It is also a matter of attitude
The IVC seals show images, that remind one of Shiva, ( Yogic Posture) Seven Rishis( Sapt Rishi Constellation ) etc etc.
The altars are there, whether you call them fire pits or altars, they are there, and cannot be wished away.
Animal sacrifice is not new as a religious ceremony, even late and current Hindu ceremony.
The fire pits are aligned - East and West
Here is the contradiction:
Quote: “
http://www.archaeologyonline.net/art...henjodaro.html
For example, seals have been recovered with the repeated motif of a man sitting in a yogic position surrounded by animals.
This is very similar to the Hindu god of Shiva, who is known to have been the friend of the animals and sat in a yogic position. These seals are known as the Shiva seals. Other images of a male god have been found, thus indicating the beginnings of Shiva worship, which continues to be practiced today in India. (10)
This is
an interesting point because of the accepted notion of an Aryan invasion.
If Aryan's had invaded the Indus Valley, conquered the people, and imposed their own culture and religion on them, as the theory goes, it would seem unlikely that there would a continuation of similar religious practices up to the present. There is evidence throughout Indian history to indicate that Shiva worship has continued for thousands of years without disruption. [cf. harappan cultural continuity]
The Aryan's were supposed to have destroyed many of the ancient cities right around 1500 B.C., and this would account for the decline of the Indus civilization.
However the continuity of religious practices makes this unlikely, and other more probable explanations for the decline of the Harappan civilization have been proposed in recent years; such as climate shifts which caused great droughts around 2200 B.C., and forced the abandonment of the Indus cities and pushed a migration westward … { end quote}
In the extract avbove , on one hand a continuity is drawn between the IVC culture and later Hindu Religion.
In the second para, the decline is( was ascribed to the Aryans, who arrived in 1500 BCE and destroyed the civilization.
The author asks however how this could be, and finds another explanation for the decline- Climate change.
What happened to these Aryans and when did they come?
If they came in 1500 BCE, then how do you explain the Vedic deity- Shiva.?
If they came before or during the IVC, or for that matter were already there, then the chronology and the Vedic texts co relate to each other.
Which explanation is preferable, the simple one, or the complicated one?
Warm Regards
Ravi Chaudhary