Vedic-Harappan Gallery

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Vedic-Harappan Gallery

Presented by

N.S. Rajaram

This poster shows some of the commonly occurring symbols at

Harappan sites and artifacts and show their connections to the Vedic

literature, thereby proving that Vedic and Harappan civilizations

were one and the same.

 

Background

Going back more than a hundred years, history books have claimed

that the Vedic Civilization of India began with an 'Aryan Invasion'

from Eurasia, which took place near 1500 BC. When the cities of the

Harappan Civilization (or the Indus Valley Civilization) were

discovered, scholars claimed that they were part of a pre-Vedic

civilization destroyed by the invading Aryans. This continues to be

the position of many Indologists, especially in the West. This means

that the Harappan Civilization was totally unrelated to the Vedic.

 

A careful examination of Harappan sites and artifacts shows this

to be totally unfounded. It shows that the Harappan Civilization

carries the Vedic imprint at every stage. In particular, it shows

that Harappan artifacts are steeped in Vedic symbolism. This means

that the Harappan Civilization was Vedic, and there was no break due

to any invasion.

 

The rest of this page demonstrates this basic fact — Vedic-

Harappan — unity by examining a few well-known Harappan symbols and

their relationship to the Vedic literature.

 

Harappan Yoga

There is evidence to show that the Harappans practiced Yoga.

Given below are several clay figurines from sites like Harappa,

Mohenjo-Daro and others showing various Yogic postures. Yoga is

essentially Vedic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swastika

To see further this Vedic-Harappan connection , one can begin

with familiar sacred symbols like the swastika signs.

 

 

 

Harappan sites are replete with the swastika. Swastika stands

for svasti-ka, meaning `maker of welfare'. They appear singly as

well as in combination with other signs. The figure above shows a

string of five swastikas. This is related to the sacred panca-svasti

mantra found in the Yajurveda (25.18 – 19), in which the

word `svasti' (welfare) appears five times. It may be paraphrased as:

 

 

 

We invoke him who may bring us welfare.

 

May the respected Indra guard our welfare,

 

May the omniscient Pushan guard our welfare,

 

May the Universal Creator guard our welfare,

 

May the Great Protector bring us welfare.

 

 

This is an example of the deep connections between Harappan

archaeology and the Vedic literature.

 

 

 

OM Sign

Such connections are not limited to the Rigveda and the

Yajurveda; they span the whole gamut of Vedic literature, including

the Brahmanas, Upanishads and others. This can be understood by

looking at the OM sign, known also as pranavakshara. The seal below

is known as 'onkara mudra' or the OM seal.

 

 

 

 

 

The figure above displays line drawings of the same seal in two

positions— original and rotated by 90 degrees. The one on the right —

i.e. rotated by 90 degrees — is practically the Devanagari `om'.

Other scripts like Kannada and Telugu have retained the original

orientation of the Harappan `om', while elongating it a little. All

of them derive from the Harappan `Om' and have deep connections with

Vedic thought as described below.

 

This `bow-shaped' Harappan `Om' is described in several places

in the Vedic literature. The Mundaka Upanishad (2.2.4) describes it

as: "Pranava (Om) is the bow, the soul is the arrow, Brahma is the

target. With full concentration, aim at the target and strike, to

become one with Brahma, just as the arrow becomes one with the

target."

 

The OM is intimately linked to the asvattha (pipul) leaf, which

is another sacred symbol in Vedic thought and even today. Here are

more examples from the Vedic literature.

 

The Katha Upanishad (2.3.1) contains almost a visual

description of the Om as an ashvattha (pipul) tree growing

downward: "This is the eternal ashvattha tree, with the root at the

top (urdhvamoolo), but branches downwards. It is He that is called

the Shining One and Immortal. All the worlds are established in Him,

none transcends Him." The same idea is echoed in the Bhagavadgita

(15.1): "He who knows that ashvattha tree with its root above and

branches down, whose leaves are the Vedas said to be imperishable.

And he who knows it knows the Vedas."

 

In all this there is the symbolism of the ashvattha as the

seat of sacred knowledge (or Veda), and the abode of the Gods. This

idea goes back to the Rigveda itself (X.97.5): "Your abode is the

ashvattha tree, your dwelling is made of its leaves." With such

explicit Vedic symbolism, there cannot be the slightest doubt that

Harappan archaeology contains physical representations of Vedic

ideas. What is described is but a miniscule sample of the Vedic

symbolism that pervades Harappan archaeology.

 

Harappan horse: an irrelevant issue

The horse and the cow are mentioned often in the Rigveda,

though they generally carry symbolic rather than physical meaning.

There is a widespread misconception that the absence of the horse at

Harappan sites shows that horses were unknown in India until the

invading (or migrating) Aryans brought them. `No horse at Harappa'

has assumed almost the status of a sacred dogma for the upholders of

the foreign origin of the Vedas. This is unfounded, for

such `argument by absence' is hazardous at best. To take an example,

the bull is quite common on the seals, but the cow is never

represented. We cannot from this conclude that the Harappans raised

bulls but were ignorant of the cow.

 

Given below are images from two seals-- one containing the horse,

and the other the head of a horse. A horse figurine from Lothal is

also given.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These pictures make it clear that horses were known to the

Harappans. This is not limited to artists' depictions, which may be

open to debate. The just released and authoritative work The Dawn of

Indian Civilization, Volume 1, Part 1 observes (pages 344 – 5): "…

the horse was widely domesticated and used in India during the third

millennium BC over most of the area covered by the Indus-Sarasvati

[or Harappan] Civilization. Archaeologically this is most

significant since the evidence is widespread and not isolated."

 

Actually, the Harappans not only knew the horse, the whole issue

is irrelevant. To prove their point, scholars who insist on the non-

Indian origin of the Vedas must produce positive evidence: they must

show that the horse described in the Rigveda was brought from

Central Asia. But this is contradicted by the Rigveda itself. In

verse I.162.18, the Rigveda describes the horse as having 34 ribs,

while the Central Asian horse has 18 pairs (36) of ribs. We find a

similar description in the Yajurveda also. This means that the horse

described in the Vedas is the native Indian breed and not the

Central Asian. The 34-ribbed horse has been known in India going

back tens of thousands of years. This makes the whole argument based

on `No horse at Harappa' not only false, but also irrelevant.

 

Even this misses the symbolic significance of the horse.

Composite animals that include the horse are described in the

Rigveda. For example the Rigvedic verse I.163.1 describes a mythical

horse as: "possessed with wings of a falcon and the limbs of a

deer." The figure below displays a vase found at Mehrgarh— a pre-

Harappan site — with a picture of this composite animal. Notice also

the ashvattha leaves, also linking it to Vedic thought. It is a very

ancient artifact from the pre-Harappan site of Mehrgarh. So parts of

the Rigveda must be at least that ancient, not brought into India by

any `Aryan invaders' in 1500 BC. Here is the vase with the image

along with the ashvattha leaves, which again shows the Vedic

connection.

 

 

 

 

 

In summary, the Vedic and Harappan civilizations were one.

Harappan artifacts are material representations of ideas and

thoughts found in the Vedic literature. The Harappans therefore were

Vedic Harappans.

 

_______________

 

The author, Dr. N.S. Rajaram is a mathematician and

linguist who has written extensively on ancient India. He is the

author (with David Frawley) of Vedic Aryans and the Origins of

Civilization and The Deciphered Indus Script (with N. Jha). He is

currently working with Jha on the book Vedic Symbolism in Indus

Seals.

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