UPDATE ON THE ARYAN INVSION DEBATE
by KOENRAAD ELST
Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi
1.Political
Aspects of the Aryan Invasion Debate
1.1 Politicizing a Linguistic Theory
1. 1. 1. Aryavarta for the Aryans
1. 1. 4. Indo-European and the Nouvelle Droite
1. 1. 5. The Nouvelle Droite on race and the Aryans Invasion
1.2 The Aryan Invasion Theory in Indian Politics
1. 2. 1. The AIT and the “anti-national forces”
1. 2. 3. Anti-Brahminism and anti-Semitism
1. 2. 4. Foreign support for anti-Brahminism
1. 2. 7. Marxism against India
1. 2. 8. The establishment vs. the outsiders
1. 2. 9. Indian Marxists abroad
1.3 Politicization as an Obstacle to Research
1. 3. 1. Taboo on Indo-European studies
1. 3. 3. Political excuse for non-argumentation: the West
1. 3. 4. Political excuse for non-argumentation: India
1.4 A Case Study in AIT Polemic
1. 4. 1. A primer in AIT polemic
1. 4. 2. Ethnically pure Aryans
1. 4. 4. The importance of being white
1. 4. 6. From Harappa to Ayodhya
1. 4. 7. The denial of history
1. 5. 1. Aryans and social mobility
1. 5. 2. Role of the non-Aryans
1. 5. 5. Pakistani Indus, Bharatiya Saraswati
1. 5. 6. Aryans as servants of imperialism
2.
Astronomic Data and the Aryan Question
2. 2. 2. Ancient observation, modern confirmation
2. 2. 3. The start of Kali-Yuga
2.3 The Precession of the Equinox
2. 3. 1. The slowest hand on the clock
2. 3. 3. Regulus at summer solstice
2. 3. 4. One Veda can hide another
2.4 Additional Astronomical Indications
2. 4. 3. Cosmic data in Vedic ritual
2. 4. 5. India as the metropolis
3.
Linguistic Aspects of the Indo-European Urheimat Question
3. 1. 1. Evidence sweeping everything before it
3. 1. 2. Down with the Linguistic evidence
3.2 Origin of the Linguistic Argument
3. 2. 1. Linguistic and geographical distance from the origins
3. 2. 3. Sanskrit and PIE vowels
3. 3. 1. Geographical asymmetry in expansion
3. 3. 2. Geographical distribution
3. 3. 3. Linguistic paleontology’s failure
3. 3. 4. Positive evidence from linguistic paleontology
3.4 Exchanges with other Languages Families
3. 4. 1. Souvenirs of language contacts
3. 4. 6. Dravidian substratum elements
4.
Miscellaneous Aspects of the Aryan Invasion Debate
4.1 Demographical common sense
4. 1. 2. Civilization and demography
4. 2. 2. Iranians in the Rg-Veda
4. 2. 3. The south was on their right-hand side
4. 2. 4. Geographical implications of Vedic chronology
4.3 Where did the Kurgan People come from?
4. 4. 1. The horse and IE expansion
4. 4. 2. The absence of horse remains
4. 4. 3. The presence of horse remains
4. 5. 1. The Kassite and Mitannic peoples
4. 5. 2. The Sumerian connection
4. 6. 3. Dynastic history in the Puranas
4. 6. 4. Emigrations in the Puranas
4. 6. 5. Migration history of other IE tribes
4. 6. 6. Iranian Urheimat memory
4. 7. 2. Continuity between Indra and Shiva
4.8 Invasionist terms in the Vedas
4.9 The Evidence from physical anthropology
4. 9. 1. Continuity between castes
4. 9. 4. Tribals and “Caucasians”
4. 9. 5. Language and genetics
4. 9. 6. The original “Aryan race”
4. 9. 7. The race of the Vedic Aryans
4. 9. 8. Evidence of immigration?
5.2 Evidence provided by physical anthropology
5. 2. 2. A challenge to monogenism?
5. 2. 3. The Veddoid aboriginals
5.3 The Archaeological Evidence
5. 3. 1. Tracing the Aryan migrants
5. 3. 5. Were the Bactrians Indo-Aryans?
5. 3. 6. Clarions of the Aryan invaders
5. 3. 7. Bactrian invasion into India
5. 3. 8. Why Harappa suffered decline
5. 3. 9. Aryan settlements in India
5. 3.11. Comparison with archaeological reconstruction in Europe
5. 4. 1. East-Asian influences
5. 4. 2. Is Dravidian native to India?
5. 4. 3. Afro-Dravidian kinship
5. 4. 4. Additional indications for Afro-Dravidian
5. 4. 5. Uralic-Dravidian kinship
5. 4. 6. Geographical distribution of IE languages
5.5 The Evidence from Comparative Religion
5. 5. 1. Aryan contributions to indigenous culture
5. 5. 3. Harappan and Vedic fire cult
5. 5. 4. More on Harappan vs. Vedic
5. 5. 5. The impact of East-Asian mythology
5. 5. 6. Some caveats to comparatists
5. 5. 7. Harappa, teacher of China?
5. 5. 8. The Harappan contribution
6. 1. 2. Zarathushtra’s chronology
6. 1. 3. The West-Asian term “Asura”
6. 1. 5. Simple and avoidable mistakes
6. 2. 1. The archaeological job
6. 2. 2. Literary testimony to Harappan decline
6. 2. 3. Let us keep on doubting