Frontline – August 02, 2019

TheMature Harappan
continueduntilaboutthe
middleof thesecondmil-
lennium BCE. Perturba-
tions in the isotopes of
oxygenatomspresentin
thelayersof a stalagmite
growing from a cave in
Meghalayahavenowbeen
accepted as proof of the
failure of monsoons all
over South Asia about
4,200to 4,000 yearsago.
Joseph, in a lightervein,
suggests thatit is Varuna,
the Godof water, whohas
to be blamed for the endof
the Harappan civilisa-
tion—notIndra,as Mor-
timerWheeler didabout
sevendecades ago!Jokes
apart,theHarappancivil-
isation had already de-
clinedby the secondhalfof
the second millennium
BCE,whennorth-western
India witnessed a fresh
wave of migration as
shownby evidence from
genetics. Elements from
the Eurasian Steppemake
theirpresencefeltin the
DNAof the newmigrants.
Whatis interestingis that
in the newwaveof migra-
tion,it is the maleelement
(represented by the Y chro-
mosome)thatis consider-
ablymorethanthe female
element (represented by
mtDNA).
Obviously, the newmi-
grantsweremostlymen,
andtheymingledwithwo-
menof thelocalpopula-
tion—that is, the
admixtureof the “FirstIn-
dians” and the Iranians
from the Zagros moun-
tains.Thisevidence of a
possible migration from
the Stepperegionis borne
outby thearchaeologyof
theBactria-Margiana-Ar-
chaeological Complex
(BMAC).A recentarticle
by Michael Witzel(2018:
“Beyond theFlightof the
Falcon: Early ‘Aryans’

Within and OutsideIn-

dia”,in KumkumRoyand

NainaDalal(eds),A Fests-

chriftforRomilaThapar:

Questioning Paradigms,

Constructing Histories,

AlephBooks,pages274-

292)considers all the evid-

ence that is available.

Witzelmakes thefollow-

ingstatement:“Thecom-

plexIndiandataexhibits

manyoverlapsin archae-

ology,genetics, linguistics

and Vedic texts. When

comparing theresultsof

these fields they largely

agreewitheachother and

sustainan emerging pic-

ture of the origin and

spreadof thearya,their

language, poetry,religion,

ritual, culture,and even

theirgeneticset-up.”

Althoughhe is circum-

spect about the kindof

evidencefrom thesedis-

ciplines(“Justas thefields

of archaeology and lin-

guistics, the rather new

branchof genetics,popu-

lationgenetics, hasits in-

built problems.”), his

conclusion is clear: “In

sum, neither was India

everisolated, nor did all fa-

cetsof its archaeological,

linguistic, textual, genetic/

somaticdataarise‘on their

own’insidethe Indiansub-

continent; instead, they

look back up to some

60,0 00 years of Out-of-

Africa history. Just like

other Asian subcontin-

ents—Europe,the oncedry

Sundaland, Northeast

Asia—the Indiansubcon-

tinent presentsa fascinat-

ing array of internal

developments and ex-

ternal influencesthatonly

patient and unbiased

study canreveal.”

Beforethesespeakers

of an Indo-Europeanlan-

guage describing them-

selves as the arya,

migrating from the

Steppes,arrivedin whatis

nowIndia, the ancestorsof

thosewhospeaktheAus-

troasiatic languages had

come here. Two major

waves of migration,one

throughan inland route

via South-EastAsia and

theother an island-hop-

pingonewithits originin

China, had reshaped

South-EastAsia.Riceand

milletshadbeenfullydo-

mesticatedin theYangtze

and Yellow river valleys

longago.Thefirst migra-

tionbrought withit the

Austroasiatic languages,

suchas theMunda,new

plants anda newvariety of

riceto Indiaby the turnof

the second millennium

BCE. This recognition

shows that around the

time that the Mature

Harappancivilisationwas

about to bowout, there

wastheinflux of another

set of people coming

through eastern India.

Evenin thecase of the

heirs of these migrants,

theirmaternallineagesare

of “FirstIndian”origin.

Thislastpoint is very

interesting. Even in the

caseof theSteppepastor-

alistsmigratingto India,

therewasa heavypredom-

inance of men. Joseph

showsa brilliantflashof

insightin hisobservation

thattheconventionthat

women speak Prakrit

while the “high-born”

speak Sanskrit in plays

maybe “because women

mayoftenhave belonged

to a different, a non-

‘Aryan’, language culture

than the high-born, or

‘Aryan’ men from the

Steppes theyweremarried

to in theearly periodof

theirmigrations”.

Thisbookis remark-

ably accessible to the

reader,denseas it is with

evidence from multiple

branches of knowledge

suchas archaeology,lin-

guistics,ancient textsand,

mostnotably,therecent

study of ancient genes

(aDNA). It goeswithout

sayingthatnot all scholars

willagreewiththe conclu-

sionsdrawn on the basisof

resultsof individualdis-

ciplines;so also,somemay

doubtthe validityof gener-

alisationsbasedon limited

samples, especiallyin the

studyof genes. But,hereis

afirm basison whichthe

studyof Indian history can

begin.This is of especial

importancein the contextof

the post-truthconditionsof

the present when myth-

makingseeksto replaceau-

thenticknowledge. $

ATHREE-CENTIMETRESEALwiththe Harappan

script.A systematic studyof thesignsled to experts like

AskoParpola andIravathamMahadevantopointtothe

possibility of theHarappanandDravidianlanguages

being related.

D.

KRISHNAN