Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.117

c14.117

Since the discovery of the Harappā Culture it has been recognized that many elements in medieval and modern Hinduism which cannot be traced to an Aryan source are, in fact, foreshadowed in what we know, by inference, of the religious cults of the older civilization. There is no need to elaborate this point, which has been demonstrated in detail and has won general acceptance. Clearly, after the first drastic 'Aryanization' of the Punjab, some sort of modus vivendi was arrived at; if not there, eastwards in the Ganges Basin as the frontier receded eastwards, and Harappā ideas permeated the religious thought of the Brahmans. If we are right in thinking that the Harappā civilization, like most of its contemporaries in Western Asia, was largely priest-ruled, the growth in power of the Brahmans over the Kṣatriyas, which is a commonplace of Vedic evolution, might fall naturally into its place as a phenomenon arising from a blending of the two cultural traditions. In the Rigveda the priests, though important, do not seem to hold a very dominating position in society. And if we accept (as we must) the Harappā influence on religious thought, can we not expect to see a similar mixture in other realms of human activity?