The Vedic homeland

Sir, - In her enthusiastic review of Rajesh Kochhar's book The Vedic People (The Hindu, April 16), Ms. Niraja Rao overlooks several difficulties associated with his thesis of placing not only the Rigveda, but also the site of Ramayana and the Mahabharata in the Swat Valley and Afghanistan. To begin with, Kochhar's theory of making the Vedic people originate in the steppes of south Russia is not exactly new as the review suggests, but at least a hundred years old. There is no `new evidence' but only some new interpretations particularly relating to the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. But there are far more serious problems.

Even leaving aside the latest genetic evidence that rules out any movement into India in the second millennium and Jha's reading of the deciphered Harappan seals, Kochhar's interpretations of ancient literature, making Afghanistan their home, runs into several contradictions. Regions of the northwest including Afghanistan are not unknown to the epics and even the Rigveda. In the Ramayana, Rama's brother Bharata inherits the Kekaya kingdom through his mother. His sons Takshaka and Pushkala found two new cities in the northwest called Takshashila and Pushkalavati, which are said to be located at a great distance from Ayodhya. These are now known as Taxila and Peshawar. Ayodhya could not have been in Afghanistan as it took Bharata a long time to return to Ayodhya from Kekaya following his father's death. In the Mahabharata, references to Gandhara and Bahlika - both in present-day Afghanistan - are clear and unambiguous. Gandhari was the wife of the Kuru King Dhritarashtra, while Bahlika was ruled by a descendant of Shantanu's father Prateepa. So there can be no confusion about the location of these places in either epic.

When we look at the Rigveda, the problems are even more serious. Even a superficial reading of the Rigveda shows that it describes a society in which maritime activity was prominent. References to ships and navigation as well as prayers for the safety of ships bound on ocean voyage are found throughout the Rigveda. The oceanic symbolism is the most common poetic device used. The famous Creation Hymn describes the process of creation itself using an oceanic symbolism. It is inconceivable that such poetry could be the work of people living in a land-locked country like Afghanistan.

N. S. Rajaram,

Bangalore

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