Vedic period antecedents

THE ANTECEDENTS AND THE EARLY BEGINNINGS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD

On this occasion," I propose to place before you, for your consideration and criticism, some of my ideas relating to the antecedents and the early beginnings of the Vedic period. A considerable amount of work of really sterling merit has been done in this field by generations of scholars — Indian as well as foreign. I am, however, inclined to think that, generally speak ing, the Vedic period has been studied, up till now, more or less as an isolated period. Efforts must now be made to fix up that period into the whole scheme of the history of India, which latter, in its turn, must be properly linked up with the history of the world. In other words, we must not study the various problems connected with the Vedic period, each by itself; we must study them all together, mutually correlating, at every stage, the results of our investigations in each case, To my mind, any attempt in the direction of reconstructing the history of the Vedic period, to the fullest possible extent and with the highest possible plausibi lity, must necessarily be governed by the consideration of the following five points : (1) The relation of the Vedic Aryan with the other Indo-European-speaking people of the world. As I shall presently endeavour to show, the Vedic period of Indian history began, in more senses than one, outside the geographical limits of India - that is to say, outside the geographical limits of the pre-15th of August India, and most certainly of the post-15th of August India. (2) The relation of the Vedic Indians with the Harappan civilisation, more generally known as

1. The following is the presidential address delivered in the Ancient Period Section of the 10th session of the Indian History Congress held in December 1947. The introductory portion, which dealt with certain matters of topical interest, has been omitted.
2. That is, of the Indian subcontigent before its partition into India and Pakistan on August'15, 1917, EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY the Indus valley civilisation. This is, indeed, very important Our knowledge of the Vedic history and civilisation is based mainly on literary sources That knowledge would gain 18 historical validity if it were possible to correlate it meapingfully with the surer facts brought to light by archaeological evidence derived during the last twenty five years. Thanks to the untiring labours of archaeologists, the Harappan civilisation now no longer re mains the abstraction that it was it is becoming possible to fill in some of the human details and thereby materially vitalize what had hitherto been an abstraction’ (3) The course of the the Vedic history and civilisation as seen from the Vedic literature itself It will be easily realised that the Vedic literature from the Roveda Samhila down to the various Vedic Sutras refers to different epochs in the Vedic age and to different strata of social life in any particular epoch We see, in the Veda, the development from the nomadic stage of life to the growth of landed aristocracy, from the tribal organisation to the conception of various advanced forms of government, from pastoral commu nities to the rise of some kind of class consciousness and class struggle, from sorcery and witchcraft to complex sophisticated ritualism, and from magic to modism All this development Deeds to be systematically and rationally explained on the basis of the Vedic literature Moreover, it has to be remembered that the Veda does not exclusively reflect the Vedic Aryan way of life and thought, but that a considerabie portion of it is the outcome of culture contacts and racial fusions In this context, we have to consider the problem of the impact on the Aryans of the Dasas, the Panis the Vratyas the Sudras, and various other non Aryan communities mentioned in the Veda, and the consequent inter racial and intra racial conflicts and reactions On such a back ground several characteristic features of the Vedic civilisation, such as, cultural rapprochement, race cooperation, class solidarity, 3 Tbc banc Harappan cival sa lion has in recent years become mort common 4 Sr Jobn MARSHALL & Alohenjo daro and the Indus Cuilization (1931) describes the excavations carried out at Mohenjo daro n five winter scasons between 1922 and 1997ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD professional interdependence, societary planning, etc, will be con. spicuously brought out (4) The co ordination of the history of the kings and princes mentioned in the Veda with the dynastic lists of the Puranas This would also include the historical fixation of the families of the Vedic hymn-makers, priests and purohitas, and philosophers Attention may be drawn here to the antiquity of the tıhāsa purana, which goes back to the early Vedic times or even beyond It is observed that, ever since then, distinction has been made between itihasa and purāna. As is shown by one of my predecessors in this office, a careful analysis of ancient Indian historical traditions, made with reasonable caution may produce results, which would prove helpful for our purpose While re constructing the history of India prior to the Mahabharata war, which is presumed to have been fought in 1428 B C, ALTEKAR has tried to fix the dates of the daśarajña-yuddha (1900 BC), of GȚtsamada (2700 B C ), of Srñjaya Sahadeva (2000-1800 B. C), etc 6 (5) Finally, the Vedic period must be correlated with the main trend of events in the post Vedic periods of Indian his tory, such as the antecedents and consequences of the Mahā bhārata war, the rise and fall of city states indicated in the Rama yana, and the expansion of the Aryans to the various parts of India The five points mentioned above should be made to serve as effective checks on one another A reasonably valid history of the Vedic period can be expected to emerge only from a co ordi pated consideration of the issues involved in these points Let us take up for a brief discussion only one of these issues The relation of the Vedic Aryans with the other Indo European speaking peoples, or, to put it in general terms, the problem of the Aryans, has occupied the attention of nearly four geperations of scholars The fact that it still continues to interest scholars will become clear from the work relating to that problem which 5 Proceed ngs of the Second Indian History Congress, Calcutta, 1939 Presiden tual Address - Archaic Scct on EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY has been produced in more recent times In 1786, Sir William JONES put forth the epoch-making suggestion regarding the possi bility of there being a common source for Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Germanic In 1816, Franz BOPP made the first scientific attempt to illumine the structure of Indo European (IE) and, by 1900, the primitive IE may be said to have become fairly well established It may be claimed that the science of linguistics is now no longer in an experimental stage, hazarding its hypotheses on the strength of unsatisfactory relics of speech scattered over a number of tongues The labours of linguisticians, in the course of the last more than a century, have enabled us to form a clear idea of the primitive le speech as a single and almost homogene ous language A fairly large number of words of the original speech have been reconstructed, and, in most cases, the endings, stress, and precise meaning determined This must, indeed, be regarded as one of the remarkable achievements of human intellect If, then, a single IE speech existed, there must have been people who spoke it And one may further presume that these people must have lived in a fairly compact and contiguous locality, which has been differently called the cradle’, the ‘home’, or the Ur heimat’ of the IE speaking people The problem of the original home of IE is thus as old as the comparative study of languages So much has been written on this subject, and so many mutually divergent theories and hypotheses bave been put forth in this connection, that one is likely to feel inclined to give up the problem as insoluble I, however, think that it is possible to evolve, out of this labyrinth of apparently divergent theories and hypotheses, a consistent and systematic pattern, and that a ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 5 time has now definitely come to attempt to do so I admit that, as has been so wisely pointed out, confession of ignorance, how ever tantalızıog, is better than assumption of knowledge But, at the same time, I do believe that, in the interest of historical pro gress, a theory, worked out on the basis of all linguistic, archaeo logical, anthropological, and culture historical material, wherever available, and with the use of what HUXLEY calls scientific imagination, wherever necessary, would be far more desirable than esther excessive caution or outright counsel of despair The problem of IE involves, so far as it concerns the histori cal fixation of the Vedic period, the critical consideration, prie marily, of four points, namely, (1) the Urheimat of IE, (2) the Hittite problem, (3) the question of the Aryan vestiges in the Near East, particularly in Anatolia, and (4) the relations between the ancient Indians and the ancient Iranians Before I proceed with the discussion, I must make one point quite clear and that is about the exact implication of the term ‘Aryan’, which is fre quently employed by scholars in this context It will be found that, in many cases the word ‘Aryan’ is used more or less as a synonym of the word ‘IE: This is, to my mind not quite justi fiable — and for two reasons Firstly, the word Aryan’, as such, is not clearly attested by the European members of the IE linguistic family, except, perhaps, through the very doubtful names, Ariovistus and Ariobriga in Celtish and Ariobiadus in old Germanic At any rate, the special coonotation, which that word gained in the proto Aryan period, such as is indicated by Vedic arja, by Avestan airja, agd also perhaps by Harri occurring 10 the Mitanni records, had not developed in the proto European period of the history of IE And secondly, the identification of the Aryans with the IE speaking people is associated with the uoscientific suggestion that the IE speakers originally formed a racially homogeneous group and the vicious and dangerous repercussions of that suggestion as seen in pan-Germanism and antı Semiticism There is overwhelming evidence to show that the IE speakers did not form a uniform biotype It is suggested that the original IE-speakers were dolichocephalic, leptorrhinian, EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY tall, bright-coloured and blue eyed blondes, who evolved out of the milieu of Northern Europe? The sponsors of this theory eventually introduced, in this context, another synonym for the words * Aryan’ and ‘JE’, namely, ‘Nordic’ But DIXON has convincingly shown that the Nordics were not a pure race, but that they lacluded both dolichocephalic and brachycephalic elements. It may be further pointed out that a closer ethoologi cal scrutiny leads one to the irresistible conclusion that the blond biotype did not evolve only in North Europe Blond groups of men were found among the Tartars of Europe and Asia. Simi larly, light coloured people were found among different races even in Asia There is also evidence of the existence, in ancient times, of brachycephalic people in Eastern and Central Europe The theory of Nordicism, or “Aryadism’ (as it was once understood in Germany), presupposed that the Nordıc race was intellectually far more advanced than the other races In this connection, one need only remember the wise words that the correlation between cranial contours and intellectual characters, if any, is yet to be discovered. Similarly it is not possible to connect any specific funeral custom with any particular race as has been attempted to be done by some scholars SERGI’s suggestion that the brachyce phals from Asia were the carriers of the custom of cremation into Europeo has accordingly not received any convincing support. CHILDE has clearly shown that the custom of cremation was not restricted to any single racial group that can be definitely identified 11 7 It is linguistically unsound to suggest that the Teutons in North Europe were the original IE speakers As pointed out by Frist (Indogermanen und Gamane 1, PP 16-51 ) a study of the consonant system in ancient German clearly shows that that language had evolved out of the contact of the IE-speakers with the original inhabitants of Germany HIRT also speaks of the subjugation of the original Germans by an allen people (the Celts?), which influenced the language of the former (Die Indogermanen II, p 616) Also gec W KRAUSE, “Die Herkunft der Germanen JBAIVG 1940-41, PP 18-36 8 Drxon Rac al History of Afankınd, PP 33–34, also V G CHILDE, The Aryans pp 163 ff 9 VG CHILDE, Op cit, p 163, also see W F, RIPLEY, The Races of Curope, pp 501 FT 10 G Serci, The Mediterranea : Race, pp 262 ff 11 V G CHILDE, OP cit, P 149 ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD To approach this question from another angle, it may be pointed out that all Nordics did not speak IE languages. The Fings, for instance, were Nordic but cannot be said to bave been the speakers of an IE language. Conversely all the IE-speakers were not Nordics or dolichocephalic blondes. As a matter of fact, even all Nordics were not blondes. The oldest proof of the appearance of the IE-speakers is to be found in the the Egyptian sculpture belonging to the latter half of the second millennium B,C. There they are shown to be brachycephalic. Among the seers of the Veda, who must pecessarily be regarded as IE-spea. kers, several seem to have been dark in colour. The Indian caste system also, by no means, represents the division of society according to biotypes. There is another proof of the appearance of an IE-speaking people. It is to be found on the lower column of the victory of Tiglat-Pileser IV of Assyria in 800 B. C. There they are represented as dark-coloured type of men. The ancient Persians, who were clearly IE-speakers, are shown with black beards in the mosaic pictures of Pompey. The speakers of the Hittite language, which was a proto-IE dialect, consisted mainly of men belonging to the Armenoid race. As depicted in sculpture, they appear broad-skulled, long or hook-nosed, middle-sized, stocky-built men. We have, therefore, to conclude that there did not exist aoy IE race as such. Several distinct races - Nordic, Alpine, South-European, and Asiatic Mediterranean –spoke je languages, 18 All racial considerations have, therefore, to be scrupulously eschewed while dealing with the problem of IE.228 We have to depend, in this connection, principally on the evidence supplied by linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, and compara tive folllorc. Linguistic palacontology, by itself, is fraught with several pitfalls. Therefore, the results of the investigations in ail the four scicnces mentioned above must be pooled together and checked and counter-checked. Thus alone may we hope to derive
3. Cf. G, Porsson, Les Agas, Paris, 1931, 12a. (Tuzc insists that it is unscientific to assume that a specific language is invariably connected with a specific race (Du lleimat der indogermani. sche Gerisirsprache, 1954, pp. 7-8).] EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY a full and sufficiently authenticated picture of the habitat and the life of the primitive IE-speakers It is not possible here to undertake a detailed examination of the several theories relating to the IE Urhetmat which have been put forth by scholars till now 13 Nor is it necessary What I should like to do is merely to attempt a restatement, in a consis tent and constructive form, of the results of the many investiga tions made with reference to this oroblem To begin with, it may be pointed out that the Arctic home theory is now entirely discoun tenanced by scholars — and quite rightly too 184 But the theory that the onginal home of the Aryans was India atself is being still put forth - more vigorously now, perhaps owing to nationalistic TILAK Bandartie region. Cred 10 eke vir die ording to Torres ved kus antsperiod, the ancestors.com the conces 19 For a fuller discussion of this problem, see DANDEKAR, “Aryance mala vasatusthada” (u Aarathi), JUPHs, No 9, pp 1-40
4. [TILAK has set forth this theory about the original habitat of the Asyans in The Arche Home in the Vedas (Poona, 1903) He bas durved hus cvidence primarily from astronomy and geology According to ‘TILAK, certain phenomena of nature which are reflected 20 the Vedic mythology could have occurred only in the Arctic region. From the astronomical references in the Vedic texts, TILAK has arrived at 6000-5000 B C as the date of the Vedic mantras ( Onion or the Researches iria the Antigulies of the I edas, Tadic Chronology, Hurts and Suggestions or Sedanga Jonska) During the interval between the two glacial cpochs, which may be called inter-glacial cpoch and which the geologists assign to some time before 10,000 BC, that is. at least five thousand years before the beginning of the intra period, the ancestors of the Vedic scers must have lived in the Arctic region The second glacial cpoch which began about 10,000 B C marked the end of the Arctic home of the Aryans and the beginning of their large scale migrations from among these Aryan immi grants, the Vedic and the Iranian Aryans have preserved in their ancient Iteratures the memories of the phenomena of nature which their ancestors had witnessed in the Arctic region over five thousand years ago This hypothesis put forth by TILAK does not seem to have received appro bation from scholars. However, I J S TARAPOREWALA bay tried to advance (u The IE homcland a restatement of the question,” PAIOC 6, PP 635-42 ) some evidence from the adidad un support of the Arctic home VM APTE (QJMS 51, pp 47-54) derives support for the Arctic home theory from the evidence brought forth by the geophysicist M Ewing and gcologist meteorologist W Dovy (9000 B C as the date for the freezing of the Arctic occan) Several objections can be raised against THLAK’s theory It Is, for instance, difficult to imagine that the Vedic beers had presered in their oral traditions, for over five ibousand years which could have by no mcans been a penod (Contuued on the next pago)

sentiments. The main argument of the sponsors of this theory is that, in the Vedic, or, for the matter of that, in the cntirc ancient Indian literature, there is not thc rcmotest hint of the original home of the makers of that literature having been outside India. This argument can be met, I think, satisfactorily, by showing that, when the Vedic Aryans entered into the Saptasındhu country, they could not have had any consciousness that they were entering into a new land in their case, as will be pointed out in the sequel, it was a matter of gradual crpansion from their secondary Urheimat, and not of entry into a forcign land Apart from this, may it not be asked why, if the Aryans migrated out of India, as they must be assumed to have donc according to this theory, there should be no clear reference to such migrations in ancient Indian literature? To assumc further that the Vedic language is the most archaic form -almost the original primitive form - of it is to negate the entire body of results of the science of linguistics. Such an assumption can ill explain the devclop ment of individual IE languages Thc astronomical cvidence, produced to prove the hoary antiquity of the Veda, has always appeared to me to be of doubtful validity. We obscnc that there are perhaps as many dates proposed for the Veda on the basis of that cvidence as there are scholars who have approached this problem from the point of vicw of astronomy! Morcover such a high antiquity for the Veda is not likely to fit in well with the (Continued from the last page) of peace and stability, the raemories of the experiences of their ancestors un the Arctic region And why, at may be asked, should these memories have been preserved specifically by the Vedic and the Iranian Aryana? It may also be pointed out that CROLL’s views regarding the succesuon of glacial and inter glacial cpochs during the Pleistocepe period, which form the bases of TILAK’s hypothesis, are now generally discarded The fourth and last Ice age 13 now believed to have occurred about 50,000 B C. (Cf H G WEL14, The Outline of History, p 99 ) Crucs have further expressed doubt regarding the availability of sufficient habitable space near the North l’olc for the Aryan settlements The primarily baturalistic and astronomical interpretation of the Vedic mantras, which TILAK adopts, 13 also not much favoured by the modera Vedusts (see DANDEKAR, Vedur Mythological Tracts, 1979) But the major defect of Tilak’s theory is that it has completely ignored the linguistic and archacological aspects of the question.] 10 EXERCISCS IN INDOLOGY later course of Indian history The Indus citilisation may have, in that case, to be regarded as just an aspect of the Vedic civi Iisation against overwhelming archacological evidence to the contrary And, further, would such an assumption not Icad onc irresistibly to the conclusion that the language of the Indus scals nas Vedic Sanskrit or some form of it? It is also difficult to understand why, if writing was so common in the Indus civilisa tion, it is not cycn rcferred 10 in the Vedic litcraturc It would bc hardly justifiable to say that there was no occasion in the Veda to refer to writing Similarly thc obvous iconism of the Indus valley ill accords with the cmphatically aniconic religion of the Veda From the anthropological point of view also, it would be a tall claim to say that, in India, man had attained to a high level of civilisation, long beforc 6000 D C (the date indicated for the Veda by somc astronomical cvidence). when the off-shoots from the same stoch, at least from the linguistic point of view, still showcd a lower type of civilisation cien much later, The carly Veda, as a matter of fact, presents a picture of the life of nomadic tribes And, as will be shown subsequently, this fact can be understood in its proper perspective only on the assump tion that the Vedic Aryans were not autochthonous in India 116 ing the Arcticitat oribe ancestors had. 19:57 llc 136 [The thicory that the original bome of the Aryans was located in India itself is put forward off and on particularly by lodian xbolar Reject ing the Arctic bomc theory, SANTURVAVAYDA has opted for Saptasındhu is the comidon habitat of the ancestors of the Vedic Indons, the Iranians, the Grecks, etc (Aryon du dela Allahabad, 1995) llc spcale of a religious war, often referred to in the Vedic literature as the war between the Devar and the Asuras which ultimately resulted in the nigrations of some of these tribes towards the west P’USALKER also supports the Saptasındhu theory (“Molienjodaro and Rgveda,’ Badrala Kaumudi, pp 551-563) The fact that not a angle place of religous importance or of Le pilgrimage of the Vedic Aryans us to be found outside ladie woull according to him, confirm has Vicw Rajabalı 1 ANDE) argues (“17c historical interpretation of the Nad! wat by the Royen’ INQ 26, 320-34) bar that order in which int rivers are mentioned in the Nad akta (RV X 75) - beginning with the Gangt and ending with the Krune - reflects the Westward migration of the Aryans from their homcland in the Ganga Yamunā doab But the most common argument which has beca advanced in support of the Indian home theory is that the ancient Indian literature does not contain even the slightest (Continued on the past page) ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 11 But the theory, which may be said to have dominated the scene in the initial stages of the study of this problem and which was again revived and vigorously canvassed in recent times under the acgis of the Nazis, was the Nordic home thicory According to KOSSINA, who was perhaps the most enthusiastic cxponcnt of that theory, the IEs or the Aryans, who were the Herrenvolk” being physically and intellectually superior to other people, Nordic by race and Aryan in speech, armed with stone battic-axes and riding in horse-drawn chariots, carrying with them cups decorated ( Continurd from the last page) hint of the migration of the Argans into Indi Apart from the essentially negative character of thu argument, it may be pointed out that the Aryan migration into lodia, though not explicitly mentioned in literature, is clearly suggested by several other facts Conuder, for instance, tic semanuc develop ment of the word dasa Dasa or Dihat was originally the mimc of a tribe in West Asia which was antagonistic to the Aryans In course of time, this proper name came to be used as a common noun and denoted in the Agreda an cncmy in general Sulf later, the word dusa came to denot a person who was dcfeated and made a slave (In this last scnsc, the word occurs oply threc times in the Rgreda ) “These successi\c changes in the mcaning of the word dasa would clearly indicate the victorious march of thc Aryans towards India Such mythological details as the conflict between the Varupa cult and the lodra cult, thc risc of Indra to the supreme position in the Vedic mytho logy, and the representation of Indra as a demon in the Iranian mythology can be properly understood only on the assumption that Mic Vedic Aryans and the Iranian Araps had separatcu cren before the former migrated to Saptasındhu The statement made with reference to the Bharatas, namely, praca gaiyanlat pythuparfaro yayuh (R’ VII 23 1) is also very suggestive in this context (For a fuller discussion of all thesc points, icc DANDERAR, “Asura Varuṇa” and " Viraha Indra, Vedic Mythological Tracts ) Further, it may be incidentally pointed out that hardly any reference to the migration of the Aryans out of India occurs in carly Indian literaturo As for the absence outside India or any religious places specifically related to the carly Ved c Aryans we hardly come across any cven in India atself Moreover, in this connection we must takc into account the nomadic tribal character of the life of the Vedic Aryans on their way to Saptasındhu The Nadi sulla us obviously a latc hymn and contains what may be called the backward recounting of the rivers by the poet after he bad reached thc Gangetic valley at the end of the early Vedic period And, finally, if the Aryans were believed to have originally belonged to India one would have to assume that Vedic Sanskrit represented the most primary form of IC and that the Harappan civilisation was post Vedic But the latest researches in linguistic and archacology do not permit such assumption ] 12 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY with impressions of whipcord, set out from Germany and made themselves lords over all the peoples of Europe and some in the Middle East 11 The original [Es were dolichocephalic leptor rhynian blondes who evolved out of the milieu of Northern Europe Ila In the course of the history of the IE problem, several variants of this theory have been put forth — their main essen tials, however, being more or less similar to those of KOSSINA’S hypothesis At the very outset, it must be pointed out that this theory suffers from two main obsessions – namely, (1) that the IEs were a pure homogeneous race, and (2) that the proto Germans - and consequently their present descendants - must be considered to be ever the Herrenvolk in the history of the world It is needless to add that both these claims are unscienti fic, and, therefore, unacceptable The Nordicists try to explain the Vedic iarna vyavasthā also as the result of a conflict between the dolichocephalic Nordics and the original brachycephalic inhabitants of India If we were to examine this theory from the linguistic point of view, we would further realise its obvious invalidity The accent in old Germanic is a stress accent, while the accent in the reconstructed IE is a pitch accent The sound shifts of the old Germanic language also go against the theory that Germany was the original home of IE If the Teutons were really the direct historical representatives of the early IE spea kers, there was no reason why there should have occurred such a rapid decline of the IE system of inflexion in Germanic These and similar other linguistic changes in Germanic, coupled with the facts that the Germans could not preserve their speech outside Germanyls and that the Germanic vocabulary, in certain spheres, is distinctly non IE in character, make the conclusion inevitable 14 G LOSSINA, D Indogermanen 1 Tel Das indogermanische Urvolk, Leipzig, 1921 140 Most of the papers published in Germanen und Indogermanent Voltstum, Sprache le mal kultur Festschrift fur Hermann HIRT, cu by H. Arntz), twa volumes Heidelberg 1936, sponsor this Nordic theory 15 Hutory shows that whenever the ancient Germans migrated to another land they abandoned their own original language and adopted that of the land to which they had migratedANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 13 “that the IE-speakers entered into Germany as a minority and imposed their speech on a pre-existing population 18 Culturally, too, the ancient Germanic-speakers could not have been the direct representatives of the original IE-speakers The battle-axe or the IEs is certainly not derived from Germany. Morcover, the ancient Teutons were not particularly fond of horses — a charac teristic which betrays that they were not the original IES In their social organisation also one notices a significant departure from the rigidly patrilinear organisation of the IESIt is further to be remembered that archaeological investigations have now proved that the Nordic neolithic culture began latc as compared to the British and the Danubian, and only when the neolithic economy had been left behind in the East Mediterranean and Hither Asia 17 The Urheimat of the IEs must, therefore, be sought else where. The suggestion of GILESIS that Hungary may have a claim to that honour is mainly based on to assumptions : firstly, the original IEs followed the custom of cremation and that custom bas radiated out from Hungary, and secondly, Hungary, which was an agricultural country, must be regarded suitablc for the breeding of horse and sheep 19 Against this hypothesis of GILES, it may be asked : Why should a settled agricultural community have at all migrated out of Hungary? Why is there no attestation, ia the early E speech, of fish and fish-eating, which must have always been a prominent feature of the life in that region ? Fur ther, the archaeological finds in that locality do not show any 16 Seef n. 7 above 17 VG GILDE, “The Antiquity of Nordic Culture,” Die Indogermanen. und Germanenfrage, 1936, pp 517-530 It 19 pointed out that the Nordic province, which was still absorbing cultural impulses from its neighbours, would hardly sccm a promising Urheimat for the ICs 18 Cambndge History of India, Vol 1, PP 68-70 19 Giles points out that in ancient times, most of the regions in North Europe were covered with forests and were, accordingly, unsuitable for the rise of a civilisation like that of the IC speakers He further adds that India - or the Pamir region as suggested by MAX MULLER - could not have been the homeland of the original IE-speakers because the animals and trees for which It has words are not to be found in those regions 1A EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY traces of arrow heads or other weapons which were clearly known to the IE-speakers 20 On the other hand, we find, in the early Danubian culture, traces of the worship of the Mother-Goddess, which was unknown to the IES As a matter of fact, the very mentality of the Hungarian peasants must be regarded as not having been quite consistent with the activities of the warlıke IE nomads 204 20 There also no sufficient evidence to support the 25$umption that the Custom of cremation originated in Hungary On the other hand, evidence bas pow become avauable which indicates that the original IL speakers buried their dead And why should Hungary alone be considered to have been suitable for the breeding of horse and cattle? 20a [ Paul Tiname has approached the question of the Urhebat primarily from the point of view of semantics Die Heimat der indogerinanischen Gemeinsprache, Wiesbaden, 1954) He argues somewhat like this There are in an IE language some words which are without doubt ur IE in character “The objects originally denoted by these ur IE words were, however, not available in the region in which that IE language was used in historical times As a result of this those words card to be assigned different meanings in that language Naturally cnough the region in which that IE language was used cannot have been the Urheimat of the original IE speakers By way of example, THEME has mentioned, in this connection the ur IE word *bh sgos - (= beech) and its cognates like Latin fogus, German boka, and Greek fagas Greek sagas came to denote a tree different from ( but more or less gunilar to ) beech because becch was not available in Greece, while in Latin and German that word retained its orginal mean ng bccausc beech grew in the regions in which those languages were used Therefore, according to THIEME, Greecc cannot bave been the Urheimat THEVE has set forth another criterion A certain object is available only 19 a certain region And though some IE language was spoken in that region, the word denoting that object was definitely non IE Such a region also cannot have been the Urheimat Theme has applied these two crieria to the various reg ons which have been suggested by scholars was the ongnal homes and has thereby arrived at the northern part of Central and East Furope and South Russia as the two most probablc claimants He bas then made a critical study of the UT IE *laks falso, which word, according to him, originally denoted salmon The Sanskrit form of that ur-IE word, namely, laksa / laksa did not deagte salmon because there were no salmon in India, but it was assigned meanings which could be derived albcit indirectly from the two characteristics of salmon namely, plcnitude (laksa) and redness laks) In brief, THEME concludes that the Urheimat or I must be sought for in a region in which salmon were available in abundance Such a region is the one which extends towards the cast and the north sca, to the west of the beech boundary and to the cast of the Ricin that is to say, the region watcred by the rivers Weichsel, Oder, Elbe, and leser ( Contmurd on the next page ) ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 15 To approach the problem a little differently, let us first try to reconstruct a picture of the habitat and the life of the carly IES on the basis of the latest linguistic researches., We may then get our results tested and checked, and, if possible, confirmed by archaeological, anthropological, and culture-historical cvidence.21 The early IEs must have been most certainly nomadic. Other wise the question of their migrations would not have arisco so conspicuously. Their original home must, therefore, be well adapted for nomadic people. It must allow sufficient scope for extension of tribes in various directions. Further, the latest linguistic rescarches have shonn that the IE speech, before it was divided into different linguistic groups, must have been subjected to a threefold influence. There is, first of all, the influence from Mesopotamia. For instance, IE words like *astar and *peleku show clear aflinity with Akkadian islitar and Assyrian pilakku?? respectively. The carly IE vocabulary is also (Continued from the last page) Onc objection which may be reasonably raised against Tinese’s hypothe sis is that it is based on isolated and specific, instead of on cumulative and representative, cvidence Again, if the ur-It word laks- / lalso- was to common and important, why is it not attested in s-scral early IC languages ? If necessary, it could bave represented some notion different from that or salmon, as in Sanskrit. The connection of the redness of salmon and latud too is farfetched (See in this connection. A MAYRIIOFER, " Altindisch Latti,” ZDMG 105, 175-83.) Further, it would sccm strange that ur IC should have a word for a specific Lind of fish but not for fish as such. It is more likely that *laks- I lakso- was not an ur.IC word but that some tribes of the IEs which migrated to north-east Curope first became acquainted with salmon only in that region and began to denote that kind of fish with that word.] 21. Die Indogermanen und Germonenfrage Neue Wege zu threr Lösung, cd. by W. KOPPERS, Wien, 1936, is a collection of various papers in which the authors have made an muthie elut te work.hr T awin his manner. In a scnse, it may be said to represent a reaction to the Hurt Fest schrift mentioned in f. n. 14a It would, however, be wrong to suppose that It was its only recommendation Linguisticians like NENIRING and BRANDEN STLIN, anthropologists ethnologists like KOPPERS and AUSCHLER, and archaco. logists and prehistorians like PITTIONI and Culpg hive discussed the problem from the points of view of their respective duciplinci and, what is perhaps most significant, have arrived at more or less the same conclusion 22. In this conacction, AUSTIN and SMITH have suggested (340$ 57, 95) the following sequence : Sk. paraíu original IE *pelaku > Akkadian (Continued on the next page) 16 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY seen to have been influenced by the inner Asiatic speech This must have become possible only through the agency of the Altaic culture to give an example, the IE word *guos ( =COW) is not derived from the Sumerian gu (d), as was hitherto be hieved 23 but from Altaic *huos Equally significant is the in fluence of Ugro Finnc on the early IE 24 It may, therefore, be reasonably assumed that the home of the early IE speech was located in such a region as would be directly contiguous to the Sumerian Akkadian Mesopotamjan linguistic zone, the loner Asiatic Altaic linguistic zone, and the Ugro-Finnic linguistic zone. It will be seen that the region between the Ural moun tains and Altai, to the north east of the Caspian sea, that is to de word was syrians Studien zu regelen yer, asume op het forth in recent years that ward fro (Continued from the last page) pilaqgu Sumerian balag [On the other hand in his monograph, Idg *peleku - Axt, Berl’ Eine palaco-linguistische Studie Helsinki 1956, WUST points out that it is more likely that the word *peleka - originally belonged tour IE and that the object denoted by that word was known to the proto-IES Ho rejects any possib 1 ty of borrowing from the Assyrians Margit FALKNER cven doubts that the Akkadian word pålaggu meant an axe (Studien zur Edg Grundsprache) Ir 15 not possible to discuss this question here at any length Oac say, however, assume on the strength of linguistic and archaeological cvidence which has been brought forth in recent years, that the proto-IES borrowed the word “peleka - and the object denoted by that ward from the ancicat Mesopotamian civilisation ] 23 Ipsen, IF 41, pp 175 & Also sce Der alte Ortent und die Indogermanen, p 226 24 B COLLIDE has emphasized the similarity in the structures of the original IE and Ugro-Finnic (Indouralisches Sprachgut Die Urverwandtschast zwischen der indoeuropäischen und der uralischer (finnischugrisch samo jedischen Sprachfann lie Uppsala, 1934) Thu simularity is not superficial, but must have been the result of the mutual contact between the two langu Ages - and that too in the initial stages of their development The conclu slon regarding the influence of Ugro I nnic on the early IE 1.4 confirmed Alo by anthropolog cal investigations CF F Flor, “Die Indogermanenfrage an der Volkerkunde Gedanken um das Problern der Urheimat”, HF 1, pp 69 ft Also stc RE BURNHAM HIhs are the Finns? A Study in Pr Asslory, London, 1916 L VON SCHROEDER hag drawn attention to the con spicuous similarity between the marriagr customs of the proto-IEs and the Ugro Finnic (Die Ha azaligebrauche der Eslen tnd anderer fan ugy alkerschaf ten, verglichen mi denen da idg Toller, Berlin 1688 ) Of course, it is not possible to accept vov SCHROEDER 1 suggesuon that in this connection the Ugro-Tinnic were the borrowers. CI Tian pelaa and It *vegh - and urdh ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 17 say, the North Kırghiz steppes, fulfils the foregoing conditions better than any other region 25 The threefold linguistic influence on the early IE was also accompanied by the corresponding cultural influence The taking over by the IEs of the domesticated desert horse points un mistakably to their cultural contacts with the Altaic region, KOPPERS has made a penetrating study of the horse sacrifice of the IEs and has been able to show that, though the horse-sacri fice is essentially IE in character, it shows some significant proto-Turko Mongolian traces 28 A similar close cultural connec tion can be shown to have existed between the IEs and the Proto-Fions on the one hand, and the IEs and the Sumero-Akka dians and the Caucasiads on the other A study of the IE flora and fauna also substantiates the fixa tion of the proto IE home in North Kirghiz steppes That the IE word for cow’ is borrowed from Altaic is already indi cated. The horse’ also came to the IEs through the same source The paucity of any traces of horse at other sites, suggested as the Urheimat, would seem to confirm this assump tion 27 AMSCHLER’s study of IE from the zoological point of view also leads him to the same conclusion 28 Hilly tracts are 25 According to Peake and TLEURE ( The Steppes and the Sown, p 38), the nomadic tabes could have spoken only a language similar to the proto-IE as linguistically reconstructed 26 W KOPPERS, “ Pferdcopfer und Pferdekult der Indogermanco”, in Die Indogermanen und Germanenfrage, Wien, 1936, pp 279-412 27 NCHING bas discussed the question of how the original IEs must have become familiarised with horse ( Indogermanen md Germanen frage pp 84ff ) On the basis of zoology and prehistoric archaeology, he has shown that horse breeding was first practised by the Altaic people and that it was adopted by the IEfrom the Altaic– presumably not directly but, as suggested by GRAEBNER Ethnologie, kultur der Gegenutarl, III, 5), through the agency of some viber people It 23 pointed out that the Altare people u td tht horst for riding, while the IEs used it for chariot driving According to NEHRING, ancient Turkish akkı must have given risc to such IE words as *ekuos, GK A opos, Sk atoa 28 W AUSSCHLER,’ Dic altesten l’unde des Hauspferdeg, in Die Indo germanen und Germanenfrage, pp 479-516 The most ancient remains of the dome sticated horse point to the carly ICs having been the neighbours of the Altaic 3 ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 17 say, the North Kirghiz steppes, fulfils the foregoing conditions better than any other region. The threefold linguistic influence on the early IE was also accompanied by the corresponding cultural influence. The taking over by the IEs of the domesticated desert horse points un mistakably to their cultural contacts with the Altaic region. KOPPERS has made a penetrating study of the horse-sacrifice of the IEs and has been able to show that, though the horse-sacri fice is essentially IE in character, it shows some significant proto-Turko-Mongolian traces, 26 A similar close cultural connec tion can be shown to have existed between the IEs and the Proto-Finns on the one hand, and the IEs and the Sumero-Akka. dians and the Caucasians on the other. A study of the IE flora and faupa also substantiates the fixa tion of the proto-IE home in North Kirghiz steppes. That the IE word for cow’ is borrowed from Altaic is already indi cated. The horse’ also came to the IEs through the same source. The paucity of any traces of horse at other sites, suggested as the Urheimat, would seem to confirm this assump tion.27 AMSCHLER’s study of IE from the zoological point of view also leads him to the same conclusion,28 Hilly tracts are 25. According to PEARE and FLEURE ( The Sleppes and the Sown, p. 38), the nomadic tribes could have spoken only a language simular to the proto-IE as linguistically reconstructed. 26. W. KOPPERS, “Psordeopfer und Pferdchult der Indogermanca”, in D. Indogermanen-und Germanenfrage, Wien, 1936, pp. 279-412. 27. NEIRINO has discussed the question of how the original IEs must have become familiarised with horse ( Indogermanen-und Germanmfrage, pp. 84ff.). On the basis of zoology and prchistoric archacology, he has shown that horse breding was füst practised by the Altaic people and that it was adopted by thc IEs from the Altaic- presumably not directly but, as suggested by GRAEBNER (Cthnologie, Kultur der Gegewari, III, 5), through the agency of some other people it is pointed out that the Altaic people used the horse for riding, while the IEs used it for chariot driving. According to NEHRINO, ancient Turkish akkı must have given rise to such IE words as *ckuos, GK. hippos, Sk asua. 28. W. ABISCHLER, " Dic altesten Tunde des Hauspferdes”, in Die Indo germanen-und Germanenfrage, pp 479-516 The most ancient remains of the donc sticated horse point to the carly ICs having been the ncighbours of the Altaic. 16 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY seen to have been influenced by the ipper Asiatic speech This must have become possible only through the agency of the Altaic culture To give an example, the IE word *guos (=cow) is not derived from the Sumerian gu (d), as was hitherto be freved,23 but from Altaic *huos Equally significant is the in. fluence of Ugro Finnic on the early IE 24 It may, therefore, be reasonably assumed that the home of the early IE speech was located in such a region as would be directly contiguous to the Sumerian Akkadian Mesopotamjan linguistic zone, the Inner Asiatic-Altaic linguistic zone, and the Ugro Finnic linguistic zone. It will be seen that the region between the Ural moun tains add Altai, to the north east of the Caspian sea, that is to (Cont nued from the last page) plaqqu > Sumerian bolag On the other hand, in his monograph, ldg *pelaku - Axl, Be! Eine palaco-lungutstische Studie, Helsinki, 1956, Wust points out that it is more likely that the word *peleku - originally belonged to ur IE and that the object denoted by that word was known to the proto-JEJ Hc rejects any possib 1 ty of borrowing from the Assyrians Margit FALKNER even doubts that the Akkadian word pilagou meant an axc (Studien ur idg Grundsprache) It is not possible to discuss this question here at any length One may, however, assume on the strength of linguistic and archaeological evidence wh ch las been brought forth in recent years, that the proto les borrowed the word *peldhi-and the object denoted by that word from the ancient Mesopotamian cıyl sation ] 23 IPSEN, IF 41, pp 175 I Also see Der alte Orient und die Indogamanen, P 226 24 B COLLINDER has emphasized the similarity in the structures of ac original IE and Ugro-Fionic Indouralisches Spracheu! Die Uricrwandtschans zwischen der indoeuropaischen und der uralischen [finnischugrisch sa jedischen Sprachfamle Uppasala, 1934 ] This similarity is not superucial, but must have been the result of the mutual contact between the two laws ages - and that too in the initial stages of their development The conce sion regarding the influence of Ugro Finnc on the carly IE is contumcu also by anthropological investigations CEF FLOR, “Die Indogermanus in der Volkerkunde Gedanken um das Problem der Urbeirat " pp 69 ff Also see RE BURNHAM Who are the finns? A Study 11 h story, London, 1946 L VON SCITROEDER has drawn attcation to the spicuous sim lar ty between the marttage customs of the proto-1Es ar Ugro Fianic (De Hochzeitsgebrauche des Csten und anderer fan ugr Valkenstra len vergl cher ! denen der idg Joller Berlin 1888) Of course, it is nu possible to accept VON SCHROEDERS suggestion that in this connector Ugro Finnic were the borrowers. Cf Finn Betag and le *ugh - and 16 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY seen to have been influenced by the inner Asiatic speech This must have become possible only through the agency of the Altaic culture To give an example, the IE word *guos ( COW) IS not derived from the Sumerian gu (d), as was hitherto be lieved 29 but from Altaic *huos Equally significant is the in fluence of Ugro Finnic on the early IE 24 It may, therefore, be reasonably assumed that the home of the early IE speech was located in such a region as would be directly contiguous to the Sumerian Akkadian Mesopotamian linguistic zone, the Inder Asiatic Altaic linguistic zone, and the Ugro Finnic linguistic zone. It will be seen that the region between the Ural moun tains and Altai, to the north east of the Caspian sea, that is to (Cont nued from the last page) pilaggu > Sumerian balng [On the other hand in his monograph, lag *peleku - Axı, Beil’ Eine palaco-lingutstische Studie, Helsinki 1956, Wust points out that it is more likely that the word *peleku - originally belonged to uf IE and that the object denoted by that word was known to the proto-IES He rejects any possiblty of borrowing from the Assyrians Margit FALKNER even doubts that the Akkadian word orlagqu mcant an axe Studien zur og Grundsprache) is not possible to discuss this question here at any lengua One may however assume on the strength of linguistic and archaeological evidence wh ch las been brought forth in recent years that the proto-12 borrowed the word *peleku- and the object denoted by that word from the ancient Mesopotamian civilisation ] 23 IPSEN, IF 41, pp 175 FT Also see Der alte Orient und die Indogermanen p 226 mund that too in the mita Ugro Tinnic on the. Die Indogermane IF I, 24 B COLLINDER has emphasized the similarity in the structures of the original IE and Ugro Finnic (Indouralisches Sprachgut Die Urverwandtschans zw schen der indocuropäischen und der uralischen [finnischugrisch sau jedischen ) Sprachfamle Uppasala 1934 This similarity is not superticia? but must have been the result of the mutual contact between the two lang ages - and that too in the initial stages of their development The conch ston regarding the influence of Ugro Finnic on the carly IE 1 con also by anthropological investigations CE F FLOR, “Die Jodogermanentras in der Völkerkunde Gedanken um das Problern der Urheimat” Pp 69ff Also sec R E BURNIIAM Who are the Finns) A Study 11” h story London 1946 L VON SCHROEDER has drawn attention to the co spicuous sim lar ty between the marriage customs of the proto I Ugro Finnic (D Hochzeitsgebrauche der Esten und anderer nug? POM ten, verglichen mi denen der adg Volker Berln 1688) Of course, it possible to accept VON SCHROEDERS suggestion that in this co cte me borrowers CF Tian tetaa and IE *uegh - and *ueda ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 17 say, the North Kirghiz steppes, fulfils the foregoing conditions better than any other region 25 The threefold linguistic influence on the early JE was also accompanied by the corresponding cultural influence The taking over by the IEs of the domesticated desert horse points un mistakably to their cultural contacts with the Altaic region, KOPPERS has made a penetrating study of the horse sacrifice of the IEs and has been able to show that, though the horse-sacri fice is essentially IE in character, it shows some significant proto-Turko-Mongolian traces 26 A similar close cultural connec tion can be shown to have existed between the lEs and the Proto-Fions on the one hand, and the IEs and the Sumero-Akka dians and the Caucasians on the other A study of the IE fora and fauna also substantiates the fixa tion of the proto-IE home in North Kirghiz steppes That the IE word for cow is borrowed from Altaic is already indi cated. The horse’ also came to the IEs through the same source The paucity of any traces of horse at other sites, suggested as the Urheimat, would seem to confirm this assump tion 27 AMSCHLER’s study of IE from the zoological point of view also leads him to the same conclusion 2 Hilly tracts are 25 According to PEAkE and FLEURE ( The Steppes and the Sown, p 38), the nomadic tribes could have spoken only a language similar to the proto-IC as linguistically reconstructed 26 W Koppers, “Pferdeopfer und Pferdekult der Indogermanen”, 10 Due Indogermanen und Germanınfrage, Wien, 1936, pp 279-412 27 NEHRING has discussed the question of how the original IEs must have become familiarised with horse ( Indogermanen und Germanenfrage, pp 848 ) On the basis of zoology and prehistoric archaeology, he has shown that horse breeding was first practised by the Altaic people and that it was adopted by the IEs from the Altaic- presumably not directly but, as suggested by GRAEBNER (Ethnologie, Kultur der Gegenu art, III, 5), through the agency of some other people It is pointed out that the Altaic people u cd the horse for riding, while the IEs used it for chariot ariving. According to NEHRING, ancient Turkish akkı must have given rise to such IE words as *ekuos, Gk, hippos, Sk asoa 28 YY ABSCHLER “Die altesten Tunde des Hauspferdes’, in Die Indo germanen und Germanenfrage, pp 479-516 The most ancient remains of the dome sticated horse point to the carly ILs having been the ncighbours of the Altaic EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY particularly favourable for the breeding of goat and shccp The wide use of the latter by the primitive IE speakers would show that the original IE tribes stretched from the steppes in the east to the hilly tracts in the west 29 The trans Caspian wild sheep still has a range from the Ust Urt plateau to Turkistan, and, it is possible that in earlier times, it had extended further north to the Spurs of the Urals As a matter of fact, it is impossible to localise some of the animals, which were so common to the IEs, in any other region * The animals which were presumably unknown to the IEs, such as, tiger, leopard, and camel, also point to the Urheimat having been located in the Ural-Altaic region At this stage, a reference needs to be made to an objection which may be raised against the foregoing hypothesis It may be suggested that, since honey was so common among the IEs, their original home must be located near the Black Sea, where there must have been an abundance of lime-trees to attract bees $1 But it is quite plausible that the IE *medu was not honey, but just a juice of some kind of berries The word could have derived the specie fic sense of ‘honey’ only in its later semantic development " 29 IE *peku- (Sk pasu) orginally denoted domesticated scop Later, through the extension of meaning that word came to denote a domesticatcd Animal in general IE *ours- (Sk. aou) is definitely a later word It must have come into vogue only after the word peko- had transcended its onginal sense and had come to denote a domesticated animal in general Onc may, there forc surmise that the animals wh ch had b en first domesticated by the JE speakers were sheep It is a generally accepted assumption af zoology that it is in the region in which any part cular spec es of wild an mal u found that that species $ normally domesticated The man reg on of wild sheep was the Ural Alta c region it is therefore most probable that that region was alia the Uchemat of the IE speakers 30 NEHRING ( Opat) has also discussed the provenance of dog and boar which must hay been known to the IE speakers Indeed on the basis of a crit cal study of the fauna Lagwn to the IT speakers he has come to the conclusion that the original bab tat of those on mals inust have been the Ural Altaic region and that the IE speakers must have learnt the techniquc of domest cating those animals from the r ne ghbours in Inner Asia 31 CE A CARNOY Les I ido Europeens P 87 32 Incidentally Inguistic evidence seems to suggest that the original JE did not have a word for “beeANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 19 Turning to the flora known to the primitive IEs, one would at once be struck by the fact that the IEs were not familiar with big forests Further, there is, in the IE speech, complete abscnce of words for fruit trecs It can be shown that there are no common words in the IC dialects for the flora belonging specifically to Europe All this again fits in well with thc hypothesis that the Urheimat of the IEs was the northern Ural Altaic region HIRT’S becch argument docs not go against thit hypothesis, for, it can be shown that beech was unknown to the early IE There should also be no difficulty regarding the birch, for, it grows freely in northern steppes SS The fact that the early [Es did not possess any knowledge of agriculture would support the assump 33 HIRT, Indogermanusche Gramruth, 1,92-94 According to Flirt, lxcech, which must have been known to the IT speakers, does not grow to the cast of a line drawn from hunigsberg down to Crimca and Asia Minor The Url cioat of the IE speakers cannot, accordingly, be located to the east of that linc HIRT thinks that, among the regions to the west of that line, Lithuania seems to have been the orig nal habitat of the Ik-speakers The Lithuanian language is closest to the IC language 34 Ia the dialects of the tribes of the proto-ICs, which migrated to wards the cast, there are no cognates of breech’ It therefore, seems that the beech tree became known only to the Luropean nembers of the IC family and that too after their separation from the original le stock As for the suggestion that, aince the lithuanian language is closest to the IL Language, the Urbeimat of the IE speakers must lxc located in the region where Lithua nian is spoken namely, on tbc Baltic Sca (see in 33 ), it may be contended that, since the original IL has no words dcooling sca or objects specially connected with the sa it is unlikely that the original JE speakers could bave lived in the vicinity of sea Thc ancestors of the Baltic and the Slavonic peoples after their separation from the original IE stock scem to have settled down in such regions in which ticy did not come into any ignificant contact with the non IE speakers This may explain the preservation of the IE character of their dialects to such an extent 95 According to BENDER (The Home of Ile Indo Curopeans Princeton, 1922), the homc of birch is the region between the rivers Vistula and Niemen This region also abou nls in bocch trees and becs Turther it is lorated just between the regions of the centum and the’s tem’ groups of IL languages BENDER therefore, favours this region for the Urheimat The ’ becch’ argument and the ‘honey’ argument have already been disposed of The division of the IE languages in the ‘ccatum’ and the salem groupe 19 no longer regarded as scientific As for the birch trees they grow in plenty even in the North Kirghiz region BENDER : vicw 1, accordingly, unacceptable 20 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY tion about their Kirghiz Urheimat It was only later, when some JE tribes migrated to the West, that they became acquainted with plough and other agricultural implements The main occupation of the proto-IEs was cattle breeding, and they must have herded cattle on the grassy steppes The original habitat of the IEs, as indicated by linguistic palaeontology, must have been rocky in formation, with rushing torrents There were no fixed path-ways, and the region generally required free but quick movements, and travel by wagons The climate was continental with not much rain and damp The diseases were few, the most common haying been limpiog’ and ‘bent Thus the geological character, the climate, and the general way of life accord well with the hypo thesis that the original home of the IE speakers was located in the North Kirghiz steppes The poor condition of vegetation in that region must have necessitated large scale migrations and movements of herds 36 36 W BRANDENSTEIN has approached the question of the Urheimat of the IEs from the point of view of what may be called applied semantics (“Die Lebensforrnen der Indogermanen’, in Die Indogermanen und Germanen frage PP 231-277, Du erste ir dogermanische Vanderung, 1936) His method is something like this Onc traces the semantic development of the original IE words in the various later IE languages and then determines from a study of that development the basic meanings of those words A picture is then reconstructed of the civilisation of the IE speakers Of course, it is assumed that the meaning of a word develops in a certain specific order For instance, it is quite understandable that a word like paru comes to mcan, in course of tune, wealth’, but it cannot happen the other way round Proceeding on these lines, BRANDENSTEIN has put forth the view that the proto Aryans (who are also referred to as proto Indo-Iraniang) must have been the first to separate themselves from the proto IE3 According to that scholar, one has to think of two main periods in the history of the proto IEs one before the proto Aryans had separated therdselves from the original IL stock and the other after they had separated themeslves The original meanings of many proto IL words have been preserved in the pruto Aryan language be. cause the physical environments and the gereral way of life of the proto Aryans were, to a large extent, sunular to those of the proto IES On the other hand, those proto IE words developed different meanings in the IE Languages of Lurope because the phys cal environments of the speakers of these latter were different from those of the proto-IEs Therefore, if a parti cular word has the same meaning in the proto Aryan language and any (Corlunued on the next page) es from proto Indoorth the other way toto macan, pot instance, ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 21 What archaeological and anthropological evidence do we find in support of the results derived from linguistic evidence? In the Near East and Europe, valuable archaeological evidence has been obtained in many ways, but principally through the exami nation of graves and their contents As CHILDE points out, the mode of the disposal of the dead is often regarded as one of the most fundamental customs of a people and one that they would tenaciously preserve 87 The earliest method of the disposal of the dead practised by the JEs was to bury the dead in single graves Over such graves holding the body of the departed, they used to throw a mound of earth dug out from a surrounding ditch. They (Continued from the last page) other IE language, onc may reasonably presume that that word must have had the same meaning in the original IC Adopting this methodology, BRANDENSTEIN has arrived at some proto IE words and their meanings and has thereby inferred some aspects of the life of the speakers of that language, For instance, according to him, the home of the proto ICs was located in a hilly and rocky region with rapid streams of water At the foot of the hills there were farly wide plains which facılıtated their movements with cattle. There were no regular roads, and so those people used rough wagons (Sk anas) A consideration of such words as set, *melg *agros, *mel, etc, has led BRANDENSTEIN to the conclusion that the proto IEs were not conversant with agriculture In short, it may be stated that the various characteristic features of the habitat of the proto IEs which BRANDENSTEIN has mentioned, clearly point to the North Kirghiz region They also show that the original IE speakers were aomadic cattle breeders and sheep breeders Incidentally, it may be pointed out that Giles rejects the view that the original IE speakers were nomadic cattle breeders and sheep breeders (CHI 1, 67–68) KEITH (“The home of the Indo Europeans’, Pauty Comm Vol, p 191 ) also thinks that those people had settled down in their orig nal habitat and had developed quite a strong social organization They migrated from there either on account of the invasions of foreign tribes or on account of the lack of space for the exp1nsion of settlements W J PERRY (The Growth of Civilization, 1923) has advanced the view that the civilisation of nomadic cattle breeders and sheep breeders is later than that of the settled agriculturists Specht (Sprachliches zur Urheimat der Indo germanen’, KZ 66 1-74) has raised many objections mainly on the basis of linguistics against BRANDENSTEIN s hypothesis In his rejoinder (12 66, 195-96), BRANDENSTEIN has reiterated thc view that the original home of the IE speakers must be sought for on the European side of the Ural mountain He strongly discountenances the Asian home theory (See f 46a) 37 V G CHILDE, The Aryans, P 144. 22 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY seem to have been also in the habit of surrounding the mounds with one, or perhaps two, timber fences in the Rgveda also (X 18 4 and 18. 13), we get attestation of a similar procedure, which fact may be regarded as a proof of its having been widely in vogue even among the distant members of the IE family The Kirghiz steppes are thickly dotted with such • Kurgans’ or mounds, several of which go back, according to the Russian archaeologist BOGDANOY, to neolithic times It must have, therefore, been from this region that the custom of * Kurgans’, enclosing contracted skeletons of the dead and cove red over with red ochre, was taken to the west and the south east by the IE immigrants 38 Another archaeological source is pottery Earthen ware decorated with incised designs - particularly beaning the impression of whip cold - is believed to bave been the speciality of the early IEs Its origin too is to be traced to the Northern Kirghiz steppes EICKSTEDT’s anthropological researches 39 and particularly the study of the sites where stone battle axes are discovered, lend further support to the Kirghiz region having been the Urheimat 40 38 [Cons derable evidence has been brouglit to light in recent years which supports the idennfication of the plE civilisation with the hurgan civil sation See M GLYBUTAS The Indo Europcaps archaeological pro blem, AA 65 PP 815-836, Proto IE culture the Kurgan culture during the fifth the fourth and the third millennia B C’, in Indo Luropean and Indo Europeans, pp 155–197, R SCHMITT " Proto IE culture and achacolog) some Critical remarks, JIES 2, pp 279-287, quest ons the view advanced by GIVBUTAS that the Kurgan culture may be regarded as PIE in character In “An archaeologists view of PIE in 1975 ,JIES 2 pp 289-307, GIYUTAS confirms the identity of the ple and the hurgan cultures] 39 Frh v EICKSTEDT, Ratsenkunde und Rassengeschichte der Menschheil, Stuttgart, 1934 Also sce references to his vicws made in different contexts ja Die Indogermanen und Germanenfrage 40 [A reference may be made in this context also to the Tnpolje civilisation which had close similarities with the PIE civilisation The existcncc in the Ural Altai region in the first half of the fourth millennium BC, of the three civilisations pamely, the Kurgan civilisation the whip cord pottery civilisation, and the Tripolje civilisation, which can be thought of in conc ction with the plE civilisation has been attested by arcbacologists Also sec Hugh HINCREN Indo-European Languages and Archaeolog, Amt Anthrop Mem B4, Menasba, 1955, TOVAR, Linguistics and prebrstory” Word 10, 333-350 ] ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 23 It may, however, be mentioned that some scholars have also produced linguistic, archaeological, anthropological, and culture-historical evidence which points to two other regions which seem to fulfil the necessary conditions for the Urheimat But a closer and more critical examination of that evidence convinciogly shows that those regions could have only been what may be called the secondary. Urheimats A comparative study of the European members of the IE linguistic family shows that the speakers of those dialects had separated from the main stock and had marched into low and marshy regions at a sufficiently early date Words for damp and raia have increased in those western IE dialects Their new habitat was more extended and presented a different type of fiora and fauna Stuart E MANN has made a careful study of the IC cognate languages, mainly dealing with some of the names of wild animals trees, plants, domestic animals, and tools and devices, with a view to arriving at an approximate location of the primitive home of the speakers of these dialects, by a process of elimination 11 According to him, those people had no common words for tropical and sub tropical vegetation and fauna They lived a highly organised life, reared cattle, sheep, pig, and goat, and hept dogs They made carts of wood, complete with wheels, rims, axle, and yoke They ploughed land, sowed seed, and rcaped the harvest Their tools had reached a certain degree of excellence All this would, accord ing to MANN, unmistakably point to the Baltic plain having been the Urheimat The Baltic plain, however, could not have been the primary Urheimat Firstly, the primitive IEs do not seem to have had any contact with sea The primitive IE speech has no words for sea ‘, .fish’, or salt’ Secondly, bighly organised life and agriculture do not accord well with the life of the primi tive IEs as reconstructed above the climate, land, flora, and fauna also are of different character On the other hand, the linguistic evidence, produced by MANN, is not insignificant 41 Stuart E MANN,‘The cradle of the ‘Indo Europeans cvidcace , Alan, July August 1913, No 64 linguistic 22 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY seem to bave been also in the habit of surrounding the mounds with one, or perhaps two, timber fences In the Rgveda also (X 18 4 and 18. 13), we get attestation of a similar procedure, which fact may be regarded as a proof of its having been widely in vogue even among the distant members of the IE family The Kirghiz steppes are thickly dotted with such Kurgans’ or mounds, several of which go back, according to the Russian archaeologist BOGDANOV, to neolithic times It must have, therefore, been from this region that the custom of • Kurgans, enclosing contracted skeletons of the dead and cove red over with red ochre, was taken to the west and the south east by the IE immigrants 38 Another archaeological source is pattery Earthen ware decorated with incised designs - particularly bearing the impression of wbıp cord - is believed to have been the speciality of the early IES Its origin too is to be traced to the Northern Kirghiz steppes EICKSTEDT’s anthropological researches, 39 and particularly the study of the sites where stone battle axes are discovered, lend further support to the Kirghiz region having been the Urheimat 40 38 [Considerable evidence has been brought to light in recent years wbich supports the identification of the plE civilisation with the Kurgan civilisation See M GLMBUTAS “The Indo European archaeological pro blem”, AA 65 pp 815-836, “Proto IE culture the Kurgan culture duriog the fifth, the fourth, and the third millennia B C ‘, in Indo-Luropean and Indo Europeans, pp 155-197, R SCHMITT “Proto IE culture and achacology some critical remarks’, JIES 2, pp 279-287, questions the view advanced by GIMBUTAS that the Kurgan culture may be regarded as PIE in character In " An arcbacologists view of PIE in 1975”, IES 2, pp 289-307, GIMBUTAS confirms the identity of the PIL and the Lurgan cultures ] 39 Frh v C!CKSTEDT, Rassenlunde ud Rassengeschichte der Menschhal, Stuttgart, 1934 Also acc rcferences to hus views made a different contexts 101 Du Indogermanen und Germanenfrage 40 [A reference may be made in this context also to the Tripolje Civilisation which had close similarities with the pie civilisation The existeace in the Ural Ital region, in the first half of the fourth millennium BC, of the three civvisations pamely, the Kurgan civilisation the whip cord pottery csyslisation, and the Tripolje civilisation, which can be thought of in conne ction with the pie civilisation, has been attested by archaeologists Also acc Hugh HENCKEN Indo Curapean Languages and Archaeology, Am Anthrop Mem 84, Menasha, 1955, TOVAR, “Linguutics and prchicory”, Ivord 10, 333–350 j polje su bas bee Europesa di Linguas ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD It may, however, be mentioned that some scholars have also produced linguistic, archaeological, anthropological, and culture-bistorical evidence which points to two other regions which seem to fulfil the necessary conditions for the Urheimat. But a closer and more critical examination of that evidence convincingly shows that those regions could liave only been what may be called the secondary’ Urheimats. A comparative study of the European members of the IE linguistic family shows that the speakers of those dialects had separated from the main stock and had marched into low and marshy regions at a sufficiently early date, Words for damp and rain have increased in those western IE dialects. Their new habitat was more extended and presented a different type of flora and fauna. Stuart E, MANN has made a careful study of the IE cognate languages, mainly dealing with some of the names of wild animals, trees, plants, domestic animals, and tools and devices, with a view to arriving at an approximate location of the primitive home of the speakers of these dialects, by a process of elimination 11 According to him, those people had no common words for tropical and sub tropical vegetation and fauna. They lived a highly organised life, reared cattle, sheep, pig, and goat, and kept dogs. They made carts of wood, complete with wheels, rims, axle, and yoke. They ploughed land, sowed seed, and reaped the harvest. Their tools had reached a certain degree of excellence All this would, accord ing to MANN, unmistakably point to the Baltic plain having been the Urheimat. The Baltic plain, however, could not have been the primary Urheimat. Firstly, the primitive IEs do not seem to have had any contact with sea. The primitive IE speech has no words for sea ‘, ‘fish’, or “salt’. Secondly, highly organised life and agriculture do not accord well with the life of the primi tive IỆs as reconstructed above. The climate, land, flora, and fauna also are of different character. On the other hand, the linguistic evidence, produced by MANN, is not insignificant. 41. Stuart E. MANN, “The cradle of the evidence”, Mon, July-August 1943, No. 64. Indo-Europcaps’: linguistic 24 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY It certainly favours the Pripet region If, however, we were to go deeper into the evidence produced by MANN, we would find that he has taken into account primarily the European members of the IE linguistic family 43 The conclusion is, therefore, irresi stible that the ancestors of the speakers of those dialects separated from the main stock migrated into the Pripet region, and settled down in that region, 10 unity, for a considerable length of time In other words, the Pripet region was a sort of Urheimat of the forerunners of the European members of the IE famıly It was thus only a secondary Urhemat Those tribes must have migrat ed to the Pripet region along the northern coast of the Caspian sea and through South Russia The Volga-Dnieper valley in South Russia, again, could not have been their original habitat, la because the same objections, as have been put forward above against the Baltic region theory, would hold good even in that case South Russian region was used essentially as a passage The Tripolje culture of the Volga Dnieper valley, which presents close resemblance to the primitive IE culture, indicates the west ward march of one great migration of the IE speakers Even prior to this major migration into the Pripet region, however, there must have taken place a major migration from the Urheimat in the south eastern direction in this latter case, the immigraots did not experience much radical change in the matter of geological conditions, climate, flora, and fauna. For, the re 42 Cf Harold J E PCAKE, “The origin of Indo European speakers, Alan, May June 1945, No 50 42a [O SCHRADER has expressed himself strongly in favour of the South Russian home (Sprachuergleichung und Urgeschichte, pp 111 fr ) According to hit, the river names Rast (Vedic ), Rarha (Avestan), and Rha (ancient name of the Volga) as also Digu (Sanskrit) Danube Don, Dnieper Dnester, etc, unmistakably point to that region P Bosch GIMPERA opincs that the cradle of the IE speaking family must be looked for in Mesolithic Europe in the 5th or the 6th millennium BC (Les Indo Europeons problemes archéo logiques Paris, 1961) M GIMBUTAS has convincingly shown that archaco logical cvideace goes against the theory of a European homeland of the IES (The Indo-Furopcans archatological problem , AA 65 815-836) Some linguistic and ecological objections to such a theory have been set forth clse. where in this paper.] ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 25 gion around Balkh, where these tribes migrated and settled down, was just the south-eastern end of the series of steppes originally inhabited by the primitive JEs. From the Balkh region, a rolling grass-covered steppe stretches westward to the eastern shore of the Caspian sea. “From this steppe, passing northwards along the coast of the Caspian, it is usually possible to pass by means of dry steppe or salt desert round the northern end of that sea to the Volga, whence another steppe stretches westwards as far as the Dnieper, and for some way northwards until it passes by means of a belt of park-land into the dense deciduous forest that occupied the most of Central Russia. " That the speakers of some members of the IE linguistic family settled in the region around Balkh, for a considerably long time, can be proved on the strength of linguistic, archaeological, and anthropological evi dence. As a matter of fact, some scholars are inclined to believe that it was the Urheimat of the primitive IEs 432 In that region, one comes across a large number of graves with mounds, around which are placed one or more, mostly two, circular timber fences, Linguistically also it is shown that the ancestors of the speakers of the Eastern group of IE dialects – whom later history entitles us to name proto-Aryans-separated from the main body of the primitive IEs, leaving behind the remaining stock of the IE speakers in the original home. A study of the meanings of certain words and roots in the original IE speech, on the one hand, and, in the immediate ancestor of the Aryan dialects, on the other, clearly proves that the original meanings of the former were retained in the latter, while those roots and words had deve loped newer meanings in the European members of the IE lingui stic family. We may, therefore, draw two conclusions in this regard : Firstly, the proto-Aryans must have separated from the main stock earlier than the speakers of the early European IE 43 Harold J E Peake, " The fencing of early tombs”, Alan, May June 1944, No 54 43. M B PITHAWALA (The Aryan Home, 1946) suggests, mainly on the basis of geographical considerations, that the region between the rivers Amu Darya and Sys Darya must have been the original home of the Aryans (or the IE-speakers). 26 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY dialects, and, secondly, the proto-Aryans must have migrated to a region which was not radically different from the JE Urher mat As will be shown in the sequel, the further course of events in the history of the Aryans clearly points to that region having been the region round Balkh Archaeologically also, the Balkh region 079 be the proper connecting link between the Urheimat, on the one hand, and the different localities to which the proto Aryans migrated later on on the other the investigations made by HEINE GELDERN In this connection are highly suggestive and helpful for the reconstruction of the history of the Aryans It appears that these tribes merely moved southwards from their habitat via the Jaxartes and the Oxus The region around Balkh was, therefore, not the primary Urheimat of the IEs It was only a secondary Urheimat, but, in a sense, it can be regarded as the Urheimat of the proto Aryans To recapitulate we may say that linguistic, archaeological, anthropological, and culture historical evidence entitles us to as sume that the North Kirghiz steppes, between the Urals and Altai, was the home of the IEs whom, as will be shown later, we shall have to call, more precisely, the proto IES This was the primary Urheimat From this region, the first major migration started in the south eastero direction - the immigrants having uiti mately settled down in the Balkh region, before their further migrations It was thus a secondary Urheimat, or, in a sease, the Urheimat of the proto-Aryans The other major migration passed through the Volga Dnieper valley, and the immigrants settled 10 the Pripet region, prior to their further separation It was, there fore, another secondary Urhelmat It should, however, be borde in mind that even before these two major migrations took place, there had occurred an isolated migration that of the Hittites, which we shall consider presently But before that isolated mig ration is taken up for consideration, it may be, incidentally, pointed out that, on the strength of the evidence provided by the facts that 44 R VON HEINE GELDERN, Archacological traces of the Vedic Aryans , JISOA 4, 1936, pp 87-115, New Ight on the Aryan migration to India , BAII 5, pp 7-16ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 27 the proto-Hellenes can be shown to have entered Greece in about 2200 B C., that the Hittites, as will be soon pointed out, started on their isolated migration in about 2800 B, C., and that the proto Aryans must be assumed to have separated from the main stock in about 2600 B. C., tlie proto-IE unity can be, with reasonable cer tainty, dated at 4000-3500 B, C.45 The Tocharian dialect, which was brought to light in com paratively recent years, should present no difficulty for the foregoing hypothesis. The facts of morphology show that Tocha rian bears close affinity to Slavonic and Armenian. It was be lieved that Tocharian belonged to the centum group of the IE cognate languages. Recent researches in linguistics, however, tend to show that the division of the IE languages into centum and satem groups is not very valid. Even as it is, there is eviden ce to show that Tocharian was a satem language. On the whole, it may be assumed that the proto-Tocharians first turned west wards, weat up to the Dnieper, but thence retraced their steps and started towards Central Asia.46a That would explain why their 45. IPSEN, however, thinks (IP 41, 174 ff.) that the migrations of the proto-IEs had not started until 2000 B, C, HIRT also has cxpressed (Dia Indogermane) a similar view. TRUBETZROY suggests ( AL 1, 81-89 ) that the IE languages may owe theit common traits to later contacts just as well as to common descent. These views, bowever, are unacceptable. For the last view, sec : DANDEKAR, Vedic Althological Tracts, pp 352–53. [The following points have been recently brought forth in this context. The first Trojan culture, which was definitely IL in character, belonged to about 3000 BC The date of the end of the Harappan civilisation and the advent of the Indo-Aryans into the Indus valley 1 gentrally taken to have been 2500-2000 B, C.; and the ancestors of the latter can be shown to have separa. ted from the original IL stock long before this date. Also scc: H. THOMAS, “New evidence for dating the IE dispersal in Europe”, IE and IEs, pp. 199-215; R. A. CROSSLAND, “Recent re appraisal of evidence for the chrono logy of the differentiation of IE”, Acta 2nd Internat. Colloq. on Aegean Prehi. story, pp 46-53, M GIZAUTAS, “The destruction of Acgcan and East Medi terranean urban civilization around 2300 B.C.”, Bronze Age Migrahons in the Aegean, pp 129-139, “The beginning of the Bronze Age in Europe and the IES : 3500-2500 B.C.”, JIES 1(2), pp. 163-214.] 46. Stuart E. MANN, “The cradle of the Indo-European Speakers, ‘” Man, Jan-Feb. 1945, No. 16. 46a. (Incidentally, the theory that the Urheimat of the ICs was located (Continued on the next page) 28 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY language presents characteristics peculiar both to proto-Aryan and proto European Soch sporadic and regular migrations must have, however, been rare Turning now to the Hittite problem, we find that four main stages can be distinctly marked in the bistory of that problem (1) Already, in the eighties of the last century, two cuneiform tablets discovered in the Egyptian state archive, popularly called the Arzawa letters, were known to the world of scholars. Even as early as 1902, KNUDTZEN had tried to interpret those letters and had declared their language to be JE in character But greater impetus was given to the study of this problem by the discovery by Hugo WINCKLER, 10 1906-07, of the great state archive of the Chattı empire containing more than 10,000 cupel form tablets The script of the tablets was Accadian cuneiform, and the language more or less similar to that of the Arzawa letters Unfortunately WINCKLER died before he could apply himself to a deeper and closer study of the tablets (2) The second stage in the history of the problem is marked by the publi cation, in 1916, of the monumental work of HROZNY wherein that scholar calls the language the Hittite language, definitely fixes its IE character, and presents, in a systematic manner, its main features from the linguistic pojat of view 47 (3) la the third (Continued from the last page) ja Central Asia was once vigorously canvassed Ed MEYER suggests (Geschichte des Allerlums, p 893 ) that the JEs migrated into Europe from the East in the Bronze Age and brought with them the custom of cremation SERCI ( The Mcd27anean Race) thinks that the original home was located in the region of the Hindukush wbue CHARPENTIER has decided (BSOS, 1925) in favour of the region to the cast of the Caspian ScaJ SCHMIDT (Urheimat der Indo gemmanen P 890) has put forth the argument of the Babylonian influence on the method of counting among several lE speaking peoples to support the Central Asian hypothesis (SOVER has d sproved this argument in hug “Zum Zahlwort , SBBAT 7, 57 ) Among other scholars who have supported the Central Asian hypothesis toay bc mentioned FEST (Indogermarien und Germanen, 16-51) and FRYE ( Resparks on an outline of Near Eastern history , Indo franca 6, 39 43 ) Much linguist c, archaeological, and anthropological evidence against this hypothesis will be foupd elsewhere in this paper ) 47 B VIROZNY, Die Sprache der Hetheter, skr Bau und shre Zugakungkus um Indogermanischen Sprachstamm, 1916-17. ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 29 stage, a more scientific approach was made towards the problem by Ferdinand SOMMER of München who combined in himself profound knowledge both of IE linguistics and Assyriology. (4) The fourth, and perhaps the fipal, stage is characterised by the outstanding contributions made in this field by American lingui sticians - more particularly by STURTEVANT. The sources for the study of the Hittite problem are mainly three, namely, the 10,000 or more cuneiform tablets from the state archives of the Chatti empire; the Arzawa letters discovered at El-Amarna; and the fragments of lexicons in which Sumero-Akka dian words are explained by means of corresponding Hittite words. For the sake of the convenience of discussion, the results of the investigations in this field may be, with advantage, classi fied under three heads : racial affinities of the Hittites; the Hittite language; and the history and general culture of the Hittites. As indicated elsewhere, while dealing with the IE problem, it is always desirable to avoid, as far as possible, all enthnologi cal speculations It may, bowever, be incidentally pointed out that the Hittites, that is, the speakers of the Hittite language, seem to show three racial layers - the original Mediterranean racial type was superimposed by the brachycephalic Armenoid type, which, in its turn, was superimposed by the nomadic Turks. As a matter of fact, there is reason to believe that this kind of mixed racial set up has persisted in Asia Minor throughout, even in spite of the linguistic vicissitudes which have occurred in that region, and persists even to this day. The study of the Hittite language is obviously more important from our point of view. It should be remembered, at the very outset, that the cuneiform tablets discovered by WINCKLER present not one but at least eight different linguistic types out of which we are concerned, at this stage, only with Hittite and perhaps Luvian. A superficial study of Hittite led scholars to suggest that it was a hybrid language, which shows considerable affinity with the primitive IE but which cannot be clearly assigned to any specific IE AOC. T I 30 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY sub-group, or that it was a Caucasian language with Aryan influence on it 49 There were also observed in that language certain Mongolian traits, and, consequently, its close connection with Tocharian was assumed A deeper and more scientific study of Hittite has, however, brought out the following main features of that language It bears close affinity with the so called centum group of the IE dialects In the field of voca lism, it is more akin to the western IE group. There is no feminine gender in it The character of the plural number is 20 complete, and only faint traces of the dual can be observed. It possesses a peculiar ‘H’ sound Its verbal system and case system appear to have been of a much simplified character. There is only a small number of tenses and almost complete ab sence of moods. Though, from the point of view of phonology and vocabulary, the IE character of Hittite may not be quite evident, its grammatical structure definitely proves that it belongs to the IE family. It is an IE language in its flexional structure 50 There can be hardly any doubt that Hittite is the earliest off-shoot of the IE family that can be attested. Its special peculiarities, some of which are mentioned above, are not to be regarded as in dicating deterioration or aberration of any IE speech, but they can be scientifically explained to have been the result of a natural process of development of an earlier stage of the IE speech as has now been reconstructed. When compared with the other members of the IE linguistic family, Hittite appears distinctly primitive in character. We have, therefore, to conclude that its origis and early development more or less coincide with the origin and development of the IE speech it self. In other words, it is a sister, rather than a daughter, of the ur-IE, existing side by side with it, prior to the emergence of the proto-Aryan and the proto-European IE language-groups. The Mongolian or Altaic influence on Hittite can now be understood in its proper perspective, for, a similar influence has already been shown to have worked on the primitive IE We may, therefore, 49. E. F. WEIDNER, Studun zur het lastischen Sprachwissenschaft, I, 1917, p 32. 50. T. Sommer, 11atholische Boghaz ksi-Studien, IV, 1920. ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 31 now put the whole history of the Hittite language like this: From a hypothetical language, which must now be called proto JE language, there developed, in course of time, two languages, namely, the IE and the Hittite – one hypothetically reconstructed and the other now actually attested by records.1 The Hittite speakers must have separated from the IE-speakers almost in the initial stage of the development of the two languages, presumably some time between 2800 and 2600 B. C., migrated in the south western direction, and eventually settled in Asia Minor. They must have entered that region along the north coast of the Cas piap sea and across the Caucasus, it is impossible to accept the suggestion, made by SCHACHERMEYR, that the Hittites entered Asis Minor via west,52 There is to be found no trace of theirs in the west. And, further, why should they have proceeded to Asia Minor abandoning the rich plains of the west which they are as sumed to have crossed? in Asia Minor, the Hittites seem to have been soon absorbed among the indigeneous people of that region, and, though their language preserved much of its original character on ing, perhaps, to its superiority, it was not a little in fluenced by the languages of Asia Minor and the surrounding localities. The affinity, which Hittite bears to the western group of IE languages, thus becomes easily understandable. These conclusions arrived at on the basis of the study of the Hittite language are fully confirmed by the history of the Hittite people as can be reconstructed from the sources mentioned above, The fact that the Hittites, under Mursitis I, conquered Babylon in 1760 B. C. by overpowering the dynasty of Hammurabi would indicate that they must have set up a powerful empire in Asia Minor, at least a few centuries before that event. The subjugation of a powerful dynasty like Hammurabi’s could not have been 51. The discos cry of Hittite has given rise to the assumption by some scholars of a pCW stage in the genealogical scheme of the Indo European languages, namely that of primitive Indo Hittite, which preceded proto-IC, this latter having further developed, on the one hand, in Uic direction of proto-Hittite, and, on the other, of IE as reconstructed from Sanskrit, Greek, Laun, etc. CF, S. K CHATTERJI, " Pre-Indo European “, IC 8, pp. 309-322, 52. SCIIACHIERMEYR, Indogermanen und Germanm, I, pp. 229 ff. EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY achieved otherwise. It may further be pointed out in this connec tion that the records of the Hittites, which begin from 1900 B. C., do not show any consciousness on their part that they were immigrants in that locality They must have, therefore, settled there some centuries prior to 1900 B, C. It will thus be not too much to presume that the Hittites entered Asia Minor between 2800 and 2600 B. C. We are not particularly concerned with the events in the history of the Hittites. We may only add that, in the earliest period of their history, the Hittites were influenced by the Assyrians from Cappadocia; that, in the glorious regime of their illustrious king, Subbiluliumaś, they concluded a peace treaty with the Mitannis, who were, from the linguistic point of view, distantly related to them; and that, by about 1230 B, C., their power began to dwindle until at last it disappeared complete ly after a quarter of a century, This brief review of the Hittite problem will now enable us to understand properly how and why some IE names can be dis covered in the Hittite mythology; how and why the Hittite religion presents some apparent resemblances to that of the Mingan Greeks who were not IE-speakers; and how and why their culture was so significantly akin to the Babylonian culture. Mention has already been made of the sensational discovery of records made during the two decades before and after the beginning of this century in Asia Minor and the surrounding locality. The linguistic, historical, and other related facts, which have been brought to light by these records, have materially changed the conventional ideas about the JE problem. One very striking result of the new investigations based upon these records, namely, the Hittite problem, and its significance, have been already referred to. Some of these records have further brought to light nanies of kings, places, and gods, and certain other words, in the dialects employed in them, which indicate surpris ing resemblance between these dialects and the IE languages which had already become quite well known from the ancient literatures of Irdia and Iran, in other words, the languages be longing to the proto-Aryan group. We have to confess that the ANTECEDENTS OF THB VEDIC PERIOD 33 material at our disposal in this connection is not much, and that, therefore, no very definite results may be expected from the study of that material. At the same time, it must be pointed out that whatever conclusions can be reasonably drawn on the strength of that material are quite revealing so far as the history of the IEs -or, more particularly, the history of the Aryans - is concerned. Let us first collect together all the relevant information about the tribe which is known to history as the Kassites. The Kassites lived in Zagros mountains, between Media and Babylonia. As for their language, which is, for our purpose, of greater value, only forty words in it can be attested with some amount of certainty. DELITZSCH and SCHEFTELOWITZ, who have made a special study of those words, feel no doubt about their IE character.53 It is observed that, in some vocal and gutteral sounds, the Kassite language comes nearer to the Vedic language than to any other language, and that there are, in it, no traces of specific Iranian and Armenian peculiarities. That, in its essential form, the Kassite language has no connection with Sumerian and Elamite would become obvious even from a casual study of it. In its yocabulary, Kassite seems to have preserved mapy archaic Aryan words, though some of them are seen to have been lost in the later developments of the Aryan speech. But far more sigoificant than all this are the Kassite names. Attention may be drawn only to a few of them. śurias, Marattaś, śumalia, Suquamuna, and Abirattaś remind us, for instance, respectively of Sanskrit Sürya, Marut, Sumall, Su( so Jcamāna, and Abhiratha. The word bugas in compounds corresponds with Sanskrit bhaga. This linguistic evidence should, therefore, leave no doubt about the fact that the Kassite language had been a member of the same group of IE languages to which the Vedic Sanskrit be longed. In other words, the Kassite language must have been 30 off-shoot of the proto-Aryan language. When could the speakers of Kassite have separated from the main stock of the proto-Aryans? The history of the Kassites tells us of their conquest 53. T. DeliyZSAI, Die Sprache der Xossaer, 1884; T. SATEFTELOWITZ, “ Die Sprache der Kossacr”, rgl. Spw 38, pp. 263-69. 34 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY of Babylon by the end of the eighteenth century BC. It would, therefore, be necessary to assume that they had come and settled in those parts of western Asia sufficiently long before that event.ssa Another fact also must be taken into account in this connection, namely, that the records of the Kassites show that they were almost submerged into the indigenous population of that region. Only some basic features of the Aryan speech and culture seem to have been retained in their speech and culture. This fact would indicate, not that they were not essentially Aryan in character, but that they must have lived among the peoples of that region for a con siderably long period prior to their emergence in history through their records As a matter of fact, this assumption should hold good with reference to all the other peoples in western Asia which show linguistic and cultural affinity with the ancient Indians and Iranians The essentially Aryan character of the Kassites would be further confirmed by the fact that they are credited with bav jog introduced the use of horse for drawiog chariots into the ancient Near East. The recorded history of the Kassites extends only from 1700 B, C, to 1170 B, C. Hugo WINCKLER discovered, in 1906-07, at Boghaz Koj, a tablet which records a peace-treaty concluded about 1400 B. C. between the Hittite monarch, śubbilulumas, and the king of the Mitandis, Mattiuaza. As witnesses to this treaty have voked, in that record, four gods whose names are almost identi cal with the Vedic gods, Indra, Varuṇa, Mitra, and Nāsatya. Another tablet was discovered at the same place, by FORRER, some time later. It deals with horse-breeding, and contains certain pumerals which are morphologically similar to later Aryan numerals. Moreover, the names of the Mitanni kings are obviously Aryan games. We read, for instance, names like Subandu, Tuśratta, Mattiuaza, Artasumara, etc, which unmistak. ably remind us of Subandhu, Tvesaratha, Mathivāja, Rtasmara, etc. On the very face of it, all this would clearly point to the 53a Strangely crough, the history of the Kassites scems to follow a course similar to that of the Hittites It is not unlikely that there has occurred some confusion in respect of the Hittite and the Kassite records. ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 35 essentially Aryan character of the Mitanni speech and religion. Further, the affinity of the Mitannis with the Kassites can be affirmed with a fair amount of plausibility. Who were these Mitannis ? Assuming that the gods mentioned on the Boghaz Kõi tablet are specifically Vedic in character and also assuming that the Vedic religion originally developed on the Indian soil before 2000 B, C, JACOBI, who is supported by KONOW, HILLEBRANDT, and WINTERNITZ, suggests that the Mitannis represent the Indian tribes which had migrated from India to the west. An attempt is made to support this hypothesis with two more facts : Firstly, PARGITER finds evidence in ancient ladian traditions of the Vedic tribe of the Drubyus having migrated to the west.55 And, secondly, evidence is produced to prove that, even later, Indian tribes have migrated to Asia Minor and Armenia. But the very starting point of this hypothesis, namely, that the gods of the Boghaz Koi tablet are specifically Vedic in character has been challeaged by several scholars. OLDEN BERG sees in them proto-Iranian gods, and, therefore, connects the Mitannis with early Iran.sTo say that the Mitannis were the Aryans on their way to Iran and India is hard to believe, because the origin of the Rgvedic mantras must be definitely assigned to a period prior to 1400 B. C. A deeper study of all the available material relatiog to the Mitagnis would help us to understand the entire situation in its proper perspective. The Mitanni language is a sotem language, and is seen to be specifically identical neither with Vedic, because, in Mitandi, ra is changed to orla, nor with ancient Iranian, because Mitanni retains s between vowels. That language, therefore, was presumably akin to the ancestor of both Vedic and ancient Iranian. The religion of the Mitannis, as 54. H. JACOBI, “On the antiquity of Vedic culture “, JRAS 1901, pp. 721-26; WINTERNITZ, A History of Indian Literalure, I, pp. 305-30G, WINTERNITZ mentions (p. 305 ) Koxow and HILLEBRANDT. 55. PARGITER, Anciert Indian Historical Tradition, p. 302. 56. J. KENNEDY, “ The Indians in Armenia”, JRAS 1904, pp 309-314. 57. H. OLDENBERG, “The antiquity of Vedic culture”, JRAS 1909, PP. 1095-1100, 36 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY indicated by the four gods mentioned on the Boghaz Koi tablet, presents only the basic conceptions of the Vedic and Iranian reli gions, and not their special developments. The Mitanni tribes call themselves Harris, that is, Āryas, and their warrior-class is called Marianna which seems to be equivalent to the Vedic marya. Their pig-tail, their religious symbols of stastika and inverted tri apgles, and their funeral customs clearly betray their IE - or, to be more precise, Aryan - Origin. They borrowed words and ideas from the peoples of western Asia to whom they gave, in return, horse and war-chariot which are objects possessing distin ctly Aryan character. They could have come to their new home on upper Euphrates, not by sea, nor through Asia Minor, Dor via Caucasus, but from the south-western direction. They first settled down in Northera Mesopotamia, and, in course of time, became a strong power in that focality. But, like the Kassites, they were soon submerged into the local population. All these facts would show that, like the Kassites, who were the vanguards of the proto-Aryan migrations, the Mitannis also were immigrants from the proto-Aryan Urheimat in the Balkh region, who must have separated from the main stock of the proto-Aryans in the initial stages of the formation of the Aryan speech and religion. There must have, indeed, been several such minor migrations of the proto-Aryans, as is indicated by the Aryan elements in the records of the Hyksos kings and those discovered at El-Amarna. These more or less successive but stray immigrant tribes of the proto-Aryans, who seem to have migrated, only in small numbers cach time, came to Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, North Meso potamia, and the surrounding region, between 2300 and 2000 and settled there. There they established their powerful princi palities but were gradually absorbed by the indigenous popula tions. And, according to the extent to which they were absorbed, they have retained the Aryan character of their language, religion, and culture, in greater or smaller degree.58 58 I have since revised my view on some of the points mentioned here. For a more detailed and slightly modified statement regarding the (Continued on the next pagt)ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 37 Not much need be said about the relations between the an. cicat Indians and the ancient Iranians. Their mutual affinities in the matter of language, rcligion, and social organisation are too patent to need any specific mention. When the ancestors of the proto-Aryans left the IE Urheimat in the North Kirghiz steppes and set out on their journey towards the region around Baikh, the proto-Aryan speech and religion also may be said to have begun to take shape. The stray and minor migrations of the proto-Aryans from this secondary Urheimat near Ballh carried with them in western Asian regions the basic forms of that speech and religion. But the remaining stock of the proto-Aryans, which must have been of considerable proportions, evolved, out of that basic Aryanism, a new and noble form, which may be appro priately regarded as the common ancestor of the Veda sad the Avesta, both from the linguistic and religious points of view. A considerable portion of the Vedic mantras and the Avestan gāthas, at least in their primary form, was produced by these proto Aryans who were left behind in the Balkh region after the migra tions of the Kassites, the Mitannis, and others. I say primary forms, because I believe that it is necessary to recognise two-dis tinct layers in the evolution of the Rgveda. The Vedic mantras must have been originally composed in a living dialect, which we may call proto-Rgvedic. These mantras were, later on, worked upon by the hymn-makers, who purposely used an archaic-look ing, priestly, artificial dialect, which was presumably not their own vernacular. As EDGERTON has pointed out, these hymn makers were members of a priestly guild, the intellectual leaders (Continued from the last page) Aryaa migrations into Anatolia, scc * Some aspects of the Indo-Mediterrancas contacts”, published clewhere in this Volume. [For some other views on this subject which has been recenưy put forth, $cc : T. P. GAATKRELIDZE, “Anatolian languages and the problem of IE migration to Asia Minor “, Studies in General Orintal Linguisfacs, Tokyo, 1970 pp. 138-143, T. BURROW, " Thc Proto Indoaryans “, JRAS 1973, pp. 123-140; M. M. WINN, “Thoughts on the question of IE movements into Anatolia and Iran”, JIES 2(2), pp. 117-142.] 59. For my revised views on the subject of the migration of the proto-Aryans in Anatolia, sce my paper mentioned in the preceding note. EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY of their community, and very proud of their status. They were carefully trained, and, on the whole, handled their archaizing language quite well.80 But, as was to be expected, they slipped now and then. As in the matter of language, so too in the matter of literary form, we have to recognise two stages ; one of stray, scattered mantras, and the other of organised, systematic hymn making and samhitiharana. In a sense, the Rgveda may be said to bave been born outside India. For, a considerable portion of the corpus of the Rgvedic mantras took its initial shape in the Balkh region, between 2400 and 2000 B C., though its priestly revision, obscuration, and division and arrangement into family-collections were accomplished later in the land of the seven rivers. The origin and development of the Avesta must have proceeded more or less on the same lines, but in a different locality and under different influences. The ancestors of the Indian Aryans and the Iranian Aryans formed the main stock of the proto Aryaps, after the stray migrations of their cousins, the Kassites and the Harris or the Mitannis,61 The former lived together and developed their language and religion which may be called proto Vedic-Avestan. It was in the Balkh region that they evolved their specific religious ideology centering round the notion of the cos mic law and its administrator (Rra-Varuṇa) as also the fire-cult and the Soma-cult which latter was facilitated by the abundant growth of the Soma plant on the Mujavat mountain in their neighbourhood. In course of time, however, some tribes separat ed themselves from the proto-Aryan stock, gradually migrated to the North of Iran in a peaceful manner, and later settled down in that country. As was to be expected, they took with them to their new habitat that form of language and religion which they had developed when they had lived together with their Indian brethren, that is to say, the proto-Indo-Iranian language and religion. But, owing to their new environments, which were diffe. 60. C F. EDGERTON, “The Indo-European semivowels”, Lg 19 (2), pp. B3-124. 61. Sec f. n. 58 above. ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 39 rent from those in wbich the Vedic Indians later lived, the further development of the ancient Iranian language and religion was a little different from that of the Vedic language and religion, The ancient Iranians specially sponsored the Varuņa-religion, which, under the influence of the great religious reformer, Zarathushtrá, assumed, about the beginning of the first millennium B. C., the form of the religion of Ahura Mazdah. The ancestors of the Vedic Indians were more ambitious. They set out from their home in the Balkh-region towards Saptasindhu on what eventually proved to be a march of conquest and colonization. On their way they encountered many physical impediments and consider able human opposition (vľtra and dāsa). In conformity with this new trend in their way of life, they created a new religion - the religion of warlike and heroic Indra. It is, indeed, natural that Vítrabā Purandara Indra, to whose victorious leadership the Vedic Aryans owed their great exploits, should dominate the Rgveda-Samhita.[According to my revised view, it was a few adventurers from among these Indra-worshipping Vedic Aryan tribes pushing forward towards Saptasindhu who retraced their steps, went to Anatolia, and established their kingdoms in that region. On the basis of the foregoing discussion, I feel justified in visualising the main trends in the early history of the IEs some what as follows: In the earliest period to which we can push back their history, on the strength of linguistic, archaeological, anthro pological, and culture-historical evidence, we find the IEs, who were racially a mixed but linguistically and culturally a more or less homogeneous community, living in the region between the Urals and Altai, to the north-east of the Caspian Sea and to the north of Turkistan, that is to say, broadly speaking, in the North Kirghiz steppes. It is this region which must be regarded as the most suitable locality for the emergence of the ul-IE speech such as we are now able to reconstruct. It is again this region which 62, For a detailed statement regarding the Varuda religion, the Indra. religion, and the Aryan migrations into Iran and India, see : DANDEKAR, ** Asura Varuṇa” and “Vetraha Indra “, Vedic Alythological Tracts, EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY can satisfactorily account for the obvious Altaic, Ugro-Fipnic and Semitic influences on the primitive IE speech and culture. This region may, therefore, be reasonably called the primary Urheimat of the IEs. The conditions of vegetation in this locality, where the IE tribes originally berded sheep and cattle on grassy steppes, must have, in course of time, necessitated their migrations out of it, and the movements of their herds on a farge scale. A study of the subsequent course of events would enable us to presume that this JE unity dated from about 4,000 B, C., which is, as a matter of fact, a fairly late date in the history of man on this earth This, then, is the first landmark in the history of the IEs. The second landmark in their history is represented by the isolated migration of some tribes from among the proto-IEs in an early stage of the development of their language and civilisation. These tribes separated from the main stock of the 1Es in the North Kirghiz steppes, came a little southwards, and entered Asia Minor via the northern coast of the Caspian sea and across the Caucasus. They were the Hittites. The records of these isolated IE immigrants, which date from about 1900 B, C., show no consciousness on their part of having been immigrants. This fact would indicate that they had settled down to the south and in the interior of Asia Minor long before that date. This is furtber confirmed by the fact that these out siders emerge into the history of western Asia as powerful empire builders. This would be properly understandable only on the assumption of their very early settlement in that region. The isolated migration of the Hittites may, therefore, be presumed to have started between 2800 and 2500 B. C. Their separation from the proto-lEs at a very early date and then losg sojoure la ise lation from the main stock must be considered to have been responsible for the fact that their language, though essentially IE in character, has developed some special peculiarities which are not to be seen in other JE languages. Even after this solitary migration, the main body of the IEs continued to live together for some time, which fact can be definitely proved on the strength of linguistic evidence. ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 41 The third landmark in the early history of the IEs is chara cterised by two major migrations. The earlier major migration was in the south-eastern direction. These tribes, whom we are entitled to call the proto-Aryans, separated from the main body of the IEs (minus, of course, the Hittites ) and moved to a locality which was not very different from their Urheimat, namely, the region around Balkh. This plain of Balkh is the end of a long area of light rain-fall that stretches from the slope of the Hindu Kush mountains westward towards the Caspian sea. Here, between 2600 and 2300 B. C., the proto-Aryan language and religion must have attained characterisation’. For our present purpose, namely, the reconstruction of the antecedents and the early beginnings of the Vedic period of Indian history, it may be added that it must have been in this region that the Vedic langu age and religion began to take shape. A major portion of the Vedic mantras, in their primary form, was produced in the region around Balkh; only their revision, priestly obscuration, artificial archaization, and samhitikarana were accomplished in the land of the seven rivers. A critical study of the Rgveda. from ti linguistic and literary points of view, makes it necessary to recognise these two stages in the production and evolution of that Veda. The proto-Aryans must have made their home in the Balkh region for a considerable length of time, so much so that they almost forgot their connections with their primary Vrheimat in the North Kirghiz steppes. The region around Balkh may, therefore, be appropriately called a secondary Urhei mat – that is, the Urheimat of the proto-Aryans. The second major migration from the primary Urheimat was effected along the northern coast of the Caspian sea, through the dry steppe or salt desert, to the Volga, whence another steppe stretches westwards as far as the Dnieper. These westward migrating tribes, however, seem to have used the Volga-Dnieper valley in South Russia not as a permanent habitat, but only as a passage. They seem to have migrated still farther westwards into the Baltic plain, especially into the Pripet region. Linguistic evidence points to the Pripet region having been another secondary 6 42 EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY Urheimat. Just as the Balkh region may be called, in a sense, the Urhemat of the proto-Aryans, the Pripet region may be called the Urheimat of the proto-Europeans, or, to be more precise, of the common ancestors of the speakers of the European members of the IE language-family. From these secondary Urheimats in the Balkh region and the Pripet region, there were started further migrations, which, in contrast with the major migrations from the primary Urheimat, may be termed secondary migrations. These secondary migra tions represent the fourth and last landmark in the history of the IES For our present purpose, we are concerned mainly with the migrations of the Proto-Aryans from Balkh. We know that, ever since the proto-Aryans migrated to and settled down in the region around Balkh, their speech and religion had beguo to assume a distinctive form. In course of time, some of the tribes from among the proto-Aryans peacefully migrated into Iran and there developed a form of religion which was quite akin to the proto-Aryan religion. The ancestors of the Vedic Indians, on the other hand, ambitiously moved southeastwards, conquering, under the aegis of their newly created pational war-god Indra, the Dásas and the Vr̥tras whom they encounte red on their way. Eventually, by about 2100-2000 B.C., they advanced as far as Panjab where they came across what was perhaps the last phase of the Harappan civilisation. It may be presumed that Indra, the warlıke leader of the Vedic Aryans who was later transformed into the national war-god, administered the final crushing blow to the already tottering Harappan civilisation, which, incidentally, was a civilisation of fortified settlements, and thus qualified himself for the proud epithet of purandara, the breaker of forts.63 I The Mitaoni dominion in Anatolia was presumably not the result of any secondary migration of the proto-Aryans into that 63. DANDEKAR, " Vetraha Indra”, Vedic Mythological Tracts, R. E. M. WIIEELER, “Harappa 1916. the defences and cemetery R 37”, Ancient India %, pp. 58-130. ANTECEDENTS OF THE VEDIC PERIOD 43 region directly from Balkh, as suggested above. It was rather the * result of an isolated adventure, round about 2100 B, C., of some groups from among the Indra-worshipping proto-Aryans who had already left Balkh on their southeastward march towards Sapta. sindhu. They took advantage of the political upheaval, caused by the Kassites, to push forward and subsequently consolidated their power in North Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine. There is evidence to show that the Mitannis overthrew the Hyksos dynasty. In the earlier stages of their adventure, the Mitannis came in contact with their not-distant cousins, the Kassites, while, at a later stage, they had an occasion to encounter and eventually conclude a peace-treaty with the Hittites, who, too, were distantly related to them from the linguistic point of view. Another point to be noted about these adventurers is that, being small in number, when they are actually attested in later history, they appear to have been absorbed by the indigenous peoples of North Mesopotamia, Syria, and Asia Minor, At the same time, they seem to have completely overwhelmed the local population perhaps on account of their superiority in the matter of language and religion, and also as the result of their warlike spirit and adventurous enterprise. But their supremacy did not last long. As a matter of fact, their whole history can be said to have extended over a period of less than 1000 years - from 2100 B, C. to 1200 B.C. Unlike their cousins in Iran and India, they soon disappeared from the scene, together with their language, religion, and culture, never to be revived again.64 ] This, then, is a brief statement relating to the antecedents and the early beginpiogs of the Vedic period of Iodian history. I realise that it by no means presents a complete picture. Many details still need to be added to it. Nor has it been possible for me to undertake an elaborate and conclusive discussion of the several problems involved in this connection. As a matter of fact, that was not my intention. My intention was oply to indi cate certain lines on which the reconstruction of the history of 64. For a detailed discussion of this subjcct, sec “Some aspects of the Indo-Mediterrancan contacts”, published elsewheve in this Volume, EXERCISES IN INDOLOGY the Vedic period couid be fruitfully procecded with. What I have attempted to do is to set forth before you a consistent and con.” structive hypothesis evolved as the result of all the available material having been worked upon with ‘scientific imagi nation’ only where necessary. In the same strain as of W. D. WHITNEY, who was speaking about India’s literary history, it may be said that such hypotheses put forth in the field of ancient Indian history are pins set up to be bowled down again’. It is, however, my belief that, in the interest of historical progress, it is pecessary and desirable that such pias’ are set up even though only to be bowled down and replaced by stronger and firme pias. First published : Procerdings of the Indian Hustory Congress, Allahabad, 1949, 24-55.] Tenth Sessiott, Black Sea Macedonia Istanbul Cauc of Marmara Anatolia

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