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Vedic And Indus Religions
The interpretation of the religion of the Harappan culture made incidentally by scholars such as Wheeler who were not religious scholars and had little knowledge of the Hindu religion was that its religion was different than the Vedic and more like the Shaivite religion in which Shiva is the supreme divinity. This was based on the examination of a handful of seals and symbols found in the ruins. Hence the Harappan religion was thought by them to be a kind of early Dravidian Shaivism.
However, further excavations both in Indus Valley sites in Gujarat, like Lothal, and those in Rajasthan, like Kalibangan show large number of fire altars like those used in the Vedic religion, along with bones of oxen, potsherds, shell jewelry and other items used in the rituals described in the Vedic Brahmanas.(*22) Vedic-like fire altars are more common in earlier than later Indus ruins. As fire altars are the most typical feature of Vedic culture, such finds associate the Vedic with Harappan culture from the beginning.
22. S. R. Rao, LOTHAL AND THE INDUS CIVILIZATION (Bombay, India: Asia Publishing House, 1973), p. 140; note also pp. 37 and 141.
Author : David Frawley
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