Who were the Aryans?

[Guest guest]

Who were the Aryans?

By Dr Dinesh Agarwal

 

Beginning with the issue, dated February 27, 2005 we are carrying

this comprehensive document on the Aryan Invasion Theory. The writer

here deals with all aspects of the controversial issue extensively

quoting from authoritative sources.

 

Real Meaning of the Word `Arya'

 

River Narmada starts in central India and River Godavari starts in

western India, while River Kaveri winds its way through the south to

move into the southern sea. More than a thousand years ago, Adi

Shankaracharya, who was born in Kerala, established several mathas

(religious and spiritual centres) at Badrinath in the north (UP),

Puri in the east (Orissa), Dwaraka in the west (Gujarat), and

Shringeri and Kanchi in the south. That is India, that is Bharat,

and that is Hinduism.

 

In 1853, Max Muller introduced the word `Arya' into the English and

European usage as applying to a racial and linguistic group when

propounding the Aryan racial theory. However, in 1888, he himself

refuted his own theory and wrote:

 

"I have declared again and again that if I say Aryas, I mean neither

blood nor bones, nor hair, nor skull; I mean simply those who speak

an Aryan language...to me an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan race,

Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist

who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic

grammar." (Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas by Max

Muller, 1888, 120 pp)

 

In Vedic literature the word `Arya' is nowhere defined in connection

with either race or language. Instead it refers to: a gentleman,

good-natured, righteous person, nobleman, and is often used

like `Sir' or `Shree' before the name of a person like Aryaputra,

Aryakanya, etc.

 

Nowhere, either in the religious scriptures or by tradition, the

word `Arya' denotes a race or language. To impose such a meaning on

this epithet is an absolute intellectual dishonesty, deliberate

falsification of the facts, and deceptive scholarship.

 

In Ramayana (Valmiki), Rama is described as an Arya in the following

words: Arya-who cared for equality for all and was dear to everyone.

 

Etymologically, according to Max Muller, the word Arya was derived

from ar, meaning "to plough, to cultivate". Therefore, `Arya'

means `cultivator', agriculturer (civilised and sedentary, as

opposed to nomads and hunter-gatherers), landlord.

 

V.S. Apte's Sanskrit-English dictionary relates the word `Arya' to

the root r, to which a prefix a has been appended to give a negating

meaning. And therefore the meaning of `Arya' is given as `excellent,

best', followed by `respectable' and as a noun, `master, lord,

worthy, honourable, excellent', upholder of Arya values, and

further, teacher, employer, master, father-in-law, friend, Buddha.

 

So nowhere, either in the religious scriptures or by tradition, the

word `Arya' denotes a race or language. To impose such a meaning on

this epithet is an absolute intellectual dishonesty, deliberate

falsification of the facts, and deceptive scholarship. There are

only four primary races, namely, Caucasian, the Mongolian, the

Australians and the Negroid. Both the Aryans and Dravidians are

related branches of the Caucasian race generally placed in the same

Mediterranean sub-branch. The difference between the so-called

Aryans of the north and the Dravidians of the south or other

communities of Indian subcontinent is not a racial type.

Biologically all are the same Caucasian type, only when closer to

the equator, the skin gets darker, and under the influence of

constant heat the bodily frame tends to get a little smaller. And

these differences cannot be the basis of two altogether different

races. Similar differences one can observe even more distinctly

among the people of pure Caucasian white race of Europe. Caucasians

can be of any colour ranging from pure white to almost pure black,

with every shade of brown in between. Similarly, the Mongolian race

is not yellow. Many Chinese have skin whiter than many so-called

Caucasians.

 

Demise of Aryan Invasion Theory - II

 

Further, a recent landmark global study in population genetics by a

team of internationally reputed scientists over 50 years (The

History and Geography of Human Genes, by Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo

Menozzi and Alberto Piazza, Princeton University Press) reveals that

the people habitated in the Indian subcontinent and nearby including

Europe, all belong to one single race of Caucasion type. According

to this study, there is essentially, no difference racially between

north Indians and the so-called Dravidian, south Indians. The racial

composition has remained almost the same for millennia. This study

also confirms that there is no race called an Aryan race.

 

References to Wars in Rig Veda

 

The voluminous references to various wars and conflicts in the Rig

Veda are frequently cited as proof of an invasion and wars between

invading white-skinned Aryans and dark-skinned indigenous people.

These so-called conflicts and wars mentioned in the Rig Veda can be

categorised mainly into the following three types:

 

Conflicts between the forces of nature: Indra, the thunder-god of

the Rig Veda, occupies a central position in the naturalistic

aspects of the Rig Vedic religion, since it is he who forces the

clouds to part with their all-important wealth, the rain. In this

task he is pitted against all sorts of demons and spirits whose main

activity is the prevention of rainfall and sunshine. Rain, being the

highest wealth, is depicted in terms of more terrestrial forms of

wealth, such as cows or soma. The clouds are depicted in terms of

their physical appearance: as mountains, as the black abodes of the

demons who retain the celestial waters of the heavens (i.e. the

rains), or as the black demons themselves. This in no way be

construed as the war between white Aryans and black Dravidians. This

is a perverted interpretation from those who have not understood the

meaning and purport of the Vedic culture and philosophy. Most of the

verses which mention the wars/conflicts are composed using poetic

imagery, and depict the celestial battles of the natural forces, and

often take greater and greater recourse to terrestrial terminology

and anthropomorphic depictions. The descriptions acquire an

increasing tendency to shift from naturalism to mythology. And it is

these mythological descriptions, which are grabbed at by invasion

theorists as descriptions of wars between invading Aryans and

indigenous non-Aryans. An example of such distorted interpretation

is made of the following verse:

 

"The body lay in the midst of waters that are neither still nor

flowing. The waters press against the secret opening of the vrtra

(the coverer) who lay in deep darkness and whose enemy is Indra.

Mastered by the enemy, the waters held back like cattle restrained

by a trader. Indra crushed the vrtra and broke open the withholding

outlet of the river." (Rig Veda, I.32.10-11)

 

This verse is a beautiful poetic and metamorphical description of

snow-clad, dark mountains where the life-sustaining water to feed

the rivers flowing in the Aryavarta is held by the hardened ice-caps

(vrtra, demon) and Indra, the rain-god, by allowing the sun to light

its rays on the mountains, makes the ice caps break and hence

release the water. The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) proponents

interpret this verse literally on the human plane, as the slaying of

vrtra, the leader of dark-skinned Dravidian people of Indus Valley

by invading white-skinned Aryan king, Indra. This is an absurd and

ludicrous interpretation of an obvious conflict between the natural

forces.

 

Conflict between Vedic and Iranian people: Another category of

conflicts in the Rig Veda represents the genuine conflict between

the Vedic people and the Iranians. At one time Iranians and Vedic

people formed one society and were living harmoniously in the

northern part of India, practising Vedic culture, but at some point

of time in history, because of some serious philosophical dispute,

the society got divided, and one section moved to further north-

west, now known as Iran. However, the conflict and controversy were

continued between the two groups, often resulting in even physical

fights. The Iranians not only called their God Ahura (Vedic asura)

and their demons Daevas (Vedic devas), but they also called

themselves Dahas and Dahyus (Vedic dasas, and dasyus). The oldest

Iranian texts moreover depict the conflicts between the Daeva-

worshippers and the Dahas on behalf of the Dahyus, as the Vedic

texts depict them on behalf of the deva-worshippers. Indra, the

dominant god of the Rig Veda, is represented in the Iranian texts by

a demon Indra. What this all indicates is that wars or conflicts of

this second category are not between Aryans and non-Aryans, but

between two estranged groups of the same parent society which got

divided by some philosophical dichotomy. The Vedas even mention the

gods of Dasyus as Arya also.

 

Conflicts between various indigenous tribal groups over natural

resources and various minor kingdoms to gain supremacy over the land

and its expansion: A global phenomenon known to share the natural

resources like water, cattle, vegetation and land, and expand the

geographical boundaries of the existing kingdoms. This conflict in

no way suggests any war or invasion by outsiders on the indigenous

people.

 

Archaeological Evidence

 

It is argued that in the excavations at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro,

the human skeletons found do prove that a massacre had taken place

at these townships by invading armies of Aryan nomads. Prof. G. F.

Dales (former head of Department of South Asian Archaeology and

Anthropology, Berkeley University, USA), in his The Mythical

Massacre at Mohenjo-daro Expedition, Vol. VI, 3; 1964 states the

following about this evidence:

 

Not a single body was found within the area of the fortified citadel

where one could reasonably expect the final defence of this thriving

capital city to have been made.

 

"What of these skeletal remains that have taken on such undeserved

importance? Nine years of extensive excavations at Mohenjo-daro

(1922-31)-a city of three miles in circuit-yielded a total of some

37 skeletons, or parts thereof, that can be attributed with some

certainty to the period of the Indus civilisation. Some of these

were found in contorted positions and groupings that suggest

anything but orderly burials. Many are either disarticulated or

incomplete. They were all found in the area of the lower town-

probably the residential district. Not a single body was found

within the area of the fortified citadel where one could reasonably

expect the final defence of this thriving capital city to have been

made."

 

He further questions:

 

"Where are the burned fortresses, the arrowheads, weapons, pieces of

armour, the smashed chariots and bodies of the invaders and

defenders? Despite the extensive excavations at the largest Harappan

sites, there is not a single bit of evidence that can be brought

forth as unconditional proof of an armed conquest and the

destruction on the supposed scale of the Aryan invasion."

(To be concluded)