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Read this book "Early Indians" by @tjoseph0010. Fascinating is an understatement.

1/25

There were 4 waves of migrations to South Asia:
1. 65,000 years ago: People who move out of Africa meet with robust people there. They take 2 routes: inland Sub-Himalayan and coastal.
2/25

In order to avoid those people and move to East Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia.

2. 7,000 BCE to 3,000 BCE: Iranian agriculturalists move from the Zagros mountains to South Asia. Intermixing with first Indians estimated to have happened between 4,700 BCE and 3,000 BCE.
3/25

3. 2,000 BCE: 2 waves of migration from China (post the farming revolution and population surge there) change Southeast Asia. China's farming revolution introduces new plants, rice types and Austroasiatic languages to India after 2,000 BCE.

4. 2,000 BCE to 1,500 BCE:
4/25

Pastoralists from the Central Asian steppes aka Aryans enter South Asia in the late Harappan period bringing with them new religious and cultural practices and of course Indo-European languages, i.e., early Sanskrit.

In other words, Harappan civilization is pre-Vedic.
5/25

There are other markers:
1. Iron is referenced in the Rig Veda. Here's an instance.

वाशी॒मेको॑ बिभर्ति॒ हस्त॑ आय॒सीम॒न्तर्दे॒वेषु॒ निध्रु॑विः ॥

One brandishes in his hand an iron knife, firm in his seat amid the Deities.

(Book 8, Chapter 29, Verse 3).
6/25

Copper was discovered much before iron and was termed as "Ayas" while iron was termed as "Krsna Ayas" or black copper.

Iron was present during 1,500 BCE to 1,400 BCE. Copper was available much before iron.

2. Horses were present in both Harappan and Vedic civilizations.
7/25

But they had totally different contexts. Harappans traded extensively with Mesopotamia. They gave water buffaloes, peafowls and elephants to Mesopotamians and got horses in return.

On the other hand, horses were very important to the people of the Central Asian Steppes.
8/25

The geography of that region was more favorable to using horses. The people there used horses and bulls to drag wagons on wheels.

They were influenced heavily by the Maikop culture of the Caucasus region (present-day southwest Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan).
9/25

They built kurgans (burial mounds, stone and earth heaped over wooden burial chambers).

Given that they were nomadic, many settlements in the Steppes were abandoned and the only markers were these kurgans wherein they were buried along with their horses and chariots.
10/25

What's more interesting is that they invaded Europe a thousand years before invading South Asia.

Now on to religion.

The main Vedic gods: Indra, Agni, Varuna, etc., were missing from Harappan imagery.

The Rig Veda also condemned Shishna-deva, i.e., "phallus god".
11/25

RS Bisht's excavations at the Harappan site in Dholavira in Kutch, Gujarat, reveal physical destruction of phallic idols after the civilization declined.


Phallus god is nothing but a reference to Hindu deity Shiva. In other words, Rig Veda
12/25

Had contempt for Shishna-deva or Shiva.

It can be found in these verses.

न या॒तव॑ इन्द्र जूजुवुर्नो॒ न वन्द॑ना शविष्ठ वे॒द्याभिः॑ ।
स श॑र्धद॒र्यो विषु॑णस्य ज॒न्तोर्मा शि॒श्नदे॑वा॒ अपि॑ गुरृ॒तं नः॑ ॥

No evil spirits have impelled us, Indra, nor fiends, O Mightiest God,/
13/25

with their devices.
Let our true God subdue the hostile rabble: let not shishna-deva approach our holy worship.

(Book 7, Chapter 21, Verse 5).

स वाजं॒ याताप॑दुष्पदा॒ यन्स्व॑र्षाता॒ परि॑ षदत्सनि॒ष्यन् ।
अ॒न॒र्वा यच्छ॒तदु॑रस्य॒ वेदो॒ घ्नञ्छि॒श्नदे॑वाँ अ॒भि वर्प॑सा॒ भूत् ॥
14/25

On most auspicious path he goes to battle he toiled to win heaven's light, full fain to gain it;
He seized the hundred-gated castle's treasure by craft, unchecked, and slew the shishna-deva.

Now the official translation describes "shishna-deva" (phallus worshipers)/
15/25

as lewd and lustful demons. Sad fact is, all the way from the Aryan invasion down to this day, dehumanization precedes extermination.

It's also not a mere coincidence that Rig Veda has no reference to Shiva or Ganesh. Rig Veda only referenced Indra, Agni and Varuna.
16/25

Harappan civilization had a reference to Shiva in a tiger skin. Meanwhile, tigers were absent in the Rig Veda.

While the elephant was definitely known to the Harappans, it wasn't too well-known to the Vedics. There's no reference to Indira on an elephant (Airavata). Proto-Shiva in a tiger skin. Tigers were absent in Rig Veda.
17/25

Airavata came much later.

There's a term "Ganapati" in the Rig Veda. However Gana was used to refer to abstract individual deities (Maruts?). Ganapati is a byword to refer to Brahmanaspati. They clearly refer to abstract deities and not Ganesh.

The terms used to/
18/25

refer to elephants were too ambiguous and reflected the lack of physical knowledge of elephants among the Vedics.

Rig Veda doesn't start by invoking Ganesh. Early Vedics didn't even exhibit proper knowledge of elephants! It was fabricated and interpolated much later.
19/25

Shiva appears in the Rig Veda but it's a tribe's name. That tribe fought against King Sudasa and the Trtsu tribe in the battle of the ten kings.

It's not Shiva the Harappan/Hindu deity!

Rudra is a minor deity in the Rig Veda, mentioned only thrice. A byword for Agni.
20/25

Rudra isn't Shiva.

Non-Vedic/Harappan people considered Shiva as the supreme deity with no beginning or end.

Rudra was/is never worshiped as a lingam. That distinction is only Shiva's. How then can anybody say, with a straight face, that Rudra is the same as Shiva?
21/25

The concept of Mother Goddess is Harappan/non-Vedic. Vedic religion was patriarchal with 640 male gods. Female gods (night, morning, river, earth) were subordinates.

Saraswati is in Brahma's tongue.
Lakshmi is at Vishnu's feet.

Only Shiva gave half his body to Shakti.
22/25

Shiva is also known as Arthanareeswara due to this.

Lakshmi was originally worshiped in her Yakshini form before the Vedic era. She was associated with Vishnu in the Gupta era.

Fertility worship is absent in the Rig Veda. If the destruction of phallic idols is anything/
23/25

to go by, the Vedics had utter contempt for fertility worship.

Rudra isn't Shiva. Read Rig Veda Book 1, Chapter 114.
sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv…
Book 2, Chapter 33.
sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv…
Book 5, Chapter 3.
sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv…

Now when did Shiva use thunder?
24/25

Gana also refers to tribes and Ganapati as the head of the tribe. The idea of Ganesh evolved with time.

Om is absent in Vedic literature. It was added much later.

Mahamrityunjay is an epithet to Tryambak (3 fathers in the Vedic sense). It was later applied to Shiva to/
25/25

mean "one with 3 eyes". Totally different beasts.

There's no Om and the mantra starts as "Tryambakam Yajamahe".

IOW, Vedic religion, which had contempt for Harappan deities including Shiva, has appropriated Harappan Hinduism!

Thank you all for reading. Have a nice day.
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