Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan
Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan
Sudipto Das
5
Published by
Sudipto Das
http://www.sudiptodas.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudipto_Das
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ekkos_Clan
Praise for
The Ekkos Clan
A promising debut in the growing realm of modern Indian fiction.
Jug Suraiya
For a debut novel The Ekkos Clan is quite promising, with echoes of
Dan Brown in the storytelling. Kratu Sen, an engineer in Stanford,
suddenly realises that the stories he and his sister have grown up
listening to about their grandmother Kubha are not as simple as
they sound. Meeting Afsar, a linguist palaeontologist, encourages
Kratu to decode the chhele bholanor golpo (tales told to pacify
children). He discovers that the names of the characters and places
have a striking similarity with the Rig Veda and the Aryans. Could the
stories preserved for centuries have a greater significance? The
Ekkos Clan is like any fast-paced thriller, replete with murder and
miraculous escapes. The Telegraph
If you are a history buff and a thriller aficionado, then The Ekkos
Clan by Sudipto Das might just be the book for you. Ancient Indian
history, linguistic palaeontology, mathematics and interesting insights
on music are held together by a gripping mystery in Sudiptos debut
novel. The Hindu
Historical fiction, The Ekkos Clan combines the struggle for survival
with Kubha's determination to safeguard her lineage in turbulent
times [It] is a folktale packaged for the contemporary reader.
Bangalore Mirror
A tale of the Indian civilization and culture, The ekkos Clan written by
debutant author Sudipto Das takes you on a roller coaster ride, telling
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the mystery behind the Aryan race as well as delving into the origin of
stories behind mankinds greatest book, the Rig Veda The author
brings out Indias amalgamation of so many cultures, languages,
races... Exploring multiple generations of a family, the book follows a
pattern where one gets to read about linguistics, history, archaeology,
music, engineering and philosophy moving from chapter to chapter.
The New Indian Express
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Contents
Preface
13
1. Timeline
16
2. Aryan Trail
18
43
4. Arkaim
62
70
82
92
96
106
115
120
123
133
142
162
16. Horses
164
169
18. Trivias
179
183
Acknowledgement
203
Selected Reference
206
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12
Preface
As this history has barely left behind any discernable mark its
best left to the imaginations of the future generations, to recreate and
reconstruct it in bits and pieces. But a reconstruction always has
some degree of creativity in it. It takes the color of the prism through
which the creator recreates it. It never looks bare and ruthless as
reality. It always looks pleasant and wonderful like a poem, like a
piece of art, like music. A detective, or rather someone really very
boring, can always uncover the layers of creativity and dig out the
bare history and find it silly. The Ekkos Clan may not be for these
detectives. Its for those who can let free their imaginations, go a few
thousand years back into antiquity and realize the thrill and
amazement of the poet who had composed the first ever poetry of the
mankind, feel the excitement of someone who had made the first
chariot, understand the inspiration that had driven a group of people
to cross thousands of miles just to see new lands, make new friends
and learn new things. The history is not about the wars they fought
or battles they won. Its about their culture, their language and the
way of their lives that evolved gradually over thousands of years and
finally comprised almost half the world. Its the saga of a group of
adventurous and wonderful people who lived on this earth more than
five thousand years ago. They believed that to see is to learn. For
them vision was akin to vidya, knowledge, wisdom. They had just one
word, weid, for vision, wisdom and knowledge. Their yearning for
seeing and learning severed them from their original homeland, their
urheimat, and took them to unknown lands which eventually became
their new homes. They never looked back. They kept on travelling for
thousands of years. No one knows what finally made them stop their
journey. Did they reach their final destination? Did they attain that
knowledge, that vidya, for which they had travelled thousands of
miles for thousands of years? Or did they get weary of their long trail?
Or did they really stop their journey? Cant it be that they are still
travelling but, no one knows of it?
This is where the history opens up for imagination. This is the
premise of The Ekkos Clan. This is where we can liberate the string
of reasoning and let the kite of imagination fly high, but the latai, to
which is wrapped the kites string, should be held strong on the
ground. The Ekkos Clan is meant to let loose the imaginations but
not the history. Like the latai, the history, should be held strong on
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its ground. Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan is an endeavor to
provide the historical ground of The Ekkos Clan. The strings of
imaginations are left to the readers.
The history were talking about is the history of the IndoEuropeans, the history of the Aryans and the history of their trail
from their Urheimat to India. Its the history how the original word
weid, which meant to know and to see evolved into Sanskrit veda
and vidya meaning knowledge, Greek oida meaning to know, Latin
video and viso meaning to see, German wissen meaning to know
and English wise, wisdom and vision.
Kubhas stories, which form the basis of all the mysteries in The
Ekkos Clan, are all about the Aryan Trail and the Rig Veda. Myths &
Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan is meant to provide the historical
background behind each of Kubhas stories, some of which is
provided in The Ekkos Clan too in bits and pieces. But, as mentioned
in the beginning, the historical background were talking about is not
meant purely for any academic purpose, but for a leisurely reading
rather, trying to bridge the gap between the fiction and the facts on
which its built.
Ive relied heavily on the papers written by Michael Witzel of
Harvard University, for most of the historical background. Im
indebted to him for the correspondence he exchanged with me and
the time he spared to browse through some of the chapters.
As many of the topics are very controversial and still not
accepted unanimously by everyone, academician and layman
included, one particular line of thought has been presented all
throughout, may be often in a partisan manner which fits into the
thought process of The Ekkos Clan. I have followed the school of
thought espoused by Witzel et al.
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1
TIMELINE
BC
Indus Valley: Ravi Phase
3300 Bronze Age
3200
3100
Indo-European Language
2800
2200
16
BC
2100
2000
1800
1600
Remnants of Indo-Aryans in
Gandhara Graves
17
2
ARYAN TRAIL
The Aryan Trail, the actual path by which the Aryans came to India,
is a very controversial topic. Even more controversial is the original
homeland of the Indo-Europeans. For centuries people have
misinterpreted history and come up with various theories
of Urheimat, the original homeland. There's no doubt that the original
Indo-European people or the Proto Indo-Europeans, as the historians
and linguists prefer to say, were the progenitor of some of greatest
cultures and civilizations of the world. They were the predecessors of
the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, the Germans, the Slavs and
the Aryans. Many people across ages have tried to claim themselves
as the original Indo-Europeans and establish their supremacy over
other races. One extreme instance of such an attempt was Nazism
which claimed the supremacy of a fictitious Aryan race. Many Indian
historians believe that the Aryans originated from India and
eventually moved to the west creating the Iranian, Greek, Latin,
German and Slavic cultures and languages.
Due to the German propaganda the proto Indo-European people
are often wrongly designated as Aryans. Truly speaking the Aryans,
along with the Iranians, belong to the eastern branch of the IndoEuropeans. This branch, the common ancestors of both the Aryans
and the Iranians, is referred to as the Indo-Iranians or the Proto IndoIranians. They are also designated as Proto Aryans at times because
of the close similarities between the Aryan and Iranian cultures. We'll
stick to the following designations:
1. Proto Indo-European (PIE) the original Indo-European
people, the progenitor of all the branches of Indo-Europeans
like the Aryans, Germans, Romans, Greeks, Iranians, etc.
2. Proto Indo-Iranians (PII) the eastern branch of the IndoEuropeans (IE), and the progenitor of the Indo-Aryans and
Iranians. The prefix proto in both the above cases may be
skipped at many places.
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19
Legends
1. Pit Grave Culture or Kurgan Culture (3500 2800 BC): The
Pit Grave Culture extends over the entire Pontic Steppe. This is
the late PIE (Proto Indo-European) phase of Indo-European
unity where the PIE people stayed together prior to their
disintegration and movement towards various destinations.
2. Catacomb, Hut Grave Culture (2800 2000 BC): This is the
Proto Indo-Iranian (PII) Bronze Age culture which existed in the
Ukrainian Steppes. Relics of the culture are widespread in the
region along the Dnieper River, the coastal region the Sea of
Azov, Crimea and along the Don River.
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move. But theres no cognate for ara, spoke, in any other IE language.
It's very likely that both ratha and ara for chariot and spoke were
later creations of the Aryans after the chariot and spoked wheels had
been discovered. Incidentally the first remains of chariot and spoked
wheel appeared much later, around 2000 BC near Arkaim-Sintashta.
Storozhova Mohyla, a place in Dnepropetrovsk on Dneiper
River, is one of the sites for kurgan or burial mounds. It dates back
to 3000 BC. This is perhaps the place where the earliest of the
Kubhas stories The Land of the Ekkos Sea and the Dhanush Rivers
begins. The story starts like this:
On the bank of the Dhanush river there is a village which is very
cold in the winters but pleasant in summers. When the bitter
winds blow from Ghimenthe cold areas of the northfor six
months, everyone moves to warmer places near the Ekkos Sea.
They take their cattle along with them and return to their village
only in spring. The return of the cows to the village marks the
beginning of a new year for these people. Aggem, Pethui and
Laba live in this village
The adventurous people of the village who set out regularly
to explore new places had told them of the nearby Ekkos Sea that
looks like a horses face. One bright, clear winter morning Pethui
wakes up and decides he wants to see the sea. He convinces his
friends Aggem and Laba to go with him. He offers prayers to God
Bello and sets out with his friends
The people of the village tell the three boys that deep inside,
the sea is always so stormy, dark and violent that no sailor has
ever returned ashore. But near the shore the sea is very
shallow The villagers tell them that the sea was formed when
a huge flood had drowned the whole worldthe water receded
gradually from everywhere else but not from this part. The huge
body of water eventually became the Akkhain Sea, the name by
which they call the Ekkos Sea
The Dhanush River is perhaps Danus River danus is the PIE
word from which the name of the river Dnieper is derived. Ghimen is
perhaps the PIE gheimen, which means winter and is akin to Sanskrit
hima and Latin heims. The northern areas of Pontic Steppe can
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Its explained in The Ekkos Clan how the horse shaped Ekkos
Sea is actually the Black Sea. Interesting is the reference to Akkhain
Sea, another name used for the Black Sea in Kubhas story. The
Greeks used to refer to the Black Sea as Pontos Axeinos, which means
inhospitable sea black may be a euphemism for inhospitable,
stormy. The Sanskrit (Skt.) root kshai means bright, shining.
Prefixing with an a is often used for negation so akshai should
mean unlit, or dark. Akshai and axeinos are no doubt cognates. The
Zoroastrian Avesta, written in an early Iranian language, has the
formation xaena which means bright and shining. The Greek (Gk.)
axeinos is very likely to have come from the Iranian (Ir.) formation.
So Akkhain of Kubhas story may be then akin to Skt. akshai,
Gk.axeinos and Avestan (Av.) xaena.
2. Catacomb Culture: 2800 - 2000 BC
It was a continuation of the Pit Grave Culture. It's the first place
where the Indo-Iranians arrived after leaving the IE Urheimat.
Eventually these proto Indo-Iranian (PIIr) people moved further east
and finally entered into Iran and India. The Indo-Iranian (IIr) branch
is at times referred to as the Aryan branch by many scholars.
The area of Catacomb culture is adjacent to the original
homeland of the Indo-Europeans, the Pontic Steppe. It's believed that
the IIr people stayed back in the Pontic Steppe even after the other
branches of the Indo-European people had already separated from
them and dispersed to the west and south. An immediate linguistic
impact of this separation was the Centum-Satem split in the IE
languages around 2500 BC. This refers to the two types of evolution
of the PIE word kemtom, meaning hundred, in the various IndoEuropean languages. The evolution of kemtom to centum in Latin
represents a type of phonetic change whichs seen in almost all the
western branches of IE, like German, Greek and Latin. In Greek it
evolved to hekaton. On the other hand the evolution of kemtom to
satem in Avesta represents the change that's seen in almost all the
eastern IE branches like Persian, Sanskrit and Russian. First the
original consonant ke in the eastern branch changed to cha and we
had chatam as the PIIr word for hundred. Then chatam evolved
to shatam in Sanskrit, satem in Avestan and sad in Persian.
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unique ritual provides a convincing antecedent for the Rig Vedic myth
of Dadhyac Atharvan who knows the secret of making Soma juice,
the nectar of immortality. The Asvins insist that Dadhyac tell them
the secret. He refuses. They cut off his head and replace it with the
head of a horse, through which he becomes an oracle and tells them
the secret.
The Kubhas story The Land of the Ekkos Sea and the Dhanush
Rivers has the following:
So again one morning during summer an entire village wakes up
early and moves on like a caravan with all their cattle, cows and
belongings They travel along the shallow shore of the Akkhain
Sea till they reach the other end of the Dhanush River. They enter
into the Dhanush River upstream. The headman knows that soon
the Dhanush River will fork into two if they take left they will
return to the place they have just left and if they take right it will
lead them to the wonderful country of the mighty and legendary
Rasho River. They take the right fork of the Dhanush River.
The huge caravan keeps moving for days and months
towards east till they reach a bend where the river almost
changes its direction completely from east to west. The headman
is confused now Accompanied by Rabha and Ajam he decides
to move around and find out the right way to the Rasho River
They reconstruct the log-boats and sail on Rasho. They
travel again for weeks and finally come to a place where Rasho
forms a big crescent.
Rabha and Ajams journey from the Sea of Azov to Samara on
the Volga (big crescent on Rasho) is perhaps the journey of the IndoIranians from the site of the Catacomb Culture, the land of the
Dhanus Rivers (or the Danus rivers, Dnieper, Donets and Don all
the three names are connected to danus, the PIE word for river) and
the Ekkos Sea (The Black Sea) to that of the Timber Grave Culture,
sometime around 2000 BC. The PIE names Agwem and Laba Aggem
and Laba in Kubhas story, discussed earlier have evolved presently
to the Indo-Iranian (IIr) Ajam and Rabha. The PIE agwem means
mountain, something that doesnt move. It comes from the PIE gwem,
meaning to go. The Skt. gam, Old Persian jam, German kommen,
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English go, come and Latin gvemio, venio are all cognates of the PIE
gwem. The name of the Rig Vedic poet Agasti has a similar etymology
as Agwem and Ajam. Laba comes from PIE lab, meaning work, skill
and is akin to Skt. ribhu, rabh, Latin labor and English labor. In the
Rig Veda Ribhu is a skillful artist. He works with iron and builds
chariots.
4. Andronovo Culture, Arkaim and Sintashta: 1800 900 BC
East of Potapovka near the Ural Mountains are Arkaim and Sintashta
settlements where the earliest known chariot was discovered
at Krivoye, a small lake in the Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia,
southeast of Magnitogorsk, near the Kazakhstan border. It dates to
around 2000 BC. This settlement is a part of the large Andronovo
Culture which spreads across a wide area of Russia and Kazakhstan.
Funeral rites of Andronovo include kurgan graves in wooden or
timber lining or stone box. Grave items may be horse, ox,
ram, pottery items made by hand and on potters wheel, good
metallurgical works and even chariots. They invented the light weight
chariots with spoked wheels. It's evident that horse and chariots are
very special to this culture. This is a very strong connection to the
Rig Vedic Aryans who are obsessed with horse, spoked wheel and
chariot. There are horse hymns in the Rig Veda. Spokes, wheels and
chariots appear in multiple places in the Rig Veda as metaphors. For
example, in the verse 1.32.15 (15th verse of 32nd hymn of the 1st book
of the Rig Veda), it's said that Indra protects the world like a wheel
encircling the spokes. Each and every part of a spoked wheel of a
chariot rim nemi; spoke ara; axle aksha; center of the wheel, nabha;
even the peg of the axle, dhura appear in hymns.
As mentioned earlier, the chariots and spoked wheels being
much later creations than the age of Indo-European unity, there is
no cognate for either chariot or spoke in any other IE language.
Social structure here is again stratified. Very much like an
Aryan society, they have elites and commoners, as evident from grave
goods.
Sintashta settlements are square, oval or round layouts fortified
with two concentric walls built with clay, sometimes with stone
bases. It's further fortified by a wooden fence or wall or a moat. In the
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There are other Rig Vedic connections too in this part of the
world. There's an Indar Lake on the South Ural River. The most
famous Rig Vedic God Indra might have been already known to these
people. The ancient Greek name of Volga is Rha, a cognate of IndoIranian (IIr) rasa or raha and Latin ros, meaning moisture. There's a
mythical river Rasa in the Rig Veda (RV). The name Volga comes from
the Slavic words vlaga and vologa meaning wetness and humidity.
Even now a small group of people who speak the Mordvinic languages
in the Volga basin refer to Volga as Rav, surely a cognate of rasa,
Rasho in Kubhas story.
5. BMAC Culture: 2200 - 1700 BC
This is a very crucial phase of the Aryan Trail. It's quite close to India
and also quite young compared to the other cultures. But still it's
equally mysterious to historians due to the lack of proper linguistic
and archaeological evidences. We'll present a very interesting
scenario proposed by Asko Parpola and J P Mallory.
In the Rig Veda (RV) it's mentioned that the Panis steal the cows
and imprison them in a cave. The cows are freed by the Angirasa
seers. The Panis are said to be miser, niggards and envious demons
watching over wealth. They are shown as enemies. Another group of
people inimical to the Aryans are the Dasas. Indra kills many Dasa
Kings, one of whom is Pipru. The Gods of the Dasas are called asuras,
generally considered demons by the Aryans whose Gods are
called devas. The Dasas have forts with concentric, often multiple
concentric walls. Moreover the Dasa forts are not regularly inhabited
cities but temporary shelters, especially for the protection of the
cattle. Indra is often called the slayer of the asuras.
A very confusing thing in the RV is that though the Dasas are
held as enemies and their Gods, asuras, demons, there are also
instances where asuras and devas are both treated as Gods. The
Monier Williams Sanskrit dictionary states one of the meanings
of asura as the supreme spirit. Asura is generally used in the RV as
an epithet for Varuna. Varuna is indeed the highest God of the Dasas,
like Indra is of the Rig Vedic Aryans. But in one instance it's
mentioned in the RV that a Dasa King Balbutha Taruksha starts
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Dasas or the Panis (or Prini or Greek Parnoi or Iranian Parna). Pipru
could have been one of the Dasa or Pani Kings. Eventually the BMAC
natives would have adopted the language and culture of the Dasas
whole heartedly. Interestingly there are quite a few Central Asian loan
words in Sanskrit and Iranian languages. There are no corresponding
IE cognates in any other IE language for these words. Some of these
words are Skt. ishtaka and Persian (Per.) hist, meaning bricks; Skt.
kadru and Per. qahd, meaning brown; Skt. ushtra and Per. ushtur,
meaning camel; khar, meaning donkey in both Skt. and Per.;
Skt. bhang and Per. bang, meaning marijuana; Skt. kapota and
Per. kabutar, meaning pigeon; Skt. kashyap and Per. kashaf,
meaning tortoise, which later became kacchap in Skt. As there were
no corresponding words for these in the vocabulary of the IndoAryans, its very likely that the BMAC people retained their native
words.
After a hundred years or so, around 1700 BC, a second lot of
Indo-Aryans from the north would have again arrived in BMAC. This
lot of Indo-Aryans, who eventually composed the Rig Veda, can be
called the Rig Vedic Aryans and the older Indo-Aryans the Dasas. It's
very likely that the Rig Vedic Aryans entered into a confrontation with
the Dasas and the other BMAC natives. That was when the defeated
Dasas became slaves and their Gods demons to the Rig Vedic Aryans,
who fought against the rich Dasa kings staying in Tripura like forts.
The Panis surely tried to protect their wealth and hence came to be
known as envious demons watching over their wealth. But eventually
the Rig Vedic Aryans would have figured out that continuous
warfares were not good for prosperity and made a compromise. That
was when the asura became a Rig Vedic God and Varuna promoted
to the same rank as Indra's.
Here lets recall Kubhas story The Country of Moru:
One day comes from the side of the Tortoise Sea, a group of
people who call themselves Prano. Their leader is Pipru, a
wonderful person, brave, intelligent and sensitive. They advise
and guide the people of Moru to work more, cultivate more crops
and produce more things. Over the years the natives of Moru
become very rich and happily accept the Pranos as their leaders
and teachers. The Pranos stay in tripur, strongholds secured with
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the time frame of Atharva Veda might have been due to intellectual
conflict between the two groups. There are enough indications, both
in the Vedas and the Zoroastrian texts, to believe that Zarathrustra
might have risen against the Vedic cult of worshiping Deva Indra,
something whichs referred to in the Zoroastrian texts as Deva
Yasna, yasna being an Avestan cognate of Skt. yajna, the Vedic
sacrificial ritual, and Persian yashn, meaning celebration.
Zarathrustra propagated the cult of worshiping Ahura Varun or
Ahura Mazda, something whichs referred to as Ahura Yasna. It lay
importance on moral character and righteousness and stuck to
monotheism, whereas Deva Yasna supposedly paid less importance
to morality in religion.
The Avesta talks about an Airyanem Vaejo, an Aryan expanse,
surrounded by fifteen Aryan countries, all of which are in Central
Asia. The names of the fifteen Aryan countries seem to be
enumerated in an anti clock-wise manner. The commonly identified
places from the list are as follows:
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37
Kubhas story has the following description about the location of the
Country of Moru, which is perhaps Mouru, the Greek Margiana and
the present Merv region in Turkmenistan:
Moru desh is surrounded by eight different countries. You can
remember the names of these eight countries with this poem
Kam, Kuru, Bakkhu
Sughdo, Balik, Brikkhu
Badogis, Bannu
Apart from the various Avestan places or Aryan countries of
Central Asia there seems to be another important country during the
BMAC or even earlier time frame the country of the Kom tribes.
The kam in Kamboj is of obscure origin, may be a substrate of an
older Central Asian language which existed before the arrival of the
Indo-Iranian (IE) languages this ancient language can very well be
the Proto Burushaski language, lingua franca of the big stretch of
Central Asia from Caspian to Pamir. Kamboj is a later formation, but
four thousand years ago, during the time period of BMAC, it could
have been known as just the country of Kam or Kom. Ptolemy
mentions a tribe variously called as Komaroi, Komedai, Khomaroi,
Komoi and Tambyzoi which was wide spread in the Highlands of
Bactriana and Sogdiana. Spread across Central Asia, the names like
Karakum and Kyzylkum may carry the same kam till date. The Kam
people should have been very powerful because the name Kamboj
has spread quite far. Many Persian kings had the name Cambyses, a
cognate of Kamboj. Between Central Asia and Caucasus many places
and rivers bore the name Cambyses across ages. A probable epicenter
of the Kom people may be north of Pamir, a likely location of Parama
Kamboja, one of the distant countries mentioned in Indian epics like
Ramayana and Mahabharata. Unlike the Dasas and Parnas, the Kom
people might not have been Indo-Europeans. In Kubhas story Kam
very likely refers to the same Kom.
Interestingly, Burushaski, which was perhaps a major language
in the Central Asia, is now a dying language spoken by the few
surviving Burusho (the ancient Mruza) people staying in isolated
38
42
3
LANGUAGES OF ARYAN TRAIL
Legends
1. Pit Grave Culture or Kurgan Culture (3500 2800 BC): The
Pit Grave Culture extends over the entire Pontic Steppe. This is
the late PIE (Proto Indo-European) phase of Indo-European
unity where the PIE people stayed together prior to their
disintegration and movement towards various destinations.
2. Catacomb, Hut Grave Culture (2800 2000 BC): This is the
Proto Indo-Iranian (PII) Bronze Age culture that existed in the
Ukrainian Steppes. Relics of the culture are widespread in the
region along the Dnieper River, the coastal region the Sea of
Azov, Crimea and along the Don River.
3. Timber Grave Culture (2000 800 BC): Around Samara on the
Volga Basin, this is the Proto Iranian Culture. The Proto IndoIranian people arrived here from Azov Sea. The Iranians stayed
back and the Indo-Aryans proceeded further east to ArkaimSintashta.
4. Andronovo Culture, Arkaim-Sintashta (1800 - 900 BC): South
of the Ural Mountains this is an Indo-Aryan Culture. The IndoAryans, the eastern branch of the Indo-Iranians eventually
reached Northern Iran, Afghanistan and Indian subcontinent in
the next few centuries.
5. Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, BMAC Culture
(2200 1700 BC): This is an Indo-Aryan Culture in Central
Asia. It's contemporary to the northern Andronovo Culture
(1800 900 BC). From here the Indo-Aryans moved to northern
Iran, Afghanistan and India.
6. Vakhsh Biskent Culture: Contemporary to BMAC and
Andronovo, it's an Indo-Aryan Culture. The last segment of the
Aryan trail to India may be through through Vakhsh, via
Vakshu or Oxus/Vakhsh, Kabul, Swat rivers.
7. Kalash Culture (1600 BC till date): A very unique group of IndoAryans in Hindukush have preserved many of the Rig Vedic and
early Indo-Aryan features including language and culture.
Kalash is the last place in the Aryan trail before entering into
the final destination of Punjab.
8. Gandhara Grave Culture (1700 1400 BC): Rig Vedic Culture
in Punjab in Pakistan & India
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Most of the Aryan Trail has been deciphered with extensive use of
linguistic palaeontology. In fact some reconstructions of the ancient
past of the Indo-European (IE) people can't be supported explicitly by
archaeological evidences. In such a scenario, the different other
languages, which have influenced or have been influenced by the IE
languages, are very important to us. In Aryan Trail we've seen how
the IE loan words in Fino-Ugric languages divulge interesting
information about the early stages of the migrations of the IE people.
In this section we'll see how various other languages have
preserved linguistic fossils of the ancient Aryan trail.
As it can be seen from the previous diagram, the Fino-Ugric
people stayed to the north of the locus of the early Indo-European
(IE) and Indo-Iranian (IIr) people. The diagram is a snapshot of the
spread of the IE people around 1500 BC. At this point of time the
Indo-Aryans have already reached India, passing through the
Arkaim-Sintashta, BMAC and Vakhsh-Biskent Cultures. Central
Asia, the locus of the BMAC Culture, plays a very important role in
the development of the Iranian and Indic languages. Earlier we've
mentioned that there are quite a few loan words in Iranian and Indic
languages from Central Asia. But we don't know what language was
spoken in Central Asia during that time. It's possible that multiple
languages were spoken by the various people between Caspian Sea
and Pamir but still it's likely that there was a lingua franca, which,
we've reasons (discussed later) to believe, may be Proto Burushaski.
Now Burushaski, the language of the Burushos, is a language isolate
spoken in isolated pockets of Hunza, Nagyr and Yasin, all in Pakistan
Occupied Kashmir.
Not very far from the BMAC, to its south along the coast of
Arabian Sea, are the Indus Valley, Elamite and Sumerian settlements
stretching from east to west. The Sumerian name for the southern
Indus Valley settlement (Mohenjo-daro) in Sind and Baluchistan is
Meluhha. To its west is an area referred to as Marhashi by the
Sumerians. Further west is the Elamite settlement of Shimashki. The
languages of Meluhha and Marhashi are believed to be the same we
call it Meluhhan. The language of Shimashki is Elamite. BMAC
artifacts have been found in all these places and also in the northern
Indus areas (Harappa). This implies that there were trade links
between all these areas. Hence the languages of these areas are likely
45
(1900 1500 BC) and that they migrated to the Punjab in the north
and Gujarat-Maharashtra in south around 1500 BC.
The Meluhhan language of Sindh is still an elusive thing to us.
The Indus scripts are yet to be deciphered. But Sumerian records
have some words which are believed to be Meluhhan. Some of these
words have striking similarities to the present day Burushaski
language. Such a connection is possible only if we assume that
Burushaski or a related language was spoken in BMAC, whose
connection with Indus people is supported by archaeology. Hence
a proto Burushaski language is considered as the lingua franca of
Central Asia before the arrival of the Indo-Aryans.
In Sumerian records there are names of persons with Meluhha
as personal names. Urkal and Urdlama are called sons of Meluhha.
There's also a village called Meluhha.
The products of Meluhha include
gis-ab-ba-me-lu-hha (abba wood from the land of
Meluhha),
si-in-da (Sindh wood),
gis-ha-lu-ub (haluppu or perhaps Harappa wood),
gis-gisimmar (shimmar/shimmal wood), etc.
The word Sinda is quite interesting. Burushaski has the
word sinda for river. It's possible that during the timeline we're
talking about, the Proto Burushaski language, the lingua franca of
BMAC people, had a similar word from which came the Skt. Sindhu,
the name of the river that gave the identity to a country, religion and
civilization. Monier Williams, in his Skt. dictionary, mentions that the
word Sindhu is of improbable origin.
The shimmar of gis-gisimmar is very likely related to Skt.
Shalmali (a tree, Shimul in Bengali) which seems to be Munda and
hence from the North Indus language.
Based on the above discussions a plausible language map of Central
Asia and Western India in 1900 BC, just before the arrival of the IndoAryans, would be something like this.
47
Meluhhan: Stretching from South Indus, till Eastern Iran, across Balochistan
Elamite: Southern Iran, along the coast of the Arabian Sea west of Marhashi
Burushaski: Across Central Asia
Munda: North Indus Region
Dravidian: South Indus Region
48
in pinda need the tip of the tongue to be curled and touched against
the top of the mouth to produce the correct sound. It's close to the
t in street and the d in donkey as pronounced by an English
rather than a French. Most of the European languages don't have
these sounds.
Following are some probable Burushaski (Bur.) substrates in
Skt.
50
niggal in Sumerian,
nigal in Afro-Asiatic (Egyptian),
nankal in Proto Dravidian,
nakel in Proto Munda,
nahel in Santal (a Munda language spoken by some tribes
in eastern India),
ankal in Khmer and tengala in Malay.
The Dravidian people of Sindh would have taken the
word nankal from the Meluhhans (south Indus).
The Aryans, few centuries later, took the word langal from the
north Indus people who spoke a para Munda language.
The Khmer and Munda are both members of the same
Austroasiatic language family that might have originated in India.
How and when the Khmer people reached present day Cambodia and
Vietnam is not clear.
Similarly, the words for wheat are similar across various
languages Hittite kant, Old Egyptian xnd, BMAC gantum, Dravidian
godi, Avestan gantuma, Persian gandum and the Rig Vedic godhuma.
The Avestan, Persian and Sanskrit words have surely come from
BMAC. The Dravidian godi might have come from Meluhhan.
Tracking the etymologies of words like these are classic
examples of how linguistic palaeontology can help us reconstruct
some obscure ancient past which otherwise hasn't left much in pots
and pans, that's archaeology.
Referring to the next language map, it's not unlikely that the
Sumerian, Egyptian, Hittite, and the languages of BMAC and Indus
Valley would have between them many loan words related to
agriculture, plants and animals because these are the terms which
are likely to be transmitted through trade and commerce.
Indo-European: East Europe, North of Black Sea & Hittite
Afro-Asiatic: Egypt
Sumerian: East of Mediterranean Sea, Iraq
Burushaski: Central Asia, Southeast of Caspian Sea
Elamite: Southern Iran
Meluhhan: Between South Indus & Eastern Iran
Dravidian: Perhaps South Indus
Austro-Asiatic: Munda (North Indus, North India) & Khmer (Cambodia)
52
As seen in the Aryan Trail, the Aryans entered India in two waves.
Then, around 1500 BC, the Dravidian people appeared in the Punjab
and started interacting with the Indo-Aryans. The Rig Vedic Aryans
of the second wave were averse to both the newer Dravidians and the
older Aryans of the first wave. Gradually they pushed both of them
to the periphery of their settlement.
It's possible that the first batch of the Aryans from the first
wave, along with the Dravidian people in the Punjab, made way for
the younger Rig Vedic Aryans and moved out to the peripheries, to
the west (towards Gandhar) and east (towards Magadha, Vanga) quite
early, may be sometime around 1500 BC. This implies that the Proto
Bengali and Magadhan people of the east and the Gandhar people of
the west were all the same lot thousands of years back.
Gandhar falls in the area marked Other Indo-Aryan and IndoIranian in the following diagram. People here now speak mainly
Pashto (East Iranian branch of Iranian), Nuristani (Iranian branch)
and Khowar and Kalash (Dardic branch of Indo-Aryan).
Eventually more such batches of despised people moved out to
the south west towards Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Not all the Indo-Aryans from both the waves early and late
left the BMAC and Vakhsh areas in Central Asia and Afghanistan and
entered India. Lot of them stayed back. They are the people who later
became Zoroastrians in the Rig Vedic time frame we can call them
Proto Avestan people.
In the years after the Rig Veda the Proto Avestan people
gradually separated from the Vedic Aryans due to intellectual conflict
between the two groups of the Aryans. Zarathrustra, the first Prophet
of the world and the founder of the Zoroastrian religion, belonged to
the former group. Weve observed earlier that the language of Avesta,
the earliest texts of the Zoroastrians, has surreptitious similarities to
the Rig Vedic language. Most of the philosophic concepts of Avesta
more or less have corresponding counterparts in the Rig Veda. So it's
apt to consider Avestan in the repository of the languages of Aryan
Trail.
55
area shown in the diagram as the locus of the Aryans since the Late
Rig Vedic period.
Since the time of Buddha in the 6th century BC, Pali, the
language of Buddhist scriptures, and the neighboring
Magadha Prakrit languages showed some peculiarities that
are no doubt Dravidian. We see dhamma in place of dharma,
kamma in place of karma, Pukkusathi in place of
Pushkalavati. Buddhist scriptures are full of such derivatives
of the original Sanskrit names or words. Bengali still uses
these forms in colloquial conversations. It's surely a
Dravidian phenomenon where two consonants can be joined
only when they belong to the same varga, class. In dharma
r and m, belonging to different varga were joined in Sanskrit.
Following the Dravidian phonology of joining consonants of
same varga, dharma is converted to dhamma. Same is true
for the other words.
people and agricultural terms. This implies that the interaction with
Dravidian people in these cases has been quite limited. But in case
of Bengali there are Dravidian words for a very wide range of things.
the east by the later Rig Vedic Aryans. There's a striking aspect in
Bengal that links the Bengali people to BMAC.
Below is a seal found in BMAC. It's a Goddess sitting on a lion.
Doesn't it look like the Goddess Durga worshiped mainly in the
eastern India, especially Bengal and Assam?
61
4
ARKAIM
Arkaim plays a vital role in The Ekkos Clan. The Aryan settlement of
Arkaim-Sintashta is indeed a very crucial part of the Indo-European
history. Perhaps its the place where the chariot and spoked wheels
were discovered by the Aryans sometime around 2000 BC. Horses
and chariots are among the most typical trademarks of the Aryans.
Like the entire IE history, Arkaim too is shrouded in mystery
and controversy. Arkaims connection to the Aryans is not
unanimously accepted by all.
The Arkaim settlement the pur of Kubhas story at the
junction of Karaganka and Utyaganka Rivers looks like this.
62
In Arkaim the ecliptic comes very close to the horizon around autumn
and spring equinoxes, as mentioned in Kubhas story. During these
times it's very easy to map the twenty seven nakshatras, the
lunar mansions, to the twenty seven houses of the inner circle of the
pur.
Following are the sky maps as seen in Arkaim close to full
moons around Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes in 2000 BC. Thats
perhaps also the timeline of Kubhas story The Story of the Pur.
63
[The red lines are the ecliptics, quite close to the horizon in both
cases; some of the visible nakshatras and the associated stars are
marked along the ecliptic]
9th April 2000 BC was a full moon closest to the Vernal equinox.
The sky map shows the location of moon in the nakshatra Anuradha
on 10th April. As the moon moves from one nakshatra to another with
every passing day, its location on 9th April, a day earlier, should be
the adjoining nakshatra Vishakha.
Similarly the location of the moon on 4th October, the full moon
close to the Autumnal Equinox, should be Krittika five mansions
apart from where the moon is seen on 9th October in the sky map.
The location of sun on a vernal equinox is same as that of the
full moon around autumnal equinox and vice versa. So we can say
64
that the sun was in Krittika and Vishakha respectively on Vernal and
Autumnal equinoxes around 2000 BC.
Based on these sky maps the twenty seven lunar mansions at
the time of sun rise on a Vernal Equinox sun in Krittika, rising from
the east can be interpolated and mapped to the twenty seven
houses in the inner row of the Arkaim settlement as follows:
65
In The Ekkos Clan, Kratu, Afsar and Tista arrived at Arkaim with a
big troupe on 5th October 1995. Three days later, 8th October, was the
full moon after the Autumnal Equinox. The sky map of Arkaim on
that day was like this.
66
And on 5th October 1995, three days before the full moon, the
sky map of Arkaim was like this.
One end of the ecliptic is Pleiades and the other end is the
Jupiter, the bright object exactly on the horizon in the south west
direction. In between is the moon, roughly in the south east
direction and very close to the moon, exactly in the south east
direction, is the Saturn.
67
The following sky map shows the full moon (17th March, 1995) around
Vernal Equinox. The moon is in Uttara Phalguni. This means that
sun is in the same nakshatra on an Autumnal Equinox.
As can be seen in the above sky-maps, around 2000 AD, full moons
at Vernal and Autumnal equinoxes are respectively in Uttara
Phalguni and Uttara Bhadrapada, the two nakshatras diagonally
opposite to each other in the ecliptic. Likewise the sun is also in these
two nakshatras, Uttara Phalguni and Uttara Bhadrapada on
Autumnal and Vernal Equinoxes.
68
69
5
THE RIG VEDA
Three religions now stand in the world which have come down
to us from time prehistoric Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and
Judaism. They have all received tremendous shocks and all of
them prove by their survival their internal strength. But while
Judaism failed to absorb Christianity and was driven out of its
place of birth by its all-conquering daughter, and a handful of
Parsees is all that remains to tell the tale of their grand religion,
sect after sect arose in India and seemed to shake the religion of
the Vedas to its very foundations, but like the waters of the
seashore in a tremendous earthquake it receded only for a while,
only to return in an all-absorbing flood, a thousand times more
vigorous, and when the tumult of the rush was over, these sects
were all sucked in, absorbed, and assimilated into the immense
body of the mother faith.
That's what Swami Vivekananda had read out in the Parliament
of Religions in Chicago on 19th September, 1893. What he had
mentioned as the religion of the Vedas, started taking shape around
1500 BC in the present day Punjab in India and Pakistan.
Aryan Migration
The once prosperous Indus Valley Civilization was on decline since
1700 BC. The natives, the original inhabitants of Indus Valley were
leaving their ancestral homes in the Indus Valley and spreading
across India in search of better place to live. It was during this period
that a group of Indo-Iranians, better known as the Indo-Aryans or
simply Aryans, started drifting eastwards from Central Asia towards
the Indian subcontinent. The separation of the Indo-Aryans from the
Indo-Iranians had started since 2000 BC. By 1700 BC the first group
of Aryans would have already reached the Kalash valleys in the
70
first book of the Aryans. It's very likely that the Rig Veda, as we see
it now, might have been the manifestation of literary efforts over a
long period of time. No doubt the Aryans were a much enlightened
race with a very high degree of self realization and maturity, which
manifests abundantly in the Rig Veda, but still it's not possible that
all the realization happened to a single composer at a particular
moment. Keeping aside the theological and religious aspect, the Rig
Veda is a wonderful compilation of lyrical hymns, full of poetic
ornamentations like alliteration, rhythm, rhyme and allegory. It is full
of surprise and astonishment the composers might have felt as they
tried to understand the world around them. They were stuck with
awe at the natural forces which control us, control the world and the
universe. They were filled with excitement when they tried to explain
what was there behind each and every force of nature. It's not that
they had answers for all the questions which came to their mind but
still they did find explanations for some of their queries. They did
realize that the nature with its all engulfing force and enegry can
create and also destroy at the same time. Very naturally they
developed a reverence for the natural forces. The Rig Veda is all about
their reverential praises for these natural forces. The reverence very
soon manifested into a form of worship.
Worshipping nature and natural forces is not uncommon
in most civilizations. From that point of view there's perhaps nothing
unique about the Aryans. But what's indeed unique is the humble
and fascinating way the reverence, realization, knowledge and
feelings are expressed in words, creating the first literature of the
mankind. The entire realization process took several centuries to
come to a concrete form. In Swami Vivekananda's words its the
accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons
in different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed before its
discovery, and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the
laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical, and spiritual
relations between soul and soul and between individual spirits and
the Father of all spirits, were there before their discovery, and would
remain even if we forgot them.
72
the natural forces, still it provides some information about the history
and the people of India at that time. It speaks about several Kings
and tribal confederations across north India. Some of the tribes
mentioned in the Rig Veda are Kuru, Puru, Gandhari, Chedi, Kikata
and Parsu. Kikata is perhaps Magadhi and Parsu Persian. The
association of Parsu with Persians is based on an Assyrian
inscription dated 844 BC, referring to the Persians as Parsu, and also
an inscription of the great Achaemenid Emperor of Persia Darius I
referring to Parsa as the origin of Persians. Gandhari and Kikata were
referred to as despised people, perhaps because of the fact that they
might have been non Aryans either native people or the older
Aryans, who had moved to India before the Rig Vedic Aryans. Out of
these tribes mentioned in the Rig Veda Chedi, Magadha and Gandhar
eventually became prominent confederations or Janapada, meaning
foothold of people, and finally Maha Janapadas by 700 BC. The Kuru
and Puru tribes and the respective confederations or kingdoms were
quite prominent in the early Vedic Period till 1000 BC.
From the geographical description with the mention of the rivers
like Yavavati (Ravi?), Shutudri (Shatadru or Sutlej), Vipash, Vitasta,
Sindhu and Sarasvati it's almost certain that the land of the Rig
Veda was Punjab.
From the various descriptions it can be said that the life of the
Aryans during 1500 BC was nomadic in nature. The Aryans were
involved in constant confrontations with the natives and also among
themselves. Horses and Chariots, the signature of the Indo-Iranians
and Indo-Aryans, were important and differentiating factors for
Aryans. The priests used to conduct Yajnas, sacrificial ceremonies
around fire, for the welfare and betterment of the Kings. The hymns
of the Rig Veda, praising the various Gods or natural forces or
elements, used to be part of these ceremonies. Animals were
sacrificed as a part of the ceremony. It's quite interesting to note that
the Aryans were not vegetarians. They used to eat animal meat, even
horse meat, after the animals had been sacrificed. The spread of
vegetarianism in India may be linked with the spread of Buddhism
and Jainism some 1000 years later.
74
The verse 3.62.10 (19th verse of the 62nd hymn of the 3rd book) is the
source of the popular Gayatri Mantra, which is in praise of the creator
of the universe, referred to as Savitri.
77
79
80
Many more hymns from the Rig Veda, dealing with a wide range of
subjects, have been discussed in details in the subsequent chapters.
It would be a great injustice to the finesse of the Rig Veda to
associate it only with scriptures. Considering it just as a religious
book like Bible or Qoran would rip it off its literary value. It should
be seen as a piece of literature too. It's no ordinary literature it's the
first available literature of the entire mankind. It's the manifestation
of the realization, feelings and understanding of the people of an
ancient age. It's a creative composition, which when attributed to
humanity, rather than divinity, has much more value than just
assuming those were God's word.
Another fascinating thing about the Rig Veda is the tradition of
preserving the entire literature for over a millennium just by oral
transmission across generations. The earliest script, Brahmi, was
available in India only by 500 BC, more than a millennium after the
Rig Veda came into existence. The book might have been first written
even a millennium later, sometime during the Gupta period. Just
think about the indigenous techniques that the Aryans would have
perfected in order to preserve the literature for more than 2000 years.
One of the available manuscripts of the Rig Veda is included
in UNESCO's Memory of the World list as one of the four entries from
India.
Along with the Rig Veda, the other three Vedas Yajur (about
sacrificial worship), Sama (about songs for worship) and Atharva
(about prayers) started taking shape respectively in the subsequent
centuries. Rig Vedic period was still within Bronze Age, which
continued in India till 1100 BC, when Iron Age started.
81
6
PEOPLE & CONFLICTS
To know about the Rig Vedic people, the best way is to refer to some
verses from the Rig Veda.
RV Hymn Verse
Book
6 20
4 30
4 30
4 19
2 14
2 12
Description
Indra kills Dhuni, Chumuri.
Refers to
Conflict with
natives
Indra kills Kulitara's son Shambara Conflict with
on lofty mountains. He crushed
Munda natives
100,000 Varchins, like the felly
(pradhi) of the wheel of a chariot
Arna, Chitraratha, both Aryan
Conflict among
people, killed by Indra on the other Aryan people
side of Sarayu
Indra breaks the mountains and
Vala Myth
frees the obstructed rivers. The
rivers run like mothers running
towards their children. [It's similar
to killing Vala and releasing the
cow; breaking the dams (of the
Indus people ?) and releasing the
river]
Indra subdues Kutsa, Atithigva and Conflict among
Aryan people
Ayu [Not all non-Aryan Kings]
Shambara (Munda) is discovered on Conflict with
the 40th autumn in his mountain
Munda natives
hideouts. [Implicates fightings in
mountains, most likely the
Hindukush]
82
2 14
1 53 8
Conflict with
Munda natives
86
88
The next verse is important because it introduces the term Kuru for
the first time. Kuru eventually becomes one of the most important
clans in India. But unlike the later Vedic and epic literature they are
not omnipresent in RV.
89
assumed that he would have also ruled sometime around 1300 BC,
the period of the Mahabharata War.
It may be noted that though the Mahabharata war is believed to
be a fictional/literary depiction of the Rig Vedic Battle of Ten Kings,
but the dates of the two need not be same. Its also possible that an
older Battle of Ten Kings was recreated with characters inspired by
later Kings.
1300 - 1100 BC
The Pandavas consolidated their rule after the victory in the
Mahabharata war and their dynasty, same as the Kuru dynasty,
would have ruled between 1300 and 1100 BC. The Kuru King
Parikshita is mentioned in the Atharva Veda, dated sometime around
1100 BC. Much later, the Kings of Taxila Ambhi and Porus, who
fought against Alexander in 4th century BC were also referred to as
the descendants of the Pandava dynasty. The present day people with
last name Puri are believed to be descendants of the Purus.
91
7
AMALGAMATION WITH NATIVE PEOPLE
A very interesting thing about North India is that almost all the
languages and dialects here are derived from Sanskrit or Persian,
both of which are Indo-Iranian (IIr) languages. Apart from the few
pockets of tribal areas, where Austro Asiatic Munda languages are
spoken, IIr languages are spoken almost everywhere from
Afghanistan to Assam. This means that the IIr languages took over
almost all the native languages, of which Munda and Burushaski
may be the only two known to us. Dravidian languages were never
native to northern India. So we discount those as being taken over
by Indo-Iranian languages.
Let's see some of the other cases of language takeover in
historical times.
The most recent scenario of immigrating foreigner elites
imposing their language on the subdued natives is the arrival of the
Europeans in the American continents. The mainly English people
subjugated the Native Americans in what later became USA. Traces
of the ancient native languages in USA are now limited only to names
of places and rivers like Mississippi and Missouri. English is the
dominant language in USA now but the American Indians still speak
their native language. Even centuries of subjugation and elite
dominance couldn't impose English and Christianity on them. The
Bolivian and the Peruvian Indians may be Spanish speaking
Christians now, but a large part of them still speak the native
Queucha as well. Many native customs and tenets of the Inca religion
still survive, often in a Christian garb.
After the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 AD the elite
dominance of the Norman French people influenced heavily and
nearly replaced the Anglo Saxon, Welsh and other native languages
of England. But in the end nothing happened. Apart from a few family
names there are only very few remnants of that conquest and
centuries of elite domination by the Normans.
92
95
8
RIVER THE STREAM OF LIFE
DOUBLE MEANINGS IN THE RIG VEDA
their literal sense. But they all convey the same meanings if
we consider their original roots.
In the early days of human civilization whenever man wished to
have words for abstract things, like strength, power etc., his readiest
method was to apply simplistic ideas of physical actions. Many words
for strength across all languages had originally this idea of a force or
injury because that was what it meant to the early humans to secure
their existence and prove their strength and superiority in this world.
The same is true for the Indo-European languages.
Let's consider the related Skt. roots damsh, dams, daksh. The
various words which evolved from these roots have quite diverse
meanings.
1. daksha, from the root daksh, means dexterous, intelligent,
strong etc. in Skt., akin to Latin dexter, Greek doxa and
PIE deks, all meaning strong.
2. damsa and dasra, from the root dams, mean wonderful
deeds in Skt., coming from the PIE dans meaning to teach.
3. dasha, from the same root dams and damsh, means state or
condition of life in Skt., akin to Latin decet, Greek decto, all
coming from the PIE dek meaning respect, gain.
Another meaning of daksh is to hurt and that of dams and
damsh is to bite, akin to Greek dakno and PIE denke.
Similarly the root kri in Skt. means to do, but also means to
hurt. The Skt. kratu means resolution, power and is akin to Greek
kratos meaning strong. It comes from the PIE kert from which also
come the Skt. kartati and Greek korno, meaning to cut.
So it can be seen that the original and nascent word for cutting,
biting, hurting etc. evolves gradually to mean strength, power,
resolution, respect etc. It also means to teach or to direct
(PIE dans and Skt. dish). Here the simple physical meaning of the
words gradually gets profound philosophical meanings. That's
exactly what we see in RV too profound philosophical
interpretations behind simple physical and historical events. It's
possible that the original physical meanings of the words were still
not forgotten during the Rig Vedic age and the composers of RV used
97
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
the divine will or the cosmic will, they flow towards the Vast
Ocean the same way a mortal human moves towards
infinite consciousness.
10. There may be a connection between the Greek Bellerophon,
the slayer of Bellerus, and Indra referred to as Valahan, the
slayer of Vala, the enemy who captivates the cows (light,
rays) in caves. Indra smites the dragon Ahi and releases the
water from the mountain. Gods or the elements of
personalities bring light, increases truth, vastness, infinite
bliss and gives a feeling of freedom from all bondage, all
limitations. On the contrary the demons are powers of
division and limitations, coverers, tearers, confiners etc.
River the Stream of Life is a very important aspect of Kubhas story.
Whenever theres a serious crisis and life seems to come to a
standstill Kubha always gives the example of the unbeatable river
that stops at nothing and keeps flowing to its destintion all its life,
with all its life.
In the high altitudes of the Snow Mountain a powerful Indar,
with his thunderbolts and fire, breaks into pieces the glaciers that
crawl like Ahi, a big dragon. He melts the ice, releasing from
captivity the swollen waters. Full of life the liberated waters flow
like streams of milk. The river thus formed rushes and gushes
through the slits and splits of mountains like freed cattle running
towards their mother, sometimes breaking big stones, sometimes
plunging from great heights and sometimes meandering violently
through deep ravines. With all her force she surpasses all
obstacles and flows down towards the plains. She is always
directed by the stars in the sky, specially the twin stars named
Jam and Jami. By the time she reaches the plains she has
acquired enough water and silt form the hills. She no longer
rushes and gushes but flows magnificently and thoughtfully
fertilizing the lands with her silt and feeding the people with her
sweet waters. More she flows, bigger and wider she becomes
and finally she merges happily with the vast ocean of limitless
waters.
100
The river is an allegory for life. Kubhas story uses this river
perhaps in the same way as its used in the Rig Veda too.The Indar
mentioned in the story is no doubt the Indra of RV. The Jam-Jami
stars are the Gemini twins of Greek mythology, the Yama and Yami
of the Hindus. Indras breaking into pieces the glacier and releasing
the river is like Pegasus smiting the rock with his hoof and releasing
the river Hippocrene. Its like Agni igniting the fire of will at the
beginning of a life. The violent movements of the river through the
mountains represent the actions of prana that finally lead to
consciousness, the strength of mind. Like a faltering child, who
becomes conscious after each fall and eventually grows into a
matured man, the cascading small rivulet finally grows into a wide
and calm river.The infinite vastness of the ocean, into which the river
flows at the end, represents the infinite consciousness, the eternal
bliss, the eternal truth, rita.
Following are the hymns where the concept of Agni, Ashvin, Indra
and Mitra-Varuna are introduced in the first book of RV.
Agni
coming from the the Skt. root nas and the PIE nek, means to reach.
It's very aptly the name of one of the Ashvinis, known as the Lord of
the voyage the voyage or journey to reach the destination of life. The
other Ashvin is named Dasra, the doer of wonderful deeds and
actions. The words dravatpani and rudravartani signify the swiftness
in the actions, the wonderful deeds, purudamsa. Throughout our
lives we've to keep on doing actions and move towards our
destination, overcoming all obstacles with all fierceness and
swiftness and Ashvin signifies all of these.
Indra
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Mitra Varuna
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9
RIG VEDIC GODS
In the previous chapter we've seen that the main Rig Vedic Gods
Agni, Ashvin, Indra, Mitra-Varuna are personifications of the
various strengths and traits of the personality of human beings. This
interpretation is more profound and more logical too than the
simplistic view that each of these Gods signifies some specific virtues.
In this section we'll see some of the hymns that talk about the
simplistic virtues normally associated with the main Gods in RV.
Varuna
Varuna is one of the oldest of the Vedic gods, and is commonly
thought to correspond to the Greek uranos, although with a more
spiritual conception. He is often regarded as the supreme deity,
styled as hating falsehood and seizing transgressors with his noose;
possessing extraordinary power and wisdom called maya; pardoning
sin, the guardian of immortality, etc. He stands for truth and law.
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10
VALA MYTH
Throughout the Rig Veda Indra is shown as the liberator. His enemy
is anyone who is a confiner, restrainer, and coverer. Two of Indras
most popular enemies are Vala and Vritra. In Monier Williams
Sanskrit dictionary the word vala means an enclosure or cave and
vritra coverer, restrainer, an enemy, foe, hostile host.
Vala has an Avestan counterpart Vara. Vala is said to imprison
the cows in a cave in an island of the mythical Rasa River. Indra kills
Vala and liberates the cows. In the Rig Veda cow is often used as a
simplistic symbol for sun rays, light and wealth.
The entire episode of Vala imprisoning the cows and Indra
freeing them may be a poetic rendition of the Rig Vedic Aryans
fighting in the Central Asia with the Dasa people belonging to the
older lot of the Aryans. The Dasa people and the two lots of the Aryans
have been discussed in details in earlier chapters. Its possible that
the Dasa and Pani people Pipru is one of their leaders took shelter
in their fortified strongholds, tripurs, along with their wealth (cattle,
cow, go) and the Rig Vedic Aryans had to break into the tripurs and
free the cows. Here again a historical event may be hidden under
layers of double meanings and mysticism.
Vritra is the Vedic personification of an imaginary malignant
influence or demon of darkness and drought. It takes possession of
the clouds, causing them to obstruct the clearness of the sky and
keep back the waters. Indra is represented as battling with this evil
influence in the pent up clouds, poetically pictured as mountains or
castles which are shattered by his thunderbolt and made to open
their receptacles. Vritra is often identified with Ahi, the dragon. Ahi
may be the personification of a frozen glacier that confines the
waters. Indra kills Ahi, liberates the waters and allows the rivers,
ritasya dhara, the streams of truth, to flow like kines running
towards their mother.
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CREATION MYTH
consider the following description of Big Bang and the creation of the
universe:
At the very beginning when the temperature was very high and
the random movement of the particles relativistic, the basic laws
of material physics were not applicable. Gradually, with cooling
and expansion, the laws of material physics started governing
the elements of universe. Some of the protons and neutrons
combined to form deuterium and helium nuclei in a process called
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Most of the protons remained
uncombined as Hydrogen nuclei. Further these nuclei and
electrons combined to form mostly Hydrogen atoms and fewer
Helium atoms. These atoms filled almost uniformly the universe
like a sea. Initially the hydrogen created was nonionized and
readily absorbed all light. Hence this is called the Dark Age. Over
long period of time slightly denser regions of uniformly
distributed matter in the universe started gravitationally
attracting nearby matter forming proto galaxies or molecular
clouds. Stars were formed due to gravitational instability inside
this molecular cloud, often trigerred by shock waves, massive
stellar explosions or galactic collisions which created regions of
higher densities. These regions increased in density due to the
gravitational forces between the materials within. As density
increased the gravitational enegry was converted into heat
energy and the temperature increased, thus creating a proto star.
Stars spend 90% of their lifetime fusing hydrogen to produce
helium in high temperature and high pressure reactions near the
core. As helium increases, to maintain the required rate of nuclear
fusionin its core, the temperature of the stars increases
gradually. Finally the stars collapse as they exhaust burning
hydrogen, helium, carbon and iron. For old stars a large core of
iron accumulates in the center. The heavier metals move towards
the surface and are shed eventually. These heavier metals,
which spread across the galaxy, form planets.
The above scientific description can be paraphrased a little
poetically in the following way:
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12
BATTLE OF TEN KINGS
Socio-economic conditions in India in 1300 BC
The Aryans the Indo-Aryans, the descendants of the IndoEuropean and Indo-Iranians started migrating into India since
1700 BC through the Gandhara region, the present day Swat in
Pakistan. The once prosperous Indus Valley civilization was declining
at that time. The Aryans came in some sort of conflict with the people
of Indus Valley, the Meluhans, the Proto Dravidians and the Para
Mundas, who were gradually getting scattered throughout India.
Though historical and archaeological records suggest that the
earliest Aryans settled in Punjab since 1600 BC, it's not unlikely that
the Aryans entered into India across several centuries. The Aryans
settled in the Punjab were indeed the composers of the Rig Veda
around 1500 BC, but earlier Aryans could have entered India before
that. The Aryans were nomadic and pastoral people moving and
settling in groups. Unlike the people of the Indus Valley, they didn't
know the art and science of urban dwelling. They stayed in villages
and constructed houses with woods and other easily perishable
materials. Perhaps that was the reason why there's absolutely no
archaeological evidence of the Aryans, where as the cities of the
earlier Indus Valley civilization didn't perish even after 5000 years.
The only accounts of the life and society of the early Aryans can be
constructed from their literature the Vedas, the Upanishads and
the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata.
It can be argued that literature can't be treated as historical
accounts. But it's also true that till recent past, most of the works of
literature used to be period dramas based on some historical events.
Most of Shakespeare's works are based on historical events. Same is
the case with Kalidas' works. Most early literatures across the world
in any language used to derive their content directly from interesting
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around 1300 BC little later than the arrival of the Rig Vedic Aryans
in India sometime round 1500 BC. As most of the dates we mention
here are not unanimously accepted by all and theres always a lot of
questions unanswered as to what would be the most authentic date,
we can, for the sake of simplicity, stick to something which seems
plausible. And, a date of 1300 BC for the Battle of Ten Kings does
seem plausible from many aspects.
A very interesting thing in the second verse above is the use of
six thousand synonymously with sixty hundred. This means that the
Aryans used the same numeric system, the place value system with
ten as the unit, which we still use now and which was later evolved
significantly into the modern day place value system by Aryabhat in
5th century AD and which traveled to Europe via Arab much later.
The same verse mentions that in the battle of ten Kings, the
tribes Anu and Druhyu lost 6666 people. Though this figure may not
be taken very seriously, but it's indeed a rough indication of the order
of number of people belonging to any tribe in those days.
In another verse we get to know that the Tritsu wore white robes
and made hair knots, like cowry shells, on the right sides of their
heads.
the Turu people. When Simmu figures out that he alone cant fight
against the powerful Sudas, he makes a plan. He talks to the
protectors of the nine other ghottas and forges an alliance against
Sudas. Now with a much bigger army he chases Sudas and his
small army. Sudas is now like a meek goat fighting against
powerful lions. Simmu pushes Sudas to the edge of the river
Pusni. Sudas has no option but to jump into the river. His warriors
follow him. Suddenly the river becomes very shallow, allowing
Sudas to get across. He reaches the other side with his army.
When Simmu tries to follow him with his huge army the waters
of Pusni rise like the surging baan, the high tide in the Meghna.
Simmu and his forces drown in the river.
Drujju, Anu, Bhrigu, Bolan, Puru, Bishoni, Alin, Pakhto, Shibo
and Turu of Kubhas story are actually the Druhyu, Anu, Bhrigu,
Bhalanas, Puru, Vishanin, Alina, Paktha, Shiva and Turvasha people
mentioned in the Rig Veda. Simmu is Shimyu and Pusni the river
Parushni, the present day Ravi.
This Battle of ten Kings has striking similarities with the war depicted
in the Mahabharata. Both the wars are some form of civil war
involving multiple parties, with one side, the much weaker one, being
supported by some divine power. Both the wars are for consolidation
of power over North India. In the Mahabharata the weaker Pandavas
are helped by Krishna and here Indra is helping the Tritsus. Keeping
aside the divinity and other super natural elements in the
Mahabharata as poetic license, the historical elements are not very
hard to identify. Various people have given different dates for the
historical period of the Mahabharata War. The most logical period
appears to be sometime in the 14th century BC, mentioned also by
Jawaharlal Nehru in his Discovery of India. This period coincides
with the probable date of the Battle of the ten Kings.
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13
SURYAS BRIDAL
The hymn 10.85 of the Rig Veda is about the marriage of Sun (sry)
with Moon (soma). This hymn is important because it throws light on
quite a few real things about the lives and thoughts of the people who
composed the Rig Veda. The personification of Sun and Moon as the
bride and the bridegroom respectively may have more of poetic
significance, but the detailed description of the marriage ceremony
may not be a thing of imagination or poetic license. After her marriage
in her own house Surya goes to the groom's house in an elaborate
procession (vahatu). She is wearing a wonderful dress. She has put
kajal on her eyes. Accompanying her in the bridal procession is her
close friend Raibhi and the Ashvin twins from the groom's side. Still
now in India most Hindu marriages happen in the same way as
described in this hymn.
In this hymn more important is actually something else. It's the
natural phenomenon that's actually poetically depicted as Surya's
marriage. Throughout the Rig Veda, many real events and simple
natural phenomena are poetically expressed through allegories and
personifications. Often there are quite deep inner meanings and
layers of philosophical thoughts hidden behind the simplistic event.
In this case the event of Sun's going to a new house and beginning a
new life is actually the beginning of a new revolution of Sun or the
starting of a new year. The heavenly bodies are things of deep interest
to the Rig Vedic people. The stars and the constellations and the
night sky are observed with great enthusiasm and often used as
personifications in various hymns.
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refer to the longer days of summer. So the complete verse may refer
to a beginning of year in the summer.
The verses below throw some more light on the time of the year when
Surya gets married.
implies that the sun stays in one nakshatra for close to 1000 years
on an equinox or solstice.
The following figure below shows the location of sun on Spring
Equinox and Summer solstice in 3000 BC.
We know that the Rig Veda was not written before 1500 BC. So
the question may arise how such an ancient date (3000 BC) is
referred to in the Rig Veda. It's possible that the Rig Vedic people
remembered a much older phenomenon from a much older period
when the Proto Indo-Iranian people, the predecessors of the Rig Vedic
Aryans, had not yet separated from the Proto Indo-Europeans 3000
BC is indeed the age of Indo-European unity. Later the Aryans did
align the reckoning of their years with respect to the current position
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14
CHARIOT, CONSTELLATIONS, POLESTAR
Chariots are the trademarks of the Aryans. So it's very logical that
everything they do would have chariots in it. The Rig Veda has several
references to chariots. Chariot and its spoked wheel appear in double
meanings to represent multiple things. In the discussions on Rig
Vedic Gods we've seen that one hymn says Indra rules over the world
like the rim, nemi, of the wheel containing the spokes, ara. Even an
intricate part of a wheel like dhura, the peg with which the axle
pole aksha is fastened to the center nabha, appears in hymns. Almost
each and every part of a spoked wheel and chariot is mentioned in
RV.
Unlike the chariots and spoked wheels, constellations are not
the trademarks of the Aryans. In fact the Babylonians were the first
in the world, at least in the recorded history, to have stared at the
night sky with bewilderment and amazement. They were surely the
earliest sky gazers, predating the Aryans by at least a thousand
years, if we consider the date of RV from 1700 BC onwards. It may
not be unnatural for any one to stare at the night sky and feel
profoundness within. The unending darkness sprinkled with an
unending number of sparkles of stars vanishing into nowhere has
always aroused lot of questions in the minds of humans. The Aryans
were not unique in this regard.
Staring at the sky for hours can very easily bring out some basic
facts:
1. The sky, in the shape of an inverted bowl, along with millions
of stars, seem to revolve around you: this is nothing but the
celestial sphere in astronomical terminology.
2. the sun, moon and the visible planets always appear in a line,
rather, an arc: this arc or line is the ecliptic; in astronomical
lingo it's the projection of the earth's orbital plane on the
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This sky map shows how the night sky looked like on 10th April,
2000 BC in Arkaim. It was just a day before the full moon nearest to
Vernal Equinox. Some of the lunar mansions with very bright stars
like Spica, Arcturus, Antares and Shaula are marked on the ecliptic.
In 2000 BC Thuban of the Draco constellation was very close to being
the Polestar (it was the Polestar around 2800 BC). Due to the
Precession of Equinoxes different stars, all arranged in a circle,
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Next, is the sky-map at the time when the sun is rising on the
Vernal Equinox on 9th Apr, 2000 BC, in Arkaim.
Vishakha and the sun in Krittika. Hence the full moon around
Autumnal Equinox should be in Krittika that's what is seen in the
sky-map too.
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It's worth mentioning that the Seven Sages of Saptarshi, the Big
Dipper asterism, made a perfect circle around the Polestar Thuban
during the timeline of the Rig Veda (~ 1700 BC).
But now the stars of Big Dipper don't make a tight circle around
the current Polestar Polaris.
The terms like beyond the seven sages and the One that
supports the sky-wheel like a peg surely made much more sense
when the Polestar was really at the center.
The following sky-map shows how the Big Dipper stars revolved
round the Polestar Thuban forming a perfect circle in 2000 BC. The
dotted lines show the locations of the asterism at different times of
the same night.
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Finally let's see how the ideas about these constellations impacted
the calendar system in India. It's worth mentioning that a very
precise and scientific calendar system has been in place in India
since the Rig Vedic times.
Let's recall the following diagram we've seen in the discussions
on Surya's Bridal. It depicts the scenario during 3000 BC sun is in
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months totaling to roughly 356 days are synced up with solar year of
roughly 365 days by adding an extra or intercalary thirteenth month
from time to time. Weve seen that the Rig Veda has reference to
intercalary month.
A lunar month generally starts and ends with a new moon. Even
the ancient Roman calendar, the predecessor of Julian and Georgian
calendars, had lunar months. An interesting trivia is that in the
ancient Roman Kingdom the first day of the month, the new moon
day, used to be announced loudly to the people. That's why in Latin
a new moon or the first day of the month was called kalendae, coming
from PIE root kale, meaning to shout, and akin to Skt. krand and
Greek kalein. No points for guessing that the word calendar comes
from the Latin kalendae.
Referring to the previous diagram, the sun entered into Makara
zodiac on a Winter Solstice around 0 AD. Passage of sun into a zodiac
is called samkranti in Sanskrit and Makara Sankranti refers to sun's
entry into Makara zodiac. Today the Winter Solstice is no longer on a
Makara Samkranti, but still this is the only Samkranti that's
celebrated in India with much veneration. A closer look will reveal
why this is such an important day. In a tropical country like India,
where winters are not at all dreadful, a winter solstice may not evoke
any special feeling. But if we consider that the Rig Vedic Aryans
actually came from, a much colder, northern Steppes we can
understand why the day, which heralds the end of winter and the
beginning of longer days, is so important to them. It's possible that
the Rig Vedic Aryans remembered their ancestors' veneration for the
winter solstice. Much later, in historical times, when astronomy,
astrology and rituals were being codified and given proper shapes in
India, this ritual of celebrating the winter solstice was retained. As it
coincided with the Makara Samkranti the latter name would have
remained. Even later, when winter solstice no longer coincided with
Makara Samkranti other significances were added and the ancient
ritual was retained for ever in India in its various later avatars.
It's worth remembering that the biggest festival of the Kalash
people of the Hindukush is Choumos, celebrated around winter
solstice.
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PREPARATION OF SOMA
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HORSES
Horses and chariots were the trademark of the Indo-European
people. Most ancient civilizations had totems and the horse seems to
be the most prominent totem of the Indo-Europeans. In The Ekkos
Clan, the Aryan race is implicitly referred to as the Horse Clan, the
Ekkos Clan, the Ashwa Gotra, the lineage of the family of the Horse.
Horse appears in the Rig Veda in various ways. Following are few
verses which talk about horses.
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(tashta) the horse from the Sun, the Gandharvas hold tight (gribh, akin
to English grip) its bridle (rashana) and Indra is the first one to mount
on it. The horse is compared to a bird (patanga) with its head soaring
high, flying through the heaven. Its extolled for its aerodynamic
(patayishnu) body with golden horns (hiranyashringa), metallic feet
(ayaspada), rounded hips (irmanta) and symmetrical flank (silikamadhyama or shirsha-madhyama).
The following verses talk about the horse-sacrifice (ashva-medha)
ritual.
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the lids (pidhana), the hooks (anka) everything, its said, embellishes
and adorns the horse. The dress, the upper and the lower garments
(vasa and the adhivasa), with which the horse is covered, and its golden
ornaments everything is said to be gifted to the God. The horse, its
said, is well roasted so that nothing is raw the fire doesnt kill the
horse, but it purifies and leads it faster to the God.
Following is a portion from The Ekkos Clan:
Thats Indrunkot, said ghomitta, the place under the Tok tree
where we will offer a goats heart into angar. Well sing: Angar,
dont burn the shish, his head; dont consume the baza, athi, ka,
ech, agu, his arms, bones, ears, eyes and fingers; dont scatter
his skin and body; when you mature him, make him ready, send
him to his bozorg. Then well cook the meat properly. The cooking
vessels, the ladles, the pots and the dishes, everything will be
onjeshta, pure
I noticed Afsars eyes flashing motley expressions, a
supersaturated mixture of suspicion, amazement and excitement.
What? I asked her.
He is quoting almost verbatim from the Rig Veda, she
whispered
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ORIGIN OF INDIAN MUSIC
century BC) as the rough period of the composition of the Rig Veda,
we may assume that in 15th century BC the Rig Vedic chants would
have attained a definitive shape. This tradition of chanting, like the
complete texts, has been preserved very authentically by successive
generations of Brahmins for nearly 4000 years.
The two earliest treatises on Indian Music - Natyashastra
(probably 1st century AD) and Naradiyashiksha (probably 5-6th
century AD) provide some good information about Vedic chants,
specially the Sama Gana or the Songs of Sama Veda.
Three different pitches or accents or swars udatta, anudatta
and swarita were used for chanting. Even today in Bengali, the
language that has retained the maximum words from Sanskrit
among all the descendants of Sanskrit in India, the term "udatta
kantha" means a voice which can sing freely and loudly without any
inhibition. That's exactly what it meant also in the context of
chanting the Rig Vedic hymns. Udatta was the principal accent, a
raised one. Preceded by udatta was the anudatta which literally
means that which is not udatta an accent not raised. The third
accent swarita meaning sounded was a transitional one marking
the transition from a raised to unraised accent. For many centuries,
till the Rig Veda was finally written down, the accents were
represented by signs with the fingers of the hands. This is the earliest
form of notation for music.
Much later after the advent of scripts, when the Rig Veda was
finally written down, a very simple form of written notation was used.
This is again the earliest form of written notation for music in the
world. In Rig Vedic texts udatta (U) is not marked with any notation;
anudatta (A) is marked with a horizontal line under; and swarita (S)
with a vertical line above the syllable.
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In the early treatises on Indian music the Rig Vedic chants were
classified as natya (drama) of pathya (recitation) type. Drama was
considered an important element of music. So the Rig Vedic chants
not only gave form to the earliest Indian music, but also to the earliest
Indian drama. Indeed the Rig Veda contains all the elements of
drama characters, events, narration, emotions, actions etc. The
pitch modulation through raised (udatta), unraised (anudatta) and
the transitional (swarita) accents originated to give expression to
dramatization of the Rig Vedic chants. The relation between drama
and music has been always very strong in India in all ages and the
Rig Veda might have created that close association for the first time.
Sama Vedic Music
The Sama Veda is believed to have been composed between 1400 BC
and 1100 BC. The Sama Vedic chants took the proper form of music
over time. To facilitate singing of the verses the three accents or
pitches or notes of the Rig Vedic chants eventually expanded to a full
fledged scale of seven-notes and twenty two intermediate tones
(shruti) of varying pitches.
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A very interesting thing about the Sama Vedic scale is that it's
a diminishing one in contrast to what we've now in all the styles of
music in the world. The scale used to start from Ma and end at Pa
instead of starting from Sa and ending at Ni. In later times the scale
was changed from Ma Ga Ri Sa Ni Dha Pa to Sa Ni Dha Pa Ma Ga
Ri with the Sa in the higher octave to allow for the usage of higher
notes for better audibility. Also at later times the scale was converted
from the diminishing to the present day ascending one.
Another interesting thing of the Sama Vedic music is the modification
and addition of syllables to the original texts, which themselves are
derived from Rig Vedic verses, to fit into singing styles. In contrast to
the rigidity maintained in the pronunciation and accents of the Rig
Vedic verses this is indeed a very remarkable change for the sake of
music. Such flexibility is perhaps the biggest asset of Indian music
till date. No other book, considered sacred in any other religion, has
been allowed to be altered so much just for the sake of music!
The original Sama Vedic texts (known as Samhita) can be
chanted in the same way as the Rig Veda with the three Rig Vedic
accents, which are represented (or notated) in Sama Veda by
numerals udatta is 1, swarita is 2 and anudatta is 3.
A very simplified staff notation for the above song can be created
based on some simple principles of the Sama Vedic notation. The
salient features of this notation are as follows:
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Though the Sama Vedic music reached a great height even at such
an early stage of Indian civilization around 1400 BC, still the concept
of taal or beat was still unknown. The duration of a single beat note
was not fixed and changed from syllable to syllable.
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TRIVIAS
Units of measurements
Some units used in ancient India can be traced back to the Rig
Veda. The later Sanskrit literature has many more units. It's
not possible to confirm how many of these units were in use
since the Vedic Age. Below is a list of some units widely used in
ancient times.
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Plough is called sira (RV). Datra and khanitra are two tools for
agriculture mentioned in RV. Settlers (vish) were peasants
(krishti), unploughed lands were akrishivala.
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During Yajur Vedic (post Rig Vedic) time crops were rice (vrihi),
barley (yava), beans (makushta), sesame (tila), kidney beans
(mudga), vetches, wheat (yava), lentils, millet and wild rice.
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LATER VEDAS AND AVESTA
Later Vedas
Like the the Rig Veda, the only sources for the post Rig Vedic history
of India are the later three Vedas Yajur, Sama and Atharva Veda.
There is no concrete proof of the timelines of these three Vedas.
Commonly accepted chronology is that the Yajur Veda and Sama
Veda, composed perhaps between 1400 BC and 1100 BC, are older
than Atharva Veda which was composed perhaps between 1100 and
900 BC. The present forms of all the four Vedas didn't take place for
sure within these time frames. It had taken several more centuries
before they would have arrived to the present forms. Yajur Veda has
references to fully developed caste systems, considerable advances in
art, handicrafts, trade and occupation, which are evidently of much
later date of early first millennium.
The four Vedas Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva are the earliest
literature of the mankind. They also form the basis of the way of life
that gradually metamorphosed into a religion, commonly and also
erroneously at times, known as Hinduism. At their core the four
Vedas are just books of knowledge and enlightenment as realized by
the learned people of the time. The Rig Veda is the Knowledge of
Recited Praise, Yajur Veda the Knowledge of Sacrifice, Sama Veda the
Knowledge of Chanted Hymns and Atharva Veda the Knowledge of
Prayers, Charms and Spells. Apart from the Yajur Veda, all the other
three are composed as perfect metrical verses. Many verses of the Rig
Veda are reused in various forms in all the other three later Vedas.
Almost all the ancient civilizations were worshipers of nature
and natural forces. So it's nothing extraordinary or exceptional for
the Indians to worship fire, water, sky, wind and earth the five basic
natural forces. At the dawn of civilization, when the human race was
still under the spell of the powers and mysteries of the nature, it was
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The following verses from Shukla Yajur Veda mention the numbers
upto ten raised to the power of 12 in steps of powers of 10 ayuta
(10 raised to the power 4, or 10K), niyuta (100K), prayuta (1million),
arbuda (10 million), nyarbuda (100 million), samudra (1billion),
madhya (10 billion), anta (100 billion) and parardha (1trillion).
spirituality, but also in our normal lives. The Sama Veda used the
sound, lyrics and music in a wonderful way to create the right aura
and ambiance for spirituality and divinity.
The texts of the songs from the Sama Veda were taken mainly
from the Rig Veda. The original Rig Vedic verses were altered to fit
into lyrical forms of the Sama Veda. Many syllables were further
modified and even added, where ever needed, to suit singing. Even a
notation was also followed, though it was textually represented much
later when the Vedic texts were first written. This was, no doubt, the
first instance of notated music in the world. The text of the Sama
Veda, without modification and additions of syllables, is known as
the Sama Veda Samhita. The song book has two variants
Gramageya, containing songs meant for singing (geya) in villages
(grama), and Aranyageya, containing songs meant for singing in the
forest (aranya).
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Most importantly the Atharva Veda refers to iron as a metal for the
first time, thus heralding the start of the Iron Age and the end of
Bronze Age sometime around 1100 BC.
Rig Veda, was also another important kingdom. All of these early
kingdoms later became Mahajanapadas, or Great Kingdoms, over the
next few centuries.
Avesta
Perhaps the most important thing contemporary to the Atharva Veda
is Gatha, the earliest Zoroastrian text, believed to be composed by
Prophet Zarathushtra Himself. Like the Vedas the timeline of Gatha
too is shrouded in mystery. The actual dating of Zarathushtra and
his first sermons in the form of Gatha is a matter of debate and
controversy. Here also we'll stick to one particular view point that
appears more logical than the others. We'll consider 1100 BC as the
timeline of the Atharva Veda, Zarathushtra and Gatha.
Gatha is a very important part of the Zoroastrian scripture
known as Yasna. It's a collection of highly philosophic and profound
hymns considered most sacred by the Zoroastrians. It's like the
Bhagavat Gita, which is inserted in the Mahabharata and which
forms the crux of Hindu spirituality and philosophy.
First let's take a look into the language of Gatha. The
Zoroastrian scriptures are called Avesta and the language Avestan.
The language of Gatha is an early form of Avestan. Following is a
verse from the second hymn of Gatha. It's presented in Devanagari
script, transliterated by Jatindra Mohan Chatterji.
Rig Vedic
Ada tasa goh aprisat asham
Katha te gave ratus |
Yah him dhata kshayan sada
Vastra godhah tvakshah |
Kam asya ushatha asuram
Yah drugvadbhi ishmam vadhayayet ||
Then the Creator of the world asked Asha, Where is thy Prophet
for the world who, capable, world-forester and vigorous, would
sustain her always? Whom do you intend as her Lord, as one
who can thwart the violence of the wicked? --Translated by
Jatindra Mohan Chatterji, 1967
Upon this the Creator of the Kine (the holy herds) asked of
Righteousness: How (was) thy guardian for the Kine (appointed)
by thee when, as having power (over all her fate), ye made her?
(In what manner did ye secure) for her, together with pasture, a
cattle-chief who was both skilled and likewise energetic? Whom
did ye select as her (life's) master who might hurl back the fury
of the wicked? -- Translated by L. H. Mills, 1898
Then the Ox-Creator asked of the Right: Hast thou a judge for
the Ox, that ye may be able to appoint him zealous tendance as
well as fodder? Whom do ye will to be his lord, who may drive
off violence together with the followers of the Lie? -- Translated
by C Bartholomae
Let's see another hymn from Gatha. This is from Yasna 28.8.
Yasna 28.8
Avestan
Rig Vedic
This one (myself), being at his best (Purity), would realize You,
the best (Deity), with Rectitude, the best (faculty). I, beloving,
would worship Ahura, for manly Frashoshtra, and for me, as well
as for those, to whom You consign Conscience, for all time. -Chatterji
The best I ask of Thee, O Best, Ahura (Lord) of one will with the
Best Asha, desiring (it) for the hero Frashaostra and for those
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(others) to whom thou wilt give (it), (the best gift) of Good Mind
through all time. -- Mills
The similarities in the languages indeed mean that the composers of
Gatha and those of the Rig Veda were very closely associated. In
the Aryan Trail we've mentioned that a group of Indo-Aryans stayed
back in Central Asia and Afghanistan while the others entered India.
For a very long time the Indo-Aryans of India and Afghanistan had a
very good relation, practiced almost the same religion and followed
the same tradition. Around the timeline of the Atharva Veda there
seems to be an intellectual conflict between two groups of Aryans that
leads to their separation. One group continues to stay in Afghanistan
and very soon comes in close contact with the Iranian people coming
from the steppes (Timber Grave Culture) and settling in various parts
of Iran. We may call this group of people proto Avestan as their
language gradually moves away from the Rig Vedic Sanskrit and
takes the shape of Avesta. Zarathushtra, one of them, eventually
founds the Zoroastrian religion. As the Avestans stay close to the
Iranians their kins, being members of the same Indo-Iranian people
their language starts picking up more Iranian components. It's not
a surprise that Avestan, despite the strong Rig Vedic connection, is
classified as an Iranian language.
The other group of Indo-Aryans, who separates from the proto
Avestan people, move towards India and stay connected to the
culture and religion of the Aryans of India.
Now if we assume that the proto Avestan people stayed in
Central Asia and Afghanistan for a long time then we should expect
the reference to places from this region in their texts. In fact they are
better than the Rig Vedic people in this respect. The first chapter of
Vendidad, a later Avestan text, is about sixteen perfect lands created
by Ahur Mazda, the Highest God of the Zoroastrians.
The Vendidad starts with:
Ahura Mazda spake unto Spitama Zarathushtra, saying:
I have made every land dear (to its people), even though it
had no charms whatever in it: had I not made every land
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15. the Seven Rivers, Hapta Hedu Skt. Sapta Sindhu or the
land of the Seven Rivers, that's the Punjab.
16. the land by the sources of the Rangha, where people live
who have no chiefs, upa aodhashu Ranghay asr
aiwyxshayeiti Rangha or Rasa, a mythical river in the
Rig Veda with strong Indo-European connections, may
be one of the unexplored or lesser explored northern
tributaries of Indus in Hindukush region.
Its likely that the Airyanem Vaejo, the Aryan expanse, is
surrounded by the other fifteen Aryan countries, all of which are in
Central Asia and are perhaps enumerated in an anti clock-wise
manner.
Ahura Mazda is the Supreme God of the Zoroastrians and
Zarathushtra is His Prophet. Av. Ahura is akin to Skt. Asura, which,
we've seen in Aryan Trail, means both God and demon in the Rig
Veda. Mazda is akin to Skt. medha, which means intellect. So Ahura
Mazda stands for the divine intellect. Opposite to Ahura Mazda is the
devil Angra Mainyu. Each of the sixteen verses that defines the
sixteen holy lands of the Aryans ends with a reference to the
devil, Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he
counter-created Winter, a work of the Daevas.
Av. Mainyu is surely a cognate of Skt. manu, mind and Angra
may refer to the Rig Vedic Angirasa here also Av. Angra and Skt.
Angirasa seem to be cognates. This is the clue to the conflict between
the two groups of Aryans in Afghanistan this conflict finally leads
to the separation of the two.
We've argued in the Aryan Trail that the Dasa people, the first
lot of Indo-Aryans to arrive in Central Asia in BMAC around 1900
BC, used to call their Gods Asura. The Rig Vedic Aryans, the later lot
of Aryans appearing in BMAC around 1700 BC, first fought with the
Dasa people and later came to a truce. The term Asura meaning
demon and then being elevated to the status of God may be an
indication of the animosity and eventual truce between the two
groups of Aryans. The word Asura means supreme spirit and in the
Rig Veda is generally said of Varuna, one of the oldest Indo-European
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Veda. Both Bhrigu and Angiras are no doubt fire priests. The term
Bhrigu and Angiras refer to the individuals Bhrigu and Angiras and
also to the people, the descendants or the followers of the Bhrigu and
Angiras. The word angiras comes from the root ang or ag, and directly
means fire. Bhrigu comes from the root bhraj, which means to shine,
sparkle and glitter, and the mythical Bhrigu race is closely connected
with fire in the Rig Veda. The name Spitama, the ancestor of
Zrathushtra, seems to be a cognate of svetatama, meaning brightest
and surely an epithet for Bhrigu. So it may not be illogical to deduce
that Zarthushtra Himself is one of the Bhrigu atharvans, having
descended from Spitama, also a Bhrigu atharvan.
So now we know that the Avestan people are pitriyanists,
worshipers of Varuna, Ahura Mazda, while the other group of Aryans
is devayanists. We also know that Zarathushtra descends from
Spitama, one of the Bhrigu atharvans. If we correlate these two points
we can say that the Bhrigus, the ancestors of the Avestans, are
pitriyanists and the Angirasas devayanists. We can also infer that the
aforementioned two conflicting groups of Aryan people in Afghanistan
were the Bhrigus and the Angirasas, who eventually broke up from
each other around the time frame of Atharva Veda the Angirasas
are then associated with the Atharva Veda in India and the Bhrigus
with the Avesta in Afghanistan. So the Bhrigu-Angirasa Samhita
mentioned in Gopatha Brahmana may refer to the parallel
development of Atharva Veda and Avesta by the Angirasas and
Bhrigus. It also finds credence in Angirasa being referred to in Avesta
as a devil, Angra Mainyu, in contrast to Bhrigu, Spitama.
Around the World
Early Vedic Age is contemporary to 18-20th dynasties of New Kingdom
of Egyptian Empire. Around 1100 BC Greek City States, Troy being
one of the most important ones, came to a spectacular end.
The Homeric Trojan War is also believed to have occurred sometime
in the 12th century BC.
In west Asia the Kassites have been ruling in Babylon since 16th
century BC. Their rule came to an end in 1155 BC when it fell
to Elam (Iran). Finally after five centuries Babylon was conquered
back by native ruler Nebuchandrezzar I in 1125 from the Kassites.
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Acknowledgement
In the acknowledgement of The Ekkos Clan Ive mentioned the names
of each and everyone without whose contribution and support the
novel woudnt have been possible. It was an honor for me to talk
about them and express my humble gratitude. But I never got a
chance to acknowledge the contribution and support of many other
people without whom The Ekkos Clan wouldnt have reached to so
many readers. Writing a book is one thing and creating the awareness
about it among the readers and making it available to them is a
totally different thing. It takes a lot of effort to promote a book and
create the initial interest about it among the readers, especially if its
a work of a debutant author. The idea of compiling something like
Myths & Truths Behind The Ekkos Clan came only when The Ekkos
Clan had already attained a certain degree of acceptance among its
readers, many of whom expressed their interest to read more about
the research work that had gone behind the writing of the book. So
its very important to acknowledge the support and help of all those
people whove selflessly and earnestly worked towards popularizing
The Ekkos Clan. Without them this present book wouldnt have made
any sense.
I would like to start with Pallavi Mishra, who, immediately after
the release of The Ekkos Clan in July 2013, methodically called an
endless number of book stores across India, rebuking them for not
keeping my masterpiece. Soon my book was available at many
stores in Bangalore. She would make it a point to read my book in
the Volvo buses while commuting to and from office, making sure
that she talked to at least one person about the book in each trip.
One day the PR person of a leading bookstore in Bangalore whom I
was pursuing hard for a book launch called me up and said that she
had seen someone talking excitedly about my book in the bus. Soon
she agreed for the book launch. Had it not been for Pallavis
contagious positivity which she would always excude, her persistent
encouragement and insistence, I wouldnt have painstakingly gone to
the various book stores across Bangalore, after the hectic days at
office, and spent the evenings meeting people and talking tirelessly
about my book to them. Soon the store managers started keeping my
book at the most advantageous locations and talking about it
203
themselves to their customers. I wish Pallavi all the success in all her
endeavors. I also wish she were available to promote my next
masterpiece!
That Tirthankar Ghose was my hall-mate in IIT KGP and my flatmate in Bangalore, is just a very small aspect of our association.
Among many things he has done for me over the past twenty years,
he has also painstakingly hand delivered so many copies of my book
to people across Bay Area, just to make sure that my book reached
out to as many people as possible.
When The Ekkos Clan was not yet available outside India,
Sourav Das, my brother, took the pain of couriering each copy of the
book to interested people across the US.
Shrey Goyal, Urvashi Verma, Aditi Sharma, Abhinav Gupta,
Kamalesh Ghosh and many other present and previous students of
IIT KGP helped me with online and other forms of promotions among
the IIT fraternity, which gave a much needed boost to the initial sales
and popularity of the book.
Sahana Gupta helped me with the first book launch in
Bangalore, within a fortnight of its release in July 2013. Mona
Gantayat not only helped me with the launches of The Ekkos Clan at
the Oxford Book Stores in Bangalore and Delhi, she was also
instrumental in getting my first interview-feature in the media and
liaisoning for a series of book talks at major corporate houses in
Bangalore.
Kavya Hegde and the team at JustBooks did a wonderful
promotion of The Ekkos Clan by making it a featured book, arranging
a series of talks at their stores across the country and enabling
effective media coverages in Mysore, Pune and Cochin. Tarunjeet
Rattan, Juthika Sinha and the team at Neucleus did a fabulous job
in handling the overall PR and media coverage for my book.
Kamalika Dutta and Arun Francis of Pixel Passion managed the
entire social media and graphic design for all sorts of promotional
activities.
Sravasti Datta, Shevlin Sebastian, Sooraj Rajmohan, Arka
Sengupta, Samhita Chakraborty, Chandreyee Ghose and Ayesha
Tabassum wrote wonderful articles about me and my book in leading
dailies across India.
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Selected Reference
1. A Dictionary of the Vedic Rituals: Based on the rauta and
Ghya Stras, by Chitrabhanu Sen
2. A History of Civilization in Ancient India: Based on Sanscrit
Literature, by R C Dutt
3. An Introduction To The Study Of Indian History, by D D
Kosambi
4. Ancient India, by R C Majumdar
5. Ancient Indian History and Civilzation, by Shailendra Nath
Sen
6. Archaeology and Ethnic Politics: The Discovery of Arkaim, by V
A Shnirelman, published in UNESCO journal Museum
International, Volume 50, Issue 2, April-June 1998
7. Archaeology Online:
http://www.archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/archaeologyindia.html
8. Argumentative Indian, by Amartya Sen
9. Arkaim: http://arkaim-home.narod.ru
10. Arkaim Center: Official Site: http://www.arkaim-center.ru
11. AvestaZoroastrian Archives: http://avesta.org
12. Bright Stars:
http://www.cosmobrain.com/cosmobrain/res/brightstar.html
13. Database of Indo-European etymology: http://starling.rinet.ru/cgibin/query.cgi?basename=\data\ie\ piet&root=config
14. Discovery of India, by Jawaharlal Nehru
15. Encyclopaedia Iranica: http://www.iranicaonline.org
16. Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, by J P Mallory,
Douglas Q Adams
17. Encyclopaedia of Ukraine: http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com
18. Eurasian Stepppe Archaeological Research:
http://users.hartwick.edu/anthonyd/home.html
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38. The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan
Migration Debate, edited by Edwin Bryant
39. The Rig Veda, translated by Ralph T H Griffith: http://sacredtexts.com/hin/rigveda/index.htm
40. The Secret of the Veda, by Aurobindo Ghosh
41. The Spring Festival of The Kalash Kafris, published in India
Antiqua, by Georg Morgenstierne
42. Michael Witzel, Harvard University various papers:
http://indiatimeline.tripod.com/indian_history.htm, http://
indiatimeline.tripod.com/Indo_European.htm, http://indiatimeline.
tripod.com/linguistics.htm, http://indiatimeline.tripod.com/vedas. htm,
http://indiatimeline.tripod.com/kalash.htm
43. Michael Witzel, Harvard University webpage:
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm
44. Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary:
http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/monier
45. Useful Links: http://www.sudiptodas.com/usefullinks.php
46. Vedas Original Texts in Sanskrit and English Translations:
http://www.sudiptodas.com/usefullinks.php
47. Vedic India As Embodied Principally in The Rig Veda, by
Zenaide A Ragozin
48. Voice of Dharma online books: http://voiceofdharma.org/books
49. Websters Kalasha - English Thesaurus Dictionary
50. Wikipedia
51. Your Sky: http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky
52. Zoroastrian Heritage:
http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/index.htm
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