Aryan And Non Aryan In India

The history and mechanisms of the convergence of ancient Aryan and non-Aryan cultures has been a subject of continuing fascination in many fields of Indology. The contributions to Aryan and Non-Aryan in India are the fruit of a conference on that topic held in December 1976 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, under the auspices of the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies. The express object of the conference was to examine the latest findings from a variety of disciplines as they relate to the formation and integration of a unified Indian culture from many disparate cultural and ethnic elements.

This book attempts to address the issue of Hindus being Aryans or non-Aryans. Analysing the present situation of Hindus, it tries to show what a Hindu is supposed to be under the Hinduism and what actually he is at present. It also attempts to find out the reasons responsible for the downfall of Hindus and their indifference towards it. The remedy is suggested as well.

This book on the developing arguments concerning the Aryan Invasion Theory consists of adapted versions of papers the author has read:the first at the World Association of Vedic Studies (WAVES)conference on the Indus-Saraswati civilization in Atlanta 1996,the third at the 1996 Annual South Asia conference in Madison,Wisconsin and in a lecture at the Linguistics Department in Madison;the fifth contains material used in author?s paper read at the second WAVES conference in Los Angeles 1998;the second and fourth were read at lectures for the Belgo-Indian Association,Brussels,and at the Etnografisch Museum,Antewerp.

This works examines critically the evidence presented by the invasionist scholars, and points out its contradictions as well as its acrobatics.Author presents positive evidence in support of his own thesis that India is the original homeland of the Aryans.His most original contribution is the evidence he has marshalled from the Puraas which alone provide the proper perspective for interpreting correctly the

Western scholars have argued that Indian civilization was the joint product of an invading Indo-European people--the "Indo-Aryans"--and indigenous non-Indo European peoples. Although Indian scholars reject this European reconstruction of their country's history, Western scholarship gives little heed to their argument. In this book, Edwin Bryant explores the nature and origins of this fascinating debate.