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"The Glacial Interpretation of the Main Rigveda Myth and the Problem of Indo-European Homeland"

Semenenko, Aleksandr Andreyevich

Abstract

The paper focuses on the study of the main Indo-Iranian myth attested in the Rigveda that of the struggle between the solar god and the rocky snake. It has long been proposed to interpret the battle between Indra and ValaVritra as the glaciological event evidenced by the Vedic seers the last series of Holocene transgression and regression of the mountain-like and especially snake-like glaciers of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. The scholarly approach required solid base of factual data to make this interpretation a scientific theory. This base has been obtained recently through the analysis of soil samples from under the moraines of Pakistan, India and Nepal dating two last glacial transgressions of the Himalayan and the Hindu Kush mountains around 6100-6000 and 3600-3300 B.C. This dating corresponds to the cultural vocabulary of the Indo-Europeans, the Avesta evidence, archaeology of South Asia and the agrarian peculiarities of Afghanistan-Punjab region where this main Indo-Iranian myth has been formed. Thus the composition of the Rigveda hymns between 3300 and 2600 B.C. and the localization of the Indo-European homeland at the junction of Iran and Hindustan have been again proved.

Keywords: Indo-Europeans, Indo-Aryans, Iranians, Rigveda, Avesta, glaciers.

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Citation

Semenenko, Aleksandr Andreyevich "The Glacial Interpretation of the Main Rigveda Myth and the Problem of Indo-European Homeland" Agrarian History, Number 8, 2021 P. 75 - 91. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.5799940