(Image from the Hoysala trail by backpacker)

The Indian History Carnival, published on the 15th of every month, is a collection of posts related to Indian history and archaeology.

1. Sukumar finds a connection between Gonds and Australian aborgines. He says Gonds are one of the oldest people in India.

2. Dr. James F. McGrath wrote, “the Aryans were, most probably, well-established in India long before the purported Aryan invasion would allegedly have occurred.” Here at varnam we analyzed The Genetic Distance between Karunanidhi and Mallika Sherawat .

3. Dr. Arvind Sharma quotes Greek and Latin sources to write how Greeks perceived the Indians, and how the Indians perceived themselves, in or around the fourth century B.C.E. “The point which stands out clearly from these accounts is that the Indians are considered a diverse and polyglot people.”

4. Moda Sattva argues that Rastrakutas are of Kannadiga origin.

5. Manish Khamesra has Part 1 of his travel to Fatepur Sikri. “This magnificent fortified city, built between 1565-1585, was the capital of Mughal Empire for around 15 yrs during Akbar’s reign.” (via Desi Pundit)

6. Backpakker has images of the Holy Rosary Church built by French Missionaries around 1860. (via Desi Pundit). She also has images from the Hoysala trail (1,2,3)

7. Rohit finds a 29th December 1930 speech by Muhammad Iqbal in which he expresses the philosophical basis for Pakistan. Gaurav thinks, “that (dubious) honour goes to speech given in 1888 by Sir Syyed Ahmend Khan to a gathering of Muslim intellectuals”

8. Ratheesh has a short review of John Keay’s India Discovered. “I think India Discovered is also a must-read for every Indian to understand how our glorious past was discovered, studied and protected by foreigners, who didn’t always have great support from their Governments.”

9. Rohit also has a post which shows that Gandhi made Nehru India’s first Prime Minister.

10. Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta came across a paper on the partition of India written by a famous professional geographer, Oskar Spate who  served on the Punjab Boundary Commission. It explains how various parts of the country were divided between Indian and Pakistan.

11. Dr. Subrato Roy writes about the lessons from the 1962 war.

12. Delhi Assembly Deputy Speaker Shoaib Iqbal has demanded that Bharat Ratna be conferred on the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. B. Shantanu thinks it is more than a joke.

If you find any posts related to Indian history please send it to jk AT varnam DOT org or use this form. The next carnival will be up on March 15th.

Previous Carnivals: 1

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Randy Cohen who writes the Ethicist column in New York Times got the following question

I’m a history professor — my period is 1500-1800 — with an M.A. student who wants to pursue a doctorate. While she is smart and capable, she is very religious, subscribing to the “young earth” theory that the world is only 6,000 years old. I am to work with her for a year and then recommend her to Ph.D. programs. Must I do so if I find her views incongruent with those of historians? [Randy Cohen – The Ethicist – New York Times]

It is shocking to see that in the year 2008, there are Ph.D students who believe in fairy tales, then if you have graduated from one of those schools where creationism is taught as science this is not surprising. Mr. Cohen advices the professor to teach her Sumerian history and is confident that the student will have a eureka moment when she discovers that the Sumerians could not have accomplished so much immediately after the earth was formed.

Randy, two words: Max Müller. He had a Ph.D on Spinoza‘s Ethics, was the founder of Indian studies in the western world and the creator of the discipline of comparative religion, but believed that all languages can be traced to the Tower of Babel, Indians were populated by the descendents of Japhet and Christianity was a true historical event. His  biblical beliefs resulted in dating the hymns of Rig-Veda being to 1000 B.C.E., and this 19^th century paradigm is still widely held.

If the professor, following Randy’s advice, tried to teach a student who believes that earth was created on the night preceding October 23, 4004 B.C.E, Sumerian history, the most likely outcome is that the student will rewrite history to fit in with the Biblical narrative.

Technorati Tags: Max Muller, Ethicist, New York Times

Recently an underground cave dedicated to the founders of Rome – Romulus and his brother Remus was found between one of the seven hills of Rome and the Basilica of Santa Anastasia. Does this mean that the story of the two brothers are not myth anymore or can archaeology prove mythology?

“Everyone always wants to think that archaeology has proved the Bible is true, or that there really was a Trojan War, or that King Arthur was a real character,” says historian T.P. Wiseman of England’s University of Exeter. “Archaeology by its nature can’t provide such evidence.” He says that when archaeologists interpret an artifact, their expert perspective is essentially a best guess, because there’s no means of confirmation. Historian Christopher Smith of Scotland’s University of St. Andrews notes that even if artifacts clearly reference the Romulus and Remus story, all they will show is that the cavern is a place where first-century Romans celebrated the legend — not that the story is real. “It is tempting to argue that the finds support historical events,” Smith says, “when in fact they merely support ancient beliefs about events.”[ Does a cave prove Romulus and Remus are no myth? – USATODAY.com]

The Troy was considered a mythological place till German businessman,Heinrich Schliemann found a site in Turkey which is now accepted by historians. German archaeologist Manfred Korfmann who has been excavating in Troy wrote

According to the archaeological and historical findings of the past decade especially, it is now more likely than not that there were several armed conflicts in and around Troy at the end of the Late Bronze Age. At present we do not know whether all or some of these conflicts were distilled in later memory into the “Trojan War” or whether among them there was an especially memorable, single “Trojan War.” However, everything currently suggests that Homer should be taken seriously, that his story of a military conflict between Greeks and the inhabitants of Troy is based on a memory of historical events–whatever these may have been [Was There a Trojan War?]

Archaeology could not prove that the Trojan war happened for sure, but it came up with the answer that it could have happened. 

Technorati Tags: Troy, Trojan War, Heinrich Schliemann

Here is Gireesh Gupta, Associate Professor at Belmont Abbey College writing about the history of Hinduism

Around 1500 B.C.E., Indo-Aryans entered India through the northwest region. Scholars differ on the exact venue where the Indo-Aryans lived before migrating into India. Some scholars believe that they came to India from Central Asia.[Hinduism is one of the Oldest Religions of the World]

According to some genetic studies done recently Indo-European speaking population did not come from Central Asia and were native to the subcontinent for a few millennia. At least you can tell the Professor to read those papers, but what do you tell Charlene Wilkinson of Guyana?

My North American years were instructive. I discovered a culture of African American scholars who understood the centrality of Black people in the creation of human civilization. I learned that the Indus Valley civilization of India was a Black one before the coming of the Aryan invaders;[I beg you to turn away from shallow arrogance]

Linguists have always tried to push the Aryans into India through the Khyber/Bolan passes and since this whole story is imaginary they had to distort original Sanskrit texts. One such distortion was done by a famous Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University and when this distortion was pointed out to the esteemed professor, the reaction was not very academic like.

Professor Witzel and I happened to participate in a seminar organized by UMASS, Dartmouth in June 2006. When I referred, during the course of my presentation, to this wrong translation by the learned Professor, he, instead of providing evidence in support of his own stand, shot at me by saying that I did not know the difference between Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Should that be the level of an academic debate? (Anyway, he had to be told that I had the privilege of obtaining in 1943 my Master’s Degree in Sanskrit (with the Vedas included), with a First Class First, from a first class university of India, namely Allahabad.)[Let not the 19th century paradigms continue to haunt us!]

This looks very civil, compared to what happened at the recent Princeton Theological Seminary conference on the Talpiot Tomb. The conference was held to discuss the possibility that a tomb in Jerusalem which held ossuaries belonging to Joseph, Mary,  Mariamne, Jesus, son of Jospeh, and Judah, son of Jesus would belong to the Jesus family of the Bible fame. Here is one scene from the conference.

During the opening session, Professor Kloner shouted down Professor James Charlesworth from the audience. I was sitting behind Professor Kloner and heard his colleagues advise him that screaming at Professor Charlesworth would not do his reputation any good. Subsequently, Professor Kloner decided to direct his invective at me. Filmmakers are fair game. At one point, Professor Kloner jumped on the stage and, as reported by the Jerusalem Post, shouted “liar” at me, as I attempted to ask a question from the audience. Later he thought better of it and again jumped up on the stage and publicly apologized. But after Ruth Gat’s statement, he verbally and physically attacked me at the closing reception in front of television cameras as they rolled. I said nothing to him, but I watched in shock as his wife wrestled with him so as to prevent any further physical assault. Is this scholarship?[Simcha Jacobovici Responds to His Critics]

The Jewish carpenter would have been amused by all this.

Technorati Tags: Talpiot Tomb, Aryans,