From: george knysh
Message: 64789
Date: 2009-08-17
--- On Mon, 8/17/09, Francesco Brighenti <frabrig@...> wrote:
--- In cybalist@... s.com, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:
> How does the presumed settlement area of incoming pastoral Indics
> (on the basis of the earliest Rig Veda books) correspond to present
> day political boundaries?
"Greater Panjab", the region in which the Rgveda was composed, indicates the area from the Kabul Valley, Peshawar and the Swat Valley in the west to Delhi and the Upper Doab in the east, from the lower Pamir/Himalayan ranges in the north to the borders of Sindh and the Bolan Pass in the south; however, the clear center of the Rgvedic area is western and eastern Panjab plus Haryana. Hence, the core Rgvedic area lay on either side of the present India-Pakistan border (half in Pakistan and half in India!).
A map of Greater Panjab is shown here based on the river-names mentioned in the Rgveda (from the Kubha in the west to the Yamuna, and even the Ganges -- mentioned twice in the Rgveda -- in the east):
****GK: Is this in line with the oldest mandalas (2-7)? I thought the mention or reference to the Ganges was very problematic (if even real) in them. And that the first clear mention was in mandala 10, which is "younger" by centuries... What would be the "geography" of RV 2-7?****