The Indus date has been pushed back to 7500 BC, so says a recent research (given below). For those reading through the Ithihasas and Puranas of India, this is not a news at all, for we are able to decipher the history of the world running into tens of thousands of years from these texts. When we read them in conjunction with Tamil sangam inputs, we get a better picture of the past.
For example, the rise of human civilisation in the past one lakh years started in the southern seas in the Indian ocean – a fact which most of genetic researchers agree with. It had gone to the Northern hemisphere about 60,000 years ago after the Toba-effect subsided. Then when the North was covered with ice, a shift happened from North to South – not through India but through China to Sundaland (present day Indonesia). From Mahabharata narration (Anusasana parva – chapter 93) it is known that a migration following the sun's movement happened from north to south. This is cleverly explained in this chapter using the etymological meanings of names of the seven rishis and others.
From a region that was supplying Sibi (Typha angustifolia) in the northern latitudes, people had moved to the South where lotuses were growing. These two planets signify availability of food as these plants were completely edible with each part of them being eaten by people. Sibhi grows well in regions 40 degrees North, thereby locating the region at or near Altai mountains. (green circle in the picture below)
The interesting information from archaeology is that this region had Denisovan population which had become extinct around 40,000 years ago.
http://archaeology.about.com/od/dathroughdeterms/qt/denisova_cave.htm
The interesting part of the find is that the DNA deduced from this find is related to the DNA found in Pacific islands near Australia.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101222/full/4681012a.html
This goes to show that the Denisovan population once had its ancestry in the Southern hemisphere. So from south to north, some migration had happened which stayed put near Altai mountains or Siberia. When the climate became unbearable, the surviving population had migrated to the south which is what is being indicated in the Mahabharata (http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-mbh-13:section-93 )
The description of finding of the Lotus in a pond signifies a new era of growth of human population in the south which happened around 30,000 years ago when Sunda land was a brimming landscape. The rationale behind locating this region for new growth of humans is because Yatudhani, the demoness who was involved in that description was said to be hiding in that lotus pond. Yatudhanaus were the Danava asuras who shared the Patala, Hiranyapura (of Hiranya kasipu) with Daityas. Even today many people in China and Vietnam use all parts of lotus for food like how Sibi was / is being used in Altai regions.
A decipherable history can be started from Sundaland which got that name from Sunda – Upsunda episode in which Tilotthama was a small (like tila, the sesame seed in her name) trigger in the mantle which grew up and blew off the twin volcanoes called Sunda and Upasunda. Shiva turning his head all around to see Tiloththama can only be explained as a matter of samhara (destruction) by fire spewed on all sides of the volcanoes. The volcanoes stripped off the land on which they stood leaving what is now called as the Sunda straits.
An underwater exploration might reveal a blast off in the past.
The entire region of Sundaland was home to Daityas and Danavas until 7000 years ago. Until Mahabharat times, Danavas such as Kalakanjas and Nivata kavachas were there in this land who were defeated by Arjuna. The route taken by Arjuna to reach to these danavas and also the route described by Narada to Matali concur with each other and point out to Sundaland only. The details are being written in my Tamil series first and then translated later to be posted here. For the moment, I am saying these to show that history of 20,000 + years ago at Sundaland had all the trappings of the puranic narrations of daityas and danava asuras. Somewhere closely the early Pandyans rose in deep south around 12,000 years ago that was when the first sangam was established as per Nakkeeranar's account in Irayanaar Kalaviyal.
To tell it in a nutshell, take a look at the picture below.
The regions found within the red circles had scattered land forms about 7000 years ago. The first 3 circles starting from Madagascar from left to right had 49 locations as per old Sangam Tamil texts. (Explanations in the Tamil blog http://thamizhan-thiravidana.blogspot.in based on Valmiki Ramayana description of the southern trail in chapter 41 in Kishkindha khanda)
The huge circle around Indonesia had Daitya and Danava people starting from 30,000 years BP until 7000 years BP.
The Chinese, Japanese and Incas were Daityas.
The Europeans, Celts / Druids were Danavas. They co-existed with Danavas in this region.
Bali was the last powerful king (Daitya) of this region who died around 7000 years BP.
The yellow arrow marks show the dispersal of people during various time periods whenever there were volcanic or earthquake disturbances in this region.
The last dispersal happened about 3500 years ago. That was when the last traces of old Tamil population in the Indian Ocean also got dispersed. The Pandyan king with some of his subjects managed to survive by taking the route through present day Kerala (Alwaye (Alawaay in Tamil – the name of the capital of the Pandyas of the 2nd sangam period. Known in Sanskrit as Kavatam. Kollam was lost in the seas and re-established as today's Quilon) on the south west tip of India.
Other people deep down the south dispersed to Polyneisan islands. Most of these regions bear similarity to old Tamil culture. Another group managed to cross the Pacific ocean through an underwater path in Nazcal ridge and reached Pacha kamaq and Titicaca. There is enough indication to assume that an under water cave path joins Easter islands and Pachakamaq on the western shore of Andes. Nazcal is Naccal which means Naga or serpent. The underground paths are inhabited by snakes and hence called as Naga territory in Indian culture.
One entry was at Pachakamaq and another was at a cave ending near Titicaca.
(Black arrow shows Pachakamaq entry and red arrow shows cave -entry near Titicaca lake)
Before this, around 7000 years BP the previous oceanic flood was described in Tamil texts. At that time many scattered regions were in the Indian ocean. A major area was Mascarene plateau
The circle around Madagaskar had a land huge enough of the size of Tamilnadu state of India. Called as Mascarene plateau this was high land 7000 years before present. Note the continuing chain leading to western part of India and South India.
At that time most regions south off sundaland were lost in the seas and there was a major shift towards West Indian ocean and near south Indian tip.
Most Danavas, (ancestors of Celts) migrated to North West India (Rajasthan, Haryana) and settled down to the east of Indus. From there they went over to Central Europe via Gandahar. North India was brimming with Vedic culture already then. The Celts carried a rudimentary form of Vedic culture.
Most daityas shifted to Chinese inland.
The previous flood before this time occurred when the Ice age came to an end. Around 13,000 years BP the western part of Indian ocean had many scattered regions that supported life. People were gradually moving towards north 10 to 15 degrees N as sun's path shifted to north. One group entered through river Sarasvarthy via Dwaraka (of those times, now submerged) from the Arabian sea, another entered through Persian gulf when that was inundated at the end of Ice age.
Those who entered India through Sarasvathi were Manu and they carried with them the already established Vedic culture. Their spoken language was Tamil in unrefined form. The unrefined Tamil was the spoken language of South Indian ocean. You will find its rudiments wherever the population of this region shifted - from Polynesia and Incas to Persia etc.
All Indian languages were derived from Sanskrit and Tamil only. This was recognized by early colonial writers in the 18th century India but later deliberately ignored when evangelical interests overtook all genuine research.
With all these, I also wish to say that the recent finding of the dating of Indus figurines to 7000 BC + is not at all amusing. The date of civilisation in this region would go upto 10,000 BC in the coming years with more researches taking place.
- Jayasree
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From
Archaeologists confirm Indian civilization is 2000 years older than previously believed
Indian archaeologists now believe the ancient Indian civilization at Harappa dates back as far as 7500 BC.
Miniature votive figurines or toy models from the Harappa region of Pakistan, ca. 2500. Recent archaeological findings proove the Indus River Valley civilization is up to 2,000 years older than previously believed. (one_click_beyond/Wikimedia commons)
NEW DEHLI, India — When archaeologist KN Dikshit was a fresh-faced undergraduate, in 1960, a remarkable discovery pushed back the origin of civilization in the Indus River Valley by some 500 years. Now, he claims to have proof that pushes India's origin back even further — making Indian civilization some 2,000 years older than previously believed.
"When Bhirrana [Rajasthan] was excavated, from 2003 to 2006, we [recovered artifacts that provided] 19 radiometric dates," said Dikshit, who was until recently joint director general of the Archaeological Society of India. "Out of these 19 dates, six dates are from the early levels, and the time bracket is forming from 7500 BC to 6200 BC."
Since the early excavations at Harappa and Mohenjodaro, in what is today Pakistan, the Indus Civilization has been considered among the world's most ancient civilizations — along with Egypt and Mesopotamia (in what is today Iraq).
In recent times, archaeologists divided the Indus Civilization into the pre-Harappan, mature Harappan and late Harappan periods. The pre-Harappan period was characterized by a primitive, Stone Age culture, while the late Harappan period featured sophisticated brick cities built on a grid system, with granaries, toilets and an as-yet undeciphered written language.
But the six samples discovered at Bhirrana include relatively advanced pottery, known as "hakra ware," that suggests the ancient Harappan civilization began much earlier than previously believed — and that its epicenter lies in the Indian states of Harayana and Rajasthan, rather than across the border.
As Dikshit and his colleague, BR Mani, current joint director general of the ASI, write in a recent note on their findings:
"The earliest levels at Bhirrana and Kunal yielded ceramics and antiquities ... suggesting a continuity in culture, right from the middle of the eighth millennium BCE onwards ... till about 1800 BCE."
That suggests the Harappan civilization is nearly as old as sites from West Asia such as Jericho, where evidence of a neolithic city has been found to date from as early as 9000 BC. But it also means that Harappa, with new proof of hakra ware dating to 7500 BC, may have been more technologically advanced — bolstering India's claim to the title of the cradle of civilization.
"When [John] Marshall excavated the Indus Valley Civilization [in 1922], he gave it the date of about 3000 BC," said Dikshit. "But when [Mortimer] Wheeler came in 1944, he gave a shorter chronology and put the Indus Civilization between 2450 BC and 1900 BC. Those dates were also supported when Carbon-14 dates started to come from other parts of the world."
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"In 1960, in Kalimanga, we were only able to push it back a few hundred years. But with these dates [from Bhirrana] things have entirely changed."
Both Dikshit and Mani downplayed competition between India and Pakistan for bragging rights over the Indus civilization — where the best archaeological site for tourists is in Mohenjadaro, in Pakistan's Sindh province. But the ancient has a way of bleeding into the modern, as various controversies have shown over the years.
Most prominently, perhaps, the so-called "horse theory," rooted in N.S. Rajaram's fraudulent claim that he had deciphered the Harappan script, introduced horses into a concocted history of the Harappan period in order to provide a missing link to the Vedic period in which the oldest scriptures of Hinduism were written.
Noted for his ties with the loonier side of Hindu nationalism, Rajaram pieced together a tale that suggested "Babylonian and Greek mathematics, all alphabetical scripts, and even Roman numerals flow out to the world from the Indus Valley's infinitely fertile cultural womb," according to Harvard Indologist Michael Witzel and comparative historian Steve Farmer.
But for Dikshit and Mani, manufactured controversies of that kind belong in the realm of politics, not archaeology.
"These things should not be raked up," said Dikshit. "I just don't want to give any statement on this. People are talking. There was an Aryan invasion, then Aryan immigration, then horse theory — this theory, that theory. They are simply wasting their time
