--- "S.Kalyanaraman" <
kalyan97@...> wrote:
> A 7-volume encyclopaedic work on Sarasvati is being
> released on 2
> September 2003. The work is a search for the roots
> of Bharatiya
> Civilization. An overview
>
> http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/roots1.pdf
*****GK: If I have not misunderstood (which is always
possible) the contention in the abbreviation of these
volumes is that Northwest India is the Indo-European
homeland, whence significant outward migrations began
ca. 2500 BCE, intensifying along with the alleged
desiccation of the Sarasvati r. (completed ca. 1500
BCE). I'm sure our linguists will have something to
say (if they have not already said it) about the view
that the Harappan script has been successfully
deciphered. As for archaeology and history, it would
be interesting to be told just how the Scythians and
Sarmatians, as well as the Baltoslavs, Celts, Greeks,
Italics and other West European populations can be
shown to be the result (even partly) of these
postulated migrations. BTW I don't find the notion
that the Rigveda makes no mention of any in-migration
of IE-speakers to be an important argument for the
autochthonic position. The Scythian Foundation Legend
preserved by Herodotus (unfortunately all that is left
of a no doubt substantial body of vanished Scythian
oral history) also asserts their autochthonic origin,
some 200 YEARS after their arrival. And we know just
how "true" {i.e. untrue) that is (was), even to the
ancient Greeks. Do the math. If the IE speakers
reached India in the mid- 2nd millennium BC or
slightly earlier, they could easily begin to see
themselves as autochthons well before the end of that
millennium, transferring this perspective to their
sacred ritual songs. Which of course is in no way a
denial of the antiquity and grandeur of the
civilization these newcomers inherited.******
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