Aryans and Dravidians

[J.B. Sharma]

 I wish to preface this note by the fact that I am not a professional 
Indologist, and I defer to the other learned sages on the net. Here 
are some rejoinders to this discussion..
 In reference to Chris Minkowski's note, I do wish to point out that 
a belief that the world was created in 3000 BC would compel a person 
to chronologies within that limit. I disavow the extrapolation  
that being Christian excludes rationalality; I meant no more than 
Muellers functioning under a limited vision of physical reality 
(typical of all folks of the time). Max Mueller remains a primary 
systemitizer of the picture of ancient India, and even though the 
picture is being reformulated. His views have therefore have had an 
impact on contemporary culture and polity in India, and overturning 
of his scholarship is non-trivial. Equivalently, the new picture 
which will emerge as an intersection set of many disciplines like 
linguistics, archeology, remote sensing, genetics etc will also have 
a powerful impact on the future culture and polity of India. It seems 
to me that at best we can only look at a spectrum of possibilities, 
some very much more likely than others. I do believe that neo-vedic 
nationalism belongs to a section of people who need to believe this 
to feel good about themselves; It does not have a place in historical 
science. 
 A comment on Rob Mayer's note on wether Tantra has 
Aryan origins or not; From my study of the subject, I do believe that 
Tantra has Aryan origins, but is not exclusive to it. Taoism, Zen, 
Ancient Celtic religion and various other traditions have strong 
Tantric elements in them. I believe that this is so as Tantra 
addresses the common human condition seen by sages of all cultures. It 
is my opinion that Buddha cut thru the Brahmanic exclusivism which 
had developed over centuries, and pointed out moksha was availible to 
all and the starting point of the journey is from where we 
are. Buddha was a great Tantric in the sense of his rejection of 
dogma, and emphasis on sincere personal experimentation and 
observation to find the self. His teachings however are in accordance 
with the vedic/upanishadic essence of "neti-neti". 
 J.B. Bapat made a point about Shiva being a non-aryan diety. Is 
there someone on the net who knows more about this? I do know about 
the vedic precursor of Shiva being Rudra. On a related note, I was 
very struck by the similarity of the Shiva like figure on the 
"Gundestrup Cauldron" (ancient eastern Celtic art, found in Denmark), 
and the Indus vally seals depicting once more a Shiva like figure, 
surounded by forest animals etc. Has any scholarship been done on 
this?
 All the best..
 J.B. Sharma