Re: Indo-European Studies

Randall J. Burns (rburns@netcom.com)
Thu, 13 Jul 1995 19:48:18 GMT

In article <3u12vv$2cm@nntpd.lkg.dec.com>,
Virendra Verma <verma@awecim.enet.dec.com> wrote:
>
>In article <3ttv8q$555@gabriel.keele.ac.uk>, cla02@cc.keele.ac.uk (R. Wallace) writes...
>>: In any case, the migration down from the passes of the hindu kush was
>>: *long* before anything was written down. Within a few generations, such
>>: memories get very vague.
>>
>>Is there perhaps a parallel in the Germanic Nibelungenlied?
>
:
>
> 1. How could a few so called uncivilized Aryans eliminate or displace
> an earlier advanced Indus civilization unless they were supported
> by weapons and force from their ancestral land or the then native
> population of India was savage?
Well, advanced weapons technology!=civilization. For example, when the English
decimated the French nobility(immortalized in Shakepeare's play), it was
arguable that by many criteria the French were more "civilized".

> 3. Casteism is unique to Vedic people. If they came from outside,
> why casteism does not exist in the other western cultures.
Well, Norway, to this day has a well defined class system:
Yarrows
Freemen
Thralls

>
> 4. Sanskrit is the most structured language. Why other Indo-European
> languages lack consistent structure.
What about Lithuanian?