Review of A. Parpola, R. K. Payne and M. Witzel, and R. U. S. Prasad, India and Beyond: Vedism, Hinduism, and the Continuity of Culture (original) (raw)
Related papers
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 2023
This article provides a textured history of the multivalent term "hindu" over 2,500 years, with the goal of productively unsettling what we think we know. "Hindu" is a ubiquitous word in modern times, used by scholars and practitioners in dozens of languages to denote members of a religious tradition. But the religious meaning of "hindu" and its common use are quite new. Here I trace the layered history of "hindu," part of an array of shifting identities in early and medieval India. In so doing, I draw upon an archive of primary sources-in Old Persian, New Persian, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, and more-that offers the kind of multilingual story needed to understand a term that has long cut across languages in South Asia. Also, I do not treat premodernity as a prelude but rather recognize it as the heart of this tale. So much of South Asian history-including over two thousand years of using the term "hindu"-has been misconstrued by those who focus only on British colonialism and later. We need a deeper consideration of South Asian pasts if we are to think more fruitfully about the terms and concepts that order our knowledge. Here, I offer one such contribution that marshals historical material on the multiform and fluid word "hindu" that can help us think more critically and precisely about this discursive category.
The Aryan Controversy Decided? Ancient Indian between the Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization
What are the prehistoric sources of Brahminic Hinduism and Ancient Indian Civilization? The attempts to answer this question have given rise to the fractious debates of what's called 'The Aryan Controversy,' in which' Western scholars argue that Brahminic Hinduism is a result of the Rig Vedic Indo-Aryan (RVIA) conquest of the Indus Valley civilization (IVC), while Indigenist Indian intellectuals argue that Brahminic Hinduism, like the Sanskrit language and the Rig Veda, is a indigenous creation of the Harappan culture. Following Asko Parpola's 'The Roots of Hinduism,' this review essay argues that both the Rig Vedic-Indo Aryans and the Harappans played a significant role in the establishment of Brahminic Hinduism, and explores the diverse theories that have been devised to account for the world-historical dialectical relationship between the RVIA culture and the Harappan population. Although the IVC certainly predates the RVIA migrations from Central Asia by several millennia, the IVC was already in drastic decline by the second millennia BCE, when the RVIA tribes arrived in the Punjab; and the RVIA invasion of the Indus Valley resulted in a drastic transformation of the Harappan culture, whereby Brahminic Vedic sacrificial ritualism and the Sanskrit language were imposed upon the Harappan population. But the RVIA tribes were a small elite minority among the Harappan population, and within another thousand years, the Harappan population had swamped the RVIA invaders, resulting in the reemergence of the Pre-Rig Vedic Mesopotamian and Harappan elements which make up the greater part of 'village Hinduism.' After many thousand years of conquests of the Indian subcontinent by the RVIAs, the Greeks, the Mongols, the Mughals, and the British Empire, contemporary Hinduism thus testifies to the survival of Harappan (IVC) culture in the 21st Century Republic of India (est. 1947-1950).
The Rise of Religious Movements in Ancient India: the late Vedic Period
isara solutions, 2016
The present paper, based on research review related to ancient Indian history attempted to highlight the movements for religious ritual reformation. The Harappan people of the Indus Valley Civilisation which lasted from 3300 to 1300 BCE predated the Vedic religion (Sanghvi, 2013). The late Vedic period ranged from ninth BCE to sixth BCE. It has been stressed by many Historians that the classical Hinduism emanated from Vedic period underwent a movement of the Shramanic tradition. The Shramanic tradition, in spite of being parallel to the Vedic tradition, was different from the Vedic tradition. Two main philosophical branches of Astika and Nastika were introduced in the sixth century BCE as the part of Shramanic movement. Many Vedic elements and orthodox rituals were challenged and were lost during this Shramanic movement (Michaels (2004). orthodoxy of the rituals was challenged. may have been influenced by Some Upanishadic ideas were challenged by Buddhism by discarding the orthodox tendencies and rejecting avenues of salvation (Upadhyaya, 1998). The Puranic Period from 200 BCE to 500 CE as well as early medieval period from 500 CE to 1100 CE introduced the configurations of Hinduism, especially bhakti and Shaivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism, Smarta, and smaller groups like the conservative Shrauta.
Origins of the Vedic Religion and Indus-Ghaggar Civilisation
The highly debated issue of the Aryan or proto-Indo-European language speaker’s homeland is still nowhere near to any resolve. The European and Indian scholars have been proposing drastically opposite theories to prove either Eurasia or India as the homeland. Sometimes they dramatically stretch the timelines leaving one wondering as to how the scholars can play around with the archaeological proofs and indications provided by ancient scriptures just to derive suitable meanings to meet their needs. In his book, Mr. Sonawani attempts to have a look at the ‘homeland’ scenario. While doing so, he takes cognizance of all the theories forwarded by the scholars so far from fresh angle and postulates that; 1. The Indo-European language group theory is based upon migrations of the proto Indo-European language speakers from some homeland. The author challenges the hypotheses’ of such migration and using the available archaeological, anthropological and scriptural evidences goes on to prove that there were no massive migrations from any place since 10,000 BC which may have caused substantial impact on other cultures. Using the archaeological evidences, he proves that the people all over the globe started settling down by 15,000 BC with the invention of early agriculture. The process was gradually completed by before 10,000 BC. Therefore, it is out of the question that the so-called PIE speakers started migrating from the hypothetical homelands at about 2000 BC or 5000 BC and impacted the linguistic and cultural features of other civilisations, as postulated by the scholars. 2. The author further proves that the early humans were foragers during the period ranging from 60,000 BC till 15,000 BC when they already had learnt to move around in the known territories and developed geographical consciousness. By then they had already shared, developed rudimentary languages having common features. These rudimentary languages took separate paths after he settled down in the respective regions. However, the early vocabulary and grammatical traits survived, which is why there are some similarities even today in the territories in question. These similarities are owed to the early human life and not to the movement of so-called Proto-Indo-European people. 3. Author proves that from all the results pouring in from the geological explorations at Ghaggar basin, and from the careful analysis of Rig Vedic/mythological descriptions of the Saraswati River, the Ghaggar river cannot be at all equated with the Rig Vedic Saraswati. 4. Mr. Sonawani, in this book, proves that many personalities, including Zarathustra and his patrons, were contemporary to the early phase of Rig Vedic compositions and have been mentioned in both the Rig Veda and the Avesta. This sheds light on the possible date of the Rig Veda and Gathas of the Avesta. Further, the author proves, with in depth analysis of numerous scriptural and archaeological evidences, that the Rig Vedic geography is that of nowhere else but Helmand valley, Southern Afghanistan. Using references from the Rig Veda and the Avesta, he has proved that most of the identifiable tribes mentioned were and still are located in Iran, Afghanistan and north-east India( now Pakistan), and are speaking the descendent languages even today. 5. The author also proves that the indigenous Vedic Aryan theory is unfounded since there is no slightest affinity between the Vedic and Indus culture. He explains diligently that, how, even if Rig Vedic period is stretched back substantially, i.e. from presently accepted period of about 1500 BC, to as back as 3000 BC or even far before, any association of the Vedic people with Indus-Ghaggar Civilisation is improbable. 6. Since Indus-Ghaggar Valley have not experienced any intruding immigrants from minimum of 7000+ BC, there is no any genetic or archeological proof to prove any foreign influx since then. Therefore, there is total absence of any proofs to prove the migration of so-called Vedic Aryans from India to West. The vital questions raised by Mr. Sonawani are: How the Vedic religion was introduced to India? How it found space here to become a major sect in the later course of time? The revelations, supported by substantial proofs may help us change the traditional perspective of our ancient socio-cultural and religious history. 7. Importantly, the author points out at the sever social harm caused by the supremacist views taken by the European and Vedicist scholars over the last two hundred years to solve non-existent mystery of origin, either of the Aryan race or of the PIE language. 8. This book explains the roots of the original Rig Vedic language and how it was gradually modified in ancient times to suite the changed linguistic environments, while providing the internal proofs from the Rig Veda and from the observations of Indian as well as European Sanskrit scholars. As a result, the myth of the Vedic dialect being mother of Sanskrit and other Prakrit languages crumbles. Rather the author of this book has referred to almost all the living and dead renowned scholars whose works have been related with a wide range of topics such as the myth of the Aryans or the PIE speakers hypotheses, archaeology, geology, linguistics, anthropology to religion. Mr. Sonawani stresses through this book that distorting the human history to prove that some humans are superior over others, racially or linguistically, is not the way to solve the puzzles of our ancient past. “Origin of the Vedic Religion and Indus-Ghaggar Civilization” is an attempt to help us look back at our past with clean and unprejudiced vision.
Religions, 2020
The classical account of the Brahmin priestly class and its role in Indian religion has seen remarkable continuity during the past two centuries. Its core claims appear to remain unaffected, despite the major shifts that occurred in the theorizing of Indian culture and in the study of religion. In this article, we first examine the issue of the power and status of the Brahmin and show how it generates explanatory puzzles today. We then turn to 18th-and 19th-century sources to identify the cognitive conditions which sustained the classical account of the Brahmin priest and allowed for its transmission. Three clusters of concepts were crucial here: Christian-theological ideas concerning heathen priesthood and idolatry; racial notions of biological and cultural superiority and inferiority; and anthropological speculations about 'primitive man' and his 'magical thinking'. While all three clusters were rejected by 20th-and 21st-century scholarship, the related claims about Brahmanical ritual power continue to be presented as facts. What accounts for this peculiar combination of continuities and discontinuities in the study of (ancient) Indian religion? We turn to some insights from the philosophy of science to sketch a route toward answering this question.