THE VEDIC PEOPLE Their History and Geography

In The Vedic People, well-known astrophysicist Rajesh Kochhar provides answers to these quintessential questions of ancient Indian history. Drawing upon and synthesizing data from a wide variety of fields—linguistics and literature, natural history, archaeology, history of technology, geomorphology and astronomy—Kochhar presents a bold hypothesis which seeks to resolve several paradoxes that have plagued the professional historian and archaeologist alike. Arguing that a major part of the Ṛgveda was composed in south Afghanistan (after c. 1700 BC) before the Ṛgvedic people entered the Punjab plain and well before they moved east of the Ganga River, the author asserts that during their migrations the Indo-Aryans not only carried with them their rituals and hymns but also place and river names which they selectively reused. Written in an extremely lucid style, by a professional scientist who argues his case logically at every step, this book will be eagerly read by general readers and professional historians, archaeologists, and Indologists alike.