What our history textbooks today teach is still basically the theory of a few nineteenth-century European scholars

I have studied the question not only from an archaeological point of view, but also taking into account the views of great Indians such as Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and several others (my starting point was in fact Sri Aurobindo’s own research into the Veda [1]). For it is a vast subject which touches not only on archaeology and linguistics, not only on astronomy, ancient mathematics, geology, metallurgy, even ecology, but also on Indian Scriptures, culture and tradition. A few years ago, I summarized some important points in a small book.[2] Today, however, I will limit myself to a few main lines of argument which, to my mind, are sufficient to show that the “new school” of archaeologists and scholars is right in calling for a radical review of India’s remote past.

At the centre of the riddle of Indian’s ancient past lies the famous Indus Valley (or Harappan) civilization, one of the world’s oldest. It was certainly the most extensive by far, since it covered today’s Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, much of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Kashmir, western Uttar Pradesh, the whole of Pakistan, even parts of Afghanistan ; it was also one of the most sophisticated in terms of urbanization, industry, technology, trade and sailing. Its art and crafts were varied and refined, though much less abundant than in contemporary Egypt or Mesopotamia. However, its hallmarks were a remarkably peaceful civic organization based on cultural integration, and the care it bestowed on its humblest inhabitants. Its sanitation and water management, for instance, were of such a level that one wishes our municipal corporations would follow them today...

CYBERHINWA View profile From: CYBERHINWA cyberhi...@gmail.com Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 23:37:43 -0700 (PDT) Local: Mon, Mar 10 2008 11:37 am
Subject: WHITE MANS LIE STANDS EXPOSED : The Riddle of India's Ancient Past - An Overview of the Aryan Problem
A revised version of a paper presented at a seminar on Value Education organized by the Chinmaya Mission at Coimbatore