All around the World, we found a number of inscriptions that told story of past civilization or in particular about Empires and their religion, culture, administration and important events. Inscriptions are believed to be reliable sources of History and is part of Archaeological Sources of history. Some inscriptions are indigenous and other are foreign. A foreign inscription is important as it provide a linkage between different civilization of the World apart from traditional importantance of an inscription. One such inscription which support Central Asia Theory of Aryans origin, is Boghazkoi (Asia Minor, Turkey ) Inscription. This Inscription is important for India as it mentioned about the names of the Vedic Gods and Goddesses; and enable historians to establish more detailed account of theory of origin of Aryans or relations with Asia Minor in antiquity.
Asia Minor (Anatolia) had a long back history of empires and comprising various historical sites. One such historical site is Boghazkoi or Boghazkeui; which is a village in north-central region of Turkey, located 27 km north-west of Yozgat. During the Bronze Age, this site was the capital of the Hittites empire in Anatolia and northern Syria in the 2nd millennium BCE.
Going back in history, we found that, Hittites were ancient Anatolian people; they formed an empire between 1600-1180 BCE. It is important to note that, the Hittites were Indo-European people, who spoke a language related to Sanskrit- the ancient language of India. Apart from this, they are characterized by advanced iron good manufacturing. They ruled through government officials with independent authority over various branches of government, indicating well developed administration. Religious worshipped of storm gods were practised in their kingdom. From various evidences, scholars conclude that, the Hittites were able to travel long distances and migrate to other lands due to the domestication of horses; as one of the special quality of Indo-Europeans.
The Hittite Empire was known for its sophisticated system of writing, which used cuneiform script. In 1916, Prof. Bedrich Hrozny deciphered the Hittite language and it was concluded that Hittite script had close relationship with Indo-European scripts. For example, the inscriptions found at Boghazkoi (1400 B.C.) include the names of several Vedic Gods and Goddesses, such as Indra, Varuna, and Mitra. This suggests that there may have been some cultural and linguistic connections between the Hittites and the Vedic people of India in antiquity.
Basically, Boghazkoi Inscription was about World's First known Peace Treaty, which was the result of Hittite's conflicts with Egypt; a treaty between two kings belonging to Hittites and Mitannis. The treaty can be seen as a promise of peace and alliance since both powers make the mutual guarantee that they would not invade the other's land and promote alliance by making reassurances of aid. The text of this treaty was concluded with an oath before Gods and Goddesses of Egypt and Hatti as a common practice of that period; witnessed by the Mountains, the Rivers, the Sky, the Earth, the great Sea, the Winds and the Clouds. If the treaty was ever violated, the oath-breaker would be cursed by the Gods and, if he maintained his vows, he would be rewarded by the Gods.
Apart from agreements of treaty, if we examine religious and cultural aspect of this treaty, we found it special; and it provides us a medium to understand Aryan and their Origin as Vedic Gods like Indra, Varuna and others are referred to as In-da-ra, Mi-ta-ra, U-ru-van and Na-sa-ti-ya; along with the Ashwini twins, invoked to bless and witness the treaty. Here, we can easily understand that the names are definitely Vedic with slight phonetic variations in them. Now, after discovering and study to Boghazkoi Inscription, scholars concluded various theories regarding Aryans and their homeland. Some of important views are as follows:
1. Some scholars opined that, the Hittite peoples may have migrated from India, as Aryans were originally inhabitants of India and did not come from outside as there is no archaeological or biological evidence, which could establish the arrival of any new people from outside between 5,000 B.C. and 800 B.C.
Scholars like Dr. A. C. Dass, L. D. Kalla, etc., have propounded Indian Origin theory of Aryans and two prominent argument are:-
(a). Rigveda says that the Aryans were the residents of Sapta-Sindhu, and this region stretched from river Indus, reaching up to the Saraswati River including Kashmir and Punjab region; as these sites are part of Indian subcontinent, so Aryans are Indian, the original inhabitants of someplace near Punjab.
(b). If they come from outside and would have brought there ancient literature -Vedas with them, then why we have not found any vedic literature outside India, specifically Sanskrit words. The 'mantras' of Rigveda indicating that vedic people were must have been residents of some place near Punjab.
Scholars, asserted that it has not been proved till now that the Aryans came from outside, but Vedic literature mention about a lot of things found on Indian soil. So, it is possible that Hittite peoples were Aryans who migrated from India.
2. Opposite to first view, we have scholars who stress that original homeland of Aryans were Central Asia and they migrated from there to Indian subcontinent and settled in Sapta-sindhu region. Central Asian Theory of Aryan origin support this view. The chief advocate of this theory was Prof. Max Muller of Germany. It was found that both, the Vedic literature and Iranian book 'Zenda-Avesta' illustrates that India and Iran must have cohabited, because many similarities, like both were nature worshippers and had agriculture as their chief livelihood. Supporters of this theory indicate Central Asia as the original home of Aryans. Based on the inscription discovered in Boghazkoi in Asia Minor, some historians more specifically indicate Pamir or Russian Turkistan as the ancestral home of the Aryans. These inscriptions comprise references to Gods, like lndra and Varun. However, oppositions of this theory point out that such a small place can never be the ancestral home of a huge majority of people. Furthermore, this land is not a very productive land. There are different theories about it. But according to most historians, the Aryans came from Central Asia, also known as Andronovo culture in about 1500 BCE. It is believed that Persians, Indians, Greeks and Romans must have lived together in very ancient times in Central Asia. So, Boghazkoi Inscription very important evidences in this account.
3. A third view is that, there may have been some kind of trade or cultural exchange between the two regions. The discovery of inscriptions at Boghazkoi has been seen as significant evidence of the connections between ancient India and the rest of the world. The spread of technologies like the wheel and wagon, which were also used in ancient Mesopotamia and other early civilizations in the region, also assisted pastoralists and agrarian civilizations; and establish a similarity between vedic people and rest of the world. Cultural transition may be happened with trade and commerce, but it is important to note that, trade and commerce never change religion or customerly practices at a mass level or a level where indigenous practices lost completely, until unless that place was invaded and captured by another group, in general.
|||Homeland of Aryans : one of the inscription proves that the Aryans are from Central Asia is Boghazkoi (Asia Minor ,Turkey ) Inscription.|||
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Bibliography
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