The Vedic People Quotes

“In the Brāhmaṇa period, the Soma plant ceased to be a commonplace. It became a prized item in the ritual, which was difficult to procure and so was first rationed and then substituted. In the Baudhāyana Śrautasūtra (6.14), the Adhvaryu asks the seller if the Soma came from Mūjavat, which obviously was still a source of supply. In the Yajurveda (Maitrāyani Saṃhitā 1.160), the sacrificial offerings are hung from a tree with the words, "This is your portion, O Rudra! With this food pass by beyond the Mūjavat". By now, Mūjavat is the civilizational outpost beyond which lies the unknown.

Kātyāyana Śrautasūtra (10.9.30) enjoins the priests not to give the genuine Soma to a Kṣatriya or a Vaiśya, even when it was available. They should instead be given the juice of the fruit of the Nyagrodha tree ( Ficus indica, the Indian fig). Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (4.5.10.2-6) lists the substitutes for use in the ritual when Soma is not available. In decreasing order of preference, they are the Phalguna plant with the red blossom; the Syenahrta plant; the Ādāra plant; the reddish Durva plant; or as the last resort, any of the golden coloured grasses. The explicit mention of red and golden suggests that the substitutes were chosen to resemble the original Soma in one parameter, colour. Also, the cow to be given as the price for Soma should be red brown with red-brown eyes, no doubt because this was the Soma colour (Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 3.3.1.14).”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“The clearing of the Ganga Plain forests had to await the development of iron technology. The technique would have been to first burn down the jungles and then remove the rumps with axes. The Mahābhārata itself provides an example of such a clearing, when the KhāṇḌava forest was burnt down to found Indraprastha. Another example is provided by Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (1.4.1.10-16), according to which Māṭhava, the king of Videgha (Videha), starting from Sarasvatī "followed Agni [fire] as it went burning along this earth towards the east".”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“Aryan presence in the Ganga Plain is indicated by the PGW culture or the Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW) culture that followed it. In other words, large-scale inhabitation east of the Yamuna-Ganga (Yaga) doab did not take place until after 900 BC. This is not surprising. The Ganga Plain was the seat of thick monsoon jungles that had to be cleared for agriculture and settlement. This task was beyond the capabilities of the Copper Age people. Copper is too soft for any practical use.

Its alloy with tin, bronze, can be used for making ornaments, arrows and axes. But the old-world supply of these metals was highly restricted. That is why Copper Age civilizations were all confined to either semi-arid or weak-river areas. This can be seen from the geographical extent of the Harappan civilization which generally avoided the upper course of major rivers. The handful of Harappan settlements east of the Yamuna were understandably located on the small rainwater tributaries. The Harappans did not cross the Ganga. Most Harappan sites in north India became the early PGW sites because the technological level was the same in both the cases.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“The charismatic Brahmo Samaj leader Keshub Chunder Sen (1838-84), who had met Max Muller in England in 1870, declared at a public lecture in Calcutta in 1877, "Gentlemen, in the advent of the English nation in India we see a reunion of parted cousins, the descendants of two different families of the ancient Aryan race.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“Orientalism, which became confrontationist in the Islamic world, was persuasive and seductive in India. It took the form of Indo-Europeanism. It is thus not surprising that Friedrich Max Muller's (1823-1900) researches at Oxford were funded by the East India Company. Official support for Indology was good value for money. It made the colonial rule palatable to the native leadership.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“Fr Jean Calmette (1693-1739), working in Andhra Pradesh, was an intrepid collector of Sanskrit works. He was the first European scholar to get possession of all the four Vedas. During this period, there was such a craze for collecting literary works that the demand was met by a large supply of forged Vedas and upavedas, the chief centres of forgery being Masulipatam on the Andhra coast and Nadia in Bengal.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“In very ancient times, the rulers acquired legitimacy for themselves through a pretended divine connection. They, for example, claimed descent from the sun, moon or Jupiter. The very first task assigned to astronomers in the past was to establish divine sanction for the rulers. In later times when the society's awe of the skies weakened, legitimacy had to be obtained through the past—for example, by highlighting the feats of ancestors or through spurious genealogies.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“We have argued that the composition of the Ṛgveda was taken up in south Afghanistan a few centuries after the demise of the mature Harappan phase. The later parts of the Ṛgveda as well as the later Vedic texts were however composed in India. Under the circumstances, some correspondence between the later Vedic texts and the late Harappan cultural phases is to be expected. There is however no shred of evidence to show that the Mehr-garhians, early-phase Harappans, and mature-phase Harappans had any cultural trait in common with the Ṛgvedic and Avestan people.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“In the Indian context, two migratory waves are particularly important. In about 7000 BC, the proto-farmers seem to have spread from west Asia to usher in the agricultural revolution at various centres including Mehrgarh. It is hard to believe that nobody came into India for the next 5,000 years. It is more likely that the migrants during this period were quietly absorbed. The migrations after c. 2000 BC belong to a different category. The first wave of non-Ṛgvedic Indie speakers modified the existing cultures, while the second wave, comprising the Ṛgvedic people, established its cultural supremacy.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“We have pointed out that the oft-quoted date of 3102 BC for the Bh ārata battle is not mentioned or implied in the Purānas but arises from a misappropriation of Āryabhaṭa's astronomical work. We have argued in favour of c. 900 BC as the period of the Bhārata battle and shown it to be consistent with the archaeological and Vedic evidence.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“In c. 1700 BC, another group of Indie speakers settled in south Afghanistan and took to the composition of the Ṛgvedic hymns in the region between the Helmand and the Arghandab. We have shown that the description of Sarasvatī and Sarayu in the Ṛgveda, and even sūtra literature, fits the Afghan rivers Helmand and Hari-rud better than any river in India. In c. 1400 BC, the Ṛgvedic people moved eastwards to the middle Indus. Eventually, they absorbed the Cemetery H people to found the Painted Grey Ware culture in c. 850 BC in Punjab and on the upper Ghaggar. The Vedic people remained to the west of the Yamuna-Ganga doab until c. 850 BC. The large-scale settlement of the Ganga Plain took place only when the use of iron became widespread and, perhaps, when population increased. During their migrations, the Indo-Aryans carried with them not only their poetry and religious beliefs, but also place and river names which they selectively reused. (Table 15)”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“While no single piece of evidence by itself can provide the clinching argument, an examination of the evidence in totality leads to the conclusion that India is not the original home of the Ṛgvedic people. The picture that emerges is as follows: The proto-Indo-European speakers emerged as a pre-historical entity in the steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas with the domestication of the wild horse. By the time they started dispersing, the Indo-Europeans were already familiar with metal and were not only riding horses but also using wheeled vehicles. The undifferentiated Indo-Iranian-speaking groups moved southwards from the Eurasian steppes in c. 2000 BC and spread over central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan up to River Indus. The merger of the non-Ṛgvedic Indie speakers with the post-urban Harappans led to the establishment of the various late Harappan cultural phases, including the important Cemetery H culture in Punjab.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“Natural history imposes the following two constraints: (vi) The Aryans, more accurately the proto-Indo-Europeans, domesticated the horse, (vii) The Ṛgvedic and Avestan Aryans, but not the other Indo-Europeans, built a cult around the Soma plant, which has been identified with the alkaloid-yielding varieties of Ephedra. Therefore, the proto-Indo-European habitat must coincide with the natural habitat of the horse, and the joint Indo-Iranian habitat with the natural habitat of the alkaloidal Ephedra. In any case, the Indo-Iranian habitat should be homogeneous enough to permit the use of the same plant as Soma/Haoma. In other words, the Indo-European homeland must be the horse-land; the Indo-Iranian habitat the soma-land.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“The horse and Soma together firmly rule out the possibility of the Indian plains being the seat of the Ṛgvedic composition.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“The Aryans were avid Soma drinkers and could pluck the Soma plant by the wayside (Ṛv 8.80.1). The Soma plant has been identified with alkaloidal Ephedra which grows only in mountainous regions (chapter 6). It does not grow in the plains. The entire Harappan expanse is without the drink-yielding Ephedra. The fact that the Brāhmaṇa literature talks of substitutes for the unavailable Ṛgvedic Soma plant shows that the theatre of the Brāhmaṇas was different from that of the Ṛgveda. Had the Ṛgveda been composed in the Harappan expanse, there would not have been any need for its replacement in the subsequent period.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“It is noteworthy that the Indian subcontinent is not the natural habitat of the horse. There never have been wild horses in the subcontinent. No horse bones have been found in the earliest occupancy layers at Mehrgarh, even when wild animals were an important food item. If the horse came to India from outside, so must have its tamers and riders. The horse appears in India only towards the very end of the mature Harappan phase or in the late Harappan phase, at sites like Surkotada in Kutch. It can thus be asserted with confidence that the cultural continuum from Mehrgarh to the closure of the urban Harappan phase, extending from c. 7000 BC to c. 2000 BC, owed its existence to people not familiar with the horse, and that the horse and its riders first entered the scene in c. 2000 BC to co-found the late Harappan cultures.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“The Soma cult along with the associated terminology is common to both the Ṛgveda and the Avesta (chapter 6). Soma is not known to the Indo-Europeans. It must therefore have been discovered in central Asia whose mountainous regions produce the candidate Ephedra plant. In other words, the Avestan and the Ṛgvedic people must have been living together in central Asia. Furthermore, Zoroastrianism presupposes the existence of the Ṛgvedic elements which it selectively retains (Vrtrahana, Soma) or negates (Indra, Devas). Zarathushtra himself is said to have been a Ṛgvedic hotr priest to begin with (table 4; chapter 3, p. 32).”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“The Indo-Iranians were a large body of people with a considerable spread in their material culture, beliefs and dialects. At some stage, a subset of these people decided to compose hymns and preserve them. We know these people as the Ṛgvedic people (chapter 3). But we do not know why they took to composing hymns, how many were composed, and whether some were discarded and, if so, on what grounds. The preserved fruits of their literary efforts do not furnish any physical characteristics that can be employed to separate the Ṛgvedic people from the non-Ṛgvedic Indo-Iranians. The Ṛgvedic people were neither a homogeneous nor an exclusive group. Nor can they claim to be a microcosm of the Indo-Iranian cultures.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“In the period c. 1700-1400 BC, the used in Vedic people were stationed in the Helmand area in south Afghanistan, where they composed the bulk of the Ṛgvedic hymns. In about 1400 BC they arrived on the western tributaries of the Indus. Crossing the Punjab rivers, they arrived in the upper Ghaggar region where they merged with the Cemetery H people to produce the Painted Grey Ware culture (figure 6). It is these people who, armed with iron technology, moved east of the Yaga doab after c. 900 BC.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“To sum up, we have argued that the Indo-Iranian speakers appeared on the central Asian scene in c. 2000 BC. This was the time when the urban phase of the Harappan tradition was coming to an end. The Indie speakers first appeared on the northwestern doorstep of the Indian subcontinent during c. 2000-1700 BC. They were not the Ṛgvedic people. They independently combined with the post-urban Harappans to set up late Harappan cultures: Cemetery H culture in Punjab, Jhukar in Sind, and Rangpur in Gujarat.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“When we identify Ephedra as Soma and place the Ṛgvedic people in the Ephedra-habitat Hindu Kush, all the diverse pieces of the puzzle fall into place. The vast Ephedra-growing area in Afghanistan and Iran was occupied by or was accessible to the Indo-Iranians who could develop a common Soma/Haoma cult. As the Indo-Aryans moved eastwards, their distance from Soma increased, first cutting down the supply and then stopping it altogether. Finally, in the plains, Soma's place in the rituals was given to the substitutes. In course of time, Soma became a mythical plant.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“For these cities the term used in the Rigveda is pur, meaning a 'rampart', 'fort' or 'stronghold'….Indra, the Aryan war god, is puramdara, 'fort destroyer'….In brief, 'he rends forts as age consumes a garment'.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography

“The Ṛgvedic language is much older than Sanskrit (saṁskṝta literally meaning "put together") which was the name given to the language on its regulation by the grammarians. The term Sanskrit first appears in the Rāmāyaṇa to denote the "refined" language as distinct from Prakrit (prākṛt, "natural"). The name Sanskrit is however often applied retrospectively to include the Vedic language. Even in Yāska's time, many Vedic words were already obsolete.”
― Rajesh Kochhar, The Vedic People: Their History and Geography