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ORIGIN OF EUROPEAN LANGUAGES AND THE MYTH OF THE PROTO INDO EUROPEAN

Let us look at the whole question from the standpoint of the chronological sequence that the Aryan invasion theorists offer us and compare all events in that light in order to hazard a guess asto what would have precisely happened. Greek Literature had made its first ever appearance

around 800 BC., while that in Latin began to appear since 240 BC. The Buddha was born in the5 th century, while it was more or less a millenium since Sanskrit fell into disuse and became a deadlanguage though it continued to be used by learned gentry in India for literary and liturgical pur-poses. The common populace was, however, no more in a position to make sense of the language,and it was for this specific reason that the Buddha had to employ Pali, a derivative of Sanskrit forpropagating his doctrines. Therefore it follows that Greek and Latin are contemporary to thecorrupt dialects derived from Sanskrit but not contemporary to Sanskrit itself. No one even inEurope had ever heard of the very names of Greek and Latin in an epoch when Sanskrit was still a

vibrant living speech in India. So, both these classical languages of Europe must have been thedaughters of Sanskrit but not the sisters of her own age-group like it is now being trumpeted by thechampions of the Proto Indo-European hypothesis. But it still remains an unravelled secret as to at

what point in history and for what reason the classical languages of India and Europe are conne-cted.

At this juncture, I think it may not be entirely out of context to note that it is difficult to examinethe language question in its totality without factoring in the history of the ethnic populations whofirst spoke it as their mother tongue. The Indus valley civilization collapsed around 2000 BC. As Ihave already stated elsewhere, there are a few compelleing reasons to believe that the Indus people

were a Sanskrit-speaking nation. Hence, my deep-seated, yet admittedly unconfirmed suspicion is,that the modern white Europeans could be none other than the descendants of the Indus people

who might have migrated westwards in huge droves after their civilization was ravaged by a decades-long drought. As of now, I can not lay over-emphasis on this postulation as it is open to furtherinvestigation and debate. Today, we are in possession of scant evidence to be sure about exactlyhow many Harappans took recourse to this measure and why all of them had to choose exclusivelythe westward path for their migratory journey. I remember reading somewhere that our popula-tions increased approximately 15-fold in 800 years. At this rate, the probable number of the Proto-Germanic people whom I guess to be the earliest migrants from the Indus valley to Europe shouldbe in the region of 12 million souls, because their net population in Europe at present stands at anotch below 180 million. Considering the distance (3,300 kms) between the Indus valley and theheart of Europe (say, from Karachi to Berlin), I guess it was not impossible to cover the same with-in 1 - 2 years at the rate of 10 - 20 kilometres per day on foot, physical limitations of women, chil-dren, the old and infirm as well as their occasional sojourns - all taken into account.

One plausible explanation for this preference for the westward migration could be that the entiresub-continent, not just the Indus valley, was reeling under an extreme form of drought at thattime, thereby precluding an alternative route. The then Europe might be largely desolate or a land

with sporadic human habitation. Owing to their wide-ranging trade contacts, the Indus people canbe assumed to be in the know of the information about different parts of the world and the cir-cumstances there. Also, the migration would have taken place not for once or in a year, and noteven in a single decade but spanned over several in separate waves of migration, as rainfall in the

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Indus valley at that time was probably erratic and insufficient, but not absent altogether, therebytemporarily offering the people some faint hope to stay on there for some more time. Subsequen-tly, the territory was perhaps abandoned for good once the residents realized that situation wasshowing few signs of improvement.

So, different European languages now exhibit varying degrees of proximity to Sanskrit, the closestbeing Latin and Greek and the farthest being the Germanic sub-family, depending on when they(the first speakers of the present linguistic sub-families) migrated. The dialects of those who migra-ted very early had moved farther from Sanskrit in their structure and the dialects of those who didlater, retained most features of their Indian parent. From this angle, the Germanic sub-family hist-orically precedes Latin and Greek, though this possibility runs contrary to the popular belief pre-

vailing in Europe, for obviously it was the latter which had traditionally influenced the former.One reason for this paradox could be that the earliest Germanic speakers were, in course of theirlong travails of migration, stripped of all the intellectual advantage from their civilized past. They

were busy braving the unfamiliar climatic and other local conditions in Europe and learning to re-build a civilization from scratch for long upon their arrival from the Indus valley. In contrast, theancestors of the Hellenic and Roman people (a latter wave of migrants) were fortunate to boast ofa double civilizational edge in the form of their memoirs and knowledge about their just aband-oned ancestral home as well as their newly adopted home Europe, which was already turned some-

what habitable, thanks to generations of hard work put in by the early birds, the Proto-Germanicpeople.

To me, however, there is nothing surprising in all this, for throughout the course of the history ofmankind, we find that it is always the late-born nations who are more powerful and superior to therest in matters of civilization and military might while the old-timers are condemned to decay andpay obeisance to them in every respect.

-TADEPALLI LALITHA BALA SUBRAHMANYAMIn his Roots of Civilization

March 2014