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The Ṛgveda and the Panjab
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Extract
Speaking of the materials furnished by the Ṛgveda, Dr. A. B. Keith has rightly said that “ conclusions can be drawn only with much caution. It is easy to frame and support by plausible evidence various hypotheses, to which the only effective objection is that other hypotheses are equally legitimate, and that facts are too imperfect to allow of conclusions being drawn ”. (The Cambridge History of India, vol. i, p. 78, 1922.)
That position seems to be sound, but in the same paragraph the writer commits himself to an evident acceptance of the view that “ the bulk at least ” of the hymns of the Rgveda were composed “ south of the modern Ambala ”.
The revelations of Harappa and Mohen-jo-daro and the possibility of finding archæological strata contemporary with the beginning of the Vedic age in the Panjab lend a new interest to evidence of the Veda and it is reasonable to challenge the bases of any prevailing belief with regard to the location of the main settlements of the Vedic Aryans.
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- List of Contributions
- Information
- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , June 1931 , pp. 549 - 554
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- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1931
References
page 549 note 1 Maodonell, A. A., Sanskrit Literature, p. 145, 1900.Google Scholar
page 550 note 1 He meant north-west.
page 550 note 2 They are practically invisible at Lahore, though the gleam of distant snow mountains can be seen about dawn from a tower on an exceptionally clear morning.
page 550 note 3 The use of wells indicates that the water-line was not very deep. The word dhánvan usually translated “ desert ” need not always mean a sandy desert devoid of plants.
Vide Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index, sub voce). The dhánvāni are flooded, iv, 17, 2; 19, 7; they are rained on, v, 33, 6; plants grown on them, iv, 33, 7; they are made easy to cross evidently because ájījana óṣadhīr, v, 83, 10; and there is something for horses and cattle to eat. Again dhánvann iva prapá if translated “ like a spring in a desert ” suggests an oasis as in the Rajputāna desert, but perhaps “ like a waterhole in a dry tract” may be nearer the truth.
The Dhanvan has been derived from dhan “ to run ”, the idea being of running sand (Walde, Lateinisches Etym. Wōrterbuch, sub fons). It does not seem necessary to separate it from dhanu, dhanvan meaning “bow”. The original meaning may have been curved land―so applied to a sandbank or island (dhanu) or to land not flat enough for irrigation (dhanvan) and so to flatter waste land.
page 551 note 1 The Vedic Aryans made regular use of stone. So in ii, 24, 4, áśmasyam avatám “ well with mouth of stone”; cf. x, 101, 7, aśmacakra “ stone-wheel” rather perhaps “ circle of stone ”; x, 101,10, aśmanmayībhiḥ váāśibhis “ axes made of stone ” and so on.
A hundred fortresses of stone (iv, 30, 20) suggest hill country, so do the “ stony barriers ” of x, 67, 3. In the west and centre of the Panjab there are no rocks and no stones. To throw something at a dog one must find a piece of brick or potsherd or be content with a lump of earth.
page 553 note 1 Geiger indeed (loc. cit.) allows the Vedic poets a knowledge of the Panjab, but thinks the Bharatas invaded it in a series of digoijayas. But they would not raid an empty desert. Who then were the settlers in districts worth raiding ? If they were not Aryans, were they non-Aryan tribes strong enough to hold their own against the Aryans ? That would be very interesting if there was any evidence to support it. Geiger offered none beyond the fact that two Bharata poets belonged to the Sarasvati country.
page 553 note 2 Zimmer took this to be the Indus.
page 554 note 1 It has been assumed above that the Panjab climate was much the same as it is now, or some forty years ago before the great extension of irrigation. There may have been periods of progressive desiccation. The Bār or waste land between the Ravi and the Chenab, now irrigated and colonized, does not seem to have been always such a barren waste as it was recently. The area contains a large number of “ thehs ” mounds strewn with pottery which indicate the sites of well-populated villages. (Deva Singh, Colonization in the Bechna Doab, p. 6, Monograph No. 7, Panjab Government Record Office Publications.) The study of “ Indo-Sumerian” or “ Indus Valley ” sites like Harappa may throw some light on this question. Supposing that the Vedic Panjab had more rain and more pasture with less desert, the contention expressed in this article would not be affected.