The Problem of Aryan Origins: From an Indian Point of View (Second Extensively Enlarged Edition with Five Supplements)

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The first edition of Sethna's book dealt at length with this belief and its various corollaries as they were conceived up to the date of its publication: 1980. Archaeology, linguistics and literature were pressed into service so as to leave no loose ends. In the process. a comprehensive framework got built for the insights and researches of contemporary India's greatest seer and thinker: Sri Aurobindo. One of the pet current ideas shown with his help as well as independently to lack any firm basis was the popular antinomy of "Aryan" and "Dravidian" which has caused a good deal of bad blood in the country.

The second edition, extensively en- larged with five supplements, demons- trates for the period after 1980 at still greater lengthwith the same tools of wide-spread scholarship the validity of the first edition's thesis. Whatever criticism, explicit or indirect has opposed this thesis has been unflichingly faced. Now, at a number of points the penetrating vision of Sri Aurobindo comes into play again with even a more elaborate presentation of his study of the spiritual and cultural issues connected with the ancient Rigveda. Special attention has been drawn in the longest supplement to the well-known Finnish linguist and Indologist Asko Parpola who has recently made the most impressive attempt so far to revive the theory of an Aryan invasion in c. 1500 B.C. and to cope with problem of Aryan origins.

Close study of the diverse arguments brought forward by Parpola has led Sethna to probe deeper into his own general position that the Rigveda is anterior to the Indus Valley Civilization by a broad margin. The result is both a minute scrutiny of several surprising suggestions arising from the Rigveda and a many-aspected review of events dating back to the sixth millennium B.C. and covering not only India's antiquity but also the earliest formative stages of Baluchistan's Mehrgarh and of Central- Asian regions.

To appreciate the sustained novelty of Sethna's researches under a strict scholarly discipline the reader is requested to set aside all preconceptions and prepare for a regular adventure in ancient history.