Whenever the question come to us that who were our ancestor? We most likely answer that we are Aryans. Or descendent of the Aryans. People of the Vedic age we all refer to them as the Aryans and the people in the south we all refer them as the Dravidian.
So the net question is Who were Aryans? Most answers we get is .. They were the people who wrote Vedas. Who were in the time of the Mahabharata or Ramayana… In short aour literature refer to the only people Aryans.
Most of the people stops here .as they got the all answers.. And accepted that Aryans were our ancestor.
Real question here is Why are these people called Aryans? These question lead us the origin of the Aryan people. Many historian gave the theory about the origin of these people. According to them They were the people living in central Asia and then migrated/invaded to India.
Originally the Harrapan people were living in India.. But around 1900 BCE Aryan people came to India and they destroyed this Harrapan civilisation and started living here.. This assumption is called the Aryan invasion theory.
Aran Invasion Theory
The Aryan Invasion Theory is a hypothesis developed in the 20th century that states that a group of people called Aryans invaded northern India and destroyed the Indus Valley Civilization.
The detractors of this theory argue that this hypothesis was created to justify British conquest of India and has no archaeological or genetic basis.
It is still debated today and subsequent genetic studies have cast doubt on the entire Aryan Invasion Theory in recent years.
Is it Real? Let’s check by the facts and evidences
Proofs that proves that It’s real
1. Linguistic evidence
Similarities between Indo-European languages.
Indo-European languages refer to the group of languages spoken in the majority parts of Europe, Iran and North part of the India. This group includes the languages like Hittite, Latin, Sanskrit, Greek and English. So the Historians came up with the theory that they all where came from one common ancestor called “Proto-Indo-European” language. Though we don’t know that how does this language look alike or who where their speakers. But Historians and linguistic experts made this from the similarities of the language and assumed that their speakers were living on the steppe of the central Asia.
2. DNA studies
DNA studies of the Indian and central Asian people shows common ancestry. That means Indian people and the Central Asian people came from the same ancestor. Based on this fact Historians believed that Long ago Aryan people from the central Asia migrated to the India.
3. Archaeological Evidences
As per the Aryan invasion theory, Aryan invaded India and Killed all their original residents which were at that time IVC people and start ruling Indian land. But evidence we found in the Harrapan civilization doesn’t show any sign of such invasion. According to the archaeologist dead bodies found at Mohenjo Daro showing no sign of injuries from fight, they were died from flood. Most of the Historian agrees the fact that Harrapan civilization came to gradual end because of the changes in environment.
So this Theory changed to the Aryana migration theory. According to the this theory, Aryan didn’t fought with existing civilization in India but they gradually migrated.
Second and the most important thing is horse and chariot. Vedas have so much description of the different horses and chariots. But in Harappa remains we didn’t find anything about horse and chariot. They did use chariot but it was pulled by bulls. We found so many Harappan seals but none of them has picture of hoarse on it. From these odds historians conclude that there were no horses before Vedic times. The Aryans came with the horses and chariots.
Above facts backs up the Aryan Invasion/Migration theory.
Now let’s move on the another important questions..
Anywhere in Vedas is it mention that they were called Aryans ?
No, From my research I didn’t find anything that mention that Vedic people called Aryan. Rigveda and Mahabharat do mention the name as ‘Aryavart’ means the land where civilized people lives.
Real meaning of Aryan?
According to the Amarakosha(6th century book on the lexicon of the Sanskrit words) defines Arya as
“Ahakula kulinarya sabhya sajjanasadhavah”
One who is from an aristocratic family, of gentle mien, good-natured and righteous
The Ramayana describes Rama as “Arya sarva samascaiva sadaiva priyadarsanah.”
One who worked for the equality of all and was dear to everyone.
The great Aurobindo defined an ‘Aryan’ as not someone of a particular race, but a person who “accepted a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration”.
The word “Arya” mentioned in Rigveda 36 times but none of them used as refence to any race.
The Theosophical Society went beyond the premise and declared that the Aryans were the founders of European civilisation.
Who first used the word Aryan ?
Most of the historians now believes that Aryan Invasion theory was originally British concept to
propagated the existence of a master race and justify their rule on India.
A British employee Max Muller was a staunch German nationalist and Sanskrit scholar. He was the first who pictured ‘Arya’ as a race and also gave a Aryan Invasion theory.
A great thanks to Britishers that now all Indian textbook taught that Indian civilization is the result of the migration of Iranian steppe farmers.
They invoked the concept that original Indian people were Dravidian and Aryan regarded them as Shudra while they themself formed the upper three class.
So , The next and the oblivious question comes to our mind that is Who were Dravidian?
Who were Dravidian ?
As per the Aryan Invasion Theory, When Aryans came to India Harappan civilization was flourishing. The Harappan were actually peace loving famers and not trained in any kind of warfare So Aryas pushed them to the southern part as the Aryans were skilled fighters and came prepared with weapons and chariots.
Who used it first?
The English word Dravidian was first used by Robert Caldwell in his 1856 book of comparative Dravidian grammar. Caldwell used ‘Dravidian’ as a generic name for the family of languages spoken in Southern India to distinguish them from Indo-Aryan, the branch of Indo-European spoken in the Indian subcontinent.
Real meaning of Dravida
Dravida is a Sanskrit word and its meaning is land surrounded by water from three side. If we look at the Indian Geography, Almost all the states after the Vindhya range ((Gujarat (west ) , Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nādu, goa, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Bengal )) has a water border, That means south of the Vidhya is surrounded by the water from three side thus in old times it used to refer as the Dravida Desha. Not as a race.
Proofs that proves it Just theory not the reality
1. Latest DNA Study
Recent DNA study from the Rakhigrahi (Which the largest Harappan site found so far) debunk the migration theory. The DNA taken from the 2500 BCE old woman skeletal revealed that there was no migration or inclusion of any Iran or Central Asian gene into Harappan people.
“The ancient-DNA results completely reject the theory of steppe pastoral or ancient Iranian farmers as source of ancestry to the Harappan population. This research also demolishes the hypothesis about mass human migration during the Harappan time from outside South Asia,” Prof Vasant Shinde, director of the Rakhigarhi project, said.
According to the stuides Harappan people where moved to west from India. All the Indians are the descendent of the Harappan people even the Vedic people also. There is no mixing of the steppe gene found.
According to the Prof Shinde “The skeletal remains found in the upper part of the citadel area of Mohenjodaro belonged to those who died due to floods and not (of those) massacred by the Aryans as hypothesised by Sir Mortimer Wheeler. This research, for the first time, has established the fact that people of Harappan civilisation are the ancestors of most population of South Asia. For the first time, the research indicates movement of people from east to west. ”
2. Mention of the Sarasvati river
In the Rigveda and the other older Vedas mention Sarasvati as the mighty river. It described as the big and holy river in the north- west India. But the later Vedic text described it as the small and the drying river. This proves that the Vedic culture flourished when the Sarasvati river was at its peak and not dried up. As per the geological data Sarasvati river dried up around 2500-2000 BCE.
This debunked the Aryan invasion theory happened at the time around 1500 BCE.
Harappan civilization also related to the Sarasvati river. Most of the IVC sites found at the dried band of the Saraswati river than Indus river so it is also called the Saraswati civilization.
This shows that possibilities of the coexistence of the Harappan and Vedic people.
Holy places and the location described in Vedas.
There are lots of holy places for Hindus mentioned in the Vedas. These all places reside only in India. None of them is outside the India. If we go by the invasion theory and believe that Aryans were came from the somewhere else. There has to be at least one place the described their origin. But Vedas mention the Bharatbhumi as their Matrubhumi.
There are some narration where find the mention of the other places that was the time when Indian(King went to the expedition and won all the places outside the India and united whole earth like in the case of the Kartivirya Arjun and Parashurama) boundry was forestretched. And was formally known as the Nabhi Varsha. It roots the theory that people went outside from India not the opposite.
Recent excavation at the Sinauli site.
In the Recent excavation happened at the Sinauli site, archaeologists found several wooden coffin burials, copper swords, helmets, and wooden carts, with solid disk wheels and protected by copper sheets. The carts were presented by Sanjay Manjul, director of the excavations, as chariots, and he further notes that “the rituals relating to the Sanauli burials showed close affinity with Vedic rituals.”
These all findings dated back to the 2000 – 1800 BCE. In a way it shows that horses and chariots where present in India before Aryan Invasion happened.
These proofs lead us to believe that Aryan Invasion never happened. People were living here from very long time. They went outside from India and ruled over there. And we all have common ancestry. We are not Aryan and Dravidian we are Bharatiyas.
Conclusion
Over the last 100 years there has been so many new discoveries made and it’s still continue. But one thing is sure that whether the Aryans came here or born here ,there greatness flourished only on this holy land of India. They changed the history of the world while living in India, Mahabharat and Ramayana happened in this very land. Shri Ram and Krishna born here and we are the descendent of those great people and civilization. Now it is up to us to live like that.