The Aryans (again); 19th century discourse.

[Samar Abbas]

On Thu, 17 Dec 1998, Paul Kekai Manansala wrote:

> In Talageri's letter, he claimed that the Hindutva side did not hold the
> position that Indo-European languages originated in India. Does anyone
> know where they do believe IE came from?

 There is no one theory that the "Indic Home for Aryans" side holds, there
are many different variants:

1. The Aryans originated in Aryavarta (modern UP), then spread into
Sapta Sindhu and then expanded all across the world after the collapse of
the Indus Valley
2. The Aryans originated in Sapta Sindhu (Punjab) and then after the
collapse of the "Vedic Indus" migrated all across the world.
3. The Aryans originated near Mt.Meru (in Tibet/Himalayas ?) and then
spread all across the world. In favour of this theory are the following
points:
 + Mt. Meru is sacred to Aryas.
 + Some legends claim lost cities exist near Mt.Meru,
 + Other legands hold that underground cities with the
   "pure Aryans" (`devatas' ?) still live in a pure
   hyper-civilization there. Numerous `bottomless caves' are said to lead
   to those cities.

 Theory 2. is favoured by some, but many Aryanists don't like it because
Sapta Sindhu is now located in Pakistan.
 Theory 1. is now the most popular (in fact, that is the view propagated
in most of the Aryanist books, incl. Talageri's).
 I think you may have heard about Theory 3. This is, as far as I know, the
only variant of the Indo-centric theories that postulates a non-Indian
origin of Aryans. But it is not in favour because Meru is (probably) in
Red China.

Samar