From: vidya@cco.caltech.edu (Vidyasankar Sundaresan)
Subject: Re: Forgeries of Hindu Scriptures
Status: OR
To: alt-hindu@ucsd.edu
Originator: editor@rbhatnagar
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 03:54:45 GMT
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In article <9301161957.AA07480@ar-rimal.cs.utexas.edu> prabu@cs.utexas.edu  
writes:
- Path: news
- From: prabu@cs.utexas.edu (Prabu Muthu)
- Newsgroups: alt.hindu
- Subject: Re: Forgeries of Hindu Scriptures
- Date: 16 Jan 1993 13:57:08 -0600
- Organization: CS Dept, University of Texas at Austin
- Lines: 26
- Message-ID: <llgq4kINN79l@ar-rimal.cs.utexas.edu>
- References: <9301151440.AA14827@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca>
- 
- Arun, you say: 
- (i) if the RigVeda was composed in India (rather than brought in by
- migrating `Aryan' tribes) in 1500 B.C. or so; and the `Purusha Sukta'
- dates to ~0 A.D. then, that the caste system began as enslavement of
- `Dravidians', etc., is a bit of a myth. (That is, whatever caste system
- existed did not have `Vedic' support.)
- 
- 
- Firstly, there is no proof that the Rig Veda was composed in India;  
surely,
- parts of it were, and perhaps even entire books.  But the Rig Veda was a 
- work in progress, and the "enslavement of Dravidians" only began in the
- late stages of Aryan migration (seemingly).  There are plenty of  
instances
- in the Rig Veda in which the duksa (I think that is the word used - it's  
been
- a little while), or "dark-skinned" people are mentioned in  
not-so-glowing
- terms, and in which Aryan victories over the duksas are celebrated and
- attributed to Indra and Agni (fire being an important weapon to destroy
- villages and cities).
- 

Yes, the Rg Veda mentions 'dasyus', who were dark-skinned and who were  
defeated by Indra and Agni. However remember that that does not constitute  
proof that the 'incoming Aryans' conquered a dark skinned race. The  
Europeans who interpreted the Rg Veda for most of us ignoramus Indians  
(who are content, by the way, to accept what the fairer-skinned white man  
tells us) based their Aryan vs. Dravidian/other indigenous peoples on the  
presence of a vast variety of racial groups in India. Assuming the truth  
of that theory, they 'found' evidence for it in the Rg Vedic mention of  
dasyus. The Aryan theory was concocted by some racists who only served  
Hitler's purpose. It is circular argument to say that there is evidence  
for the concept of an Aryan race defeating an indigenous race, in the  
Vedas. It is sad that Indians are still slaves to the British Raj  
mentality.


- The caste system could still be attributed at least partially to the
- subjugation of certain segments of the population, mostly indigenous,
- who didn't submit wholly voluntarily to the incoming peoples.
- 

Remember India did not exist in isolation. Various groups of people,  
Greeks, Arabs, Chinese, etc. have entered India over the ages, by land and  
by sea. All these people got accommodated in the caste system too. The  
original idea of four varnas was long submerged in the later jati system,  
which evolved from society having to absorb different populations at  
different times. To Alexander and his Greek historians, Porus, the king of  
the Punjab was dark-skinned, yet he surely was an 'Aryan', probably a near  
descendent of one of those 'Aryan' kings who drove the Dravidians to the  
south! This only goes to show what bull the whole thing is. 

There is not much  evidence one way or the other to decide conclusively  
whether the Aryans who wrote the Vedas themselves were an indigenous  
people or whether they came from outside. It is unscientific to keep  
repeating like a parrot, the same theory without refuting another theory  
which explains the same facts. Goes to show how powerful the effect of  
indoctrination is. 


- Prabu
- -- 
- Prabu Muthu				prabu@cs.utexas.edu
- Comp Sci/Philosophy
- 

S.Vidyasankar

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