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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If the preceding identifications are correct, they can now be further<br />
built on: The level preceding PGW, that is the copper hoard culture, now<br />
frequently found together with Ochre Coloured Pottery, (OCP), then<br />
should correspond, if indeed Vedic, with a still earlier level of Vedic: I<br />
think this is the one of the Mantra period: of the AV, and YV Mantras.<br />
Notably, these texts are the first which mention iron at all: AV 11.3.7,<br />
9.5.4 first speaks of the "black metal". 350 The date of the introduction of<br />
iron thus correponds, again, with the relative chronology of the Vedic<br />
texts.<br />
The historical facts, as gleaned from the texts, agree: The earliest<br />
centre of political power was in the West, in Kurukṣetra itself. Ever<br />
since the late RV, it has been the "holy land" of the Brahmins. This is the<br />
place where even the gods usually sacrifice (devayajana), and for a good<br />
reason: here is the 'centre of Heaven and the Earth' 351 , and the political<br />
centre (at Āsandīvant 352 ) of the Bharata/Kuru tribe 353 which dominated<br />
the late Ṛgvedic and post-Ṛgvedic period. 354<br />
In short, if the comparisons made above are correct, we arrive at the<br />
following table:<br />
______________________________________________________________<br />
|<br />
W E S T C E N T R E | E A S T<br />
_________________________________________|_____________________<br />
1750- OCP: Ocre coloured/ |<br />
350 See author, E.Iran and the AV, Persica X. - Therefore, I cannot agree with W. Rau when<br />
he says, Altertumskunde, p. 19, that the beginning of the Vedic period might perhaps be<br />
suppressed below the date of 1000 B.C. The introduction of iron alone (which is not yet<br />
mentioned in RV!) but appears in India already in the 12th cent. B.C. and fittingly, also in<br />
the second oldest Vedic text, the AV, is too early for the date proposed by W.Rau (even if a<br />
late redaction of AV is taken into account).<br />
351 JUB 4.26.12, and the unpubl. VādhPiS, see BEI 2, p.223, with ann. 74<br />
352 Note the meaning of this geographical term 'having a/the throne'<br />
353 For details, cf. my article on the Kuru Realm, forthc.<br />
354 Some further speculation may be added, if the other copper hoard cultures in the South<br />
are taken into account: Do they represent the earliest forerays of IA speakers (or of tribes<br />
closely related to them in culture not in language!), which petered out, without much effect?<br />
Only after the consolidation of IA culture in the Kuru-Pañcāla area, did the spread<br />
southwards start again, as ŚB 2.3.22 asserts: Naḍa Naiṣadha (sic) is said to carry Yama<br />
(death) (further) South, day by day. Cf., however, the Aśoka edicts in Pkt. in S. Karṇātaka:<br />
whom does he want to address there in Pkt.in this area? Note that he uses Greek in a Greek<br />
area (Kandahar).<br />
138