The
Mahabharat war (3139 BC) had shattered the economy and abolished
many localized civilizations of India. There were thousands
of kings and millions of people who died in that war. That
much loss of population in those days was a big thing, and,
as a consequence of the war, big patches of uninhabited land
lay stretched across the subcontinent. There were no common
roads in those days to join two distant states of India, and
thus, the communication between them was bleak. In that situation,
the people, living in different locations of India, developed
their own culture and their own communicating language which
had classical or locally spoken Sanskrit background and the
image of original Bhartiya civilization.
Time
went on and gradually Brahmi script and Pali language developed
in India. Pali language was liberally used to write the tenets
of Buddhism. The prime Vedic civilization of Bharatvarsh would
have been concentrated in Mathura, Allahabad and Varanasi
areas which were always the center of Bhartiya culture and
scriptural education.
People
living around the Indus valley gradually developed their civilization.
It was later on called the Harappan culture or Harappan civilization
and was considered to exist around 2700-2500 BC. But it appears
that that civilization was totally out of touch with the mainstream
of Bhartiya culture, that’s why their linguistic and literary
developments remained in a very primitive shape. The inscriptions
of Harappan civilization are found on seals and tablets in
the form of signs which very much resemble Phoenician and
Semitic signs that were developed around 1500 to 1000 BC and
which became the prototype for the development of all the
writing systems of the western world.
But,
on the other hand, we have the historical record, documented
in the Bhagwatam itself (Bhag. Ma. 6/94, 95, 96) that in 3072
BC, 2872 BC and 2842 BC, three public programs of the recitation
of the Bhagwatam and the discourses on Krishn leelas
had happened in which Saints and the devotees participated.
We
have thus two entirely different views about the civilization
of India in almost the same period of time. To understand
this situation I will give you an example: Suppose someone,
who has never been to India and has only heard about it becomes
curious and desires to see India. He and his younger brother
in two helicopters approach India and prepare to land. One
person lands near Bhabha Research Center (Bombay), interviews
some people and talks to the research scientists of the Center
and departs for his homeland. The other person loses the track
and ends up landing in a jungle clearing where the tribal
natives (called the adivasis) come to see the helicopter
which is like a celestial machine for them. The person, baffled
with the findings and unable to understand the tribal language,
comes back home, disgusted and disappointed, where he finds
his brother excitedly talking about all the good things of
India. Both brothers tell their stories and both find it hard
to believe each other. But both are facts, and both situations
simultaneously exist.
Thus,
during the period of the Harappan culture, in some areas of
the Ganges valley, India did have its advanced civilization
and the scholars of Sanskrit language because the discourses
on the Bhagwatam were in Sanskrit language; and you should
know that India is never bereft of such Sages and Saints who
hold the knowledge of all the scriptures in their Divine mind.
When
the historians write the history of India, even if they are
sincere in their efforts, still they try to patch up the Harappan
culture with Vedic culture and, in a worldly manner, they
try to determine the advancement of the Sanskrit language
which is eternally perfect. Such a notion is absolutely wrong.
They think that they are trying to be logical in their historical
research, but they forget this fact that one cannot determine
the history of Bharatvarsh on meager archaeological findings
of coins, toys and pots. Whereas the general history of Bharatvarsh
is already written in its scriptures and the Puranas whose
texts and the philosophical descriptions are the outcome of
the Gracious and benevolent minds of eternal Saints.
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