I know most of you Indians are too cool to care. As an interested outsider, I am keen to get my facts right. Please correct me if I were wrong, and welcome to more discussions.
So this is what I figured out recently: Aryan invasion theory is utterly fabricated by the British to put down Indians, so they are easily subjected to occupation and exploitation. It's one of the evilest shit ever in human history. For more than 300 years, the British put this in the Indians' mind - You are just a bunch of bastards, you lost your original culture (Indus Valley Civilization), what you have as a culture now, comes from some white dudes who are moving herdsmen and rapists.
Aryan Invasion theory was in each every textbook and each every scholar's mind, it was in each every classroom that studied Indian history and in the South Asia department of each every university and college in the world. This theory was injected in all of South Asians' blood, for centuries. But it just took me, a stay-home mom some reading and India trips to figure it out.
What is the Aryan Invasion theory by the way? In short, it's saying that at the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization (2000 BCE), bands of light-skinned Aryans invaded the Indian Subcontinent from Central Asia and conquered the dark-skinned Indus dwellers. And the light-skinned Aryans were the noble ones who designed the religious ritual system and stayed on top of the pyramid, ruling over the dark-skin ones.
By the saying of it, I could feel that the theory was baked up from an extremely racist place. Not to traumatize you all, the large majority of Chinese who think themselves know something about India, they learned the light-skinned higher caste rulers are white people - the European descendent Aryans who came to invade India.
The sad part is most people are unaware, but in their conscious mind, they are situated to white supremacy without knowing. Good work British, this is how you ruled the world and we are still living in the dark.
Five years ago I was named as one of the 100 people who actually really know something about India (out of the 1.3 billion). Five years later, I am not sure how many of the 100 people are still active. And out of the 100 or whatever number it is, I don't think other than me, any scholar ever openly brought up the evilness or wrongness of the Aryan Invasion theory, or they just never cared to question. So ya, the 1.3 billion Chinese are still in the dark, thanks to the British.
So why Indus Valley Civilization is still alive and active among all Indians? How can you say Indian culture is the only surviving ancient civilization that never died? First of all, with more advanced technology, more and more unearthed artifacts from Indus Valley Civilization are undoubtedly proving, today among Hindus, they are doing pretty much the same thing. For example, worshipping to Goddess (female) statue, worshipping of Shiv lingam, lotus posture found in various artifacts, figure that highly resembled lord Shiv, red-colored Sindhu found on the forehead of women's statue. The evidence is only accumulating.
Also, recent satellite photography has shown that between 1900 and 1600 BCE the Indus River changed course, the cities of the Indus Civilization were being abandoned during that period. Most likely the Indus Valley people just migrated to different locations. Furthermore, Aryans' own extensive writings never mention wars or hostilities against peoples who can be positively identified as indigenous to India.
And take a look at the Durga Puja celebration, one of the biggest events in Hindu culture today. The mythology of Durga maa goes way earlier than Ramayana. Lord Rama chose the date of Durga maa's fighting to go on his own fighting, and he prayed to Durga maa to gain strength. To me, it shows the continuance and persistence of the ancient culture.
And as a human being, I don't think we are recognizing and celebrating enough the fact that, whatever the humans in Indus Valley did 6000 years back, we are still doing it today. This is definitely the biggest miracle in today's living world. And I truly believe that to decipher the ancient culture that has survived through all the ups and downs in human history, is the only way to save us in the future.
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More on Durga Puja
I asked my husband about the story of Diwali, the connection between Diwali and Durga Puja. What I realized is the mythology of Durga maa goes way earlier than lord Rama ("Ramayana" was written at 7th to 4th centuries BCE).
At that time (7th century BC), Durga maa's story must be like lord Rama's story at our time - prominent mythology that came from hundreds and thousands of years back, passed down from generation to generation.
It has to be from a very advanced civilization that had a systematic worshipping mechanism, that civilization must be around for a long long time, and was strong and influential enough to later lead to the creation of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Which is just a development of the same civilization. It has to be Indus Valley Civilization.
This is what I couldn't get out of my mind.
The key to this issue - decipher the ancient words found in Indus Valley, if there is a connection, then it can prove the "out of India" hypothesis. Which will have a stronger and stronger stand in the future, I personally believe.
Even there is no connection between the languages in Indus Valley to Vedic, it doesn't eliminate the fact that the rituals and worshipping system has passed down. The Vedas somehow recorded all of this. By all means, I don't see the sign of "Invasion", maximum "Integration".
I wouldn't at another life, believe the worshipping of Durga maa was imported from Central Asia. lol
Correct me if I were wrong.
So this is what I figured out recently: Aryan invasion theory is utterly fabricated by the British to put down Indians, so they are easily subjected to occupation and exploitation. It's one of the evilest shit ever in human history. For more than 300 years, the British put this in the Indians' mind - You are just a bunch of bastards, you lost your original culture (Indus Valley Civilization), what you have as a culture now, comes from some white dudes who are moving herdsmen and rapists.
Aryan Invasion theory was in each every textbook and each every scholar's mind, it was in each every classroom that studied Indian history and in the South Asia department of each every university and college in the world. This theory was injected in all of South Asians' blood, for centuries. But it just took me, a stay-home mom some reading and India trips to figure it out.
What is the Aryan Invasion theory by the way? In short, it's saying that at the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization (2000 BCE), bands of light-skinned Aryans invaded the Indian Subcontinent from Central Asia and conquered the dark-skinned Indus dwellers. And the light-skinned Aryans were the noble ones who designed the religious ritual system and stayed on top of the pyramid, ruling over the dark-skin ones.
By the saying of it, I could feel that the theory was baked up from an extremely racist place. Not to traumatize you all, the large majority of Chinese who think themselves know something about India, they learned the light-skinned higher caste rulers are white people - the European descendent Aryans who came to invade India.
The sad part is most people are unaware, but in their conscious mind, they are situated to white supremacy without knowing. Good work British, this is how you ruled the world and we are still living in the dark.
Five years ago I was named as one of the 100 people who actually really know something about India (out of the 1.3 billion). Five years later, I am not sure how many of the 100 people are still active. And out of the 100 or whatever number it is, I don't think other than me, any scholar ever openly brought up the evilness or wrongness of the Aryan Invasion theory, or they just never cared to question. So ya, the 1.3 billion Chinese are still in the dark, thanks to the British.
So why Indus Valley Civilization is still alive and active among all Indians? How can you say Indian culture is the only surviving ancient civilization that never died? First of all, with more advanced technology, more and more unearthed artifacts from Indus Valley Civilization are undoubtedly proving, today among Hindus, they are doing pretty much the same thing. For example, worshipping to Goddess (female) statue, worshipping of Shiv lingam, lotus posture found in various artifacts, figure that highly resembled lord Shiv, red-colored Sindhu found on the forehead of women's statue. The evidence is only accumulating.
Also, recent satellite photography has shown that between 1900 and 1600 BCE the Indus River changed course, the cities of the Indus Civilization were being abandoned during that period. Most likely the Indus Valley people just migrated to different locations. Furthermore, Aryans' own extensive writings never mention wars or hostilities against peoples who can be positively identified as indigenous to India.
And take a look at the Durga Puja celebration, one of the biggest events in Hindu culture today. The mythology of Durga maa goes way earlier than Ramayana. Lord Rama chose the date of Durga maa's fighting to go on his own fighting, and he prayed to Durga maa to gain strength. To me, it shows the continuance and persistence of the ancient culture.
And as a human being, I don't think we are recognizing and celebrating enough the fact that, whatever the humans in Indus Valley did 6000 years back, we are still doing it today. This is definitely the biggest miracle in today's living world. And I truly believe that to decipher the ancient culture that has survived through all the ups and downs in human history, is the only way to save us in the future.
------
More on Durga Puja
I asked my husband about the story of Diwali, the connection between Diwali and Durga Puja. What I realized is the mythology of Durga maa goes way earlier than lord Rama ("Ramayana" was written at 7th to 4th centuries BCE).
At that time (7th century BC), Durga maa's story must be like lord Rama's story at our time - prominent mythology that came from hundreds and thousands of years back, passed down from generation to generation.
It has to be from a very advanced civilization that had a systematic worshipping mechanism, that civilization must be around for a long long time, and was strong and influential enough to later lead to the creation of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Which is just a development of the same civilization. It has to be Indus Valley Civilization.
This is what I couldn't get out of my mind.
The key to this issue - decipher the ancient words found in Indus Valley, if there is a connection, then it can prove the "out of India" hypothesis. Which will have a stronger and stronger stand in the future, I personally believe.
Even there is no connection between the languages in Indus Valley to Vedic, it doesn't eliminate the fact that the rituals and worshipping system has passed down. The Vedas somehow recorded all of this. By all means, I don't see the sign of "Invasion", maximum "Integration".
I wouldn't at another life, believe the worshipping of Durga maa was imported from Central Asia. lol
Correct me if I were wrong.
My take on Aryan Invasion Theory
The famous Shiva figure with lotus posture, three faces and surrounded by animals
The other figure found in a seal with lotus posture and three faces
