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

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

> 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.

VA: Such a view is qualified or outrightly rejected by Chakrabarti,
Mallory and in fact even by Jarrige- the excavator of these sites. I
had quoted these works in IC list earlier, so why repeat the name
dropping excercise here?
**********

> 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.
>

VA: Again, check the archives of the IC list for the exact reference
to his writings. For Parpola, Meluhha = Milakha = (Ta)amilakam.

> > 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.

VA: Why not refer to the original quote that I gave on this list.
Other than the existence of Kathoai etc. in W Punjab in Greek records
around 320 BC, there is no evidence that the Kathaka Shakha was
'composed' in the W Punjab. Rather, the Kurukshetra region seems more
appropriate and this is accepted by M Witzel too. Moreover, there is
no reason to call the Kathaka Samhita as a 'Brahmana' when the Kathaka
Brahmana is now largely lost and even the Brahmana portions of the
Samhita are missing in several sections. The fixation of Indologists
with the equation RV = W Punjab,Afghanistan has been dismissed by
Talageri and we see that Witzel's attempt to defend this colonial view
amounted to a little more than slander and mud slinging. Parpola has
not even yet responded to criticism of his work by Sethna.

>
> 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."

VA: Apparently then, Parpola is not very careful in writing his works.
If the Rigvedic Aryans 'enter' or 'invade' via the Swat and the
Brahmana texts get composed while they are still in W Punjab, then
Parpola has probably modified his views. Anyways, the Geography of NW
Pakistan is absent in large sections of RV.
We are not academicians who need to fear backlash from our peers for
not toeing the official line based on non-provable assertions and
conventions. Consequently, I have no reason to state that Indologists
need to give a proper reply to Talageri's book failing which their
colonial Indo-Aryan mythology stands collapsed.

Vishal