A Research on Vedic Science and Indus Civilization in Indian Ancient History

The Vedic period is the earliest period of Indian history for which we have direct textual evidence, but even with this evidence it is difficult to fix even imprecise chronological limits to the period, much less to establish absolute dates within the period. We tentatively suggest 1500-500 BCE as convenient limiting dates of the period,1 the latter marking the approximate date of the codification of Sanskrit by Panini and the transition from "Vedic" to "Classical" Sanskrit; the former perhaps approximating the beginnings of the Rg Veda, the earliest Indian text.2 Since (almost3) all our evidence for Vedic India is textual, much more fruitful than defining the Vedic period by date is defining it by texts. For purposes of this work, we will define Vedic literature (and hence the Vedic period) as consisting of the earliest texts, the four Vedas proper, and texts based on them and the cult in which they were embedded -- the Brahmanas and the Śrauta Sūtras, also including the increasingly speculative Āranyakas and Upani_ads, as well as the texts relating to the domestic cult, the Grhya Sūtras. To place Vedic science in context it is necessary to have a proper understanding of the chronology- of the Vedic literature. There are astronomical references in the Vedas which recall events in the third or the fourth millennium B.C.E. and earlier. The recent discovery (e.g. Feuerstein 1995) that Sarasvati, the preeminent river of the Rigvedic times, went dry around 1900 B.C.E. due to tectonic upheavels implies that the Rigveda is to be dated prior to this epoch, perhaps prior to 2000 B.C.E. since the literature that immediately followed the Rigveda does not speak of any geological catastrophe. But we cannot be very precise about our estimates. There exist traditional accounts in the Puranas that assign greater antiquity to the Rigveda: for example, the Kaliyuga tradition speaks of 3100 B.C.E. and the Varahamihira tradition mentions 2400 B.C.E. According to Henri-Paul Francfort (1992) of the Indo-French team that surveyed this area, the Sarasvati river had ceased to be a perennial river by the third millennium B.C.E.; this supports those who argue for the older dates. But in the absence of conclusive evidence, it is prudent to take the most conservative The Indian civilization began at about 4000 B.C. But the earliest urban civilization, the Indus valley civilization started around 3000 - 2500 B.C. It was an advanced civilization but started to decline in the middle of 2nd Millennium B.C. Maybe due to the invasion or a slow but steady inflow of nomadic people who were called " Arya " or the Aryans. Sanskrit, the language of the Vedic texts was derived from the language they spoke. The period from 2500 B.C - 600 B.C is called the Vedic period. The culmination of Hinduism resulted by the combination of both Aryan and non- Aryan religion, ideas and values. The Vedic ideal held up the life of the householder, who, through sacrifices and offerings, might reach the joys of heaven, which were his desire. The Non- Vedic cultures contributed to Hinduism the ideas of renunciation (giving up), which lead to "Moksha" or "Mukti" or Nirvana, which was alien to the Aryan code of values. The Aryans were non-vegetarians and slaying cows for guests was considered to be highly praiseworthy. Holiness of cows did not originate from the Vedic times, though the cows were considered as useful animals. The Hindu belief of non- violence (ahimsa) that contributed to Buddhism and Jainism is definitely non- Vedic origin. This ahimsa cult of the Buddhist and the Jains turned large sections of Hindus to vegetarians. Vedic Science is the science and technology of consciousness. It is both ancient and modern. Veda means knowledge, and Vedic Science is the science of knowledge, self-referral knowledge, the knowledge of consciousness, and the knowledge of Natural Law, the intelligence that governs the universe. Based on the ancient Veda and Vedic Literature which has been maintained in India, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation program, has in this generation formulated a wide-ranging science and technology called Maharishi Vedic Science. Maharishi Vedic Science has far-reaching and effective applications in many fields, including education, government, defense, health, management, economics, agriculture, and architecture. The founders of the ancient Vedic tradition discovered the capability of the human mind to settle into a state of deep silence while remaining awake, and therein to experience a completely unified, simple, and unbounded state of awareness, called pure consciousness, which is quite distinct from our ordinary waking, sleeping, or dreaming states of consciousness. In that deep silence, they discovered the capability of the mind to become identified with a boundless, all-pervading, unified field that is experienced as an eternal continuum underlying all existence. They gave expression to the self-sufficient, its own self-interacting dynamics, to the field of space-time geometry, and subsequently to all the distinct forms and phenomena that constitute the universe. The ancient Vedic literature, as Maharishi interprets it, expresses in the sequence of its flow and the structure of its organization, the sequence of the unfoldment of the diversity of all laws of nature out of the unified field of natural law. The Veda is thus to be understood as the sequential flow of this process of the oneness of pure consciousness giving rise to diversity; and Vedic Science is to be understood as a body of knowledge based on the direct experience of the sequential enfoldment of the unified field into the diversity of nature. It is an account, according to Maharishi, of the origin of the universe from the unified field of natural law, an account that is open to verification through direct experience, and is thus to be understood as a systematic science. Through a historiographical sketch of the early archaeological work on the Indus (or the Harappan) Civilization, which is being increasingly appropriated to contextualize a sub-continental ethos for Indian history and expose the ‗racist‘ and ‗elitist‘ histories of India written during the colonial and post-colonial pasts (e.g. Chakrabarti 2003; Lal 1997), I shall in this study draw attention to something obvious, namely the contingency of archaeological evidence. My aim is to highlight how different meanings have been, and can be, attributed to the same set of excavated artifacts, and stress that archaeological representations need to be cautiously used as an instrument of rationalization in the creation of histories. The very definition of an artifact rests on its associations with other objects, as well as contemporary perceptions of what its functional characteristics may be. Therefore, facts can only be established through reasoning, which makes the archaeological method analogical, and not empirical. I also hope to demonstrate that dramatic discoveries through archaeology usually follow earlier scholarly efforts (one cannot dismiss the fact that even Harappa and Mohenjodaro were ‗found‘ and known before they were excavated),8 and artefacts unearthed during such feats acquire the legitimacy of proof only through subsequent interpretations. The veneer of unexpected finds may retain the romance in excavations for those who are students of archaeology and professionals in the subject, but a history created through claims of unexpected finds can only lie about its own genealogy, as magical discoveries seldom establish phenomena that are self-evident. Therefore, even if we accept, as the recent excavators of Ayodhya wished us to, that a Hindu temple did exist under the Babri Masjid and was destroyed in 1528 by Mir Baqi, the Mughal emperor Babur‘s official, such a ‗discovery‘, contrary to what they and the Hindu Organisations deemed to impress us with, does not by itself become proof of Muslim bigotry.

more than 250,000 square miles, and included over 1600 sites. Most of the villages and cities were laid out on an exact north-south grid on sites west of the river, and were built with kiln-fired brick of uniform size. Sites have been found dating from 6,500-7,000 BC. According to the Vedic tradition, the Veda is eternal. It exists within the eternal fabric of consciousness itself. As such it is uncreated. But even so, we can ask, when was the Veda first cognized? And when did the tradition of reciting the Veda begin? Many myths about the Veda and Vedic tradition have formed that must be dispelled before we can get an accurate picture of its origins. One myth is that a race of lightskinned Aryan peoples invaded India from outside, pushing the dark-skinned natives, called Dravidians, into the south. According to this theory, the lighter-skinned race invaded India in an incursion that took place, some scholars project, around 1,500 BC. This myth persisted long after an overwhelming body of scientific evidence, and a consensus of archeologists, showed that it is completely untenable. It must be discredited before we can get an accurate picture of the character of Vedic Civilization. As we will see, the Veda was first ―cognized,‖ not by invading races from outside India, but by a people who had lived continuously in India for thousands of years. Also, the dates commonly ascribed to the origin of the Vedic tradition are probably off by many thousands of years. Archeologists at Harvard, Oxford, and other top universities in the US and Europe are now widely agreed that there was no invasion of India from outside that displaced the peoples of the Saraswati and Iudus river valleys. This civilization arose within northern India and there is also evidence. Linguistic similarities between Indian and European languages were recognized by the earliest European scholars. In the late eighteenth century, it was observed that Sanskrit, Iranian, and most European languages share many common words and grammatical structures. Early linguists classified Vedic Sanskrit and the majority of European tongues in the same ―family of Indo-European languages.‖ In the 1990s, a new wave of scientific evidence, coming partly from satellite photos, geological study, archeological digs, and other anthropological finds began to seriously discredit the old myth. Once the rubble of false assumptions was cleared away, a far more simple scientific picture of the origins of ancient north Indian civilization began to emerge. Scientific archeology, it is now safe to say, no longer gives the invasion theory a grain of credibility. It has civilization originated outside India. The verses of the Rig Veda, the most ancient songs of Vedic tradition, detail many aspects of daily life of the people. There is no hint in this vast literature of a migration or of a history that lies in a homeland beyond the mountains of northern India. All evidence from archeology, anthropology, and Vedic literature indicate that Vedic civilization was indigenous to northern India. Geological data now explains the demise of the Indus and Saraswati valley civilizations in terms of climactic change, bringing an end to the outside invasion theory.

The history of Indian subcontinent starts with the Indus Valley Civilization and the coming of Aryans both are known as Pre-Vedic and Vedic periods. The Indus River Civilization dates back to 2300 – 1750 BC and had two main cities; Harappa in western Punjab and Mohenjo-Daro on the lower Indus in Sindh – now the two important provinces of Pakistan. Both cities were urban grain growing civilizations and were believed to have run by Aryans who came from Iran (Mcintosh, 2008). Sculpture: The statues found at the sites include both human and animal forms with intricacies and finest details. Some seals were found engraved with figures and motifs also. All these things were made with limestone, bronze, stone and terracotta (Pal, 1988). Architecture: The Harappa and Mohanjo Daro sites show the great architecture patters of the time. The Houses were made of baked bricks, the drains and bathrooms were also laid down by bricks. There was a proper drainage system from the houses to the central drain. The houses were double storey with the ground floor made of bricks and the upper storey of wood. There was a public bath site found that could have been used for religious motives. Thus the cities were scientifically laid down. The construction of the houses was luxurious with bathrooms, upper story, wells, assembly halls, granaries, barracks and workshops. There were market places and beautiful personal ornaments found there. The gold, silver, lead, copper, tin alloys, precious stones, cotton and wool had been in use by the inhabitants and the domestic animals like buffalo, sheep, elephant, bull and camel were present in the households (Mcintosh, 2008). Dance: In Harappa, a torso of a dancing girl was found which shows that dance as an art was present there. The musical instruments of that time found in the history are flute and drum. (Mcintosh, 2008). that there exist equivalences of various kinds between the outer and the inner worlds. It is these connections that make it possible for our minds to comprehend the universe. It is noteworthy that the analytical methods are used both in the examination of the outer world as well as the inner world. This allowed the Vedic risliis to place in sharp focus paradoxical aspects of analytical knowledge. Such paradoxes have become only too familiar to the contemporary scientist in all branches of inquiry. In the Vedic view, the complementary nature of the mind and the outer world, is of fundamental significance. Knowledge is classified in two ways: the lower or dual; and the higher or unified. What this means is that knowledge is superficially dual and paradoxical but at a deeper level it has a unity. The Vedic view claims that the material and the conscious are aspects of the same transcendental reality. The idea of complementarity was at the basis of the systematization of Indian philosophic traditions as well, so that complementary approaches were paired together. We have the groups of: logic (nyaya) and physics (vaisheshika), cosmology (sankhya) and psychology (yoga), and language (mimamsa) and reality (vedanta). Although these philosophical schools were formalized in the post-Vedic age, we find an echo of these ideas in the Vedic texts. In the Rigveda there is reference to the yoking of the horses to the chariot of Indra, Ashvins, or Agni; and we are told elsewhere that these gods represent the essential mind. The same metaphor of the chariot for a person is encountered in Katha Upanishad and the Bhagavad Gita; this chariot is pulled in different directions by the horses, representing senses, which are yoked to it. The mind is the driver who holds the reins to these horses; but next to the mind sits the true observer, the self, who represents a universal unity. Without this self no coherent behaviour is possible.

One of Maharishi's most important contributions to Vedic scholarship has been his discovery of the Apaurusheya Bhashya, the "uncreated commentary" of the Rig Veda, which brings to light the dynamics by which the Veda emerges sequentially from the self-interacting dynamics of consciousness. According to Maharishi's analysis, the Veda unfolds through its own commentary on itself, through the sequential unfoldment, in different sized packets of knowledge, of its own knowledge of itself. All knowledge of the Veda is contained implicitly even in the first syllable "Ak" of the Rig Veda, and each subsequent expression of knowledge elaborates the meaning inherent in that packet of knowledge through an expanded commentary. The phonology of that syllable, as As pure consciousness interacts with itself, at every stage of creation a new level of wholeness emerges to express the same self-interacting dynamics of rishi, devata, and chhandas. Thus the body of Vedic literature reflects, in its very organization and structure, the sequential emergence of all structures of natural law from the unity of pure consciousness. Each unit of Vedic literature-Rig Veda, Sarna Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda, Upanishads, Aranyakas, Brahmanas, Vedangas, Upangas, ltihasa, Puranas, Smritis, and Upaveda-expresses one aspect or level of the process. As Maharishi (1986) describes it: ―The whole of Vedic literature is beautifully organized in its sequential development to present complete knowledge of the reality at the unmanifest basis of creation and complete knowledge of all of its manifest values.‖ Veda, Maharishi asserts, is the self-interaction of consciousness that ultimately gives rise to the diversity of nature. The diversity of creation sequentially unfolding from the unity of consciousness is the result of distinctions being created within the wholeness of consciousness, as consciousness knows itself. Thus from the perspective of Vedic Science, the entire universe is just an expression of consciousness moving within itself: all activity in nature is just activity within the unchanging continuum of the wholeness of consciousness. Through the texts of ancient Vedic science, as interpreted by Maharishi, we possess a rich account of the emergence of diversity out of the unity of natural law. On the basis of this account, it becomes feasible to compare the Vedic description of the origin of the universe with that of the modern sciences.

The Vedic literature provides its own exegesis. The details of the ritual as well as the philosophical basis are found in the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, and the Upanisads. Further explanation is provided by the Brhaddevata, the Epics, and the Puranas. The Brahmanas, the Nirukta, the Brhaddevata and other texts show how the linguistic perspective informed traditional analysis. A triadic representation is used in a recursive fashion to describe the unity of the fundamental ground substance. The deities are described as belonging to either Agni, Indra, or Surya paralleling the division of the physical universe into the earth, the atmosphere, and the sky. That these are mere linguistic devices to describe a unity is clear by assertions such as "In Indra are contained Parjanya, Rudra, Vayu, Brhaspati, Varuna, Ka, Mrtyu, and the god Brahmanaspati; Manyu, Visvakarman, Mitra,

Yaska's Nirukta is one in a continuous scries of commentaries of which Sayana's 14th century commentary is best known. Yaska speaks of seventeen predecessors with conflicting explanations. One of these predecessors, Kautsa, claimed that Vedic exposition was useless as the Vedic hymns were obscure or mutually contradictory. Yaska and later commentators did not know the astronomical basis of the Vedic system. The past century saw resurgence of interest in Vedic scholarship thanks to the work of Dayananda SarasvatT (1824-1883) and Aurobindo Ghosc (1872-1950). These scholars presented original yogic interpretations of the hymns which allowed them to see a unity in Vedic knowledge. Their work was useful corrective as it focussed on questions that had been ignored in academic circles. The analysis in the academic world is informed by philosophical attitudes shaped by ideas in physics and biology. Western academic scholarship on the Vedas was deficient because it was mired in the mechanistic approach of the 19th century, which was later super-seded by relativistic and quantum mechanical views that present a holistic view of reality. The older Indian tradition of Vedic analysis appears to be consistent with new ideas in physics as it is based on the notion of an interpenetrating unity. Other aspects of the Vedic system arc concerned with information and meaning, again in harmony with newer scientific disciplines. Western Vedic scholarship is limited by its rejection of Puranic data. The work of Dayananda and the Arya Samaj school also suffers from this shortcoming and from the literal rendering of the doctrine of the non-human origin of the Vedas. Nineteenth century Indologists were influenced by certain attitudes that were inimical to the spirit of free inquiry. There were those who wished to fit Vedic chronology within the straitjackct of biblical chronology which colored their interpretations. There were others who saw stages of human evolution at work in the different layers of Vedic literature. Most dismissed the notion of underlying unity because such an idea had not yet arrived in physics. The gods were viewed in anthropomorphic terms. When scientific discourse changed, there was no corresponding revolution in the academic Vedic exegesis.

Primitive civilizations recognized the fact that different constellations are visible at different times of the year. The appearance of conspicuous stars or groups of stars in conjunction (amavasyd) or opposition (purnima) with the Moon or Sun was considered to be phenomena. Many religious festivals in India are still found to be associated with the phases of the Moon (tithi)—an association which thus acquired a deeper significance. India, like Egypt and Mesopotamia, originally had a lunar calendar in the time of the Indus civilization. In Vedic and post-Vedic times, the Sun gradually assumed greater importance because of the emphasis on agriculture and seasons. Consequently the attempt in the Vedic period to associate the lunar months in a more or less fixed fashion with the agricultural seasons led to the development of a luni-solar calendar in the post-Vedic period. The luni-solar calendar involved the addition from time to time of an intercalary lunar month to the regular (civil) months of fixed length (of 30 days). These intercalations were handled in a practical manner, whenever deemed necessary, to ensure that seasonal festivals and agricultural practices did not go out of step. Methods of intercalations varied over different parts of the country. Parpola and his colleagues have studied the astronomy of the Indus civilization. This was later re-examined by Asfaque. These scholars believe that various figures of animals, real or mythological (bulls, elephants, rams, rhinoceroses, crocodiles, tigers, unicorns, animals with composite head etc.) and deities in human form, found in Indus seals, signify a crude system of the division by asterism of the apparent path of the Moon. Father Heras first associated the signwith the Dravidian word min for fish, and its homophone signified an asterism. Parpola et al. also supported this dual system of interpretation of star worship and fish cult which was probably based on the concept that the sky was garbed by the oceans or a broad river in which the stars were nothing but the swimming fishes. The proper assessment of the extent of astronomical knowledge, however, must await the decipherment of all the seals. Our knowledge about the new year festival of the Indus people is based on the depiction on a seal (M. 2430) found in the D. K. area Mohenjo-daro. This seal demonstrates how religious ritual and astronomy went hand in hand in these distant prehistoric times. The Vedic period also records similar offering ceremonies such as the savana (thrice a day), the aha (daily sacrifice from sunrise to next sunrise), the saiaha (six ahas), the masa (five sadahas), and the samvatsara-satra (twelve masas). The important pictographs on the Mohenjo-daro may be described as follows: (i) a deity standing at the central place between two similarly inclined branches of a pippal tree; (ii) in front the deity there is a raised structure, perhaps an altar; in one line denoting perhaps east-west; (iv) a priest kneeling before the altar; (v) the picture of a huge stag or ram with two long heavy horns having a human face; (vi) the head-dress of all human figures resembles the traditional Indian turban; an (vii)several pictographs include the fish symbol. What do the seven human figures represent? Parpola writes, "I was previously thinking that the seven figures in the seal (M. 2430) most probably are seven sages of the Great Bear. I have later changed my view, and now think that they are probably the stars of Pleiades. The conclusion, however, is not based on the seal, but on studies of the Vedic and Epic mythology and the connection of Skanda with the Pleiades, also in the Indus script". Moreover, Parpola considers the representation on the seal to be the new year festival with autumnal equinox at the full-moon at Krttika, while Asfaque compares it to the vernal equinox at Krttika. In fact, Harappan-Rgvedic and Mohenjo-daro Atharvavedic cultural traditions have been emphasized by many historians. According to the Vedic tradition, Krttika comprises of seven stars, viz. Amba, Dula, Nitatni, AbhrayantI, MeghayantI, Varsayanti and Cupunika. The Satapatha Brahmana reports that Krttika never deviates from the east. The actual east-west line might have been determined by the shadow of the pole on the equinox day and verified by the rising and setting points of the star Krttika. The fixation of east-west line also played a significant role in the construction of Vedic altars. At present, Krttika does not appear to rise exactly in the east but at a point north of east. Obviously the lower portion of the seal represents the eastern sky.

Two major cultural streams contributed to the development of what later came to be called Hinduism. The first was an intriguing and sophisticated ancient culture known today as the Indus Valley Civilization. The second source was a nomadic people called the Indo- Aryans, whom most scholars believe migrated into India from Central Asia and bequeathed to Hindus their most sacred texts and rituals. In this and the next two chapters, we will study each of these cultures and explore their respective influences on the evolution of the Hindu Traditions. In the nineteenth century, British engineers searching for ballast for a railway line in what was then northwestern India and is now Pakistan stumbled upon the remains of an ancient city known only to locals. The engineers were only interested in the well-fired bricks from the ruins, and they proceeded to quarry the city for that resource. It was not until the early twentieth century, as other similar sites were uncovered, that archaeologists appreciated the full significance of this unwitting discovery. They forgotten by the rest of humanity. The discovery of this ancient culture, one of the most remarkable archaeological finds of modern times, compelled scholars to revise their understanding of the earliest history of India and has in recent years sparked a heated debate about the original inhabitants of the Indian Subcontinent. The Indus Valley Civilization, so named because many of its settlements were situated along the Indus River, turned out to be one of the great cultures of the ancient world. What has come to light since the first excavations suggests that the Indus Valley Civilization was as impressive as ancient Egypt and Sumeria. While many Hindus today do not regard the Indus Valley Civilization as part of their sacred history, the evidence suggests that this culture contributed significantly to the grand complex known to many as Hinduism.

The knowledge of Vedic sciences is meant to save the human beings from falling into an utter darkness of ignorance. The unity in diversity is the message of Vedic physical and metaphysical sciences. Essence of the environmental studies in the Vedas can be put here by quoting a partial Mantra of the Ishavasyopanishad ‗One should enjoy with renouncing or giving up others part. Vedic message is clear that environment belongs to all living beings, so it needs protection by all, for the welfare of all. Thus the study proves the origin of environmental studies from the Vedas. From the foregoing discussion, it seems logical to conclude that the Indus Valley civilization is one of the foremost contributors in the history of development of veterinary science and animal husbandry. The brief review of the prehistoric developments in this area may be viewed as a window that reveals how the tradition of keeping animals is intimately connected to the ways of improvement of the quality of life of people in the modern era.

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Kenoyer, J. M. (1991). The Indus Valley Tradition of Pakistan and Western India. Journal of World Prehistory 5(4): pp. 331-385. Kenoyer, J.M. (1991). The Indus Valley Tradition of Pakistan and Western India. Journal of World Prehistory, 5 (4), pp. 331–85. Mcintosh, J. (2008). Understanding Ancient Civilization: The Ancient Indus Valley, New Perspectives. USA: ABC – CLIO, Inc. S.C. Kak (1993). Astronomy of the Vedic Altars and the Rigveda", Mankind Quarterly, 33, 43-55, 1992; S.C. Kak, \Astronomy of the Vedic Altars", Vistas in Astronomy, 36, pp. 117-140, and so on. For a detailed Bibliography. Wheeler, R. E. M. (1953). The Indus Civilization. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Wheeler, R.E.M. (1953). The Indus Civilization, supplementary volume to The Cambridge History of India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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