Re: Fwd: Aryans - Summarizing Asko Parpola's views

--- In cybalist@..., vishalagarwal@... wrote:

>> Below, I append a summary of Parpola's views on AIT.
>>The summary is present in his own work (see reference)
>>and as the listmembers will note (even those who have
>>an indepth knowledge of his writings), they
>>are a combination of a multiple invasions, fantasy,
>>conspiracy theories and plain leaps of faith.
>> Vishal

--- In cybalist@..., markodegard@... wrote a reply:

>Unless I've misread this, this is an extreme
>(even absurd) statement. Nothing of what I've read
>says he holds anything other than a pretty
>conventional view of how Indic got to India,
>i.e., from Central Asia via Afganistan.

Yes, the Rgvedic Aryans entering India
via Afghanistan is well accepted by almost
all experts on Rgveda. For example,
Frits Staal, UC, Berkeley in Vedic and Greek
Geometry, Jl. Ind. Phil. (The Netherlands)
writes about Rgvedi Aryans in the Bolon pass,
circa 1500 BCE. Michael Witzel, Harvard univ.,
does the same in his papers.

--- In cybalist@..., vishalagarwal@... wrote:
[...]
> but as far as the decipherment goes, it nothing more than a
> fantasy. If someone is hell bent on reading 'Meluhha' as 'Tamilakam'
> and 'Himalaya' as Dravidian 'Himamalaya', there is really no end to
> fantasy and speculation.

I don't recall Parpola writing Meluhha = Tamilakam,
but prof. Parpola connects it with MElakam in tamil (from memory).
Also, Parpola links Skt. mleccha 'foreigner, ...' with
Meluhha.

> Per Parpola's description, the RV gets placed in Afghanistan and the
> Kathaka Samhita is composed in W Punjab. Not many Vedicists will
> agree to these things nowadays. Such views are plainly absurd.
>
> Regards
> Vishal

This is simply not correct, I'm afraid.

Parpola says the Rgveda was composed in old India (Ie.,
today's India and Pakistan) in several
publications. For example:

A. Parpola, Deciphering the Indus script, p. 133
"The earliest texts, the hymns of the Rgveda, are assumed
to have come into being during the latter half of the
second millennium BC, but it has not been possible to
date their composition exactly; their final redactiob, however,
took place only about 700 BC. These documents, recording
an archaic form of Old Indo-Aryan, are limited to the
northwest of the subcontinent."

A. Parpola, Deciphering the Indus script, p. 143:
"The Indo-Aryan languages, spoken mainly on the
Indian subcontinent, have had a continuous literary
tradition since the secon millennium BC, when the
hymns of the Rgveda are supposed to have been
composed in the northwest of Pakistan and India."

Regards,
N. Ganesan