Horses

[Peter J. Claus]

Members,

Returning to the horse discussion,

Georg v S. seems to make a reasonable point here. I don't see why he
should have to "explain this high position of the horse in other >
Indo-European cultures.  Preferably not Scythian ones as there has >
always been some argument over whether the Scythians were truly IE.  >
What part did the horse play in Greek or Persian culture? "

On the other hand, it would not seem unreasonable that there might be
little representation of the horse generally in India for a long time to
come if our primary written sources are texts such as the Rg Veda (or for
that matter ANY of the early Skrt texts) which only represent a very small
minority of the population.  It seems to me to expect otherwise would be
to expect that there was a flood of Aryans who invaded the region.  It
does not seem likely that that was the case.

Peter Claus



On Wed, 6 May 1998, Paul K. Manansala wrote:

>  Georg von Simson <g.v.simson at EAST.UIO.NO>
> . If we assume that the seals to a certain
> > degree reflect religious concepts, the absence of the horse is highly
> > significant, especially if we compare it with the high position of the
> > horse in other Indo-European cultures.
>
> Could you explain this high position of the horse in other
> Indo-European cultures.  Preferably not Scythian ones as there has
> always been some argument over whether the Scythians were truly IE.
> What part did the horse play in Greek or Persian culture?
>
> >Therefore - even if some horse-bones
> > should be found in the Indus culture - the horse does not seem to have
> > played any prominent role in the minds of its people. This makes a very
> > strong contrast to Vedic culture as reflected in the Rgveda.
>
> But all we know about the Vedic culture comes from translations of
> the Rgveda.  We don't have similar translations of the Indus texts.
> There are very fewt examples of horse iconography in the period of a few
> centuries after the fall of the IVC. Horses turn up in the early
> Sunga works, but certainly nothing on the scale of Scythian culture.
> But most importantly there is nothing even slightly suggestive of  a
> nomadic horse culture at any archaeological sites.  No signs of
> Kurgan or related cultures.
>
> The only suggestions we have is that horses were introduced into
> India gradually. And that they played a minimal role in the material
> culture.
>
> Regards,
> Paul Kekai Manansala
>