Mitanni treaty and date of the Rigveda

[Dr.S.Kalyanaraman]

Hi,
In the WAVES (World Association of Vedic Studies) conference in
LA between Aug. 7 to 9, one point came up which may be of interest to
indologists.

This is in reference to the well-known Boghaz Keui inscription (dated to 14th
cent. BC) of a treaty between Hittite King Suppiluliuma and Mitanni king
Matiwaza, invoking Indra, Mitra, Na_satya and varun.a as witnesses. In the
archives of the Hittite capital has been found a treatise which deals with
horse-training and tems used are: ekavartana, trivartana, pan~cavartana. T.
Burrow (1955, The Sanskrit Language, London, Faber and Faber, p.29) notes:
'The Aryans appear in Mitanni from 1500 BC as the ruling dynasty, which means
that they must first have entered the
country as conquerors.'

The question is: Conquerors from where? Around 1500 BC, there was
no other region where the above-mentioned gods were worshipped,
except the Indian sub-continent.

Kalibangan on the banks of the Sarasvati celebrated in the Rigveda, was
abandoned ca. 1900 BC due to the drying up of the river.

Does this event and Mitanni evidence push the date of the Rigveda
to antedate 1900 BC?

Regards,
Dr. S. Kalyanaraman
http://sarasvati.simplenet.com

____________________________________________________________________
More than just email--Get your FREE Netscape WebMail account today at http://home.netscape.com/netcenter/mail