The swastika is an ancient symbol that has absolutely nothing to do with the Nazis. As far as I know, this is a symbol representing the movement of the sun and the change of seasons. But I’m not an expert, I didn’t get into symbolism.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Braj Lal
Date: Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 7:12 PM
Subject: Re: Views critical of KS Valdiya's work on Sarasvati
To:
"S. Kalyanaraman"
My dear
Dr. Kalyanaraman,
Many thanks for sending me the e-mail forwarding on the 19th instant 'Views critical of K. S. Valdiya's work on Sarasvati'.
Since the accompanying Note, by Giosan and others, also adversely comments on the thesis proposed by me that Haraapan Civilization and Vedic Civilization are but two faces of the same coin, I am sending a reply. Kindly have it placed on the Internet and let me know when the needful has been done.
Thanking you very much and with the best regards,
B. B. Lal
Note: The note dated June 21, 2012 of Prof. Brajbasi Lal in in reference to the pnas paper of Liviu Giosan et al posted in the references cited below. Th full text of the pnas paper is ahttp://www.docstoc.com/docs/121656630/Fluvial-landscapes-of-Harappan-civilization----Liviu-Giosan-(May-2012) Kalyanaraman.
My attention has been drawn to a paper published in a recent issue of pnas , in which Profs. L. Giosan, P. Clift and thirteen others have dealt with the effects of climatic changes during the 4th -3rd millennia BCE in the region from the Yamuna on the east to the Indus on the west. This paper also includes the following comment on the Harappan=Vedic equation which had been proposed by me in one of my recent books:
“The strong assertions by geologists that the diversion of glacial rivers from the Ghaggar coincided with the decline of the Harappan civilization was used by archaeologists like Prof. B.B. Lal to place the composers of the Rig Veda on the plains of the Punjab before the Ghaggar dried up, apparently bolstering the theory that the Harappan people and the Vedic people were one and the same. A geological narrative constructed without rigorous evidence has been promoted to support a theory of cultural evolution in northwest India.” {This quote is from
http://suvratk.blogspot.in/2012/06/fluvial-history-and-fortunes-of.html
These comments were made by J. Triptronicus on June 17, 2012 at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/IndiaArchaeology/message/14212}
First of all, let me make it clear in unequivocal terms that the equation, namely Harappan Civilization=Vedic Civilization, is not at all based on the evidence of existence, cessation or diversion of any glacier-fed river(s), as has been made out by the signatories of the above Note. It stands on its own line of arguments.
(For a detailed analysis, the reader’s attention is invited to pp. 114-26 of my book, How Deep are the Roots of Indian Civilization: Archaeology Answers, New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 2009.) Here, I will briefly re-state the more salient arguments, as follows.
1. Scholars all over the world, whether in usa-europe or India, accept that the now-dry river going by the name of Ghaggar in Haryana and Rajasthan, Hakra in Cholistan and Nara in Sindh is none other than the Rigvedic Sarasvati. Whether it was a glacier-fed or monsoon-fed river is irrelevant in the present context.
2. On its banks there flourished many Early Harappan and Mature Harappan sites, during the 4th and 3rd millennia bce. The extent of this civilization was from the upper Yamuna on the east to the Indus on the west.
3. Hydrological investigations and C-14 dates indicate that the Sarasvati dried up approximately around 2,000 bce.
[Even literary evidence confirms the drying up of the Sarasvati after the Rigvedic times and before that of the Pamchnimsa Brahmana (XXV.10.16)].
4. Since the Rigveda speaks eloquently of the Sarasvati as an active river, the period of the Rigveda must be placed before 2,000 bce(cf. No. 3 above). How much earlier is anybody’ guess.
5. Verses 5 and 6 of Sukta 75 of Mandala X of the RIGVEDA define the Rigvedic territory, which extended from the upper reaches of the GANGA-Yamuna on the east to the Indus and its western tributaries on the west.
6. If we put Nos. 2, 4 and 5 together, it becomes abundantly clear that the Vedic Civilization and the Harappan Civilization are but two faces of the same coin.
7. Thus, howsoever we may wish, we cannot wriggle out of this Vedic=Harappan equation.
B. B. LAL,
Former Director General,
Archaeological Survey of India
References:
Fluvial History And The Fortunes Of The Harappan Civilization
FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2012
In a recent issue of PNAS Liviu Giosan et.al . use a combination of high resolution topographic data, geomorphologic analysis and sedime...
suvratk.blogspot.in
June 17, 2012