Free Hinduism: A Short History by Klaus K. Klostermaier

about ancient events and personalities that form part of Indian history. The Ancients, like Herodotus, the father of Greek historiography, did not separate story from history. Nor did they question their sources but tended to juxtapose various information without critically sifting it. Thus we cannot read
Itihāsa-Purāṇa
as the equivalent of a modern textbook of Indian history but rather as a storybook containing information with interpretation, facts and fiction. Indians, however, always took genealogies seriously and we can presume that the Purāṇic lists of dynasties, like the lists of
guru-paraṃparās
in the
Upaniṣads
, relate the names of real rulers in the correct sequence. On these assumptions we can tentatively reconstruct Indian history to a time around 4500 B.C.E.
    A key element in the revision of Ancient Indian History was the recent discovery of Mehrgarh, a settlement in the Hindukush area, which was continuously inhabited for several thousand years from c.7000 B.C.E. onwards. This discovery has extended Indian history for several thousands of years before the fairly well datable Indus civilisation. 10
    NEW CHRONOLOGIES
    Pulling together archeological evidence as it is available today, the American anthropologist James G. Shaffer developed the following chronology of early Indian civilisation: 11
    Early food-producing era (c.6500–5000 B.C.E.): no pottery.
    Regionalization era (5000–2600 B.C.E.): distinct regional styles of pottery and other artifacts.
    Integration era (2600–1900 B.C.E.): cultural homogeneity and emergence of urban centers like Mohenjo Daro and Harappa.
    Localization era (1900–1300 B.C.E.); blending of patterns from the integration era with regional ceramic styles.
    The Indian archeologist S. P. Gupta proposed the following cultural sequencing:
    Pre-ceramic Neolithic (8000–6000 B.C.E.
    Ceramic Neolithic (6000–5000 B.C.E.)
    Chalcolithic (5000–3000 B.C.E.)
    Early Bronze Age (3000–1900 B.C.E.)
    Late Bronze Age (1900–1200 B.C.E.)
    Early Iron Age (1200–800 B.C.E.)
    Late Iron cultures
    According to these specialists, there is no break in the cultural development of north-western India from 8000 B.C.E. onwards; similarly there is no indication of a major change, such as a large-scale invasion of another population with a different culture.
    N. S. Rajaraman’s 12 “New Chronology” of Ancient India, which identifies names of kings and peoples mentioned in the Vedas and Purāṇas, looks somewhat like this:
    4500 B.C.E.: Mandhātri’s victory over the Drohyus, alluded to in the Purāṇas.
    4000 B.C.E.: Composition of the
Ṛgveda
(excepting books 1 and 10).
    3700 B.C.E.: Battle of Ten Kings (referred to in the
Ṛgveda)
. Beginning of Purāṇic dynastic lists: Agastya, the messenger of Vedic religion in the Dravida country. Vasiṣṭha, his younger brother, author of Vedic works Rāma and
Rāmāyaṇa
.
    3600 B.C.E.:
Yajur-, Sāma-, Atharvaveda:
Completion of Vedic Canon.
    3100 B.C.E.: Age of Kṛṣṇa and Vyāsa. Mahābhārata War. Early
Mahābhārata
.
    3000 B.C.E.:
Śatapathabrāhmaṇa, Śulvasūtras, Yajñavālkyasūtra
, Pāṇinī, author of the
Aṣṭādbyayī
, Yāska, author of the
Nirukta
.
    2900 B.C.: Rise of the civilizations of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus-Saraswatī doab. 13
    2200 B.C.E.: Beginning of large-scale drought: Decline of Harappa.
    2000 B.C.E.: End of Vedic age.
    1900 B.C.E.: Saraswatī completely dried out: End of Harappa.
    Texts like the
gveda
, the
Śatapathabrāhmaṇa
and others contain references to eclipses as well as to sidereal markers of the beginning of seasons which allow us, by backward calculation, to determine the time of their composition. Experts assure us that to falsify these dates would have been impossible before the computer age.
    OLD VS. NEW, OR SCIENTISTS VS. PHILOLOGISTS?
    We are thus left with two widely differing versions of Ancient Indian history, with two radically divergent sets of chronology, and with