History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c39.s2.2

v1.c39.s2.2

One of the possible objections has been that the Rgvedic civilization was rural and could not have anything common with the urban, Harappan tradition. This objection merely illustrates ‘the absence of a rigorous analysis of the Rgvedic literature’ as mentioned by Dyson (1982) and quoted earlier. The Rgvedic god Indra, ‘the destroyer of cities’, merely symbolized the tillers and pastoral people taking up arms and using horses against the oppression perpetrated by the urban rulers and plunderers coming to the Sarasvati valley from the west and the south. Hundreds of cities were no doubt destroyed by the Rgvedic warriors (archaeological excavation revealed the burning of the Harappan site Surkotada) (Shaffer; see also Lukacs, pp. 77-90), but the victor Divodāsa himself became the ruler of a few such cities (RV. 4.26.3) specially of those made of aśma (stone) (RV. 4.30.20). The Rgvedic people knew palaces ‘with many pillars’ (RV. 5.62.6) and ‘many doors’ (RV. 7.88.5). They adored efficient city administrators (RV. 1.173.19). Kalibangan, the third important urban centre of the Harappan civilization, flourished on the confluence of the Sarasvatī and Dṛṣadvati, and has been widely claimed as a Rgvedic site.