The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture

The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate is a book by Edwin Bryant published at Oxford University Press in 2001 (ISBN 0-19-513777-9).

The book aims to present the theories of various scholars on the Indo-Aryan migration debate in an evenhanded way, and examines the role of the "Indigenous Aryan" model in then-recent Hindu nationalist discourse.

J. P. Mallory commented on this book: "Edwin Bryant's The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture ... systematically exposes the logical weaknesses of most of the arguments that support the consensus of either side. This is not only an important work in the field of Indo-Aryan studies but a long overdue challenge for scholarly fair play."

Table of contents

• Introduction
• 1. Myths of Origin
• 2. Early Indian Responses
• 3. Vedic Philology
• 4. Indo-European Comparative Linguistics
• 5. Linguistic Substrata in Sanskrit Texts
• 6. Linguistic Paleontology
• 7. Linguistic Evidence from Outside of India
• 8. The Viability of a South Asian Homeland
• 9. The Indus Valley Civilization
• 10. Aryans in the Archaeological Record
• 11. Aryans in the Archaeological Record
• 12. The Date of the Veda
• 13. Aryan Origins and Modern Nationalist Discourse
• Conclusion

References

• Edwin Bryant (2004), The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate, Oxford University Press US, ISBN 978-0-19-516947-8

Reviews

• Asko Parpola (8 March 2002), "Search for common homeland?", Times Higher Education
• Of Religious Studies, Punjabi University. Dept (Spring 2006), "The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture", Journal of Religious Studies
• Studies, Association for Asian; ), Far Eastern Association (U.S (2002), "The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture", The Journal of Asian Studies

External links

• Site with abstracts of each chapter of the book
• Book website, with introduction