Hinduism and Its Relation to the Indus Valley Civilization
Ramanan Ravendran – I got 22.5 out of 25 for this!
Asian 225 : Indus Valley Civilization and Hinduism
The origins of Hinduism, centered on the relationship between Hinduism and the Indus Valley civilization, have always been fiercely debated amongst historians and scholars. The Indus Valley civilization flourished from around 2500 BCE to 1500 BCE (Flood, pg 23). However, without written records of this prehistoric civilization, we are unable to make accurate claims about the religious practices of this civilization. The people of the Indus Valley did have a form of writing, which has been found inscribed on steatite seals and copper plates, but we are currently unable to decipher this ancient form of writing (Flood, pg 27). Colin Renfrew makes the point that “in deciphering the script we need to begin with something known, but there are no bilingual inscriptions, so decipherers assume a solution and then try to demonstrate its plausibility” (Flood, pg 27). Logically, it follows that the relationship between the origins of Hinduism and the Indus Valley civilization can only be affirmatively known once we can accurately decipher the script as “such an insight could tell us about daily transactions and possibly something about religion, although individual sacred texts may have only been preserved orally” (Bowker, pg 26). There exists considerable debate about whether these writings belong to the Dravidian linguistic family or are an early form of an Indo-European language belonging to the Aryans (Flood, pg 27). Severe critics also question if the Indus Valley civilization was a precursor to modern Hinduism at all (Dasa).
Background of the Indus Valley Civilization and its link to Hinduism
Given the inability to decipher the writings of the Indus Valley people, we must assume that their religion can be inferred from the buildings and artifacts that have since been excavated.
From what has been gathered so far, we know that the religion of the Indus people,
Asian 225 : Indus Valley Civilization and Hinduism
The origins of Hinduism, centered on the relationship between Hinduism and the Indus Valley civilization, have always been fiercely debated amongst historians and scholars. The Indus Valley civilization flourished from around 2500 BCE to 1500 BCE (Flood, pg 23). However, without written records of this prehistoric civilization, we are unable to make accurate claims about the religious practices of this civilization. The people of the Indus Valley did have a form of writing, which has been found inscribed on steatite seals and copper plates, but we are currently unable to decipher this ancient form of writing (Flood, pg 27). Colin Renfrew makes the point that “in deciphering the script we need to begin with something known, but there are no bilingual inscriptions, so decipherers assume a solution and then try to demonstrate its plausibility” (Flood, pg 27). Logically, it follows that the relationship between the origins of Hinduism and the Indus Valley civilization can only be affirmatively known once we can accurately decipher the script as “such an insight could tell us about daily transactions and possibly something about religion, although individual sacred texts may have only been preserved orally” (Bowker, pg 26). There exists considerable debate about whether these writings belong to the Dravidian linguistic family or are an early form of an Indo-European language belonging to the Aryans (Flood, pg 27). Severe critics also question if the Indus Valley civilization was a precursor to modern Hinduism at all (Dasa).
Background of the Indus Valley Civilization and its link to Hinduism
Given the inability to decipher the writings of the Indus Valley people, we must assume that their religion can be inferred from the buildings and artifacts that have since been excavated.
From what has been gathered so far, we know that the religion of the Indus people,
Cited: Basham, A. L., and Kenneth G. Zysk. The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism. New York: Oxford UP, 1991. Print. Bowker, John. "Indian Religions and the Hindu Tradition." The Cambridge Illustrated History of Religions. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 2002. 26. Print. Dasa, Shukavak N. "Hinduism and The Indus Valley Civilization." Sanskrit.org. 2007. Web Flood, Gavin D. An Introduction to Hinduism. New York, NY: Cambridge UP, 1996. Rao, R. P. N., N. Yadav, M. N. Vahia, H. Joglekar, R. Adhikari, and I. Mahadevan. "Entropic Evidence for Linguistic Structure in the Indus Script." Science 324.5931 (2009): 1165. Print.