Author Description

Sindhu–Sarasvati Civilization: New Perspectives. A Volume in Memory of Dr Shikaripur Ranganatha Rao is a compilation of the papers presented at the International Conference on the Sindhu–Sarasvati Civilization: A Reappraisal held in Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, during 21-22 February 2009. Here, eminent archaeologists, philologists, anthropologists and historians re-examine recent researches and existing theories upon the nature of the interrelation between the two most ancient prehistoric cultures of the South Asian subcontinent: the Indus (Sindhu or Harappan Civilization) and the Vedic Civilization. The scholars touch upon areas of consensus and contentions, with a tentatively conclusive interdisciplinary understanding about the pluralistic culture and shared identity of the two riverine cultures between 3000 and 1500 bce. They rightly swing the balance of the argument away from the archaic and now exploded Aryan Invasion Theory to the well-grounded Vedic Sarasvati milieu as the home of the Harappan Civilization. Thus it opens a new window to the cultural content of the prehistoric period of the subcontinent.