The Harappan Question for Bhandarkar（Bhandarkar的哈拉帕的问题）.pdf

The Harappan Question1 Mayank Vahia Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400 005, INDIA www.tifr.res.in/~vahia Abstract One of the major problems of interpretation of early Indian history has been the inconsistencies between the Harappan (Indus Valley) civilisation and the Rigvedic literature. Problems arise from the fact that the Harappan Civilisation was at its peak around second millennium BC (Allchin and Allchin, 1989 page 131). The period of creation of the Rigveda has also been put around 4000 to 2000 BC, though the writing down of the text has been dated to a much later period around 2000 BC or later. The Rigvedic literature and its subsequent developments have also been in the Indian subcontinent. There has therefore been a strong temptation to connect the Harappans to the Vedic Civilisation. However, there are several problems with this association, most graphically portrayed in the ‘horse problem’ (Thapar, 2003). Horses are integral to most Rigvedic ritualistic customs while they are absent in the Harappan sites. There are several other problems also. We re-visit this controversy in the light of some recent developments and suggest that the Harappans belonged to the ancient Homo sapiens who separated from the humans migrating from Africa as early as sixty thousand years ago and travelled along the coast of the Arabian Sea (Wells, 2003). This group lost touch with the group that migrated to the Mediterranean and evolved independently of them. We suggest that it was this group that set up the Harappan civilisation. We suggest that the group that wen