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| Home > Origin of Hatha Yoga > Myth of Aryan Invasion
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| | Myth of Aryan Invasion
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The `Aryan invasion` myth
"To lift the veil of the past, we must first lift the veil of our own minds. "
The majority of western Ideologists have subscribed to the `Aryan invasion` hypothesis in one form or another ever since its popularity in the 19th century. Despite the lack of strong evidence in its favour, only recently has the balance of opinion begun to shift.
The theory initially came to prominence due to its apparent ability to relate between Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages, including Persian, Greek and Latin. After these similarities were first noticed in 1786 by the British judge and Sanskritist William Jones, researchers in comparative linguistics began to speculate about an original `proto-Indo-European` language. This language may have spawned later tongues, and the idea was proposed that a nomadic race of people, situated somewhere in central Asia, must have spread out in various directions, invading regions of Europe, the Middle East, and what is now the Indian subcontinent, and taking their language with them.
Scholars gave to this hypothetical race the label `Aryan`, from the Sanskrit word Arya. Arya is the term which appears in the Rig-Veda and elsewhere, and claimed that the presence of the Sanskrit language and of Vedic civilization in India was due to a forceful invasion. According to later versions of the theory, a more gradual migration by this central Asian race was also supposed as a possible reason instead of Invasion.
This theory which places the nation of India in the role of `victim` and denies an autochthonous origin to Vedic language and religions is unable to stand the new evidence from the Fields of archaeology and textual analysis. Still, it is important to at least mention some of the refuting arguments here, so that the subject of Indian soteriology, and of hatha-yoga in particular, may be clearly appraised and remain undarkened by the lone, shadow of a false hypothesis that explains the remarkable phonetic and grammatical similarities.
The First point to mention is that, in Vedic literature, the term arya does not in fact refer to a racial type or to a language, but is, `a title of honor and respect given to certain groups for good or noble behavior.` To support the invasion theory, passages of the Vedas that speak of a conflict between light` and `dark` powers had been interpreted as references to a literal battle between fair-skinned `Aryans` and darker-skinned `Dasyus`. The latter term being (wrongly) supposed to denote the Dravidian people most prominent today in South India. As Aurobindo makes clear, however, the conflict being described is a moral and spiritual, not a physical, one:
The Aryan is he who does the work of sacrifice, finds the sacred word of illumination, desires the Gods and increases into the largeness of the true existence. An aryan is the warrior of the light and the traveler to the Truth. The Dasyu is the undivine being who does no sacrifice, amasses a wealth he cannot rightly use because he cannot speak the word or mentalise the superconscient Truth, hates the Word, the gods and the sacrifice and gives nothing of himself to the higher existences but robs and with-holds his wealth from the Aryan.
Secondly, it should be remembered that there is no hard evidence for the invasion theory, only conjectures based on `soft` linguistic evidence, and this soft evidence is completely over-ridden by archaeological discoveries made during the 20th century. These discoveries include not only the well-known sites such as Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro located `along the banks of the Indus river, but also over five hundred ancient sites associated with the Sarasvat river, some of which are far larger than any Indus valley settlements.
"Sarasvati" is the name given to the major river described in the Vedas, and also to a Vedic goddess. Geological research has indicated that such a river used to flow from the Tibetan Himalaya down to the Arabian Sea, but that `major tectonic shifts...possibly accompanied by volcanic eruptions` led to changes of the river`s Course and its eventual drying up sometime around 1900 B.C.E." What was once a fertile valley now forms part of the Thar Desert of north-west India and eastern Pakistan. Evidence gleaned from excavations of sites long hidden by the Thar sands suggests the existence of a culturally-advanced civilization throughout the Sarasvati-indus region stretching back to 6500 B.C.E., long before even the earliest proposed dates for an invasion from the north. Artefacts found at Sarasvat-Indus settlements show signs of a culture bearing a marked resemblance to that revealed in the Vedas, as well as a strong continuity with Hindu society thereafter. `This continuity` is evident in the religious ideas, arts, crafts, architecture, writing style, and the system of weights and measures.
These are all the facts that are hard to justify if we believe in Aryans being "foreign invaders who leveled the native civilization of the Indus Valley."
Thirdly, textual analysis of the Vedas shows that a close correspondence exists between geographical and climatic features described therein and those of northern India as it would have been before the Saraswati dried up, a correspondence which also applies to the flora and fauna.
Furthermore, a comparative study of the Vedic Samhitas and the later Brahmanas and Puranas suggests that a large migration took place around 1900 B.C.E. away from the Indus-Saraswati region and towards the Gangetic plane to the east, not to escape the violence inflicted by some invading hoard, but because the rivers to the west had been `burned out` by the blazing heat of Agni (the Fire deity, perhaps in this case representing the heat of the Sun). Thus a plausible explanation exists for the abandonment.
Textual and archaeological evidence has given proof of existence of the Indus-Sarasvat settlements, which is supported by textual geological data.
Contrary to this establishment of the Aryan invasion hypothesis, the introduction of Vedic religion and culture into India had been assumed to have taken place sometime after 2500 B.C. Interpreters of the new evidence propose a steady development within the Indian subcontinent along the following chronological lines:
6500-3100 B.C. E.: Early Indus-Saraswati civilization, early Rig-Veda.
3100-1900 B.C.E.: Mature Indus-Sarasvat civilization; period of the four Vedas;
1900-1000 B.C.E.: Migration of Indus-Saraswati civilization to the region of the Ganga river; late Vedic and Brahmana period.
While additional significant archaeological Finds no doubt remain to be made, the likelihood is that these will serve only to push the tentative dates proposed above back still farther into the ancient past, and not to undermine the basis of the new
Schematic.
Whatever future research throws up, the Aryan invasion myth can safely be consigned to the dustbin of history.
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