The Aryans Myth and Archaeology (Dhavalikar 2007)

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The Aryans Myth and Archaeology (Dhavalikar 2007)
"The Late Harrapan settlements answer to the description of a grama in
RV. As we have seen the term grama originally connoted a group of
huts which were occupied seasonally by semi-nomadic agro-pastoral
people. It was a small settlement with a population of about 100-200
souls. The Late Harrapan villages were also about that size (Nandi
1986-87: 155), and some were smaller still with about 15-20 families;
the total population would be in the neighbourhood of 100 persons.
Every house had a cow-pen attached to it. The area around the Late
Harrapan house may have been used as stockade. This can be confirmed
by the analysis of the nitrogen content of the soil as has been done
at Inamagon and Walki (Dhavalikar 1994b). The largest late Harrapan
house exposed so far at Bhagwanpura has vast open space around it
which may have houses a large number of cattle. In the RV (VIII,
19.37) a village chief is said to have possessed some 200 head of
cattle. The Bhagwanpura house may be that of a village headman
(Dhavalikar 2007, p. 91)."
Hulas has revealed house plans of the Late Harappan period (IAR
1982-83: 100-103), both oblong and round side by side, mostly of mud,
and the evidence of mud bricks too is attested. One rectangular
dwelling unit consisted of two rooms measuring 3.10 X 2.40 m and 3.10
x 3.40 in having mud brick walls. The bricks (47 X 30 X 15 cm),
however, do not exactly conform to the Harappan standard of 4:2:1 but
to 3:2:1 which was the Early Harappan standard (Dhavalikar 2007, p. 94)."
"The (Central Asian) Altyn Depe evidence (of a society stratified by
occupation, Masson 1988) belongs to the third millennium whereas the
arrangement was in vogue in the Harappan townships from about
2600-2500 BC and it is therefore highly probable that the Harappans
may have influenced the Central Asians among whom the differences
became more rigid. This is all the more likely in view of the fact
that Harappan migrations westwards began from about 2200 BC
(Dhavalikar 2007, p. 105, parentheses added)."
"The Daimabad chariot is perhaps the earliest and by far the finest
example of a war chariot in the archaeological record and is far
superior to the early models from West Asian sites (Dhavalikar 2007,
p. 113)."
"The foregoing discussion amply brings out into sharp relief the fact
that the Late Harappans knew domesticated horse (Equus caballus) as
also the chariot with spoked wheels. This clearly refutes the view of
the Invasionist that horse was introduced (into the subcontinent) from
Central Asia only by 1700 BC; on basis of evidence from Pirak; and
that all reported finds are hemiones (half asses). They further add
that the beast was introduced along with the chariot with spoked
wheels which are first attested in the West around 2000 BC and in the
east of Urals by 1700 BC. It is not unlikely that some of the bones
from excavations may those of half asses and even in the RV we come
across reference to a chariot yoked with ass or mule (VI: II, 202).
It must be noted that many linguists have now challenged the view that
the Indo-Europeans necessarily knew of the domesticated horse than
some type of equid (Bryant 2001: 240). It may be stated in passing
that no BMAC site has so far yielded horse bones , and yet the culture
has been identified as that of Indo-Iranians (Parpola and Erdosy
995(sic): 361) but with such overwhelming evidence from Harappan
sites, the Indo-Aryan status is denied to them (Dhavalikar 2007, p. 115).
Dhavalikar, M. K. (2007). The aryans: myth and archaeology. New
Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. ISBN: 81-215-1169-0