The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c20.45

c20.45

It is not necessary here to reopen the question as to the probable date of the initial Āryan invasion of the land of the Seven Rivers, the Punjab and its environs. Discussion has ranged widely and has not always been immune from tendentious enthusiasm. To-day it is generally accepted that the fifteenth century B.C. is a reasonable approximation, likely if anything to be on the conservative side.² In the Rigveda, the invasion constantly assumes the form of an onslaught upon the walled cities of the aborigines. For these cities, the term used is *pur*, meaning a "rampart", "fort", "stronghold". One is called "broad" (*pṛthvī*) and "wide" (*urvī*). Sometimes strongholds are referred to metaphorically as "of metal" (*āyasī*).³ "Autumnal" (*śāradī*) forts are also named: "this may refer to the forts in that season being occupied against Āryan attacks or against inundations caused by overflowing rivers".⁴ Forts "with a hundred walls" (*śatabhuji*) are mentioned. The citadel may be of stone (*aśmamayī*): alternatively, the use of mud-bricks is perhaps alluded to by the epithet *āmā* ("raw", "unbaked").⁵ Indra, the Āryan war-god, is *puramdara*, "fort-destroyer".⁶ He shatters "ninety forts" for his Āryan protégé, Divodāsa.⁷ The same forts are doubtless referred to where in other hymns he demolishes variously ninety-nine and a hundred "ancient castles" of the aboriginal leader Śambara.¹ In brief, he "rends forts as age consumes a garment".²