Tag vedic saraswati civilisation

New evidence suggests Harappan civilisation is 7,000 to 8,000 years old – Dheeraj Bengrut

VOI

Rakhigarhi Archaelogical Site, Haryana.

The evidence found in the third phase of excavations at Rakhigarhi in Haryana shows that the culture dates back 7,000 to 8,000 years.- Prof. Prabhodh Shirwalkar

Researchers from Deccan College Pune along with the central Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have established that human remains discovered at an ancient site of Rakhigarhi—a village in the Hisar district of Haryana—date back around 8,000 years. The discovery has been made during the third phase of excavations carried out by the ASI along with various teams across the country, including researchers from Deccan College Pune.

The first phase of excavations at Rakhigarhi was carried out by Dr Amarendra Nath of the Indian Archaeology Department from 1997 to 2000 during which evidence of the North Harappan culture dating back to 2500 BC was found. The second phase of excavations at Rakhi Garhi was carried out by professor Vasant Shinde from Deccan College Pune from 2006 to 2013 during which Shinde’s team collected evidence and conducted DNA tests to establish that this culture could be over 4,000 years’ old. Over the past two years, the ASI and Deccan College Pune have jointly carried out the third phase of excavations at Rakhigarhi through a team led by ASI joint director Sanjay Kumar Manjul and Deccan College Pune assistant professor Prabhodh Shirwalkar.

Shirwalkar said, “There are three parts to the Harappan culture; East Harappan, Middle Harappan, and North Harappan (Modern). The earlier two excavations found evidence of the Middle and Modern Harappan cultures dating back around 4,000 years. But now, the evidence found in the third phase of excavations shows that the culture dates back 7,000 to 8,000 years. The final report of the work is being prepared by our team.”

Shirwalkar said that the research on this will continue for many more months. “Human DNA has remained the same for 8,000 years which we have found during our research. When human traps were found here, they were thoroughly tested. Scientists have drawn conclusions based on this. A large burial ground was found here and it had human traps as well as animal traps,” Shirwalkar said.

The ASI is actively involved in excavations at the Rakhigarhi archaeological site, and the primary goal of these excavations, according to Ajay Yadav, additional director-general of the ASI, is to make the site accessible to the public. This involves exposing and conserving the structural remains for future viewing and providing amenities for visitors.

About utensils of various metals including gold and silver found during the excavation, Shirwalkar said that old silver and copper ornaments, too, have been found. “The most beautiful are the clay pots. A dinner set from that period has been found,” Shirwalkar said.

“We think that the words bedroom and kitchen are of recent origin. Whereas in Rakhigarhi, an even larger settlement of the largest ancient houses ever was found underground. A courtyard and a drainage system were also found in it. There were two to six- bedroom houses that were also available at that time. The clothing fashion of the people of that time is also known. A colourful worn piece of cloth, a shawl and skirt were also found,” he said.

“This research has found strong evidence that the Harappan civilisation is 7,000 to 8,000 years old. Scientists from the Department of Archaeology of India and Deccan College have worked together on the project. It is agreed that there was human habitation or civilisation in our country 8,000 years ago. The evidence shows that the people of that time were as advanced as they are today,” said Shirwalkar.

Earlier this year, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had highlighted Rakhigarhi in her budget speech of 2023, emphasising on the development of five iconic sites of archaeological significance, including Rakhigarhi, with on-site museums. The plan is to showcase the antiquities uncovered at Rakhigarhi, now considered the largest Harappan site spanning 350 acres, in an under-construction museum near the site. The museum is estimated to be worth ₹23 crores. – Hindustan Times, 23 December 2022

› Dheeraj Bengrut is a senior correspondent at the Hindustan Times in Pune.

Rakhigarhi Archaeological Site

Vedic Saraswati Civilisation, not Harappan Civilisation – David Frawley

VOI

Archeological Survey of India has found 60 skeletons in excavations at Rakhigarhi.

The term ‘Harappa’ does not suggest any continuity in India’s history since the ancient period or give the Vedas any place in it. Those who proposed the name were proponents of the Aryan Invasion Theory like Mortimer Wheeler, and such a non-Vedic term was useful in perpetuating that theory. – Dr. David Frawley

It is time to remove the term ‘Harappan’ from designating the ancient civilisation of India, as it is inaccurate and ignores the nature and continuity of India’s civilisation as a whole. Harappan is an artificial and incidental term deriving from the archaeological site of Harappa in Pakistan along with Mohenjo-Daro, which were the major ancient urban sites in greater India discovered in the early twentieth century (1921-22) before the partition of the country. Western archaeologists arbitrarily chose it to designate an entire urban civilisation going back to 3500 BCE, which they viewed more as a lost civilisation than connected to the later history of India.

The term Harappa does not suggest any continuity in India’s history since the ancient period or give the Vedas any place in it. Those who proposed the name were proponents of the Aryan Invasion Theory like Mortimer Wheeler, and such a non-Vedic term was useful in perpetuating that theory. Wheeler also promoted the false theory of the massacre at Mohenjo-Daro by invading Aryans which has been archaeologically disproved.

Importance of Rakhigarhi

Today the site of Rakhigarhi in Haryana, located in the Saraswati River region of Kurukshetra, and traditionally regarded as the home of the Vedas, has been proven to be larger and older than Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro which were on the Indus. As Rakhigarhi is the largest Harappan site, it would be more accurate to associate this ancient Indian civilisation with Rakhigarhi rather than Harappa. It better reveals the geographical connections of these sites to later India and its prime historical regions.

The Harappan civilisation has also been called the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) as the Indus River (Sindhu in Indian languages) was the main location of the initial sites discovered. However, further excavations have revealed the majority of the so-called Harappan or Indus sites were located by the Saraswati River, famous in Vedic texts, which dried up around 4000 years ago, showing its antiquity.

An Ancient Maritime Civilisation

In addition, Harappan sites have been found in Gujarat by the ocean in what was then the delta region of the Saraswati River, indicating it was a maritime culture from the Saraswati to the sea. Vedic civilisation was also maritime, with 150 references to the ocean in the oldest Rig Veda alone, including noting the Saraswati River as flowing from the mountains to the sea.

Using nondescript terms like ‘Harappan’ fits in with the terminology of the Aryan Invasion Theory that separates the Vedas from the origins of India’s civilisation, which colonial scholars also maintained. Harappans are often called pre-Vedic or non-Vedic which the Rakhigarhi finds also disprove.

The rivers of Northwest India on which so-called Harappan sites have been found have ancient Vedic names including Sindhu, Saraswati, Vitasta, Parushni (Ravi), Vipas (Beas), Shutudri (Sutlej), Yamuna and Ganga. Vedic texts show a similar culture, artefacts and geography to what has been called Harappan, extending from fire altars to Shiva lingas. We see a continuity of civilisation in India from sites as old as 8000 years ago like Rakhigarhi or Bhirrana, another such ancient site in the Kurukshetra region in Haryana.

Saraswati-Sindhu Vedic Civilisation

In place of ‘Harappan’, the civilisation should be better called ‘Vedic Saraswati Civilisation’, or ‘Saraswati-Sindhu Civilisation’. Using the term ‘Harappan’ is misleading for the study of India’s history as it does not suggest the actual centre of the civilisation on the Saraswati River, along with its Vedic and Bharatiya connections.

Ramifications for India’s Textbook Accounts of History

Indian Marxist scholars like Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib who opposed the idea of the Saraswati civilisation were also, not surprisingly, the main academic opponents of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. They denied that there ever was any Hindu temple at the Babri Masjid site, even after Prof. B.B Lal, Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), showed the evidence. Lal also wrote extensively on the Harappan as a Saraswati and Vedic culture and was involved in the excavation of Harappan sites.

Unfortunately, these same Marxist scholars were given charge over India’s history textbooks by the Congress government, not only relative to the ancient period but medieval and modern periods as well, including India’s independence movement. The youth of India were given their distorted views of India’s history as authoritative, devised to get them to reject their own culture and dharmic civilisation, portraying India as a country of invaders and no such religion as Hinduism but only a series of local cults.

Congress did this trying to gain politically and made the Marxists their intellectual wing in a lack of any thinkers of their own. You can be certain that if the Congress ever came back to power, they would try to restore these academics and their views. Fortunately, Sri Ram has proved too strong for them and the Vedas can no longer be denied their core role in the history of Bharat. – Firstpost, 31 December 2023

› Dr. David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri) is the director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies and the author of more than 30 books on yoga and Vedic traditions. 

Saraswati River Map