by Roshen Dalal
According to Gimbutas, before the Indo-Europeans spread across Europe, ‘Old Europe’ as she called it, consisted of peaceful,women-centred, goddess-worshipping cultures. The Indo-Europeans brought in patriarchy and war. However, there is a problem with her viewpoint—warfare and forts existed in Europe well before her proposed dates for the Indo-European migration.
In addition, the ‘Kurgan cultures’ were not uniform; in fact, they had many differences. Several archaeologists now believe that the homeland was in Ukraine and southern Russia, known as the Pontic–Caspian steppes, but the focus is on a more specific culture rather than the kurgan burials in general. Some of the early cultures of this region are the Sredny Stog, Khvalynsk, and Dnieper–Donets. The Khvalynsk culture (5000–4000 BCE) and the Sredny Stog (4500–3500 BCE) are both identified with the PIE homeland. Sredny Stog was pre-Kurgan, with its main centres in what is now Ukraine. It had burials without mounds or kurgans, battleaxes of a type associated with the Indo-Europeans, and also some Corded Ware. It was succeeded by the Yamnaya culture, originating between the Pontic–Caspian steppes and the forest regions of the Dnieper and Volga steppes, dating to 3500 BCE and spread over a wide region. The earliest possible date for the breakup of PIE was thought to be 3500–3400 BCE, based on the first use of wheeled vehicles. The Yamnaya is connected with the later Andronovo, usually identified with the Indo-Iranian culture (see Chapter 5).
The Finnish Indologist Asko Parpola sees the origin of PIE in the Khvalynsk culture in the mid-Volga region. It spread east and west but PIE developed in southern Ukraine, in the later Sredny Stog culture. The next stage was the Pit Grave culture (Yamnaya), followed by the Middle Dnieper and the Corded Ware cultures. Corded Ware spread to the north-west, where the Italo-Celtic, Proto-Baltic, Slavic, and Proto-Germanic languages developed.
ANATOLIA
As seen earlier, Renfrew places the homeland of Indo-European languages in Anatolia in a pre-PIE period. He provides two alternative hypotheses for the spread of Indo-European languages outside Europe. One suggestion is that, from Anatolia, PIE first spread with migrating farmers to northern Iran, and even to Turkmenistan. It then spread to the Iranian plateau and India– Pakistan, and this too was related to the adoption of farming. In another hypothesis, he believed that PIE spread to the south Russian steppes in its second phase, between 5000 and 3000 BCE, and from there to other areas. It probably reached there via the agricultural Cucuteni and Tripolye cultures of east Europe.
While pastoralism was once believed to have preceded agriculture, Renfrew and some other analysts believe that ‘agriculture is a precondition for a pastoral economy’, hence, the east European and Ukraine agricultural regions contributed to the development of pastoral nomadism in the steppes. These nomadic pastoralists succeeded the early agriculturalists and spread Indo-European languages as they migrated, just as farmers had spread it across Europe. The use of the horse was crucial to this spread, and warfare could have been a part of it. The spread of Indo-European to India and Iran may have been through two waves of migration. Based on Renfrew’s theories, linguistically, the two waves would have differed. The first would have been a language directly developed from Indo-Hittite, which according to him was pre-PIE. The second would have been a post-PIE language, further getting transformed as it crossed Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, and finally reached north-west India.
Both theories are clearly hypothetical.
The Georgian linguist T.V. Gamkrelidze and the Russian philologist V.V. Ivanov are among those who see a relationship between PIE and the Kartvelian and Semitic languages. They have reconstructed the economic and cultural vocabulary of PIE, with names of different flora and fauna, and a homeland in a mountainous region. On the basis of their different reconstruction of PIE, they identify the Indo-European homeland in the 4th millennium BCE in Anatolia or Armenia. They feel that the Indo-European area of origin extended south from Anatolia to the Balkans and north to the Caucasus mountains. According to them, from here, the Hittites and Greeks moved to the west and the Proto-Indo-Iranians moved to the east, towards the northern part of the Iranian plateau, from where some Indo-Aryans moved west to the Mittani kingdom (discussed later) and others farther east into India. The Tocharians, and those who spoke early Indo-European dialects, moved through Central Asia to the northern Caspian region, and from here across Europe.
INDIA
The German poet and Indologist Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829) was one of the first to put forward this viewpoint. More recent proponents include Koenraad Elst, the conservative right-wing Belgian author; Nicholas Kazanas, a scholar and philosopher of Greek origin; Shrikant Talageri, the Indian scholar; and several others, who believe that India could be the Indo-European homeland. Elst placed the date for the migration out of India around the 6th millennium BCE.
BACTRIA–SOGDIANA
Johanna Nichols (1997), a linguist and specialist in Slavic languages, has a different view; she places the homeland in the 4th to 5th millennium BCE, to the east of the Caspian Sea, in the area of Bactria–Sogdiana.
OTHER HOMELANDS
The Irish–American archaeologist J.P. Mallory suggests four most likely homelands:
Pontic–Caspian: Chalcolithic, 5th to 4th millenniums BCE (Kurgan culture)
Anatolia: Early neolithic, 7th to 5th millenniums BCE)
Baltics: Mesolithic to Neolithic (Ertebelle to CW, 6th to 3rd millenniums BCE)
Balkans: Neolithic, 5th millennium BCE
There are innumerable other identifications of the homeland. Lithuania, Armenia, and northern Europe are among the more credible options. Tibet too has been named.
NO CONSENSUS
After looking at the main theories, it is clear that there is no consensus on the date of PIE, or on how and when it spread. Some even doubt whether it ever existed. The accuracy of reconstructed terms and their meanings has also been doubted. It has been pointed out that a reconstructed term is ‘a phonetic idealization’, and one cannot definitely know the meanings of reconstructed words. But others feel that meanings can be assigned to such words. They believe that if one meaning is consistently attached to a word or its cognate in all languages, then it is likely that that meaning must have existed earlier as well.
Despite doubts and contradictions, the most accepted theory based on linguistics is that PIE did exist, that it originated in the Bronze Age (5000–3000 BCE), and that it subsequently spread through migrating groups, changing even as it spread. Renfrew’s theory of its spread via agriculture and migrating farmers is perhaps the next most accepted version. But, in the light of new research, the PCT needs more serious examination.
WHAT WAS BEFORE PIE?
It is agreed that languages developed at a fairly early date. Dates for this vary between 1 million years and 40,000 years ago. Hence, if PIE or its antecedents developed in 7000 or 5000 BCE why did it/they develop? What was the language people spoke before this? In what way was this language related to PIE or pre-PIE? The theory is that other languages were spoken in Europe before Indo-European languages replaced them. But the question is this: what was the language spoken before PIE by the very people with whom it originated?
WHERE? THE HOMELAND PROBLEM
As there is no consensus on the date or on whether there was any type of migration, there is obviously no agreement on the homeland of the PIE, if at all such a linguistic group existed. Despite this, the search for a homeland continues.
Chapter 4
The Iranian Connection
Indo-Iranian is one of the languages believed to be derived from Indo-European, from which both Iranian and Indo-Aryan languages are thought to have developed. The close similarities between the language of the most ancient Iranian text, the Gathas, and the Rig Veda, as well as similarities between Rig Vedic deities and yazatas or Zoroastrian deities, have led scholars to presume that Indians and Iranians were once a common people with a common homeland. Understanding the Iranian connection with the Vedas is an essential prerequi
site to arrive at any conclusions regarding the origin of the Rig Vedic people.
The most accepted theory is that after the Proto-Indo-European language had emerged, and possibly after the first PIE speakers began to move out of their original homeland, the Indo-Iranian group lived together for some time, before separating. There are again many theories about their possible homeland and the date of separation. We have looked at some aspects of these theories in the preceding chapter.
THE INDO-IRANIAN LANGUAGES
This group of languages is usually subdivided into Iranian, Indo-Aryan (including Dardic), and Nuristani. Today, these are spoken not only in India–Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran but also over much of Asia from the Black Sea to western China.
INDO-ARYAN
Indo-Aryan, often referred to as Indic to avoid the use of the word Aryan, forms a large group of languages, mainly spoken in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. It includes Rig Vedic and classical Sanskrit and related languages. Linguists such as the American M.B. Emeneau point out that classical Sanskrit is not a linear descendant of Rig Vedic Sanskrit. There were probably several Sanskrit dialects in existence; one was used in the Rig Veda but classical Sanskrit developed from a different though related dialect. Related languages include many regional languages of India today, as well as Pali and Prakrits in the past. While we will look at Indo-Aryan and related material in chapters 6, 7, and 8, here we focus on understanding the Iranian material.
NURISTANI
Nuristani languages have been variously classified. They have been considered part of the Iranian languages, possibly influenced by Dardic (Indo-Aryan), or part of the Dardic group, or a separate and distinct branch of Indo-Iranian. Nuristani languages, formerly called Kafiri, have not been studied to the same extent as the others. These are spoken by tribal groups in the mountainous regions of north-east Afghanistan and north-west Pakistan. They comprise five or six main languages and several dialects, and seem to have existed in this area from remote times. Nuristani languages developed in relative isolation and reflect some ancient terms and forms.
BURUSHASKI
Burushaski is not part of the Indo-Iranian group but is included here as it belongs to the same region. It is spoken mainly in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of Kashmir (where several other languages are also spoken), and has three dialects. Though it has absorbed words from other languages, it is considered a language isolate—unrelated to any language family. Hence, its presence in this region is intriguing.
IRANIAN GROUP
Iranian has a number of related languages. The group includes Gathic Avestan and later or Younger Avestan; Old Persian; Middle Persian or Pahlavi in its various forms; Shaka dialects of ancient and early medieval times, in Central Asia, South Russia, and the Caucasus (among Shaka dialects are the old Khotani speech and the connected Ghalchah dialects of the Pamir plateau, which are still spoken); Ossetish in the Caucasus regions; various Kurd dialects; Pashto or Pashtu; Ormuri; and modern Persian dialects in Iran, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan.
The early Iranian languages, with which we are primarily concerned here, are Old Avestan (Gathic) and Younger Avestan. Old Avestan is also related to Old Persian, and the old eastern Iranian ancestor language of Pashto. Median seems to be another related language. There was probably a large group of old Iranian languages but those are not known today. Middle Persian, called Pahlavi, is a direct continuation of old Persian.
AVESTAN
Old and Younger Avestan are known from Avestan texts, which form part of the religion of Zoroastrianism. Avesta is the term used for both the texts as well as the language. According to the British scholar Mary Boyce, the term probably means ‘the injunction’ (of the prophet Zarathushtra). There are numerous similarities between Avestan and Vedic material, in terms of language and otherwise, but one very major difference is that the earliest Avestan text, the Gathas, record the creation of a new monotheistic religion by Zarathushtra.
Gathic or Old Avestan
Gathic Avestan, in which the Gathas are composed, is extremely similar to the language of the Rig Veda. The similarity is so marked that there can be no doubt that the two languages were once closely connected. In fact, minor changes enable one to ‘translate’ or transpose much of the text into Sanskrit. According to scholars such as Fortson, Gathic Avestan is more archaic than Rig Vedic Sanskrit in several ways. Others have also pointed out that the Gathic metre represents a stage earlier than the typical Rig Vedic metre. V.M. Apte, a well-known Sanskrit scholar from India, said that Vedic metres, particularly those of the Rig Veda, ‘stand midway between the Avestan system and that of classical Sanskrit’. He stated: ‘The Avesta has 8-syllable or 11-syllable lines, which ignore quantity but are combined into stanzas, which resemble those of the Rig Veda in all other aspects.’ There are some who feel that Rig Vedic Sanskrit is earlier, though this is not generally accepted by linguists.
Younger Avestan
Younger Avestan is considered a simpler and later form of Old Avestan though, according to linguists, it did not evolve directly from Old Avestan and the two are different but related dialects of different times.
OLD PERSIAN
Old Persian is known from inscriptions of the Achaemenid (Hakhamanishya) dynasty, dating to the 6th century BCE. Along with Matai of Median, Parsuwash is first mentioned in the area of Lake Urmia (ancient Chichast) in north-west Iran, according to the records of Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (859–824 BCE). Old Persian contains words from Median, another extinct language, and is written in a simple cuneiform script that probably developed in the 6th century BCE. The script differs from the one which was used for Avestan.
PASHTO
The ancestor dialect of Pashto is considered to have been close to that of the Gathas but it has no early written material.
MEDIAN
Median is an extinct language, known only from its loanwords in Old Persian.
EARLY IRANIAN TEXTS
The texts form part of the larger body of religious literature of Zoroastrianism. A brief account of these is provided here.
Old Avestan must have fallen out of use fairly early while Younger Avestan was probably used only till around 400 BCE. However, Avestan was still known up to Sasanian times and used by the priests. Several Avestan texts are said to have been destroyed at the time of Alexander’s invasion in 301 BCE. Texts memorized by the priests were collated and written down at the time of the Sasanian dynasty between the 4th and 6th centuries CE. Like the Vedas, they had been conveyed for hundreds of years through the oral tradition. The script used to write the texts evolved from Pahlavi (Middle Persian), a script that had developed from Aramaic. The script was specially created for this purpose. It had fifty-three distinct charcters and was written from right to left. By this time, the written language of Iran under the Sasanians was Pahlavi, while the spoken language was known as Pazand.
Later Zoroastrian texts were composed in Pahlavi; as some of these are commentaries (zand) on the older texts, they are known as Zand-Avesta or Avesta-e-Zand.
According to tradition, many texts were again destroyed after the Arab invasion of the 7th century CE and the downfall of the Sasanian dynasty. After the Zoroastrians (Parsis) came to India, some of the texts they had brought with them were translated into Sanskrit. Here we are concerned with the two groups of Gathic and Younger Avestan texts, which may very broadly be taken to correspond with the time period of Rig and Later Vedic texts.
The known Avestan texts are as follows:
TEXTS IN OLD AVESTAN
THE GATHAS
The Gathas, or songs of the Prophet Zarathushtra, are among the earliest portion of these scriptures. The Gathas form part of the Yasna, a text with seventy-two chapters or haiti, and include seventeen hymns, divided into five Gathas, each with a different theme. These ancient verses are difficult to translate, as many words and aspects of grammar are unknown. Because of this, translations differ widely. But some texts of the Younger Avestan, as well as later Zoroastrian tex
ts, help to explain the ideas contained in them. The verses are sometimes interpreted by comparing the words with those of Rig Vedic Sanskrit. The Gathas are the earliest texts of the Zoroastrian religion, and establish its main ideas, including the worship of one God—Ahura Mazda.
The five Gathas are:
Gatha Ahunavati, the Gatha of Free Choice (Yasna 28–34)
Gatha Ushtavati, the Gatha of Bliss and Enlightenment (Yasna 43–46)
Gatha Spenta Mainyu, the Gatha of the Holy Spirit (Yasna 47–50)
Gatha Vohu Khshathra, the Gatha of Sovereignty or the Good Kingdom (Yasna 51)
Gatha Vahishtoishti, the Gatha of the Highest Wish or Fulfilment (Yasna 53)
Note that while there are close language similarities between the Rig Veda and the Gathas, the religions described in them are different. Deities similar to those in the Rig Veda are found in other later parts of the Yasna, and in the series of hymns known as yashts.