Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c38.2

v2.c38.2

Max Müller, the famous scholar and translator of the *Ṛgveda*, noticed the similarities between the Indo-European languages and proposed in 1859, that *Ṛgveda* was compiled around 1200 BC by the Āryans ‘who had come to India from outside around 1500 BC’ (Max Müller, 1859) His theory was shown by Winternitz, Bühler, Macdonnel, Muir, etc. to be based on very flimsy premises. John Muir asserted in 1872 that the Ṛgvedic Āryans were not aware of any land outside India, and also that ‘the nations whose speech is derived from Sanskrit have sprung from the gradual dispersal of the ancient Āryan race of India’. (Muir, 1872:2, 322-23). The most recent rebuttal of Max Müller’s dates has been recorded by K.C. Varma (1987). We agree with Winternitz that ‘no power on earth can anytime be sure whether the Vedic hymns were composed 1000 or 2000 or 3000 years before Christ’. As a matter of fact, the verses were orally transmitted through centuries, and the only question is: in which era in the pre-history did the events, narrated in the verses, actually take place.