National seminar on Aryan Invasion Myth at Hyderabad [Dec 7th]

[srinivas udumudi]

National Seminar on Aryan Invasion Myth at Hyderabad

Pragna Bharati and Indic Academy and jointly conducting a National Seminar on Dec 7th at ISB Campus, Hyderabad -- "Bharat Beyond Aryan Invasion Myth". More than 10 experts from across the world will be speaking to writers and opinion makers about the arguments and evidence for and against the Aryan Invasion theory. In a format designed to ensure that students and writers get a comprehensive picture from more than five disciplines in five interactive sessions -- European Historical Context, Archaeology, Linguistics and Comparative Mythology, Genetics, and Literary Evidence. Visit www.pragnabharati.in for registration. Registration is free. Support provided for non-local registrants.

THE SEMINAR CONTEXT

Confused by recent coverage on Aryan Invasion evidence? Triumphant contradictory claims from both sides of the Aryan Invasion debate is confusing. The narrative from reports on Rakhigarhi Ancient DNA analysis, or excavations at Sanauli and Keezhadi, swings from one extreme to the other depending on who you read. Lack of sufficient comprehension about evidence for and against the Aryan Invasion theory in the broader non-specialist intellectual class of the society makes it susceptible to suggestion by propaganda, and be easily misled by uninformed writings.

At a time when the Aryan Invasion Theory is collapsing at a fast pace based on evidence against it being discovered every year, there is great need for non-specialist opinion makers and narrative builders to understand the nuances of the arguments of both sides, be able to assess the arguments, and see through propaganda. They should also be able to communicate the demise of the theory factually without over-representation. Learning from all the experts assembled at a single place would make this possible and will allow them to imagine an India beyond the Aryan Invasion Theory. About 120 selected non-specialists chosen as audience for the seminar include writers and opinion makers in their own fields -- writers, journalists, film script writers, judiciary and legal fraternity, traditional scholars, religious leaders and commentators, administrative academics and policy makers, university professors, researchers, advanced students of political science and history, social media influencers, etc.


SESSION PLAN

Opening Keynote Lecture
Prof. Michel Danino (IIT Gandhinagar)
Overall arguments, methodological issues, recent developments

European Historical Context of the Myth’s Origin
Prof. Vishwa Adluri (US), Dr. Joydeep Bagchee (Germany)
Origins of the Aryan Invasion myth in European political, social, religious contexts

Archaeological Evidence
Dr. Vasant Shinde (Pune), Dr. BS Harishankar (IIAS, Shimla)
Various categories of archaeological evidence, horse and chariot evidence, Sanauli, Keezhadi, Rakhigarhi, Archaeoclimatology, Archaeobotony, Archaeohydrology and Saraswati, Palinology, etc.

Linguistics and Comparative Mythology
Dr. Koenraad Elst (Belgium), Sri Shrikant Talageri (Mumbai)
PIE & language families, Linguistic theories, Historical analysis of RgVeda, Mittani evidence, Comparative mythology and Pancha Jana

Genetics Evidence
Dr. Premendra Priyadarshi (UK), Dr. KV Murali (Chennai),
Sri TN Sudarshan (Chennai)
Genetics and human migrations studies, haplogroups, methodological issues with recent genetics studies, human and animal DNA evidence

Literary Evidence
Prof. Ashok Aklujkar (Canada), Dr. Bhagwan Singh (Delhi),
Prof. Nagaraj Paturi (Hyderabad)
Primary literary sources Samhitas, Brahmanas, itihasa puranas, methodological issues with philological studies

Closing Keynote Lecture
Dr. K. Thangaraj (CCMB, Hyderabad)
Broad status of population genetics studies in India

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[Vipin C]

Thanks Srinivas Ji.

This is fantastic. Hope these lectures will be made available online in some format after the event if possible.

Best Regards,

Prof. Vipin K. Chaturvedi

UCSD, LA Jolla, CA

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[Siddharth Wakankar]

Congrats for arranging this multidisciplinary academic event for the better and proper understanding of this burning problem.

Best of luck for its grand success.

Prof. Siddharth Y Wakankar.

Vadodara.9427339942.

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[Megh Kalyanasundaram]

This is so good to see Srinivas! Congratulations to all involved in making this seminar happen and best wishes for its success. 

I am particularly delighted to see pioneers such Dr. Bhagwan Singh (see here , here and here for related posts in BVP and this tweet) being invited to present his research in this regard. It is (also personally) heartening to see the venue of the seminar: ISB! 

Coming together of many star contributors (some with scholarship specific to the Aryan issue that has spanned decades) at an iconic campus!   

Best,

Megh 

Notes: 

1. Since T.R.S Prasanna is missing in this line-up, I include here his latest (2018 May) paper on the Aryan topic Assessing scientific evidences in the Aryan debate, which Manogna and I had highlighted in slide 44 (see below) of our 2019 Aug presentation Aryan problem from the perspective of Textual Evidence and Linguistics (Aug 02, 2019), along with Michel Danino's 2018 March paper Fabricating Evidence in Support of the Aryan Invasion / Migration Theory. 

2. Related work (undertaken along with Manogna Sastry):

1. Statement: Initial response to the paper 'An Ancient Harappan Genome Lacks Ancestry from Steppe Pastoralists or Iranian Farmers' (Sep 09, 2019)   
2. Presentation: Aryan problem from the perspective of Textual Evidence and Linguistics (Aug 02, 2019)   (incl. slides 5, 42 here) 
3. Paper: The A of ABC of Indian chronology*: Dimensions of the Aryan problem revisited in 2017
•  Abstract: Whether posited as an invasion by or migration of Aryans, these variant forms—of an into-India hypothesis (supposed movement into India around the second millennium BCE)—are underpinned by one constant: the consequence that the earliest forms of Vedic culture and Sanskrit are not indigenous to India. Written in 2017, this paper examines, in three dimensions, whether such a hypothesis, given its startling consequence to Indic history, can remain a preserve of only one domain (linguistics) before demonstrating not only an absence of proof for such a consequence, amongst other related questions, in key Indic texts through a study of the terms ārya and drāviḍa but also specific problematics in the development of this hypothesis in historical linguistics. 
4. Evidence-seeking and evidence-based institutional engagement: An over four-month engagement (Jan 4 2017 to May 7 2017), raising evidence-seeking questions, through citizen mechanisms,  (see here for questions raised, status of changes effected, statements before and after change,before/after screenshots and a timeline of documented engagement) with ICHR [amongst other organisations] that was followed by changes in the history narrative of Ancient India on the National Portal of India. The changes noticed on the National portal of India included: 

1. Deletion of "invasion by the Aryans"

2. Deletion of "The Aryans came from Central Europe and settled down in India"

3. Deletion of "The largely accepted view is that a section of Aryans reached the frontiers of the Indian subcontinent around 2000 BC and first settled in Punjab..."

4. Deletion of "The Aryans lived in tribes and spoke Sanskrit, which belonged to the Indo-European group of languages."

5. Deletion of "Gradually, the Aryans intermingled with the local people and a historic synthesis was worked out between the Aryan tribes

and the original inhabitants. This synthesis broadly came to be known as Hinduism."

[Ashok Aklujkar]

Dear Shri Srinvas,

Thanks for the update received today.

Is there anyone else of the speakers/participants who is coming from Pune on the same flight as I (9pm flight)?

Will I get the specifics of my accommodation in Hyderabad in the next 2-3 days?

Has Prof. Paturi been in touch with you regarding the date of my return to Pune? I will contact him by tomorrow to inquire. If possible, I would like to be in Pune by the night of the 8th, so that I do not have to change a 7am appointment on 09 Dec, but the work I have envisaged for Hyderabad is more important, since I may not get another chance to be in Hyderabad in the near future.

Best wishes.

a.a.

[Veeranarayana Pandurangi]

thanks for this wonderfull program. I dont know about pragna bharati. But I congratulate Indic academy for the initiative, Shri Harikiran, Shrinivas, and Prof. Paturi. please make a webcast and bring proceedings asap.

thanks

On Sun, Dec 1, 2019 at 10:38 AM srinivas udumudi <srinivas...@indicacademy.org> wrote:

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Veeranarayana N.K. Pandurangi
Dean, Faculty of Vedanta,

Karnakata Samskrita University, 

Pampa Mahakavi Road,
Chamarajpet, Bengaluru.

अथ चेत्त्वमिमं धर्म्यं संग्रामं न करिष्यसि। ततः स्वधर्मं कीर्तिं च हित्वा पापमवाप्स्यसि।।
तस्मादुत्तिष्ठ कौन्तेय युद्धाय कृतनिश्चयः। निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वरः।। (भ.गी.)

http://www.ksu.ac.in

http://www.ksu.ac.in/en/dr-veeranarayana-n-k-pandurangi/
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[srinivas udumudi]

Dear Sir, 

The whole program will be live streamed. We will post the Youtube Live Stream URL on 6th Dec.

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Srinivas Udumudi

Indic Academy

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[Himani Mittal]

Sir 

Can you please share the live stream URL?

Thank you

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Regards

Himani

[srinivas udumudi]

Hello... I did not share the livestream URL as the quality of sound was not good at all. Will post links to videos when they become available.

regards.

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[Himani Mittal]

Thank you sir. 

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[L Srinivas]

Thanks for this announcement. Are there any abstracts or summaries from the 'Genetic Evidence' section of this seminar that you can post? It would be very useful.

Of late, there's been quite a bit of discussion on the Net on related matters. I am refering to the so called 'Yamnaya' migrations. In particular, to the recent book by David Reich which seems to have got great reviews from many  erstwhile Indo European scholars. Surprisingly, the book's got good reviews from  Indians too incl  a cautious one from the Nobel laureate, Venki Ramakrishnan.

There's also this article/monograph by Vagheesh Narasimhan in which Reich appears as a co-author. Here's the link:

https://reich.hms.harvard.edu/sites/reich.hms.harvard.edu/files/inline-files/2019_Science_NarasimhanPatterson_CentralSouthAsia.pdf

Being a technical subject, it will be good if someone can translate for the layman the methodology used by these genetics scholars and critically review it. It will be useful also to know what these bio anthropological theories mean for the discredited Colonial era Aryan invasion thesis.

Reich's book and reviews thereof maybe found here:

https://www.amazon.com/Who-Are-How-Got-Here-ebook/dp/B073NP8WT3/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=david+reich&qid=1576248484&sr=8-2

Thanks again and Warm Regards,

Srini