Sir William Jones (1746 – 1794) came to India during the reign of East India Company of the British as the Judge of the Supreme Court in Kolkata (then Calcutta). Apart from judicial responsibility, his inclination towards philology made him to found the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784. It was he who proposed in the society that Sanskrit’s affinity to Greek and Latin could be explained by positing a common, earlier source the one known today as Indo-European. He succeeded significantly in establishing his proposal in his short life span of 48 years. Then it was Max Muller, (1823 -1900) a German philologist who was employed to create a distorted translation of the Vedas, the original of which are in Sanskrit. He got himself highly qualified in Sanskrit, during the time when even Indians did not understand the language. He knew Sanskrit and from that background, he built up the linguistic basis of the vast sub-continent which did not stretch the real map of the languages in the territory of India. From then onwards, these two philologists confined themselves to the north of the territory and did fail to reveal the entire linguistic pattern of India. Undue projection of Sanskrit as the origin of all languages in the country prevailed during their lifetime and afterwards.
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Robert Caldwell (1814 – 24.08.1891) a British missionary and linguist came to the Southern part of India, presently Tamil Nadu. He tried to learn the language of the people of the region, i.e. Tamil. He studied it in depth and developed analytical and comparative features of the southern languages. For the first time, he revealed the exclusive nature and independent stand of Tamil language which was entirely different from Sanskrit, that was considered the origin of all the languages of India. His findings were documented by him through the study made in 1856, “A Comparative Grammar of the South Indian or Dravidian Family of Languages.” The special linguistic features of Dravidians prevailed over Sanskrit language which symbolically represents Aryan culture. Robert Caldwell was the first scholar who established the prevalence of entirely different linguistic culture by unearthing the pride of Dravidian linguistic culture, originated from Tamil.
On linguistic front the analytical study of Sanskrit and its dominance was eroded. Language, which is one of the cultural features of the relevant people would not stand alone but would reflect on other social, economic and political features of that society. In areas, other than linguistic, Sanskrit language ensured the dominance of Aryan culture. But there was no proof to establish that an alternative, independent culture also prevailed during the entire history of Indian Territory.
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was founded in 1861 after the British Monarch took over the rule of India from East India Company. Many archaeological excavations were carried out by ASI including the excavations in Harappa and Mohenjadaro, which are presently in Pakistan.
Sir John Marshall (1876-1958) became the Director General of ASI in 1902 and continued upto 1928. Even though the Mohenjadaro and Harrappa excavations started and went on vigorously, no fruitful result came out. But after Sir John Marshall assumed the responsibility, he came to know that the excavated artefacts and other specimens when tested, revealed for the first time the prevalence of a civilization that existed distinct from the Aryan Civilization that was widely known. Unlike the Aryan Civilization which came from the alien territory that dominated the entire country, the new one found out was indigenous.
Compiled by V. Kumaresan
