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In Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India

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George Feuerstein is an excellent writer who is always lively and has many fine books to his credit. In the present book he and his two collaborators - Sanskritist Subhash Kak and Vedic scholar David Frawley - have set out to bring us up to speed on the true nature of Ancient India and the profound importance and continuing significance of Indian thought for world civilization.

By fully taking into account the mass of evidence which has been accumulating over the past century, evidence from archaeology, satellite surveys, linguistic studies, etc., which a Eurocentric and reactionary 'educational' establishment continues to ignore, the authors have written an exciting and revolutionary book which pretty well renders obsolete all previous studies of Ancient India. In other words, it is a book which clearly demonstrates that much of what we have been taught about Ancient India (and which our highly paid academics continue to teach) is complete nonsense. But perhaps this will surprise no-one.

The book falls into two parts. In the first we learn that there was no such thing as an 'Aryan invasion' of India. It is a myth based upon a few idle conjectures of Max Muller along with a couple of scraps of misinterpreted evidence, an ideology masquerading as historical 'fact' (as is so much else today) because it fitted in so well with the Imperialist ambitions and racialism of the West.

India has always been multi-racial and multi-cultural, and the 'Aryans' were there all along. The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro were abandoned, not because of any supposed 'Aryan invasion,' but for the simple reason that the vast and sustaining Sarasvati river dried up c.1900 B.C., and the people of the Indus-Sarasvati civilization had to relocate further East to the region of the Ganges.

The Indians have no memory of an 'Aryan invasion.' There is no evidence of an invasion and no sign of the cultural break that such an invasion would have caused. On the contrary, India exhibits a striking continuity of culture which qualifies it as the world's oldest living continuous civilization, and one that stretches back to at least 6000 B.C, if not much further.

As portrayed by the authors, the rich and highly advanced Indus-Sarasvati civilization - a civilization of sages, priests, philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, musicians, astronomers, artists, architects, engineeers, navigators, artisans, farmers and merchants covered an area of over 300,000 square miles (in contrast to Ancient Egypt's 15,000 square miles and Sumer's even smaller area). It held over 2500 settlements, towns, and cities, and conducted an extensive commerce with Arabia, Africa, and the Middle East. Also, where influences can be determined, they flowed, not from West to East but from East to West. In short, pace Sumerian scholar Samuel Noah Kramer, everything did not begin in Sumer. It was neither Sumer nor Egypt that was the cradle of civilization. It was India.

Chapter 9, 'Why the Aryan Invasion Never Happened: Seventeen Arguments,' summarizes and concludes Part I of the book. Part II, 'The Splendor of Ancient India: Its Cultural and Spiritual Legacy' provides a stimulating overview of the spiritual heritage of Ancient India, the birth of science, the astronomical basis of the Vedic myths, the powerful and long-continuing influence of India on the West, and the Vedas and Perennial Wisdom.

We learn that the Vedas are of staggering importance. Far from being a mere collection of myths, they represent a crystallization, in symbolic code, of the incredibly ancient wisdom of a balanced and harmonious civilization in which science and religion were not, as with us, opposed, but were mutually involved in the pursuit of truths which had the aim of bringing both man and society into harmony with the cosmos.

Sadly the Vedas, written as they are in a difficult archaic Sanskrit, are little studied even in India, and are even less understood. Given the increasing degeneracy of modern civilization, it is a blessing that a handful of determined scholars have today set about extracting the knowledge from this precious repository that could, if rightly used, help restore us to sanity.

One of the most appreciative interpreters of the Vedas today is the Roman Catholic priest and Professor of Religious Studies, Raimundo Panikkar, and readers are referred to his superb anthology of beautifully translated extracts with detailed commentaries, The Vedic Experience: Mantramanjari (an Anthology of the Vedas for Modern Man....

Here is a brief extract. It clearly shows a quality of sensibility that we have lost and something of what we must relearn from "the treasures of Asian understanding" if, in the words of British scholar, scientist, and sinologist Joseph Needham, "our civilization [is not] to go down in history as distorted and evil" (p.167):

"Now Dawn with her earliest light shines forth,
beloved of the Sky,
Fresh from her toilet, conscious of her beauty,
she emerges visible for all to see.
Dawn, Daughter of Heaven, lends us her lustre,
dispersing all shadows of malignity,
Arousing from deep slumber all that lives,
stirring to motion man and beast and bird,
This maiden infringes not the Eternal Law,
day after day coming to the place appointed" (Panikkar, pages 164-65).

Sanskrit and English belong to the same family of languages, and we naturally resonate with family. Official spokesmen of a Eurocentric West continue to promote the arrogant and wholly false belief that "we have nothing to learn from the East." A few hours spent with Feuerstein, Kak, and Frawley's timely and significant study will soon convince you of the foolishness of such a notion. Don't miss this fascinating and extremely important book.

Another book that is highly relevant to this issue is that of the Indian scholar Shrikant G. Talageri, Aryan Invasion Theory (A Reappraisal). Using the latest findings of comparative linguistics and archaeology, he 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 a certain 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 as Feuerstein and Talageri!

As a student of yoga and lover of Indian culture, I found the thesis very interesting: Harappan (Indus/Saraswati) civilization was the first human civilization, preceding even Sumer, but climatic changes forced abandonment of the oldest settlements and a move eastward to the Ganges, leading directly to classical Indian culture. All this is supposedly evidenced in the Rg Veda and supported by theory and data. However, there is little genuine "sifting through the latest archaeological, geological and linguistic evidence" [back cover blurb]. The coverage is unbalanced at best, with conclusions apparently selected to conform to prior beliefs and standards of evidence occasionally changed to do so. For example, professional historians cannot be trusted because their fear of losing tenure prevents them from challenging widely-held views [3]. Yet we later learn that the Rg Veda is in a state of "near-perfect preservation" [201] because scholarly consensus says so, or that a "growing number of geologists converge" [91] on the view that the Saraswati dried up ~1900 BCE, forcing the Harappan peoples eastward. That scholarly opinions are true when useful plays well to American anti-intellectualism, but is a two-edged sword. The book is badly uninformed about science and scientists, who "observe cause-and-effect relationships" [217] (imagine Hume and Kant rolling in their graves!). They decry the "ever popular archaeological preoccupation with pottery shards [98]" but, like it or not, the major data of archaeologists is pot shards; to fault them for it is a little like criticizing meterologists for being preoccupied with precipitation. Map 2 [52] depicts the "recently proposed [Indo-Aryan] homelands" of 10 scholars, only 2 of which are discussed or cited in their "Select Bibliography." (Select is right!) Overall, this book is balanced historically and archaeologically by Time/Life's Ancient India: Land of Mystery. Diagrams are pathetically small (~2.5" x 3"), so you must squint and squint to get the picture. Important diagrams are absent; for example, why no NASA photos of the Deccan plateau showing the dried Saraswati riverbed? The section on the astronomical code is interesting but better covered in Kramrisch's superb Presence of Siva. Part Two's review of Vedic spirituality seems out of place; the space would have been better spent developing their arguments, although Ch. 11 presents an interesting account of Vedic ritual as cosmological homology. The most important explicit point?-Plate tectonic movements dried up the Saraswati, forcing abandonment of Harrapan cities and the move eastward. This is supposedly evidenced in the Rg Veda, but there is no critical review or any attempt to date its books. The most interesting factoid?-Vivekenanda visited the aged Max Muller in England in 1896 [259]. The most important implicit point?-The Rg Veda is poorly understood and poorly translated. Think of any other Easter philosophical/religious classic-I Ching, Tao te Ching, Yoga Sutras-and a dozen good contemporary translations come easily to mind. Not so the Rg Veda. For that we have one old bad translation and one modern scholarly selection. One wishes these authors would collaborate on their strongest point in what could be their best contribution: a good contemporary translation of the Rg Veda. Overall, this book is a mostly interesting read (I finished Section Two with some effort)-but find it in your library and not a bookstore.

As a student of yoga and lover of Indian culture, I am interested in Indian history and Vedic spirituality. The main point of this book is that Harappan (Indus/Saraswati) civilization is the first human civilization, preceding even Sumer, and led directly to classical Indian culture. There is little genuine "sifting through the latest archaeological, geological and linguistic evidence" [back cover blurb]. Instead, the authors present an unbalanced review, with conclusions apparently selected to conform to prior beliefs and the standards of evidence occasionally changed to do so. For example, although professional historians cannot be trusted because their fear of losing tenure prevents them from challenging widely-held views [3], we later we learn that the Rg Veda is in a state of "near-perfect preservation" [201] because scholarly consensus says so. Likewise, a "growing number of geologists converge" [91] on the view that the Saraswati dried up ~1900 BCE and forced the Harappan peoples eastward toward the Ganges. Believing something to be both true and not-true at the same time may be very Eastern, but cheap play upon American anti-intellectualism is a two-edged sword. The book is badly uninformed about science: scientists "observe cause-and-effect relationships" [217]-imagine Hume and Kant rolling in their graves over that one! And they decry the "ever popular archaeological preoccupation with pottery shards [98]"-well, it bored me it graduate school too, but like it or not, the major data of archaeologists is pot shards. Regarding Indo-Aryan origins, Map 2 [52] depicts the "recently proposed homelands" of 10 scholars-only 2 of which are cited in their "Select Bibliography." (Select is right!) Most diagrams are pathetically small (~2.5" x 3"), so you must squint and squint to get the picture. Important diagrams are absent; for example, why no NASA photos of the Deccan plateau showing the ancient, dried riverbed of the Saraswati? The section on the astronomical code is interesting but better covered in S. Kramrisch's superb Presence of Siva. The review of Vedic spirituality (Part Two) seems out of place and the space would have been better spent developing their arguments, although Ch. 11 presents an interesting account of Vedic ritual as cosmological homology. The most important explicit point?-Plate tectonic movements dried up the Saraswati, forcing abandonment of the oldest Harrapan cities and the move eastward to the Ganges, as evidenced in the Rg Veda. But no data or theories are sifted through (and where's that NASA photo anyway?). The most interesting factoid?-Vivekenanda visited the aged Max Muller in England in 1896 [259]. The most important implicit point?-The Rg Veda is poorly understood and poorly translated. Think of any other Easter philosophical/religious classic-I Ching, Tao te Ching, Yoga Sutras-and a dozen good contemporary translations come easily to mind. Not so the Rg Veda. For that we have one bad old translation and one modern scholarly selection. One wishes these authors would collaborate on their strongest point in what could be their best contribution, namely a good contemporary translation of the Rg Veda. The book is balanced historically and archaeologically by Time/Life's Ancient India: Land of Mystery. Overall, this book is a mostly interesting read (I finished Section Two with some effort)-but find it in your library and not a bookstore.

Barring a couple of weak arguments, the book is simply un-putdownable. A sound example of challenging the Aryan Invasion Theory with scholarship and intuition. The accompanying evidence is fairly compelling. Bravo!

Some reviewers have been tremendously disturbed by the book's claims, but have not been courageous enough to go beyond irrational cursing to explicitly point out which evidence was untenable. This lack of open-mindedness is due to the colonial hangover of the eurocentric historians and professors who are now struggling to explain the new evidence with their outdated "racial-superiority" theories. Excuse their students, who are often these agitated reviewers. And for a more balanced discussion, read Edwin Bryant's "Indo-Aryan Controversy".

New rational and scientific research, however, is bringing out the truth everyday. E.g. see Thomas McEvilley's "The Shape of Ancient Thought". Meanwhile, the suppression of the Indian (Hindu) contributions will continue in the Western academia, and with the help of some Indian scholars at that! To understand their imperialist motives of establishing the "Western superiority", read Ronald Inden's "Imagining India".

Here's an instance of how this works - the currently held belief about the Indian contribution to astronomy is hardly more than transmitting the Babylonian and Greek sources. Modern research has sufficient evidence to, in fact, suggest an opposite direction of transmission! Scholarly works like astronomer Richard Thompson's "Mysteries of the Sacred Universe" thwarts the attempt to show ancient Indian studies (Puranas) as mythological fluff, as supported by the words of Carl Sagan, the eminent astronomer from Cornell, "...that wonderful aspect of Hindu cosmology which first of all gives a time-scale for the Earth and the universe - a time-scale which is consonant with that of modern scientific cosmology. ...As far as I know, it is the only ancient religious tradition on Earth which talks about the right time-scale." In sharp contrast, the Judeo-Christian universe is merely a few thousand years old!

The reviewer, being a mathematician, knows how terribly unfairly the ancient Indian contributions in math have been ignored (e.g. Indians used the Pythagorus theorem centuries before Pythagorus). The mid-Eastern traders not only carried to the West the *Zero* and the *Arabic* numerals from India, but almost the entire school-arithmetic of today! The Indian ancients were the first to discover not only Algebra (incl. Number Theory), Trigonometry, and Calculus; but even subjects such as Logic, Linguistics, and Computational math (e.g. accurate calculation of pi or sine). They knew Binary notation, and the Sanskrit grammar was available in Backus-Naur-Form (the same used for the computer-languages today)!! This goes on and on...

To understand better where *exactly* the shoe pinches for the eurocentric theorists, many of whom are *distinguished Indologists* with Judeo-Christian affiliations, do sample the British historian Macaulay's quote: "(all the ancient Sanskrit texts together are) less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgements used at preparatory schools in England". Yes, it's Racism!

Do read the book - it's surely a good instance of bold, open-minded and insightful research. Also check out Kak's "The Wishing Tree".

Although this monumental work may seem far from complete to some, it contains a lot of sound evidence and good insights into a more accurate and believble history of ancient India. The authors did cover a great deal in the space of this book and tied it all together in a consistent and integrated manner.

Although it may take a few more years of archeological digging and the translating of ancient works to further the clearer picture effectively begun by these authors. This book will be a sound basis for rethinking of the real history of this Holy land. They have made a great use of most 20th century (and earlier) discoveries and data to support their views. They did this with the courage to tread a new path of invesigation. This is a great improvement upon the long held myths that were concocted by European scholars who still thought their culture was the origin and geographical center of God's great creation. Many do not realize that the rest of the world was not caught up in flat earth ideas.

I don't think we have heard the last of these three authors, and look forward to any future work they may produce along these lines..

When I decided that it was time to extend my studies of the antiquity beyond that of the Middle East into India, I looked at the reviews of several books on Indian history, and the title of this book captured my attention because the current focus of my studies is on the development of the earliest civilizations. Having read only a few of the reviews, I did not realize that I had acquired a book on a rather controversial subject.

In retrospect perhaps, I should have been more careful as my knowledge of Indian history was somewhat sparse. Because the thesis of this is primarily based upon a reconciliation of the archaeological record with the Vedic scriptures, I now realize that it is important to read it with a more complete knowledge of Ancient India than I had. That is not to criticize the book in any way, because it contains a plethora of information about which I was almost completely ignorant. I think it was also helpful to my understanding that the book is separated into two parts, with Part One focussing on the analysis of the archaeological findings, and Part Two focussing on cultural and spiritual legacy of Ancient India.

Part One includes an overview of Vedic writings themselves, a detailed discussion on the 19th century theory of the Aryan invasion, the cities of the Indus valley, the reconstruction after the catastrophic drying up of the Sarasvati River at around 1900BC, and what the Vedic scriptures have to say about "The Land of the Seven Rivers". The later chapters on the Indus Sarasvati script, and the Neolithic town of Merhgarh is rounded out by a final chapter giving seventeen arguments about why the Aryan invasion never happened. So far so good, except that I don't know enough about ancient India to be able to determine how selective the authors were being about their facts. But at least I felt that the authors had provided cogent arguments to support their position.

Part Two is another matter. The first chapter on the spiritual heritage of India was very interesting because I knew so very little about it and the description of the various forms of Yoga, and ten key metaphysical ideas and practice of Hinduism was most helpful to my understanding. But it was Chapter 11 on the Birth of Science and Ritual with its description of "Fire Altars and Heavenly mathematics" where I started to run into trouble, and particularly with the theories relating the number of books in the Vedas to the fire altars and the astronomical data about the planets. From that point on I could only read the remaining chapters with decreasing comprehension and consequently decreasing acceptance. Somewhere in this area of the book there is a disconnect where you have to take a leap of faith in order to be able to accept what you are reading. Since my focus was on knowing more about the basic data than in its interpretation, I could not bring myself to spend the time to study these final chapters in the way I had done on the earlier chapters. I obviously am in a state of "insufficient data".

One final point. I decided that I should reread all the customer reviews of this book, because I find they often provide useful insights. I am happy to have done so, because I find I am not alone. I also wanted to avoid being too repetitive as well as to resist the temptation of saying "Me too".

In summary, this was probably not the best selection for my first book on India. That caution apart, the book is easy to read and for the most part very interesting. For Part One at least, I found that I could easily summarize for myself the facts of what I had learnt, but I found it almost impossible, however, to do that for the final chapters of Part Two, and in the end I gave up. Nevertheless, the book has given me the incentive to find out more about the Harrapan and Indus River civilizations, and I now have three books to read on that subject, which hopefully will tell me whether this book has based its theories on all of the essential facts about these civilizations. As to the truth of myth of the Aryan invasion, I think the authors have made a good case, but I do want to read the views of other historians before making up my mind about that.

Everything you wanted to know about the vedic civilization, its achievements in sciences, mathematics, spirituality etc. This book is an engrossing read, dishing out amazing facts in each page and leaves you in awe of the ancient Indians when you are done.

This groundbreaking work could be considered as one of the 20th centuries-great contributions and scholarship on the history of humanities true historical progressions. The authors, Frawley, Kak, and Fuererstein have given us the cream of their accumulated erudition in this revealing study of Indian civilizations amazing gifts to the civilized world. It gives a refreshing and sound look at concepts that for too long have been incorrectly bent by the western mind views. This book will go far in helping to correct so many erroneous ideas about India and civilizations past in general, that have been in circulation far too long. It deals with many important matters concerning the flow of civilized knowledge and change, and symbology between India, the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa.

The reader will gain many new insights regarding who did what in the global picture over the last 10,000 years, an excellent resource for students doing oriental, historical and anthropological research. I found this book very concise and believable, written in a simple style that the average reader will appreciate as well.

Also recommended: Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda(x SRF Publishers), also supports many of the concepts put forth in this work and will extend your appreciation of India's contributions, especially in the spiritual area.

Barring a couple of weak arguments, the book is simply un-putdownable. A sound example of challenging the "Aryan Invasion Theory" with scholarship as well as intuition. The accompanying evidence is truly compelling. Bravo!

Some reviewers have been tremendously disturbed by the book's claims, but have not been courageous enough to go beyond irrational cursing to explicitly point out which evidence was untenable. This lack of open-mindedness is due to the colonial hangover of the eurocentric historians and professors who are now struggling to explain the new evidence with their outdated "racial-superiority" theories. Excuse their students, who, often, are these agitated reviewers. Also, for a more balanced (and technical) discussion, read Edwin Bryant's "Indo-Aryan Controversy".

New rational and scientific research, however, is bringing out the truth everyday. E.g. see Thomas McEvilley's "The Shape of Ancient Thought". Meanwhile, the suppression of the Indian (Hindu) contributions will continue in a large section of the Western academia, and with the help of some Indian scholars at that! In order to understand their imperialist motives of establishing the "Western superiority", read Ronald Inden's "Imagining India".

Here's an instance of how this works - the currently held belief about the Indian contribution to astronomy is hardly more than transmitting the Babylonian and Greek sources. Modern research has sufficient evidence to, in fact, suggest an opposite direction of transmission! Scholarly works like asronomer Richard Thompson's "Mysteries of the Sacred Universe" thwarts the attempt to portray ancient Indian studies (Puranas) as mythological fluff, as evidenced in the words of Carl Sagan, the eminent astronomer from Cornell, "...that wonderful aspect of Hindu cosmology which first of all gives a time-scale for the Earth and the universe - a time-scale which is consonant with that of modern scientific cosmology. ...As far as I know, it is the only ancient religious tradition on Earth which talks about the right time-scale." In sharp contrast, the Judeo-Christian universe is just a few thousand years old!

The reviewer, being a mathematician himself, knows how terribly unfairly the ancient Indian contributions in math has been ignored (e.g. Indians used the Pythagorus theorem centuries before Pythagorus). The mid-Eastern traders not only carried to the West the *Zero* and the *Arabic* numerals from India, but almost the entire school-arithmetic of today! The Indian ancients were the first to develop not only Algebra (incl. Number Theory), Trigonometry, and Calculus; but even subjects such as Logic, Linguistics, Computational math (e.g. accurate calculations of pi or sine). The Sanskrit grammar was available in Backus-Naur-Form (the same used for the computer-languages today)!! The list goes on and on...

To understand better where exactly the shoe pinches for the eurocentric emperialist scholars, many of whom are *distinguished Indologists* with Judeo-Christian affiliations, do sample the British historian Macaulay's quote: "(all the ancient Sanskrit texts together are) less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgements used at preparatory schools in England". Incredible!

Do read the book - it surely is a good instance of bold, open-minded and honest research. Also see Kak's "The Wishing Tree".

This is the best book I've read on ancient Indian history or vedic/hindu history. This book overrides all previously held ideas and misconceptions about Indian history that was taught to us by the school system in India. I remember as children how close to our heart were stories from the Mahabharat and Ramayan that were narrated to us by our parents and grandparents. They never questioned the historicity of these epics. And then we entered the school system, where they started teaching us that all this was mythology. We were taught that our culture has an outside origin. Even as a child, this whole story of barbaric Aryan invaders destroying the Indus culture and then imposing their culture on the existing people seemed absurd, vague and silly. And now the truth is out. This book brings out the true history of India so beautifully. We need to educate the masses and also our kids about the real facts and not old, outdated theories. This book is a step in that direction. Kudos to the authors for a job well done! Everyone interested in knowing the true history of India MUST read this book!