Elst's review of Kochhar's Vedic People

[Michael Witzel]

> PK Manasala:>
> Also, the steppe is really not suitable for cattle herders

You conveniently cut my note on cows:
>>" And cattle are of course found all over the steppes, from the
Ukraine eastwards, from at least c. 4000 BCE onwards. They did not go there
of their own volition. How to keep them during winter is another problem."

>The steppe is quite suitable for horses.
...everybody knows that...

>> You forget half-asses and real asses.
>You really get emotional when someone challenges your "aryan" theories

??? -- I don't follow here; -- what is the relation between (half-)asses
and  Aryans?  -- Half-asses and asses are attested in the S.Central Asian
BMAC culture (Arch. lingo : bricks, mortar, asses and camels).  Where they
thrived in the desert oasis/steppe/thick delta brush of the Central Asian
rivers flowing down from the Kopet Dagh/Hindukush.
Half-asses were local (=onager, hemione); the real ass (asinus) was a more
recent import from the Near East (Mesopotamia), just as camels were of more
recent adaptation in the BMAC. Sorry, no horses there, so far. So, no horse
riding/chariot riding BMAC Aryans.

>Madame Blavatsky would be proud.
Don't remember her to well from my last life. Never was found of that kind
of 'spiritualism'.


NamaH kharaaya, namo raasabhaaya, namo gardabhaaya.

(Details in McKim Marriotts' description of Holi in 'his' village)


===============
Michael Witzel
Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138

ph. 617-496 2990 (also messages)
home page:     www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm

Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies:         www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs