Firstly History is not a topic/subject where any critique can change the views about it based on some logical assertions.
It is noteworthy that you manage to get things wrong from the first line itself, of your gallant attempt at reasoned rebuttal. That shows the depth of your attempt, and its soundness.
History is precisely a subject where a critique can change views on a particular topic (not necessarily, or always, the whole of it, as few historians take on the task of historiographical critiques, or of building historical systems – the number of the latter can be counted on the fingers of one’s hands). History is never an abstract and wholly discoverable subject, unlike the natural sciences; it is natural that those with no background in historical study or analysis should make this elementary mistake. History is determined as much by the mind-set, the mental landscape of the historian, as by the evidence; this is well-known, and good historians therefore strive to ensure that the facts that they have selected are displayed along with information regarding the facts that they have not selected – a full display naturally defeats the purpose of a selection.
History deals with Historic evidences we find today and the excavations that are being happening and the assertions and conclusions that are being drawn based on them.
Partially, not wholly; historical evidence, under normal circumstances, is conducted on the basis of written and documentary evidence, either primary evidence, in the shape of archived administrative data, personal records of individuals, court accounts and narrations, and materials of that nature. Dalrymple’s coup’d’etat in using the known but largely ignored records of the times, both Indian records and British colonial records. Other excellent works are Surendranath Sen’s 1857, or Jadunath Sarkar’s magisterial works, a library shelf full of them, all based on his sound knowledge of Persian and Urdu.
The use of excavations and epigraphy to support history is not unknown in other geographies, but it is peculiarly predominant in India, due to the sheer lack of written records of historical value prior to the narrations of the late mediaeval period. We have been talking about one of them, the Chachnama, in another thread (or is it right here?). However, this was the exception, not the rule, and we have had to depend on archaeology and epigraphic evidence for most of our reconstruction of historical India in ancient times.
Your reference to excavations, however, seems to be limited to the extent of your own interests in Indian history, namely, to matters pertaining to the controversy between AIT and OOI, so possibly all that has gone before is a total waste. So be it.
So History is a topic not related to authors but rather related to research and excavation evidence and the compilation of set of facts based on them as
Michael Danini has done in his book. This kind of work cannot be written of easily unless or until one finds evidence that is contradicting his work.
No, it is not, it is related to the historiography of the historian. There is no ‘pure’ history unaffected by human interpretation and dependent exclusively on transcendent fact. This is not physics. This is, on the other hand, the typical mistake made by outsiders who have no foundations, no roots for their slightly aimless expeditions, usually in support of some political standpoint or the other.
Two personal (and friendly, believe it or not) words of advice.
When writing about history and historical matters, it is important to be accurate; immaculately accurate, in fact. The historical author Michael Danini does not exist. Michel Danino does. Do be careful.
Secondly, writing off his work is quite possible after one examines his assumptions and his extrapolations. I did not go into detail because I am dealing here with an amateur audience, and one that is not likely to want to know. Do not think, please, that a detailed refutation is not possible, but do also bear in mind that it is almost a book-length refutation, and difficult to present in such a forum.
So based on the evidence he suggested I believe in his work until some one comes up with another set of facts/evidences to contradict my views.
Yes, that is the correct thing to do, and I shall therefore present the evidence against him, and the genre that he represents. Would you like to hear it here, or in a separate thread, or in a separate communication? Bear in mind that we are conducting our end-semester examinations, welcoming on board a new VC and searching for jobs for the MBA class, besides helping out with the attached school, so time is at a premium.
The assertion that "
I do not know anything" is just over doing yourself as you some times do.
Ipsa scientia potestas est
Next you assert that you are basing your views on the excavations and on the postulates proposed in AIT (the T in AIT stands for Theory, so you needn't write AIT theory, after all).
And this is what Uncle Google says:
Next you say that applying the arguments and logic of the AIT to the OOI theory (not OIT, actually) makes the OOI very persuasive, in your view.
That is good to know.
It is a very good thing to form one's views on important matters.
However, while I rejoice in your individual epiphany, it is also a regrettable duty to point out that your individual convictions do not take the place of peer review within an academic framework.
The OOI theory is still unaccepted by the academic community. Sad, but true. They still do not accept YouTube as an academically sound forum.
Let us have a separate argument over the AIT and the OOI theory.
Yes Exactly AIT is a theory, this is the main reason why people are trying you deny India's Vedic roots. This controversial propaganda is the one reason why there is a divide between North and South.
I do not understand this. Apparently you are fighting some not well understood political campaign, of your own imagining or an obscure one of not much prevalence.
Prove this theory false, there is nothing in this world that can deny Vedic roots and Rig Veda being written here in India.
No, nothing. Who denied it? It has nothing to do with either the AIT or the OOI. So why are you getting your knickers in a twist?
My point here is if people who are believing apply the same assertions that are there in AIT to OIT then OIT is strong and acceptable.
This statement is nothing to do with history, only the typical Indian harping on my logic is better than yours. So what? What is the evidence? What is it, specifically, that you are referring to? Instead of flights of fancy, why don’t you get down to brass tacks?
I.e. ifone goes in the route of the colonial propagandists the OIT is acceptable. Reason why I mentioned the AIT.
Do you yourself think that this sentence makes sense? What does it mean? And are you even aware of the huge volume of non-colonial historical research , both Indian and international, that exists?
You are probably aware of the uncomfortable truth that the Sangh Parivar's version of history depends on one-sided information, on the information revealed by excavations exclusively on the Indian side, and circulated and publicised on the Indian side. There is actually considerable work being done on the other side of the border, and most of it is unknown to our heroic re-write experts. But they bash on regardless. The excavations are said to prove that
Rightists do have their extreme views that is common through out the world but Indians do not study the Rightists history nor influenced by it.Most of the civilisation was on the Indian side, on the banks of the Sarasvati, hence it is wrong to call it the IVC;Most of the civilisation was on the Indian side, on the banks of the Sarasvati, hence it is wrong to call it the IVC;
Why don’t you read, or rather, try to read and understand what I wrote immediately before, rather than going off at a tangent? My post precisely answers your question, but you were obviously so busy polemicising that you didn’t notice.
1.Most of the civilisation was on the Indian side, on the banks of the Sarasvati, hence it is wrong to call it the IVC;
This point is correct, there are various sites that are being found all over North Western India, But regarding the the name of the civilization that do not make much of a difference.2
It sounds suspiciously as if you are in agreement. That would count as a sensational development, so I must regretfully conclude that your syntax has led you up the garden path.
2.The Sarasvati being mentioned in the Rg Veda clearly indicates that the IVC was extant at the time of the Rg Veda, since much of it was on the banks of the Sarasvati, or even in the river bed, meaning that since the Rg Veda was actually quite some time before the drying up of the river, it was therefore contemporaneous with the IVC;
No where in Rig Veda it was mentioned that IVC is extinct, in fact the biggest dilemma is how to interrelate IVC and Vedic texts.
Just curiousity, nothing important: do you at all know the difference between ‘extinct’ and ‘extant’? And do you realise that I am paraphrasing the revisionist argument?
On one side there are numerous sites which are pointing to a sophisticated civilization with out any literature .i.e IVC. On the other side there is a sophisticated literature which is explaining every thing and the way of life existed thousands of years ago i.e Rig Veda but with out any backing from archaeological evidence.
Not thousands of years. There is nothing in the Vedas to indicate the passage of time of thousands of years. For that, you have to go to the Puranas. But perhaps to your school of history, the two are more or less the same.
Do try to be accurate.
3.The IVC merged gradually and conclusively with that layer of pottery that is supposed to represent the Aryan speakers in India, so the IVC may be held to have been part of the unbroken Indic tradition, not a one-off as had been thought before.
The assertion that IVC belongs to Aryan speakers is not yet proven, the script used in the tablets and seals found during excavations is not Aryan but some thing else and it is primitive at best.
Again, you seem to be agreeing. Do be careful.
Presumably these are what emerges from the excavations for you. What do we get from these data?
1. The settlements on the Ghaggar/Hakra are, almost wholly, smaller and less developed than the mega-cities of the main IVC; they are hardly the representative locations;
Cities develop on the river banks, The gradual migration of people from Saraswati river banks after river dried up to Indus to the west, Yamuna and Ganga to the East and Kerala to the South is one assertion.
There is no proof, none whatsoever, of either migration from the ‘Saraswati’ river banks after the river dried up to the Yamuna or Ganga, or to Kerala. In fact, there is evidence that a certain kind of Sanskritisation proceeded along the Konkan coast, first, to Tulunadu, then to Palghat and its environments. You need to look up Kesavan Veluthat, and authors of histories of south India, to understand the dates.
With the migrations and time the civilization might have developed in to city based civilization.
That is a clear possibility. It has no connection with either AIT or OOI.
2.It is argued that the weakness of the AIT is that there is no mention of any other homeland from which the mythical Aryans might have travelled, but simultaneously, there is an adamant refusal to acknowledge that the Sarasvati could have been the Iranian river Haraote. So the mention of the Sarasvati in the Rg Veda is not at all conclusive. It certainly doesn't lead to the conclusions that the revisionists have got to.
If Saraswati is in Iran, they why would the people there compose texts in Sanskrit??
Why should they compose texts in Sanskrit? You are confused; it was a memory of the Haraote/Haraxvaiti that caused the river in India to be named Saraswati. It is not that the same river was being addressed.
They would have chosen Avestan. This is where the OIT theory gains on AIT, based on the linguistic similarities between Avestan and Sanskrit, OIT theory explains that a group of people might have migrated towards Iran after the drying up of the River in India and might have named the river in Iran
as
Haraxvaiti in memory of the mighty river.
Think; please think.
Faced with a mountain range and inhospitable desert on one side, and with plains, not then as desiccated and desert-land as today, which way would you head?
And try not to be schoolboyish and suggest that the same dilemma should have prevented the ingress of Indo-Aryan speaking people from west to east. We already have the symmetric opposition of the religious concepts to give us a hint – Daiva vs. Deva, Ahura vs. Asura – so on and on.
What you really need to do is to give up blinkers and think about this with an open mind.
In fact Avestan texts praise the river Haraxvaiti similar to Rig Veda.
"The Avesta extols the Helmand in similar terms to those used in the Rigveda with respect to the Sarasvati: "the bountiful, glorious Haetumant swelling its white waves rolling down its copious flood"
And how does that disprove the alternative, that the knowledge of the Haraxvaiti, or Haraote, preceded the knowledge of the Saraswati? It actually strengthens the case.
3.There is in fact no conclusive archaeological evidence about the merger of the later stages of the IVC with the early stage of north Indian pottery. It is wrong to say on the basis of archaeological evidence that the descendants of the IVC were in fact the Aryan speakers who composed the Rg Veda.
This is conclusion is wrong and I have explained that there is no evidence suggestion that IVC and Rig Veda are related and There is no exact evidence which proves Rig Veda time line.
That is just what I said.
It sounds, once again, as if you are agreeing with me.
Michel Danino is one more revisionist mushroom with no academic credentials. Neither his book nor his theories have any professional support. He is, like all the other revisionist historians, except for Elst, a self-taught expert with no acceptance.
Hebed of the supposed river.
One cannot deny the work of a Proto - Historian unless there is evidence and concrete argument to contradict.
Please.
Try not to give the entire profession a bad name. Except for Koenraad Elst, who is regarded as a dangerous eccentric by his own people, and Kazanas, who was the protagonist of your first clip, there are no historians in this melee on the side of the revisionists.
To be precise, Michel Danino was the hagiographer of The Mother at Pondicherry. Not very good training for historical research.
@
INDIC
@
Srinivas
I want to suggest these to you:
HINDU MYTH, HINDU HISTORY: Religion, Art and Politics - Heinrich von Stietencron
Ch. 8: The Preconditions of Western Research into Hinduism and Their Consequences
Ch. 9: Hinduism: On the Proper Use of a Deceptive Term
Ch 10: Religious Configurations in Pre-Muslim India and the Modern Concept of Hinduism
These are, contrary to what you might think, sympathetic accounts, and you may well enjoy reading them. This is real history, not the garbage with which you tax your mind.