--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Juha Savolainen" <juhavs@...> wrote:
>
>
> Dear list,
>
> In view of the ever-interesting topic of the arrival of Indo-European
> languages to Indian subcontinent, list members may be interested to
> know that Asko Parpola has recently made available his
>
> The Nâsatyas, the chariot and Proto-Aryan religion
>
> It can be downloaded at
>
> http://www.helsinki.fi/~aparpola/pub_int.html
>
> Cheers, Juha Savolainen
>
The Asvins myth could as easily be related to the Indus Sarasvati
people. See Figures 3.28-3.30 (Lal, 2002) for pictures of terracotta
spoked wheels from the Mature Harrapan phase circa 900 BCE.
"The chariot is a good example of the limitations of relying on the
archeological record for the purposes of dating a cultural group. The
earliest archaeological evidence of the chariot is sometime between
the fourth and first century BCEE (Gaur 1983). If we accept the dates
assigned by most scholars to the Rigveda, namely, 1500-1200 BCE,
chariot known to this text must have unquestionably been in existence
on the subcontinent for a millennium of so before becoming evidenced
in iconographic form just before the common era. The archaeological
argumentum ex silentio clearly shows its limitations in this period
during which we know the chariot was extant from the literary evidence
but has not been verified archaeologically. Obviously, the further
back in time we go, the more the likelihood of finding such
iconographic evidence decreases.
The chariot evidence compels us to acknowledge that the paucity or
absence of an Indo-Aryan diagnostic item in the archaeological record
might not mean the absence of that item and nor, therefore of the
Indo-Aryans, otherwise the chariot evidence would compel us to date
the appearance of the Indo-Aryans on the subcontinent to just before
the common era (Bryant 2005, p. 489-490)."
"Archaeologists B. K. Thapar and Rafique Mughal mention that a sherd
depicting a canopied cart with spoked wheels was unearthed from
pre-Harappan levels at Banawali. R.S. Bisht reports that at Banawali,
a pot sherd depicting a canopied cart with spoked wheels was found at
pre-Indus levels. Bisht is the excavator of the site (Agarwal 2006),"
Agarwal, Vishal (2006), "HATING HINDUS IN A `SCHOLARLY' WAY Part IV,"
India Forum, Jan 26.
_________ (2002), The Sarasvati Flows On: The Continuity of Indian
Culture, New Delhi: Aryan Books International.
Bryant, Edwin (2005), "Concluding Remarks," in The Indo-Aryan
Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian History, Edwin F.
Bryant and Laurie L. Patton Eds., New York, NY: Routledge
M. Kelkar