Vedic literature and the Gulf of Cambay discovery
It is sad to note how intellectuals in India are quick to denigrate
the extent and antiquity of their history, even when geological
evidence like the Sarasvati River or archaeological evidence like the
Harappan and Cambay sites are so clear.
THE RECENT find of a submerged city in the Gulf of Cambay, perhaps as
old as 7500 BC, serves to highlight the existence of southern sources
for the civilisation of ancient India. The Gulf of Cambay find is
only the latest in a series that includes Lothal (S.R. Rao),
Dholavira (R.S. Bisht) and others in Gujarat. These discoveries have
been pushing the seats of ancient Indian civilisation deeper into the
southern peninsula. We should not be surprised if more such sites are
discovered in South India, especially the coastal regions, for the
south has always played a significant if neglected role in ancient
India going back to Vedic times.
I have argued for such a coastal origin for Vedic civilisation in my
recent book Rig Veda and the History of India. This is largely
because of the oceanic character of Vedic symbolism in which all the
main Rig Vedic Gods as well as many of the Vedic rishis have close
connections with samudra or the sea. In fact, the image of the ocean
pervades the whole of the Rig Veda. Unfortunately many scholars who
put forth opinions on ancient India seldom bother to study the Vedas
in the original Sanskrit and few know the language well enough to do
so. The result is that their interpretation of Vedic literature is
often erroneous, trusting out of date and inaccurate interpretations
from the Nineteenth century like the idea that the Vedic people never
new the sea!
Literary evidence
The Rig Veda states that "All the hymns praise Indra who is as
expansive as the sea" (RV I.11.1) Agni wears the ocean as his vesture
(RV VIII 102.4-6). The Sun is called the ocean (RV V.47.3). Soma is
called the first ocean (RV IX.86.29). Varuna specifically is a God of
the sea (RV I.161.14). These are just a few examples of out of well
over a hundred references to samudra in the Rig Veda alone, including
references to oceans as two, four or many (RV VI.50.13). This is
obviously the poetry of a people intimately associated with the sea
and not of any nomads from land-locked Central Asia or Eurasia.
Vedic seer families like the Bhrigus are descendants of Varuna, the
God of the sea as the first Bhrigu is called Bhrigu Varuni Bhrigu,
the son of Varuna. The teachings of Varuna to Bhrigu are found in the
Taittiriya Upanishad and Taittiriya tradition of the Yajur Veda,
which has long been most popular in South India. The recent find at
sea in the Gulf of Cambay is near Baroach or Bhrigu-kachchha, the
famous ancient city of the very same Bhrigus.
These oceanic connections extend to other important Vedic rishis as
well. In the Rig Veda, Agastya, who became the main rishi of South
India, has twenty-five hymns in the first book of the Rig Veda and is
mentioned in the other books as well. He is the elder brother of
Vasishta who himself has the largest number of hymns in the text
(about a hundred), those of the seventh book. Both rishis are said to
have been born in a pot or kumbha, which may be a vessel or ship (RV
VII.33.10-13). Vasishta is specifically connected to Varuna who was
said to travel on a ship in the sea (RV VII.88.4-5). Both Vasishta
and Agastya are descendants of Mitra and Varuna, the God of the sea.
Vishvamitra in the Rig Veda (IIII.53.16) mentions the sage Pulasti,
who was regarded as the progenitor of Ravana and Kubera and whose
city, Pulasti-Pura was located in ancient Sri Lanka. He is mentioned
along with Jamadagni, another common Rig Vedic sage and the father of
Parshurama, the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, before Rama and
Krishna, whose main sphere of activity was in the south of India.
Manu himself, the Vedic primal sage and king, is a flood figure and
the Angirasas, the other main seer family apart from the Bhrigus,
join him in his ship according to Puranic mythology. Southern peoples
like the Yadus and Turvashas were said to have been glorified by
Indra (RV X.49.8) and are mentioned a number of times in the Rig Veda
as great Vedic peoples. So we have ample ancient literary evidence
for the Vedic seer and royal families as connected with the ocean and
southern regions.
The Cambay site is in the ancient delta of the now dry Sarasvati
River, one branch of which flowed into the Gulf of Cambay, showing
that this site was part of the greater Sarasvati region and culture,
which was the main location for Harappan cities in the 3300-1900 BCE
period. Such an ocean front was important for maritime trade for the
inland regions to the north. In this regard, important Vedic kings
like Sudas were said to receive tribute from the sea (RV I.47.6).
When the Greeks under Alexander came to India in the Fourth century
BCE, the Greek writer Megasthenes in his Indika, fragments of which
are recorded in several Greek writings, mentioned that the Indians
(Hindus) had a record of 153 kings going back over 6400 years
(showing that the Hindus were conscious of the great antiquity of
their culture even then). This would yield a date that now amounts to
6700 BCE, a date that might be reflected in the Gulf of Cambay site
which has been tentatively dated to 7500 BCE. So the old Vedic-
Puranic king lists may not be that far off after all!
Material evidence
A few scholars, like Witzel in the United States in spite of such
massive evidence as the Sarasvati River and its intimate connection
to Vedic literature still try to separate Vedic culture from India
and attribute it to a largely illiterate and nomadic culture that
migrated into India from the northwest of the country in the post-
Harappan period (after 1500 BCE). Ignoring all other evidence that
connects the Vedic and Harappan, they point out the importance of the
horse in the Rig Veda and argue that not enough evidence of horses
has been found in Harappan sites to prove a Vedic connection. They
fall back upon this one shot argument to ignore any other evidence to
the contrary.
However, one should note that these invasionists or migrationists are
even more deficient in horse evidence to prove their own theory.
There is no trail of horse bones or horse encampments into ancient
India from Afghanistan during the 1500-1000 BCE period that is
required for their theory of Aryan intrusion. In fact, there is no
solid evidence for such a movement of peoples at all in the form of
camps, skeletal remains or anything else.
Those who claim that Vedic culture must have originated outside India
because of its lauding of the horse are even more lacking in horse
evidence. The real problem is not `no horse at Harappa' but `no horse
evidence, in fact no real evidence of any kind, to prove any Aryan
migration/invasion'. It has been convincingly shown that what the Rig
Veda with its seventeen-ribbed horse (RV I.162.18) describes is a
native Indian breed and not any Central Asian or Eurasian horse that
has eighteen ribs.
The Rig Veda mentions many Indian animals like the water buffalo
(Mahisha), which is said to be the main animal sacred to Soma (RV
IX.96.6), which does occur commonly on Harappan seals. The humped
Brahma bull (Vrisha, Vrishabha), another common Harappan depiction,
is the main animal of Indra, the foremost of the Vedic Gods.
Elephants are also mentioned.
Most of the animals depicted on Harappan seals are mythical, not
zoological specimens anyway. Most common is a one-horned animal that
is reflected in the one-horned boar or Varaha of the Mahabharata and
the boar incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Many other Harappan depictions
are of animals with multiple heads or half-animal/half-human figures.
This is similar to the depictions in Vedic imagery which largely
consist of mythical animals of this type. For example, Harappan seals
portray a three-headed bull-like animal. Such an animal is described
in the Rig Veda (III.56.6).
A smokescreen
The horse issue is meant as a smokescreen to avoid facing the facts
of the Sarasvati River and the many new archaeological sites in
India. These show no such break in the continuity of civilisation in
the region as an Aryan invasion/migration requires, including the
existence of fire altars and fire worship from the early Harappan
period. Vedic and Puranic literature itself records the shift of the
centre of culture from the Sarasvati to the Ganga at the end of the
Vedic period, referring to the drying up of the river. Scholars like
Witzel would have the Vedic people coming into India after the
Sarasvati was already gone and yet making the river their ancestral
homeland and most sacred region!
Vedic literature is the largest preserved from the ancient world,
dwarfing in size anything left by other cultures like Egypt, Greece
or Babylonia. The Harappan-Sarasvati urban civilisation of India was
by far the largest of its time (3100-1900 BCE) in the ancient world
spreading from Punjab to Kachchh. We can no longer separate this
great literature and this great civilisation, particularly given that
both were based on the Sarasvati River, whose authenticity as a
historical river before 1900 BCE has been confirmed by numerous
geological studies. This great Vedic literature requires a great
urban culture to explain it, just as the great Harappan urban culture
requires a literature to explain it. Both come from the same region
and cannot be separated.
Finally it is sad to note how intellectuals in India are quick to
denigrate the extent and antiquity of their history, even when
geological evidence like the Sarasvati River or archaeological
evidence like the Harappan and Cambay sites are so clear. However one
may interpret these, the truth that civilisation in India was quite
ancient and profound cannot be ignored. I don't think there is any
other nation on earth that would be so negative if such ancient
glories were found in their lands.
DAVID FRAWLEY
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/op/stories/2002061800030200.htm
Background information may be seen at:
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/khambat/khambat01.htm Submerged
city in the Gulf of Khambat: neolithic precursor of the Sarasvati
Sindhu Valley Civilization