The absence of the sword from Rigveda and Atharvaveda and the Samhitas’ dating

Author(s):  A.A. Semenenko, candidate of Sciences, Municipal budget educational institution «Gymnasium № 2» Voronezh, Voronezh, Russia, 31071976@bk.ru

Issue:  Volume 46, № 2

Rubric:  Topical issues of world history

Annotation:  Rigveda and Atharvaveda Shaunaka Samhitas have been carefully analyzed to check whether they mention copper or bronze swords. It has turned out that both texts do not know swords (only knives) and therefore must be dated in their habitats in the Northwest of the Indian subcontinent prior to the introduction of such weapons into the region. Swords have been archaeologically evidenced both in the Indus valley and in the Yamuna–Ganges Doab only after 2000 BC. This confirms the dating of Atharvaveda Shaunaka prior to 2000 BC, and more archaic Rigveda – a few centuries earlier (prior to 2600 BC). RV and AVS could not be created after 2000 BC, since from that time swords appear, which are not mentioned by both Samhites, in the Indus Valley and in the Doaba (Mesopotamia) of the Yamuna – Gangi. This confirms the dating of the AVS before 2000 BC, i.e. in the whole era of the Art Museum, and the more archaic PB – several centuries before the AVS, i.e. before the beginning of the SC (up to 2600 BC).

Keywords:  Rigveda, Atharvaveda Shaunaka, swords, Mohenjodaro, Ochre Coloured Pottery and Copper Hoards’ culture

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