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[Vidhyanath Rao]

Lars Martin Fosse <lmfosse at ONLINE.NO> wrote:
> *Vidyanath Rao wrote:
>
> >``take-over of power'' implies continuity in the pattern of political
> >organization and a political organization to take over.
>
> This is not the only possible interpretation of "take-over power". It may
> simply mean that the Indo-Europeans became dominant in the area either in
> terms of military power or population (or both).

Only if you are being sloppy. If that is what they meant, why not
simply say ``IA speakers became dominant''?

> Apparently opinions are divided. Cavalli-Sforza (and others, let us not
> forget the al.) are geneticists, not archaeologists. They receive wisdom
> from some arcaheologists etc. and see how their information squares with the
> genetic data.

The question is what are these sources from where Cavalli-Sforza et al
get their information. Relying on limited or outdated sources is very
common on non-specialists.

That is why I react the way I do to `take-over of power'. It is
the kind of thing that used to be bandied about, and is still very
common when the debates occurs in political contexts among Indians.
The lurid view of IA speakers riding chariots killing or ensalving
the proto-Dravidians and forcing them to speak IA is more common
than you may think.

Such reliance affects Mallory too. His chronology of Gandhara Grave
Complex vis-avis IVC does not fit new dating. and when he confidently
asserts that `anaa' means `a-naas', ignoring an-aas, I decide that
``oh, no, not another one of those''.

Regards
-Nath