Aryan invasion by sea?

[J. Daniel White]

In reply to Narayan Sriranga Raja:

Realizing that the response about Aryans arriving by sea is either a
humorous response or an unscholarly barb, I would not normally reply.
However, reading some of these unscholarly Indus Valley attacks on respected
Indian Studies colleagues--which are not unlike some replies to an otherwise
scholarly discussion on Holi I precipitated about two years ago--I feel
encouraged to suggest several items.  (1)  Though likely written down a
millennium after their coming to India and therefore subject to texual
acculturation (which raises even more issues), the Aryan texts --i.e., the
Vedas--suggest a land entrance into India as they discuss their "grandiose
(and unlikely) destruction" of the northwest.  (2)  In their discussions no
mention is made of seafaring elements:  boats, language of sailors,
descriptions of the sea, etc. (3) When taken in their appropriate textual
context, the deities to whom the Aryans relate are those of a people who see
these deities relating to land, not to sea:  sun, rain, flood, vegetation,
fire, wind, earth, livestock, nomadic grasslands, etc.  We could go on, but
my best guess of theriomorphic geography suggests that dolphins and whales
do not appear "frequently" in the grassland or mountain regions between the
Eastern Europe-Caucasus-Caspian Sea-pre-Persian-Hindu Kush and northwest
Indian areas.

J. Daniel White
Professor of Indian Studies
Department of Religious Studies
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, NC  28223  USA
Telephone:      (704)  687-4601
Fax:            (704)  687-3002
Email:          jdwhite at email.uncc.edu


>> Dr. Ganesan wrote:
>
>>Excavations at Lothal have proved that IVC seals were employed
>>for trade purposes. Sangam poetry in Tamil mentions the use
>>of seals exactly in this manner.
>
>If seals were employed for trade,
>couldn't dolphins, or even whales,
>have been employed for large-scale
>immigration?
>
>In other words, could the
>notorious Aryan invasion
>have been seaborne?  Have
>any remains of chariots or
>spoked wheels been recovered
>from under the Indian Ocean?
>
>Perplexed as usual,
>
>
>Narayan Sriranga Raja.
>