Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 18

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ JANUARY, 1929
HARAPPA IS THE VEDIC HARIYUPIA.
BY BINODE BIHARI ROY VEDARATNA. RAI BAHADUR RAMAPRASAD CHANDA says, "The Archeological discoveries at Harappa in the Punjab and at Mohenjo Daro in Sind have pushed back the monumental history of India from the third century B.C. to at least the beginning of the third millennium B.. by one stroke.... Nothing as yet discovered affords any indication that the builders of the prehistoric cities at Harappa and Mohen-jo-Daro were akin to the Rig Vedio Aryas. On the other hand the civilisation of those builders appears to be of a non-Vedic type." (The Indus Valley, etc., pp. 1, 2).
Sir John Marshall says, "Who the people were, who evolved it, is still an open question, but the most reasonable view seems to be that they were the pre-Aryan (probably Dravidian) people of India known in the Vedas as the Dasyus or Asuras, whose culture was largely des. troyed in the second or third millennium B.C. by the invading Aryans from the north." (The Modern Review, May 1926, p. 600.)
Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji says, "They appear to Mr. Rakhal Das Banerji and myself as having been non-Aryan and in all likelihood Dravidian." (The M. Review, March, 1925, p. 356.)
I think these relics belong to the Aryan civilisation. In ancient times, when the Aryang inhabited the Sapta-sindhu region and the Panjab, perhaps they erected these two cities on the God-made-land (Dera nirmita desha, R.V., III. 33, 4; and Manu Samhita, 2 ch. 17), i.e., on the alluvial land on the bed of the Sindhu samudra.
In Vedic times, there was a city named Hariyupia, where a battle was fought between Chayamana's son King Abhyavarti and Varashikha's sons, in which Indra fought on the side of Abhyavarti and killed Varashikha's sons, who were stationed on the east and weat of Hariyupia (R.V., vi., 27, 5).
Another battle was fought between Chayamana's son Kavi and the great Aryan invader Sudas (R.V., vii., 18, 8), near the river Parusni (Råvi). In this battle Indra was on the side of Sudas, and killed Kavi.
From this I infer that Chayamana's sons Abhyavarti and Kavi were kings of Hariyupia one after the other, and fought the two battles against the invaders. The city of Hariyupia was perhaps on the side of the river Paruşņi (R&vi). This Hariyupia is probably the modern Harappa, which is on the eastern side of the R&vi.. Perhaps, too, in the battle with Kavi, Indra demolished the city of Hariyupis or modern Harappa, and made a new city for Sudas (R.V. vii. 20, 2) elsewhere.
This Sudas was a contemporary of the king Trasadasyu, son of king Purukutea (R.7. vii. 19.3), and Yadu and Turvasu (R.V. vii. 19, 6: iv. 30, 17). King Trasadasyu reigned in the fifth millennium B.C., as I infor from calculation. In his time there was a sea on the east of Pravaga (Manu Samhita, 2 Ch., 21-22); that sea is now to the south of Diamond Harbour. I presume, therefore, that, king Abhyavarti and his brother Kavi possibly reigned in Harappa or Hariyupia in the fifth millennium B.C.
Abhyavarti was an emperor (R.V. vi. 27, 8). Bharadvaja Rishi received from him cows and other things as offerings. I can, therefore, safely infer that Bharadvaja Rishi was his priest and Abhyavarti was an Arya of the Prithu dynasty (R.V. vi. 27, 8); 80 we see that in the fifth millennium B.o. Hariyupia or Harappa was the capital of an Arya emperor, and Sudas fought there with the Aryas (R.V. vii. 83, 1).
So I can safely suggest that the city of Hariyupia or Harappa was a seat of the Aryan civilisation in the fifth millennium B.C., and not of a non-Aryan,