Aryans: The Search for a People, a Place and a Myth by Charles Allen

Aryans: The Search for a People, a Place and a Myth by Charles Allen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Various dimensions of the Out of India and Aryan Invasion Theories are discussed threadbare. The arguments range from the evolution of Adolf Hitler’s ideology and the formation of Nazi Germany to the present political dispensation in India.
His contentions are based on archaeological, biological (the evolution of the horse, use of bovines, the soma plant), philological (evolution of language and common nuances across languages), sociological (caste system), semiotics (evolution of the swastik/hakenkreuz and sonnenrad), religion and genetic findings (mutation to develop the lactase producing gene, thus enabling the adult population to consume cow-milk without suffering ill-effects, the crucial link amongst descendents of Aryans – the Y-chromosome R1a1 gene).




The bizarre racist theories of Comte de Gobineau, Friedrich Schlegel, de Lapouge, Gustaf Kossinna, Guido von List, Houston Chamberlain etc are deliberated on. The author also dwells on the controversial works of Max Müller, Dayanand Saraswati, Vivekanand and the RSS stalwarts and the composer Richard Wagner.
Here are some extracts

To anyone familiar with India’s Brahminical caste structure and the concept of samsara, ‘cyclic change’, the parallel are striking, as the Celtic division of society into three tiers of priests, warriors and workers.

…all Proto-Indo-European societies had at one time shared a common tripartite ideology reflected in their three classes that together fulfilled the three functions of the sacred, the martial and the economic. The first maintained cosmic order, the second maintained physical control and the third maintained their physical well-being.

‘The lasting gift bequeathed by Aryans to the conquered peoples was neither a higher material culture nor a superior physique, but … a more excellent language and the mentality it generated.’

Also highly valued by both Aryas and Ariyas was the dog, and with good reason, since it was a major asset to pastoralists. In the Rig Veda, when the God Indra has some cattle stolen, it is the bitch Sarama, the ‘fast one’, who helps recover them (Bibek Debroy’s book). Sarama goes on to lead humankind to the milk of the cow, and she subsequently becomes the mother of all dogs, including a pair of four-eyed dogs who serve as messengers of Yama, the god of death. Echoes of Sarama can be found in the many-headed hound Cerberus, guardian of Hades in Greek myth and the Welsh hound Dormarch, who assists his master Gwyn ap Nudd in gathering the souls of fallen warriors and escorting them to the Welsh underworld.

On the belief in reincarnation, Julius Caesar wrote

Gauls … wish to inculcate this as one of their leading tenets, that souls do not become extinct, but pass after death from one body to another, and they think that men by this tenet are in a great degree excited to valour, the fear of death being disregarded. They likewise discuss and impart to the youth many things respecting the stars and their motion, respecting the extent of the world and of our earth, respecting the nature of things, respecting the power and the majesty of the immortal gods.

A fairly unbiased account, with prolific illustrations and references narrated in a chatty non-academic style.

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