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Ancient History of
India: Manusmriti Revisited
The west discovered Manusmrti in the late 1700s with its English translation by William Jones. It was followed by English translation of Rig Veda. Early scholars theorised that both these texts were composed not by the native Indians but by the Aryans who invaded India around 1500 BC. References to battles between the Aryans and the Dasyus in the Rig Veda were cited as a proof thereof. The Aryan invasion theorists went further to conclude that there was no sophistication of any kind in ancient India prior to the invasion of Alexander the Great. Naegele questions the evidence of Aryan invasion. He argues that excavations of Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and Mehargarh, discovery of horse bones, clay models of horses and chariot wheels with spokes, bronze hand-saws as hard as steel, space satellite pictures of the dried up river Saraswati and results of gene-pool investigations go against the theory of the Aryans coming from Eurasia and of their composing the two important texts. Naegele points out that the similar geographical locations were shared by people of Rig Veda, later by those of Manusamrti and perhaps contemporarily by the Indus Valley civilization spreading over Brahma Vartta that is the land between the divine rivers Saraswati and Drasdavati. On the basis of his analysis, the author concludes that Rig Veda as Sruti predated Manusmrti and was considered sacred by the author of the Smrti. He re-dates both the texts to a time around 1900 BC. He draws our attention to the fact that the concept of caste existed before Manusmriti. Rig Veda has references to caste being linked with the nature of work, yet the individual could choose it rather than being born into it. Rig-Vedic society was flexible, allowing people to move from one group to the other, based on self-decided mode of livelihood and not that of his parents or ancestors. This movement, as also the inter-caste marriage, was forbidden by Manusmrti. The caste hymn of Rig Veda was used by the author of Smrti to create a rigid and fixed caste system. Ancient India has been a hotbed of intellectual thought. The mathematical, astronomical and cultural development in ancient India far outpaced such development in the rest of the World. The Indus civilisation progressed by harnessing animal power, making use of division of labour, urban planning, maritime trade, standardization and mass production. Ample evidence to back this conclusion has not only been adduced from Manusmrti but corroborated with that from Rig Veda, Greek historians and excavations of Indus Valley. Surprisingly, knowledge and technology reflected in these texts overlap that of the Indus Valley. The overlap extends to areas like use or disposal of water and the art of governance, suggesting possibility of links between Manu Smrti and Harappan Culture. Naegele conjectures that the Smriti might have been composed when the Indus civilization was at its peak and had flourishing trade links with nations as far as Egypt and Mesopotamia. This makes the influence of Manusmriti on ancient Mesopotamian legal code of Hammurabi, that of Solon and Mosaic Ten Commandments or vice-versa highly probable. Revisiting Manusmriti Naegele debunks the theory of the Aryan invasion of India and destruction of Indus Civilization by them. He avers that the combination of earthquakes and possible drying up of the river Saraswati along with the overuse of natural resources was too much of a strain for this civilization to bear. Scholars, history-buffs and all those who are proud of their Indian heritage will enjoy this thought-provoking book.
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