-13_The Rigveda^s Remote Antiquity and the Rigvedic Maryanni of 1360 B.C.htm Chapter Ten THE RIGVEDA'S REMOTE ANTIQUITY AND THE RIGVEDIC MARYANNI OF 1360 B.C. With the Rigveda dated by us to 3500-3000 B.C. and the Mitanni documents put by all historians at c. 1360 B.C., how shall we explain the affinity of these documents with the Rigvedic language and religion? The large time-gap between the latter and the Aryan rulership of the Mitanni people as known to history from about 1500 B.C. poses a challenge. Within that time-gap we have the post-Rigvedic Pre-Harappān Civilization and the Harappā Culture. With the Harappā Culture in the Indus Valley, the descendants of the Rigvedics in India w

-14_The Linguistic Argument about the Rigveda^s Date.htm Chapter Eleven THE LINGUISTIC ARGUMENT ABOUT THE RIGVEDA'S DATE A linguistic argument apart from the Boghaz-keui documents is also in the field. Perhaps the best statement of it is in the words of B.K. Ghosh. "The language of the Rigveda," he writes in one place, "is certainly no more different from that of the Avestan Gāthās than is Old English from Old High German, and therefore they must be assigned to approximately the same age: and the relation between the language of the Gāthās and that of Old Persian inscriptions of the sixth century B.C. cannot be better visualised than by comparing the former with Gothic and the latter with Ol

Chapter Two THE SUPPOSED ARYAN INVASION The first question has to be considered under two heads: archaeological and literary. In an article of 1966, "The Decline of the Harappans", G.R. Dales, director of archaeological fieldwork in South Asia, particularly in West Pakistan, for a good number of years, wrote in connection with the topic of an Aryan invasion of India: "The Aryans... have not yet been identified archæologically."1 Even a diehard defender like Sir Mortimer Wheeler of the Aryan-invasion hypothesis and of the theory that the Rigvedic Aryans destroyed the Harappā Culture had to state: "It is best to admit that no proto-Aryan material cultu

TALK THREE February 24, 1971         A few days back Nirod asked me to give a talk. After much trepidation I agreed, encouraged by some friends. On my own I shy away from talking — except in private, where perhaps I overdo it.         Then a couple of days later he asked me what my subject would be. When I looked at him I suddenly thought of him as he had been before forsaking his first steady love — Medicine — in favour of that capricious Goddess, the Muse. It was Dr. Nirodbaran asking me as if addressing a consultant: "What will you prescribe?" And the response naturally came: "The mixture as before." (laughter)       Well, what is this repeating mixture? I would say it

TALK SEVEN October 9, 1971         When I was young I was considered a writer of poetry. I believe I am still a poet though very few may know it and my face can hardly show it.         At times I am a bit of a musician too: as you have just seen, I can blow my own trumpet.         Poets, musicians, painters — all artists — are credited with a very lively imagination. But by no stretch of imagination can I figure myself as still young and, therefore, as having the right to talk to you with a sympathetic spirit.         In this age of dynamic disrespect for old fogeys, I could not help wondering why I had been picked on to address you. I asked myself: "Am I fit

       TALKS BY NIRODBARAN     TALK ONE June 12, 1970         SRI AUROBINDO - THE PERFECT GENTLEMAN   Friends, some of you at least must have been amused, others intrigued by the title of today's talk. Some of you may even smell some irreverence because we have been accustomed to hear of Sri Aurobindo as the Lord of Yoga, as the supreme Poet, and the greatest Philosopher — to talk of him as a perfect gentleman is rather to bring him down to our own level, because we also claim to be some sort of gentlemen. I was told that the Mother was amused to hear of this title, but I throw the whole responsibility or irresponsibility of it on the Mot

 TALK TWO August 29, 1970         During the last talk I realised that the subject was as much myself as Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, but I could not really help it and I hope you will forgive me if I repeat the folly. I even made the claim that in Savitri Sri Aurobindo had referred to me twice because twice he has mentioned lameness symbolically. I might take a cue from that procedure and complete the count by giving you some more lines from Savitri, which bring in the same characteristic. Only here the reference seems to be more general than particular. It is part of an occult vision of this enigmatic world of ours with all its play of contraries and its internal paradoxes. Sri Aur

LIGHT   AND   LAUGHTER   Some Talks at Pondicherry           AMAL KIRAN AND NIRODBARAN Second revised Edition February 1974           All rights reserved by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry-605002, India         Published, Filmset, and Printed by   All India Press, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry-605002, India.       PUBLISHERS' NOTE         The first edition of this book in May 1972 under the title Some Talks at Pondicherry proved a best-seller. It was so popular that it had soon to be translated into several Indian languages. The original Eng

TALK TWO July, 1971         SRI AUROBINDO - THE MODERN AVATAR         Friends, you will excuse me for the flashy title I have given to my talk, but I hope to justify it.         I begin with some unpublished portions of my correspondence with Sri Aurobindo, sometime in 1936, when an unaccountably good relation was established between the Supramental Godhead and the mental doghead that was still the former's own human portion.         At the time of the following exchange, I was in charge of the dispensary.         Question: My big photo requires Sanjiban's treatment. Granted permission?         Sri Aurobindo: What? which? where? how? wha

TALK FOUR February 27, 1971         Last time I gave a somewhat unpleasant if not gruesome description of myself as a being full of holes — not only the seven physiological holes but also seventy-seven or more psychological ones! Keenly conscious though I have always been of the multiple character of His Holeyness Amal Kiran, I did not realise that I had some holes in my brain through which many things slipped out. I don't mean only things which I should not have spoken, yet unfortunately blabbed, but also several which I should have said, yet somehow let go.         I have to remedy the defects. This business may come in the way of my saying on the present occasion a number o