Glaring instance of the western myths and Hinduism - S. D. Dhar

Tantra Shastra is part of the Dharma Shastra of the Hindus and has its roots in the Vedas. 

Western scholars in their anxiety to put the age of Hindu Civilization later to the Greek Civilization have attempted to put the age of Rig Veda to 2000 B.C. and this too seemingly has been done reluctantly and out of generosity. The tragedy is that Indian scholars who take their inspirations from their western teachers and masters have toed the Western line of thought. 

If Rig Veda goes back only to 2000 B. C. then the period of Shri Ramachandra and of Mahabharta have all to be squeezed in between 2000 B. C. and the birth of Gautam Buddha. A more glaring instance of the western myth is the Aryan invasion of India. Every text book of history starts with that myth which has no basis. It is assumed as a geometrical maxim that Aryans were not Indians and they entered into India from some country other than India. The question then arises as to where did they come from. Then the hunt begins and we are confronted with different theories about the original home of the Aryans and here the wise and pompous scholars are not agreed at all. 

We have the Central Asian, Caucasian & Lithunian theories, regarding the original home of the Aryans. Even such a profound scholar like the late Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak was so overwhelmed by the weight of western opinion that he too propounded his Arctic theory on the basis of the long drawn twilights indicated by some Rig Vedic Richas on 'Ushas' and said that the Arctic Region was the original homeland of the Aryans. It has to be categorically stated that the Indian tradition as also the Vedic literature clearly supports the view that the homeland of the Aryans was Sapta Sindhava viz. the land covered by the River Sindhu Indus and its tributaries.

It is now admitted that in some remote past the land south of the present Punjab and Haryana and the north of the Vindhyas was covered by sea. The Rajputana desert has the Sambhar lake which has salty water indicative of its marine past. It is now well recognised that the Himalayan mountain ranges are, from a geological angle, of comparatively recent origin and marine fossils have been found in its rock stratas. 

History is silent as to when did that happen. Sahara and Gobi deserts were in times past cradles of human civilisation and as a result of intensive grazing the soil became barren and ultimately turned into deserts wiping off the old civilisation of which no traces are left. Again, due to geological changes land between Europe and Africa which connected the two continents got submerged under water when the Atlantic ocean broke through the strait of Gibraltar. We know nothing of these dead and past ancient civilisations.

The Red Indians of North America use Swastika as a symbol. The surprising fact is that they also pronounce it as Swastika as we do. It is said that the American Red Indians are descendants of Asian Tribes who entered America through the Behring strait in some remote past. History is silent as to when that happened. Our known recorded history hardly covers three to four thousand years.

We go further three thousand years back for our sketchy information about Ancient Egypt. The Egyptian pyramids still remain a mystery. Results of archaeological excavations in Sumer Akkad and Mohenjodaro have thrown some light, though dim, on the history of those regions. Beyond 4000 and 5000 B. C. is the era of darkness which is sought to be penetrated by the valiant efforts of anthropologists, archaeologists gists, and we hear of such phases in human history as stone age and copper age. 

It is now said that human beings first appeared on our planet five million years back. How they, evolved is still a controversial subject. Some say that we evolved from a type of sea fish which had a verbetra like ours. Another widely believed theory is that apes were our ancestors. McGlashan, one of the renowned psychologists of the world, in his recently publish book, "The savage and beautiful country", which deals with the working of human mind, has suggested that just as we are now sending human beings in outer space similarly by a reverse process the human species, on our planet came from some planet of our galaxy. Madame Blavatsky, the founder of theosophical movement has propounded the same view.

In short we are so dazzled by the scientific and technological advancement made during the last three or four centuries that we faithfully believe that ours is the most progressive era of our world history and the human beings who inhabited our planet six or seven thousand years back were savages and primitive men. Our self-conceit makes us unable to realise that we are totally ignorant about the past beyond the aforesaid limits. McGlashan says:

"A time will come once more when the whirling machinery will grind to a halt, the harsh music cease and the roundabout riders step down stiffly from their apocalyptic beasts. Looking round for his friends of the inner world, everyman will, see them, too, in troops of gray shadows, slipping silently away. One by one the lights of the fair ground will go out, and every man will be left at last, as at the shadowed close of so many earlier civilisations, to find his own way home, by himself, in the dark".

- S. D. Dhar