[tied] Re: reply to Mr. Watson

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:

> 03-03-2004 16:35, mkelkar2003 wrote:
>
> > Kelkar: Just a quick follow up. Is the present date of Rig Veda
> > based on the former or the later date of IE dispersal? Thanks

again.

>
> The date of the Rigveda must be later -- much later -- than the

date of

> the IE dispersal, whatever it was, but otherwise is an independent
> question. Comparative linguistics by itself yields only relative

dates,

> not absolute ones, and some extralinguistic evidence is always

necessary

> to establish the latter.
>
> The Rigveda contains many references to horses and horse-drawn

chariots.

> The horse was domesticated in the Eurasian steppe belt probably

during

> the fourth millennium BC, but horse-breeding did not reach South

Asia

> until the second millennium BC. I don't exclude the possibility

that

> domesticated horses were known to the Harappan civilisation as
> occasional exotic imports (though even that hasn't been

demonstrated),

> but they certainly didn't play any important role there. Chariots

didn't

> exist _anywhere_ till ca. 2100 BC, and the oldest and most

primitive

> ones are known from the Sintashta culture (east of the Urals).
>
> The Rigveda is also the _only_ Old Indic text that refers to a

Bronze

> Age setting (so apparently do the oldest Avestan texts) and

therefore

> may have been composed before the advent of the Iron Age, which in

that

> part of the world means 1200-1000 BC. The period ca. 1700-1200 BC

is

> therefore a likely date for both the penetration of northern India

by

> Indic-speakers and the composition of the Rigvedic hymns.
>
> Piotr

Kelkar: So if i am understanding this correctly, it really does not
matter whether the IE dipsersal started 6000 BCE or 4000 BCE as far
dating of the Rig Veda is concerned.