Continuity of the Indus-Saraswati Civilization

Attended this lecture by Michel Danino. He is a French author and had participated in the translation and publication of the works of Shri Aurobindo and of The Mother. He was also associated with the preservation of tropical rain forest in the Nilgiri hills. In 2001, he convened the International Forum for India's Heritage (www.IFIH.org). He has lived in India for quite sometime, and has done lots of research on the history of the Indus Saraswati Civilization. He is the author of "The Invasion That Never Was", a book refuting the Aryan Invasion Theory.

Interestingly, a few weeks ago, I had a small debate on this same very issue with a friend here at IIT Roorkee. Since the time I came across this stupid theory long back during my school days, I knew something was seriously wrong. The (boring) NCERT texts would proclaim "1500 BC - Aryans invade India"...damn.... In fact I probably believed in those times(class 4/5 or so) that Aryans were a race like the other invaders like Shakas, Huns, Kushanas etc and like them all, it too disaapeared later..But the stupidity of the theory struck me when in later years (class 9th), the meaning of the theory actually became clear - that the so called foreign Aryans who displaced the orginal inhabitants were OUR ancestors and Hinduism, Vedas and everything we hold allegience to is linked to a nomadic tribe from central Asia or northern/western Europe!!! Damn!!! And that 'our' culture was established in India only after 1500BC! Since I have alwayas had lots of interest in Indian history (mostly ancient history and the history of the freedom struggle), I have had done a bit of study on the issue on the internet myself and was convinced by the tons of archaelogical evidence against the invasion theory, so when I and my friend were discussing the various aspects of this invasion theory, I had my facts ready to counteract the old school of this crap theory. Unfortunately the Indian textbooks are still propagating this myth kept alive by it's ardent supporters, even though the current historians have conclusively disproved the theory.

Danino's lecture was focussed towards showing the continuity of the Indus Saraswati Civilization
that had it's mature era from 2600 BC to1900 BC, to the culture of the region belonging to times later than 800 BC....and continued to today's India. Danino's lecture had lots of pictures of seals, artifacts etc from the great civilization and maps, satellite images also. Some important points from the lecture:

• Firstly the civilization should be called Indus-Saraswati civ and not just Indus civ since comparable number of sites have been excavated on the banks of the river Saraswati in the last century. There is data from ISRO's research on the river to show the path of Saraswati river and how it used to meet the sea at the runn of Kutch.
• The Indus-Saraswati civ was quite advanced than the other cultures, say those of Egypt etc...interms of architecture, well calculated town planning, use of proportions, number systems...
  
• Surprisingly the weight system was binary based - in powers of 2.
  
• The drainage system was quite well planned. People had individual bathrooms. The famous "great bath" was probably used for some rituals.
  
• No palace kind of structure was found in the remains, indicating the absence monarchy.
  
• The bricks used were of very good quality.
• Another interesting fact was the use of trapezoidal bricks while constructing wells, a remarkable feature not found in any other civilizations.
• Statuettes of horses have also been excavated , as also some horse bones, disproving the theory that the so called Aryans brought the horses!
• Similarity in architectural designs of the Indus-Saraswati civ and later times(many of those can be traced to even today) signifies continuity.
• Swastika symbol's presence in Indus-Saraswati civ and it's significance in Hinduism(and even in Jainism and Buddhism).
• A couple of Shiva lingas have also been unearthed.
• Similarity in the artifacts of those days and these days.
• Then there was a statuette of a woman who was wearing lots of bangles on her arm(between the joint with the shoulder the elbow) - part of the traditional attire of many Rajasthani women.
• The geometry of the fire alters was one of the three types used in Vedic traditions.
• Use of vermilion/color on the head where the hair part (maang!) found in some women figurines, again pointing to the Hindu custom of applying sindur.
• The similarity of the boats depicted in seals and the boats used by the prsent-day people of theregion of the Indus river. etc etc...
• About the Indus script : Though many people have deciphered it , (e.g by Natwar Jha and Rajaram (who say the language is Sanskrit)), many linguists don't accept these as the inscriptions on tablets are not long enough to establish one-to-one relationship; and secondly absence of any bilingual tablets which could validate the decipherment.
• No Biological/Demographical discontinuity has been found.
  

The death of the invasion theory has been accepted by most historians. But still many people in the academia cling to this absurd theory because ...I'd quote Danino - "they have built their careers on this", and these anachronistic historians can't disown their own preachings now even though the archaelogical evidences point otherwise.

Also, NO archaeological proof has been found to support the invasion theory. Isn't it strange!!! No remnants of the so called Aryan's culture have been found, no mention of the land from where they had supposedly come has been found in any of 'their' literature! The vedas worship the mighty Saraswati while it had dried up by 1900BC (Proved by researchers from TIFR that no fresh discharge took place in the river after 2000BC or so), clearly making the vedas a lot older than what the invasionists would like us to believe! Then why keep clutching to this illogical theory? Why ?

Archaeological evidences have proved the continuity of the Indus-Saraswati civilization through ages.Unfortunately, Indian children are still being taught the incorrect history about their country. As Danino said "Indian history textbooks are lagging behind by 50 years' time". Hopefully, Indian history textbooks will be soon re-written to teach the truth-the correct history to the school children and Indians in general.