Customer Reviews

Aryan Invasion Theory (A Reappraisal)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Shrikant G. Talageri. The Aryan Invasion Theory - A Reappraisal. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 1993 (Reprinted 2003). Hardback, xviii + 373 pages. ISBN 8185689407.

An Aryan invasion of India in the middle of the second millennium BC was propounded by European linguists in the nineteenth century in order to explain the presence of two speech families in India - Indo-European in the North and Dravidian languages in the South. The mention of the Deva-Dasyu conflict in the Rig Veda was interpreted as pointing towards a war between the invading Aryans and the native Dravidians.

It was further supposed that the ancestors of the North Indian and European Aryans must have lived in a common habitat at some period prior to their dispersal towards the east and west, and it was postulated that this common habitat must have been in South Russia or Central Asia.

In the present book the author, using the latest findings of comparative linguistics and archaeology, has taken on the 'invasionists' or proponents of the Invasion Theory, effectively demolished their case, and established that northern India is the original home of the Indo-European family of languages.

His is an extremely well-written and well-researched book that anyone who is at all interested in India's history would find fascinating. The author later went on to write a second book, Rigveda: A Historical Analysis, which so powerfully reinforced his thesis that Harvard University wrote to him and offered him a "fully-paid scholarship" if he would agree henceforth to be "flexible" in his views (p.vi, Preface to the First Reprint) as it seems he was making some invasionist very uncomfortable there. Happily for us the author, as an honorable man, refused, preferring truth over pelf and prestige.

Would that the world held more such scholars!

A must for any serios student of Indain History. Helps remove a lot of doubts & proves the Aryan Invasion Theory of India being a big myth. Scientific research presented.