After my retirement, while I was with books and Google articles, I noticed some wonderful events in the realm of scientific discoveries. At some point, I entered into the construction of prehistory and the origin of humans, as some of such ideas have been arousing in my mind for long back. I was never interested in history, as I believed that history cannot represent the truth, it may represent some scholarly stories based on personal ideas associated, at best, with some collected information. Total perspective might be far away from the truth. However, some interesting articles based on scientific investigations compelled me to become interested in prehistory, particularly, the prehistory of Indian Subcontinent. As I proceed, I was bewildered with some contradictory explanations of ancient events. In the same way, the quaint incidents of the origin of the first human on this earth also put me in a dazed condition. Were the parents of the first human nonhuman primates? How is it possible? These hunt me a lot. Such thoughts are the genesis of Physical and Cultural Anthropology to come into light after six years of hard labour. Heeding into the problem, I faced Wonders in every step of my search. In spite of findings of evolutionary steps. the actual appearance of first human is full of Wonders. I shuddered with the analysis of signatures of early humans in the path of their being civilized. Acceptance and ignoring of some useful early documents are not free from Wonders. Most of the fields, I come across, are famous for intellectual disagreements.
I placed tales of collected events for comprehension of the estimated scenario of our ancestors. We borrowed gradually a common pattern of cultural heritage during our spread over the entire world. At the same time, we acquired diversified manifestations during our survival in various geographical and environmental conditions. Incidental development of our brain made me incredulous in following its steps of functioning. The incredible existence of our mind and consciousness enthralled me. Entanglement with such wonderful developments may generate keener sense of our collective endeavour and our cultural heritage.
The least known prehistoric period of Indian subcontinent has been suffering from intellectual typhoon, since the discovery of Indus Civilization, which I mentioned in this book as Sindhu Civilization. I tried to discuss the features of the Civilization in respect to its authorship, its language, its relationship with Rig Vedic culture and their undeciphered scripts. The oldest valuable written document. Rig Veda, of this subcontinent has been considering mostly as a religious book, but the geographic, social, economical and environmental depictions unfold a treasure of past civilization of this subcontinent. The present population of India are the carriers of the legacy of Sindhu Civilization.
The first chapter of Physical and Cultural Anthropology comprises of a synopsis of the origin of this Universe with a probability of appearing life from outside to this earth. The chapter 2 gives the abridgement of human arrival with genetic reference, but avoiding evolutional details. These followed by the discussions of evolutionary events of Primates, hominids and homos. Then I have tracked to signatures left by the early precursors of humans including Homo erectus and Neanderthals, while Chapter 8 embraces their extinctions. The significant development of human brain for becoming a modern human and emergence of genetic Eve and Adam swathe the next two chapters (Chapters 9 & 10). Mapping out Exodus of human precursors and Modern humans is dependent on their left out autographs, which also signify the process of changes gradually leading them to be civilized. Such autographs encompass their lithic signatures, rock-paintings and earthen models and potteries. Chapters 11-13 depict the abridgement on those one by one. As Agriculture became a significant pivot of Civilization, the next Chapter deals with a synoptic description of Agricultural developments. Alongside, we started developing different new industries like pottery industry, bead industry, ornament manufacturing industry etc. Building manufacturing and boat/ship manufacturing for sea-ferry and economic development grew up gradually. The first urban advancement and growth boomed and endured for a long time in the Western part of Indian subcontinent demand a special awareness due to various reasons. Chapters 15-21 carry out with the gradual blooming, maturation and propagation of that largest civilization since about 7500 BC to 1400 BC. Aryan invasion or immigration concept clasped us since the time of Max Müller and directing the reconstruction of Prehistory of this Subcontinent. Recent archaeological and genetic studies go against such concepts. Scientific studies, archaeological evidences and depictions in Rig Vedic Verses revealed the period of composition of this earliest literature and help me to identify the probable arrangement and location of important Rig Vedic Rivers along with the zone of population of Rig Vedic people. Next three Chapters cover discussion on such episodes. Sindhu Scripts, their characteristics, related linguistic problems and some valuable attempts for the decipherment of those scripts enclose the next two Chapters.
Our Mind and Consciousness put us in an advantageous position of our survival and to dominate over other animals and control the environment in our favour. At the same time, I cannot check the temptation to allude to some quaint incidents to review under the lens of science. Last two Chapters comprise an attempt to realize the concepts of Mind and Consciousness and to peep into some weird incidents. In fine, I propose a hypothesis for rationalization of the cited quaint incidents. However, this cannot be claimed as scientific explanation under the realm of our present knowledge of science, but we cannot reject those outright.
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