Tearing Down The Aryan Invasion Myth

by Shiv Sastry, Nilesh Nilkanth Oak (Foreword)

The Aryan Invasion Theory is primarily about language, not migration. It is a story that was invented by European linguists to show how language was brought to India by invaders called Aryans, who defeated a local group that European scholars of the 19th century considered an inferior race, whom they named “Dravidians”. About 200 years ago, no Indian was claiming that he was of Aryan descent or of Dravidian descent. No Indian needed to ask why his language was similar to other Indian languages. Indians were aware that their languages dated back to very ancient times. A large proportion of Indians knew that their language was derived from Sanskrit. Others in the South spoke languages with copious Sanskrit-derived words and grammar and were comfortable with that, and did not claim that Sanskrit was an alien language imposed by intruders. However, the story in Europe was that although all European languages seemed different, scholars knew that they had some similarities, though no one knew how or why. This lasted until Europeans came to India and learned Sanskrit. Suddenly, from Sanskrit, Europeans discovered how and why European languages were so similar. But among scholarship in Europe, from the 18th century, right up to the 20th century, there was uniform skepticism and reluctance to believe that a well developed language like Sanskrit could have originated in India among people who were, in those days, not considered to be of the right skin colour or race. So a series of arguments and artificial constructs were made to fix a date for Sanskrit or a precursor language to Sanskrit that could somehow be shown to have European origins. A story was created that a technologically superior race called Aryans created a super-language that spread all over Europe and Asia. It is imagined that Aryans originated in an area somewhere between Europe and Asia and fanned out like spokes of a wheel riding on chariots pulled by horses, conquering and imposing their language on Europe and India. Those languages became “Indo-European languages” spoken in a vast swathe of land between Ireland and India. In the course of creating this story, several imaginary languages, for which no evidence exists, were invented. This book is the most comprehensively researched book examining the so-called Aryan invasion or migration, a theory that has had a profound impact on the trajectory, education, society, politics and psyche of Indians. This theory was almost wholly created by European historical linguists (philologists) who went ahead and wrote an entire history of how a mother language to modern “Indo-European languages” was created somewhere in Eurasia and spread around the old world. In writing this book, the author has stuck to what is documented in a large number of books, scholarly journals and articles written on the subject. The story of how the Aryan Invasion idea came about started about two hundred years ago, and original sources have been located and documented in this book, and relevant quotes provided where necessary. The book includes reference material from linguistics, archaeology, history, geography, genetics, paleontology and paleo-botany to explore the origins and validity of the theory. There are also chapters that examine how old the Sanskrit language may be and what alternate theories might explain the spread of languages. For the reader who is interested in going into more detail, each chapter has, at the end, a list of further reading and source material. These references can be safely ignored by the reader who is just interested in where the Aryan Invasion theory stands today, in the light of the latest scientific archaeological and genetic discoveries. The book includes a glossary at the end for readers unfamiliar with some of the terminology in the book

Genres: History, India

Paperback

First published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Nishu Thakur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tearing down the aryan invasion myth by Shiv Sastry is a powerful expose of how the AIT was invented by european linguists to show that language was introduced to the inferior natives.

[Lakshmisha K S · Rating 5 out of 5]

One must read the book to understand how distorted our history really is.


The book is well researched and puts forth its arguments in a clear logical format with sufficient proofs and links.

The author has not put too much verbose arguments or non sequential proses. Easy to read.

[Venkat Jandhyala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book to read, with some interesting facts

Good book to read, with some interesting facts. matamahi bhasha is an interesting proposal, it could be something that linguists can think about.

[Mayur · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book has been written very meticulously to cover each and every aspect of the Aryan Invasion/Migration theory. The author, Dr. Sastry, being a true surgeon, has taken apart piece by piece, each and every claim of AIT/AMT, scrutinizing and demolishing them completely.

This book covers almost all the various theories/claims of AIT/AMT enthusiasts, including linguistics, archeological. genetics, astronomy etc. Further, the book also explains in detail the concepts of genetics linguistics etc. to make it easier for the reader to understand.

[Venkat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well researched book. Lots of references are provided by the author and one nice feature is the references follow each chapter than lumped to the end of the book.

Couple of nits. A few statements are repeated verbatim and early on tripped me into thinking I went back by mistake! A next reprint can fix this

Another nit would be the lack of discussion on Tamil. I think the next edition takes care of these.

[Dr. D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Useful book about our Indian heritage.

Reasonable logic given for the Author's aseertion
I would like more Indian writers to mention Ashur which is so prevald in name in HINDU scriptures.

[Shreyansh Thakur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting book.

[Ramaprasad KV · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book by Dr Shiv Sastry tracks the development of the Aryan Invasion myth, now renamed as the Aryan Migration with the same racist notions, over the last ~200 years & how it is perpetuated, in spite of it based on a very cracked foundation.

The selective takes you read from your school history textbooks may make you feel that some hypotheses presented in there as facts. When you read this book, you will understand how much contrary evidence to such theories exist and are known for more than a hundred years. Plenty of references provided in this book for your side reading, and your own research if you have that mindset.

Although most of the material covered in this book was quite familiar to me, I felt the way it was presented in the book made it a very good read.

Recommended to anyone interested in India's ancient history, and in the development of Indian & many world language

I have shared some interesting snippets in this Twitter thread, for the interested:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/13...

[Nachiket · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really an Eye Opener. Systematically debunks Aryan invasion theory. Along with that provides much more knowledge and insights about Zorastrianism, relationship between Sanskrit and Germanic and Celtic languages, Various Genetic researches, Antiquity of Sanskrit, Astronomy and several other details about Panini, Mahabharata's date, non - Vedic civilizations, plausible theory split of Atharva Vedam etc.

[O.V. Jayaram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing style could improve but definitely another great book on the topic. The meticulous research of the author is commendable. AIT is becoming AIM more and more by the day with great works like this.

[Chaitanya Rajan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked that each chapter can be read in isolation. It certainly needs to be read along with:
1) The Saraswati Civilization by G.D. Bakshi
2) On the Trail of the Lost River by Michel Dainino
3) The Decline and Fall of the Indus Civilization by Nyanjot Lahiri

The science has changed a lot to support an out-of-India migration; deadbeat politicians and leftists just want to downplay it.

[Vihang Ghag]

Best book to expose the fake AIT

Superb scholarly work to tear apart every propaganda on AIT by the western Indologists & Marxists .. it's a must read.

[Omkar Joshi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good place to start for those who wish to learn about the dogma of AIT and how it can/has been demolished.

Pros:
1. Arrangement of the information in independent chapters which gives readers flexibility of reading and analysing.
2. Each chapter puts forth several hypothesis that racists have been propagated for centuries and then tries to debunk it. This pattern is helpful for the beginners.
3. References provided at the end of every chapter.
4. A lot of information in 200 pages, this is commendable.


Improvements expected in next editions:
1. While repetition is good while studying, the book needs to cut it down. Linguists cooking up proto languages, placing Sanskrit far later than it should have been, Harappan studies can be kept limited to 2-3 chapters. This will create space for other material.
2. Why there aren't any timeline diagrams???
3. Page 76-77: The correct translation of Rigveda hymn about covered burial chamber would have enlightened the user about how the European linguists used faulty translations as a tool to propagate their dogma.
4. Too less scientific(inscriptions and similar) evidence quoted about the antiquity of Sanskrit, to be effective. If ample such evidence which provides dates of Sanskrit works, it would itself demolish the claim that it was created 1500 BCE. If such evidence doesn't exist due to oral transmission of knowledge or lack of patronage/focus, it should be stated.
5. One line about 'Aryan' etymology but nothing about Dravid! Tamil connection of Sanskrit should have been included as a chapter.
6. They should include scientific studies about the climate in Europe, especially Scandinavia that would shed light on how habitable these areas were and what the aborigines were up to.
7. Loads of punctuation mistakes, hence, proofreading needs to be intensive.
8. Index of words would help.

While there is a lot of scope for improvement, this book is a must-read and must-have for every Indian.

[Ganesh V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed Review: http://bangalore-diaries.blogspot.com...

[Swati Vasudev · Rating 3 out of 5]

An eye opener and a must read for all Indians. This book was a good read, however, there were a large number of repetitions throughout the book which I think were made to make all the chapters readable independently. But this becomes a little annoying for the reader who is reading the complete book in one go.