The Aryan Issue - Michel Danino Lecture 1

THE ARYAN ISSUE Michel Danino Amrita University, Amritapuri, 9‐11 September 2015 Few issues in ancient Indian history have generated as much controversy as the Aryan problem; this is hardly surprising, as it has a direct bearing on the origins of India’s Vedic culture and Sanskritic languages, therefore on matters of identity and — though for the wrong reasons — ethnicity and political ideology. This lecture will shun the more strident aspects of the controversy, concentrating instead on detailed discussions from literary, geographical, archaeological, anthropological, genetic, cultural, archaeoastronomical and linguistic angles. Each of those disciplines — also mundane ones such as demography, agriculture or metallurgy — have their say in the Aryan issue, their voices now converging and now diverging. The objective of the series is not to reach clear‐cut conclusions, but to show the complexity of the issue, point out the many methodological errors that were — and often still are — made in its study, and use it as a tool explore the beginnings of Indian civilization.