JIES vol. 31, issues 1-2 (2003)

[Guest guest]

Recently, N. Kazanas published a sixty page article

titled `Indigenous Indo-Aryans and the Rigveda' in The Journal of

Indo-European Studies (JIES), vol. 30, Numbers 3&4 (2002), pages 275-

334. The article argues that the speakers of Indo-Aryan (IA)

languages did not enter the Indian subcontinent around 1500 BC, as

the conventional Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) and its euphemistic

versions hold. Kazanas further argued that the Rgveda, the oldest IA

and Indian text, was composed mainly in the 4th millennium BC, and

therefore, these peoples may have arrived into the Indian

subcontinent around or before 4500 BC, not later. The article

provoked nine comments, of which eight were quite short and were

published in the same issue of the journal. The ninth comment, by

Professor M. Witzel of the Harvard University, was published in the

next issue (JIES vol. 31, No. 1-2 (2003), pages 107-185.

 

In the latter issue of JIES, Kazanas wrote a 54 page `Final Reply'

(JIES, vol. 31, No.1-2: pp. 187-240, 2003) to all his nine reviewers.

He has responded to most of Witzel's important academic objections.

My own critique here is meant to supplement Kazanas' response to

Witzel. I will not repeat what Kazanas has already included in his

final reply.

 

My critique is available at

 

1. In HTML format

http://vishalagarwal.bharatvani.org/JIES2003-MW.html

 

2. MS Word File

http://vishalagarwal.bharatvani.org/ReplytoWitzelJIES.doc

 

Sincerely,

 

Vishal Agarwal