SarasvatI etc.

[S. Kalyanaraman]

---"Yaroslav V. Vassilkov" <yavass at YV1041.SPB.EDU> wrote:
> We can not yet read the texts, but there is enough
> pictorial material (images on the seals, statuettes etc.) and other
archaeological > evidence to conclude that the IV people practiced the
archaic cults of
> fertility, performed calendar rites (including probably the sacred >
marriage rite), that female deities, goddesses played a prominent part
in
> this religion, that among their sacred animals were rhinoceros,
tiger, > peacock, crocodile, scorpion and others, never mentioned (as
sacred > objects) by the Vedas. If there are some scenes depicted on
the seals, they > correspond > either with the themes of Sumerian or
Elamite art, or with later Hinduism, > but never with the Vedic myths.
Generally speaking, the IVC religion is > of different type as
compared with the Vedic religion: it resembles > rather the religions
of ancient Middle East.
>  And > if one of the parties in the discussion does not consider
this science a > pramAna - then we have no common ground and this
fruitless debate is to
> be stopped, the sooner the better.

Are we not making some assumptions here (as Parpola did in his
Deciphering the Script) that the seals represented the religious
beliefs thru the pictorials?
How do we understand 'religion' from the archaeological artefacts
unearthed?

Regards,
K.

==
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http://www.probys.com/sarasvati
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/ch1208a.htm
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