Re: [tied] Harappan Horse myths

--- vishalsagarwal <vishalagarwal@...> wrote:

> Earlier, it was believed that the Aryans invaded and
> destroyed the
> IVC, and spread IA languages in India.
> However, no archaeological evidence of invasions has
> shown up
> although approx 98 sites of the civilization have
> been excavated.
> What is more, the whole region shows a cultural
> continuity for
> several centuries even beyond 1900 BCE, when the IVC
> is supposed to
> have collapsed.

***GK: I gather that an alternative scenario would
have the Indo-Aryan invasion(s) (or rather
infiltration(s)) take place after the demise of the
Harappan civilization, moving into a power vacuum so
to speak.****

>

(Vishal): Genetic evidence has failed to show any
migration of

> people into
> India between 3500 - 800 BC.

****GK: What is that evidence, and how can one be sure
that it covers precisely this time frame?*****

> (Vishal)And the entire Vedic literature is silent on

the

> matter, and gives
> the impression that the people were quite 'rooted'
> in the land in
> which they composed the hymns. And this land
> coincideds quite well
> with the geographical area covered by the IVC.

*****GK: But there is the analogy of the Scythian
Foundation Legend. Recorded by Herodotus in 450 BC, it
gives the impression that the Scythians were
autochtons. Yet their leading component, the Paralata
(Pararya-ta) had arrived scarcely two centuries
earlier.*****

>(Vishal) But the advent of IA languages has to be

explained.

> This was
> explained with the help of the elite dominance
> model. It was
> postulated that the Aryans were powered with horses
> and horse drawn
> chariot, and therefore even small numbers of IA
> speakers overwhelmed
> IVC residents, established themselves as an elite
> layer, and
> gradually spread IA languages in India via
> acculturation. Because
> their numbers were small, they did not leave a
> genetic imprint.
>
> There is no proof for such a scenario of any sorts,

*****GK: I would have thought that pretty solid
linguistic proof existed to indicate that the spread
of Indo-European languages from an Indian heartland is
not a tenable hypothesis. So a movement in the
opposite direction must have occurred.*****

>(Vishal) and so upholders
> of this elite domination and related models depend
> on the supposed
> absence of the horse in IVC area. Since IVC
> residents did not know
> horse, they were easily overwhelmed by this 'Vedic
> tank', according
> to this mode of argumentation.

*****GK: On the other hand, what about a "better tank"
model? Again there is analogy further north. Better
bows, better military tactics etc. explain the
victories of some groupings over others. Why could
this not have happened in the south?******


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