscripts in other languages after translating into Sanskrit. Theyburnt them a day prior to winter solstice. This indicates theinvolvement of non-aryans, say, Dravidians also in the composition ofVedic literature and also destruction of the source literature indifferent languages. That is why neither the built up structures normanuscripts of those distant periods were not found.In this I connection I recall that V.Ganapathi Stapathi who constructedThiruvalluvar statue at KumariMunai has stated in a Vãstu seminar adecade back that Sanskrit is a South Indian Language. Probably that iswhy still Sanskrit is spoken in a village by name Mathur near Shimogaof Karnataka. He has also stated that a person came to him professingthat he has memorized an ancient text the language of it is unknown tohim. So the Stapathi arranged to record that with the support of thethen Tamilnadu government. It needs further research.Still some manuscripts may be available in the old Jain and Saiva muttsand guarded as sacred relics and were denied access to them even forinspection or copying of them. Some may be available with ancientfamilies living under remote places,The impetus for writing is a passage in the French book by Madeleine
Biardeau : L'Hindouisme : Anthropologie d'une Civilisation,Flammarion.1995.,which roughly translated as "in 1986 on Tamil(scholar)wrote a letter stating that 'what the people without knowing, now sayas Aryan culture and civilization is Dravidian or Tamil, culture andcivilization. The Dravidians had presented to the Aryans a culture andCivilization ready made for their adoption. This needs the presence ofDravidians or Tamils in the northern sub-continent of India.Another French source stated that the area on the right side ofHimalayas when looking east is called Dakshina Desha (Thennadu). Thepeople born in that land are hindus. Jean Varenne : L'Hindouisme DesTextes Sacrés :Encyclopédie des Mystiques - vol iii:Ed.Marie-madeleine Davy ; Petite Bibliothéque Payot. Dakshina Desha isnothing but Then-Nadu.Manickavasagar in one of his hymns has stated 'thennadudaiya sivaneyennattirkum Iraiva Pottri' Here according to this author what he meantby Thennadu is the area located on the south of Himalayas as saivismis stated to have been the religion followed by the people in Indiaduring prehistoric times.Again, the verse 'vadavenkatam then kumari aayidai tamil kurumnallulagam' was read by the author somewhere. An interpretationsuggested is that the poet meant by Vadavenkatam, Himalayas and notTiruppathy Hills. And by the kumari he meant only Kumari Nadu and notcape-camorin. For it would have been suffice to state, "VenkatamKumariAayidai Tamilkurum Nallulagam' if he meant only Tamil Nadu.One more additional interpretation of the statement which the authorread perhaps in Iraiyanaar Agapporulurai, 'Muthal Sangam at Mathuraiand the second Sangam at Kapaadapuram were taken over by Kadal'. Thiscan be interpreted as taken over by the wavelike Aryan invaders, willplace the first Sangam at Mathura( i ) and the second Sangam atPada(li)pu(tra)m. May be padaliputra is a corrupted version ofKapadapuram. May be it is near Cuddalore as revealed recently theexistence of a locality called as Padaliputra. The author is of theopinion the first two sangams existed and only mis-reported in theTamil passages. The place of fist sangam probably at Mathura and thesecond sangam either at Pataliputra or Patna or the new Pataliputra atCuddalore. It is to be noted that the fist sangam was presided by sivawho has burnt tripuram which may be located in present Tripura anortheast Indian state. The archaeologists have to look for Tripuram tocorroborate the theory that Siva was the president of the first sangam.If the assumption that the presence of Dravidians or Tamils innorthern India holds water then a large portion of Sanskrit literatureincluding Vedas, Upanishads etc. are the adapted versions of Tamil orDravidian scriptures. For example Aintiram of Tamil is available asAintira Vyakarna. Mayan is said to be the author of these two works. Heis also said to be the author of several Sanskrit works. He is said tobe a non-aryan.Further during the invasion of Aryans and later Muslims a large numberof telugu and kannada speaking families of artisans like weavers,goldsmiths, silversmiths, coppersmiths, carpenters, silphis and etc.,also fled north India. They are found everywhere scattered throughoutIndia.
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Outline for Research
A new approach to interpret evidence to peep into the past
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