Indo-Aryan Invasion (proposal for virtual sattra)

[Jan E.M. Houben]

Protected by my vrata to write not more than two postings a week on the Indo-
Aryan Invasion I had the opportunity to monitor the continuing discussion and
to reflect about possibilities to make the discussion more rewarding. The
nature of the medium of the Indology opens up certain possibilities of direct
and fast communication, but it has also certain drawbacks.
Agreement on the problems at issue can hardly be expected to arise from an
internet discussion. But the exchange of ideas may be fruitfully directed
towards establishing a list of basic relevant topics connected with the main
issue, and a list of some basic publications.
My proposal is to continue with the earlier proposal of George Thompson, and to
select a month for more focussed discussion of the ever recurrent theme of the
Indo-Aryan Invasion:
basic topics so far seem to be:
(1) linguistic arguments for entering of Indo-Aryans into Indian subcontinent
a) retroflexion
b) typology (more variety outside India)
c) . . .
(2) archeological arguments
(3)
(4) 19th century and modern political constellations favoring Indo-Aryan
Invasion theory.
(5) . . .

Two important publications have been mentioned so far:
1. H.H.Hock: Pre-rgvedic convergence between Indo-Aryan and Dravidian? A survey
of the issues and controversies, in: Ideology and Status of Sanskrit, ed. by
J.Houben, Leiden, Brill 1996.
2. George Erdosy: Language, material culture and ethnicity: Theoretical
perspectives, in: The Indo-Aryan of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material
Culture and Ethnicity, ed. by G.Erdosy, Berlin/New York, 1995.

No answer was received on an earlier question by me whether there is a good
statement of the Aryans out of India view. I found references to a certain
Dhar, but I don't know the bibliographical details.

Any more suggestions for basic topics to be discussed (not to be solved) in the
month to be selected for a virtual sattra on Indo-Aryan Invasion, for instance
in May,  and for important relevant literature to be studied?

Greetings, Jan Houben