Indo-Aryan Invasion (proposal for virtual sattra)

[Luis Gonzalez-Reimann]

Jan Houben wrote,

>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?

A topic that I have never seen mentioned when the discussion comes up is
whether we can draw any conclusions from references to weather or the
environment in the Rg Veda and Iranian texts.  More specifically, the fact
that whereas water plays an important role in both Rg Vedic and Iranian
mythologies, in Iran it is mainly through images of rivers, while in the Rg
Veda rain is added as an important element, and it grows in importance as
times goes on.  This coincides with the fact that monsoon weather covers the
subcontinent but it doesn't reach Iran.
A recent article that mentions this is  G. V. Vajracharya's "The Adaptation
of Monsoonal Culture by Rgvedic Aryans: A Further Study of the Frog Hymn,"
in the Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 3,2 (1997).


Luis Gonzalez-Reimann
University of California, Berkeley