A talk by Dr. N.S. Rajaram at MIT. He is a great scholar (a mathematical scientist from academia who has been researching in the field of history and history of science for many years now), speaker and writer. He has done a lot of research in the Indology field and has challenged the old, colonial, euro-centric theories.
Harappan archaeology represents the material side of the civilization that created the Vedic civilization. It came at the end of a long maritime phase going back to the end of the Ice Age.
Ever since archaeologists unearthed the Harappan civilization nearly a century ago, scholars have sought to keep it separate from the Vedic literature and culture. This has resulted in the paradox of a history without literature for the Harappans and a literature without history for the Vedic Aryans. Following the collapse of the ‘Aryan invasion’ version of history, and recent findings in natural history and genetics, it is possible to identify the Harappans as belonging to the late Vedic Age. Harappan civilization was the twilight of the Vedic Age and broke up due to ecological degradation including the drying up of the Sarasvati River.
Natural history further allows us to trace the origins of the Vedic civilization to the maritime world of the end of the last Ice Age. Harappan iconography is full of Vedic symbols. The presentation will highlight the Harappan symbolism and its connections with the Vedic and other ancient literature. The presentation will also indicate important areas for research, which, however, requires dropping old dogmas and a readiness to use multidisciplinary approaches based on science, literature as well as combining ancient and modern metaphysics.
