‘Aryans came from near Kazhakstan’
Pune, September 9: Fresh evidence suggests that the home of the Aryans was near Kazhakstan, around Altai Dagh, also called the ‘golden mountain.’ It is highly likely that the Aryans migrated from this region around 10,000 years ago due to adverse environment and reached Afghanistan and India, said archaeologist MK Dhavalikar, emphasising that Lokmanya Tilak’s theory of the Arctic home of the Vedas was not far off the mark.
Dhavalikar was speaking on ‘The Aryans: Old problem and new evidence’ on the occasion of the 80th death anniversary of R G Bhandarkar, at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) on Thursday.
‘‘The Rig Vedic Aryans have recorded their memory in a hymn which says that many days have passed before sunrise. This points to a cold place nearer the Northern Pole. The reference to Mount Meru, mountain of gold, in the Puranas then points to Altai Dagh,’’ said Dhavalikar.
While they may have come from outside India, they lived in the Sapta-Sindhu area, the region bound by the river Sindhu in the west and Saraswati in the east, where they stayed for 7,000 years, said Dhavalikar, adding that whether to call them outsiders after such a long stay depended on one’s perspective.
He pointed as evidence recent publication about excavations at Mehrgarh in present day Baluchistan. The Harappan ancestry can now be stretched back by a couple of millennia thanks to the Mehrgarh excavation findings, said Dhavalikar. ‘‘Here, the significant period between 4500 to 3800 BC shows the arrival of new people who introduced wheel-made painted pottery, mother goddess worship and copper. They seem to have come from through neighbouring Afghanistan and later, after 4000 BC started to spread into the Saraswati valley where further development into the urban Harappan and its degenerate form, the Late Harappans can be traced in unbroken succession,’’ he said.
‘‘There is also evidence of some Aryan branches migrating from India due to harsh conditions — tectonic movement, drying up of water sources — to West Asia, due to similarities in languages and motifs,’’ said Dhavalikar.
The function was chaired by Deccan College director K Padayya and was conducted by honorary secretary, M G Dhadphale. The institute released eight publications.
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