xiii, 374p., B/W Illus., 1 Map, Bib., Index, 23 cm. (First Edition pub. in 2009)
CONTENTS
DESCRIPTION
This book contains studies by a well-known Greek Indologist who repeatedly considers the thorny problem of Indoaryan origins and finds its solution in indigenism. The studies examine various aspects of the Indo-European common heritage and the Vedic Tradition. One study analyses the position of the early Hittite Culture in relation to the other IE branches and especially Vedic. Another traces the common names of deities in the different IE cultures. Two studies compare Vedic and Mesopotamian and Vedic and Egyptian interconnections respectively. Others examine purely Vedic issues like the religio-philosophical thought in the Vedas and the real meaning of the words pur `defensive structure' and samudra `confluence of waters, ocean'. In all these studies the Vedic inheritance emerges as the oldest of all IE traditions, older than even the Near eastern cultures; the bulk of the Rgvda hymns appear to heve been composed in the 4th millennium; and the Indoaryans are shown to have been residing in North-West India (and Pakistan) since about 5000 BCE. The writer arrives at these conclusions by examining and comparing evidences from the linguistic, literary, anthropological and archaeological fields (and from Genetics).
