Pune Newsline
February 27, 2007
DNA analyses, prone to contamination, can hardly
be used identify 5,000 yr-old race
Express News Services
Pune, February 26: Rather than endlessly debate
whether Aryans were aliens or locals, archaeological
and historical theory should focus on the linguistic
exchanges that led to restructuring of cultures,
said eminent historian and professor emeritus
of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Romila Thapar
while delivering the convocation address at
the 4th convocation of Deccan College in Pune
on Monday.
Insisting that the past was being formulated
to serve specific ideologies of the present,
Thapar said, "We have witnessed attempts
to treat the past as unitary, self-sufficient
and indigenous, even if the definition of indigenous
remains obscure. The interface of societies
tends to be denied."
Thapar said a crucial aspect of historical linguistics
was the merging of languages as a result of
different cultures living together, which was
reflected in the ongoing debate on the Dravidian
and Austro-Asiatic elements in ancient Vedic
Sanskrit. "Tracking the evolution of these
cultures and their interconnections is far more
intellectually challenging, than the arid quick-sand
of debating whether Aryans are aliens or local,"
said Thapar.
Criticising the current "fashion"
of citing DNA analyses of the Indian population
for identifying the Aryans, Thapar raised the
question whether present-day genetic samples
could be reliably projected to five thousand
years ago, since they were also prone to contamination
through bacteria and microbes. "The selection
of samples for DNA analyses has to be less arbitrary
than present and the mechanisms of analyses
need much greater refinement," said Thapar.
Thapar also expressed skepticism at the texts
referred to by historians while postulating
archaeological and historical theories. "Texts
are prone to the bias of the authors and cannot
always be taken at face value, since they have
an agenda and, on occasion, resort to fantasy,"
she said. As examples, Thapar cited the failure
to locate the famous hall said to be built for
the Pandavas at the Indraprastha excavation
site, or the lack of archaeological evidence
for the prosperity of Ayodhya as mentioned in
Ramayan.
Thus, Thapar said that historians should rely
on actual material evidence to supplement the
paucity of information found in the texts. She
also emphasized the need to educate the public
to avoid the mushrooming of "wild theories".
