Dasyus and PaNis in RV

[Raveen Satkurunathan]

On Wed, 8 Nov 2000 10:28:36 -0500, Rajarshi Banerjee
<rajarshi.banerjee at SMGINC.COM> wrote:

>cavalli sforza says:
>
>"1. The first component (Australoid or Veddoid) is an older substrate of
>  Paleolithic occupants, perhaps represented today by a few tribals, but
>  probably almost extinct or largely covered by successive waves and
>  presumably leaving no linguistic relics, except perhaps for the Hunza and
>  Nahali. There seems to be no linguistic trace of the Australoid-Negrito
>  language but Andamanese speak languages of the Indo-Pacific family. This
>may
>  or may not be their original language.
>
>I dont agree that only a few tribals are representative of this group.
>I am always struck by facial resemblances between aust aborigines and some
>indians regardless of skin colour, region or caste etc.
>
>I recently saw a documentary of a family recovered from the bush in the mid
>eithies who had never been exposed to white man. The language families may
>differ but the sounds are similar. The langugae is full of retrofelx flaps
>like indians use and also geminates I think. Their pronunciation of "very
>good" becomes "veRy good". I cant help see resemblance in speech and
>physical apearance like hair whorls on head etc.
>
>Resemblences not shared with our immediate neighbours in southeast asia
>
>regards RB


I wrote a very similar letter to National Geographic (NG) 17 (?) years ago
because they ran a cover story on Australian Aborigines with the standard
theory,that the AA migrated from South East Asia. I wrote with all my
juvenile enthusiasm that they should say that 'AA migrated via South East
Asia not from South East Asia' and even sent some photographs of people
that I knew could pass for AA from India and Sri Lanka. I received a very
polite letter from NG saying that the standard theory is based on
archeology and other scientific evidence not on physical features of
people. Needless to say I was disappointed:-(

But when I visited Sydney, Australia a few years ago, I met a Aboriginal
Didgeridoo player in a busy spot called Circular Quay. He was playing the
wind instrument for petty cash from visitors and tourists. It was a sad
site to see.  But compounding that he called me aside and said that he is
a “real Aborigine not an Indian or Sri Lankan pretending to be one” as many
people have 'accused' him in the past. So it is not only ‘us’ who make this
connection but also ‘them’. Further when I visited an Aboriginal settlement
in Arnhem Land (in North the AA looks closer to Papuans than Indians), I
was called as a long lost brother from far away land by the local
aboriginals. There is definitely layers of human migrations in Australia
and who ever populated India has left their traces in Australia too.
Overall it was a very emotional trip.