It is time to remove the term ‘Harappan’ from the list of references to India’s ancient civilization, as it is inaccurate and ignores the nature and continuity of Indian civilization as a whole. Harappan is an artificial and incidental term derived from the Harappan ruins and Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, which were the main sites of Greater India discovered in the early 20th century (1921-22) before the partition of the country. It was the ruins of an ancient city. Western archaeologists arbitrarily chose this to refer to an entire urban civilization dating back to 3500 BC. They viewed it as a lost civilization rather than as relevant to India’s later history.
The term Harappan does not imply any ancient continuity in Indian history or confer any status on the Vedas within it. It was proponents of the Aryan invasion theory such as Mortimer Wheeler who suggested this name, and such non-Vedic terms helped perpetuate that theory. Wheeler also promoted the false theory that the Mohenjo-Daro massacre was due to an Aryan invasion, which has been disproven archaeologically.
Today, the Rakhigarhi site in Haryana, located on the Saraswati River valley in Kurukshetra and traditionally considered the seat of the Vedas, has proven to be larger and older than Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, both on the Indus River. There is. It would be more accurate to associate this ancient Indian civilization with Rakigarhi rather than Harappa, as it is the largest archaeological site in Harappa. This will better reveal the geographical connections of these sites with later India and its major historical regions.
The Harappan civilization is also called the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) because the Indus River (Sindhu in Indian languages) was the main site of the first discovered ruins. However, further excavations revealed that most of the so-called Harappan and Indus ruins were located on the banks of the Saraswati River, which is famous in Vedic texts, and the river dried up about 4,000 years ago. is shown.
ancient maritime civilization
Furthermore, the Harappan ruins were discovered along the coast of what was then the Saraswati river delta in Gujarat, indicating that it was a maritime culture that stretched from the Saraswati river to the sea. The Vedic civilization was also maritime, and in his oldest Vedas alone, he mentions the sea in 150 places, including the mention of the river Saraswati flowing from the mountains to the sea. Masu.
The use of nondescript terms like “Harappan” fits the vocabulary of the Aryan invasion theory, which separates the Vedas from the origins of Indian civilization, and was also advocated by colonial scholars. . Harappan is often called pre-Vedic or non-Vedic, but Rakhigarhi believes this also disproves it.
Rivers in northwest India, where so-called Harappan ruins are found, have ancient Vedic names such as Sindhu, Saraswati, Vitasta, Parshni (Ravi), Vipath (Bead), Shutudri (Sutlej), Yamuna, Ganga . Vedic texts show a similar culture, artifacts, and geography to what is known as Harappan, from fire altars to Shivalingas. We see the continuity of Indian civilization from 8000-year-old sites like Rakhigarhi and Virana, similar ancient sites in the Kurukshetra region of Haryana.
Saraswati Sindhu’s Vedic Civilization
Instead of ‘Harappan’, this civilization would be more appropriately called ‘Vedic-Saraswati civilization’ or ‘Saraswati-Sindhu civilization’. The use of the term ‘Harappan’ is misleading for the study of Indian history as it does not suggest the actual center of civilization along the Saraswati river, along with its association with the Vedas and Bharat.
Influence of Indian textbooks on historical explanation
Indian Marxist scholars like Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib, who opposed the idea of Saraswati civilization, were also, not surprisingly, the main scholarly opponents of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. They denied the existence of a Hindu temple at the Babri Masjid site even after Professor BB Lal, Director General of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), gave evidence. Lal also wrote extensively on Saraswati and Harappan as Vedic cultures and was also involved in the excavations of Harappan ruins.
Unfortunately, these same Marxist scholars were accused by India’s Congress government over Indian history textbooks, not only regarding ancient times but also medieval and modern times, including the Indian independence movement. Young people in India are given a distorted view of India’s history as authoritative, portraying India as a land of invaders, with no religions such as Hinduism, only a series of local cults; It was designed to make people reject their own culture and dharmic civilization.
Congress did this to gain political advantage and made the Marxists their intellectual wing in the absence of independent thinkers. There is no doubt that if Congress were to come back to power, they would try to restore these scholars and their views. Fortunately, Shri Ram proves too strong for them and the Vedas can no longer deny their central role in the history of Bharat.
The author is the director of the American Vedic Institute and the author of over 30 books on yoga and the Vedic tradition. The views expressed in the article above are personal and solely those of the author.not necessarily reflected first postThis is your opinion.
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