|
Page 1
So far, we have examined the history of the Vedic Aryans on the basis of the Rigveda.
This history is important in a wider context: the context of the history of the Indo-Iranians, and, further, the history of the Indo-Europeans.
According to the scholars, the Vedic Aryans had three historical and prehistorical habitats:
1. An early Indoaryan (i.e. Vedic Aryan) habitat in the Punjab.
2. An earlier Indo-Iranian habitat in Central Asia (shared by the Vedic Aryans with the Iranians).
3. An even earlier Indo-European habitat in and around South Russia (shared by both the Vedic Aryans and the Iranians with the other Indo-European groups).
There were therefore two basic migrations according to this theory. the Indoaryans migrated first (alongwith the Iranians) from South Russia to Central Asia; and later (separating from the Iranians) from Central Asia to the Punjab through the northwest.
The concepts of a common Indo-Iranian habitat and a common Indo-European habitat are based on the fact that the Vedic Aryans share a common linguistic ancestry and cultural heritage with the other Indo-European groups in general and the Iranians in particular.
But the identification of Central Asia as the location of this common Indo-Iranian habitat and of South Russia as the location of this common Indo-European habitat are purely arbitrary hypotheses with absolutely no basis in archaeology or in written records.
As we have seen, the Vedic Aryans, far from migrating into the Punjab from the northwest, actually advanced into the Punjab from the east, and later advanced further into the northwest. This certainly goes against the accepted ideas of the geographical locations of their earlier habitats.
Author : Shrikant G. Talageri
|
