TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu
TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu
TRACING VEDIC DIALECTS - People.fas.harvard.edu
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the texts. An earlier Kuru realm was succeeded by a Pañcāla kingdom<br />
and this was superseded in importance by the kingdoms of the Kosala,<br />
Videha (viz. the Vṛjji/Vajji confederation) and finally, of Magadha. 336<br />
The comparison with archeology becomes important when the areas of<br />
these dialects are compared to early cultures of N.India. In the past few<br />
decades a large number of sites has been excavated. Furthermore,<br />
W.Rau has compared, in a number of publications, the archeological<br />
evidence with the textual one for material culture. Recently, he has<br />
summed up of the textual evidence according to Vedic sources and has<br />
compared it to the archeological evidence. However, as was mentioned at<br />
the outset, the Vedic texts and schools were not located before, and every<br />
comparison hinges, of course, on the exact location of the texts from<br />
which the evidence for the material culture has been taken. When both<br />
approaches are combined (and supplemented by the study of dialects<br />
presented above), we can, finally, attempt, with greater certainty than<br />
possible until now, a definite identification of certain archeologically<br />
attested copper and iron age cultures with Vedic textual evidence and<br />
Vedic tribes.<br />
In the sequel, I follow R. and B. Allchin and others. 337 A simplified table<br />
of archeological data would look like this. (OCP = Ocre Coloured<br />
Pottery, BRW = Black and Red Ware, PGW = Painted Gray Ware, NBP<br />
=Northern Black Polished Ware).<br />
______________________________________________________________<br />
Panjab/"North" West Centre East<br />
______________________________________________________________<br />
2300 B.C.- Indus culture<br />
1750- Late Indus/OCP OCP (neolithic)<br />
OCP<br />
1180- BRW BRW (chalcolithic)<br />
900- PGW PGW BRW<br />
336 This is, more or less, also what H.Oldenberg in the introduction to his book, Buddha,<br />
sein Leben, seine Lehre, seine Gemeinde, extracted from the Vedic and Pāli sources more<br />
than 80 years ago. (His comments about the negative influence of the climate on the<br />
development of Indian mind and the attitude towards an active life are, however, better<br />
forgotten, although this is a much loved topic in contemporary Indian apologeticism.<br />
337 B.and R. Allchin, and W.A. Fairservis.<br />
134