Michael Witzel's Concoction of Absence of Willow from Bharat - Premendra Priyadarshi

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Michael Witzel and the Indian�Willow

Michael Witzel�s Concoction of Absence of Willow from India

By Premendra Priyadarshi
Monday, May 27, 2013

The way he distorted, misrepresented and concocted
history will not be ignored by the posterity. It will be
difficult for the people of the future to believe that he
did not know the truth, particularly when the fact will
be known to them that people like me had pointed out the
errors of facts in his works. They will know that he had
the option of retracting from or correcting his earlier
stands about the Aryan migration after knowing the
loopholes in his theories. Many in future will condemn
him of telling the untruth, and he will be accused of
racial bigotry.

So what are the facts which expose Witzel to the extent
of condemnation?

They are many, many! Today we will see the example of
Indian �willow� only. Other examples will be presented in
future in my blogs.

Willow

Witzel claimed that willow is not found in India, and
that it was not found in India when the Aryans arrived
here, and that they (the Aryans) thrust the name�vetasa
on to the �reeds�, after finding no willow tree in
northwest India (Witzel 2005:374; also 2009 Fulltext:5
n32).

[Witzel (2005:373) wrote, �Some of them therefore exhibit
a slight change in meaning; a few others possibly are
applications of old, temperate zone names to newly
encountered plants, such as �willow�> �reed, cane�.
Again, this change in meaning indicates the path of the
migration, from the temperate zone�into�India.�]

He did not check the facts before writing. At least 40
species of willow (Salix) are native to northwest India
(Pakistan), Nepal, Kashmir and other high altitude
regions of north India, even if we ignore the species
present in Afghanistan.

http://www.efloras.org/browse.aspx?flora_id=110&name_str=salix&btnSearch=Search

http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=110&taxon_id=129059

http://www.efloras.org/browse.aspx?flora_id=5&name_str=salix&btnSearch=Search

http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=129059

Witzel also did not know the palynological study of
archaeological remains that this particular plant
willow�s pollens have been found in abundance from
Mehrgarh locality from tenth millennium BC up to the
fourth millennium BC (Jarrige 2008:151). That means the
Rig�Vedic plantvetasa�was willow, if the�Rig�Veda had
been composed before the fourth millennium BCE, in the
Indus-Saraswati Valley around Mehrgarh. The possibility
of such an early date of the Rig-Veda is gaining hold as
history is unfolding itself through the results of DNA
studies, archaeogenetics, archaeology and by revision of
the linguistic studies is pushing back the date of
composition of the�Rig Veda�(Kazanas 2009).

Even after that till date, willow is found in many
northern parts of India and Nepal. Some of the finest
willows of furniture and basket grade are found in India
under the species names�Salix�types�deticulata,�elegans
etc. At least 30 species of�Salix�are found in Nepal and
28 in Pakistan itself. Hence Witzel�s wild guess that
willow might not be found in India proves wrong and
collapses his entire credibility as a reliable author.

Continues at:

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2013/05/michael-witzels-concoction-of-absence.html

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

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