Saurav

Thank You.
Yes not much consciousness of Ravana or Ramayana in SL. The stories are known but thats about it. Changing, there is a Ravana Balaya (Force) that right wing Sinhala Nationalist (like RSS?).

The Old historical (Mahavamsa) texts dont mention Ravana. The Rajavaliya does in 3 places. However it seems to be written post 15th century when South Indian Hindu influence was the much.

Rajavaliya (Introduction)
There is no internal evidence to fix the date or authorship of this work. The fact that in some places the compiler writes as a Buddhist, whilst elsewhere he uses phraseology natural to a Christian, added to a marked diversity of style,
warrants the inference that it is the compilation of more than one hand.
That the authors possessed little grammatical knowledge of Sinhalese is patent from numerous solecisms and orthographical errors calculated to reflect upon their scholarship. These defects make the meaning of certain passages obscure and doubtful, and render the settlement of the text as a whole extremely difficult, and of parts well nigh impossible.

pg 16
At that time this beautiful island of Lanka was inhabited only by demons, evil spirits, and fiends ; there was no human habitation. After the war of Ravana, and before the attainment of Buddhahood by our Buddha, the teacher of the three worlds, Lanka had been the abode of demons for the space of 1,844 years.

pg 22
In former times there was no sea between Tiittukudi and Lanka ; but there stood the city of Ravana, Be it known that by his wickedness, his fortress, 25 palaces, and 400,000 streets, were all overwhelmed by the sea. The ferry at which the boar landed on this Lapka of Havana, after swimming through that strait of the sea, was called Uratota.

pg 27
In the Dvapara age of the world, on account of the wickedness of Ravana, his fortress, 25 palaces, and 400,000 streets, situate between Mannar and Tuttukudiya, were submerged by the sea. At this time, on account of the wickedness of Kelanitissa, 100,000 seaport towns, 970 fishers villages, and 470 villages of pearl-fishers, making altogether eleventwelfths of Laigika, were submerged by the great sea. Manner escaped the destruction ; of sea-port towns, Katupiti Madampe escaped.
The Old historical (Mahavamsa) texts dont mention Ravana. The Rajavaliya does in 3 places. However it seems to be written post 15th century when South Indian Hindu influence was the much.

“They could not even intermarry with brahmins, who regarded them as “degraded” kshatriyas to be equated – according to the Manu-smriti (X.43-44) as well as some doctrinal sections of the Mahabharata – to the caste rank of the shudras” —-> Imo, using some verses from MS to claim certain groups *could not marry certain groups* is not a good idea . MS also prohibits sapinda marriage(close cousin marriage from sides) but that didn’t stop some brahmins from karnataka in indulging in cross-cousin marriages. Dharmshastras are not strict law codes to be followed (certainly not Kulluka Bhat’s commentary on MS )

To be fair with Shinde, above paragraph doesn’t talk about direction of influence so still consistent with his view. This may be concession to him as lead author

Is there a link between Anatolian farmer ancestry and Elamite, Brahui and Dravidian speakers that predates the steppes migrations?

If yes, then we can estimate the date of arrival of Proto-Dravidian to the core IVC region, assuming it is later than the Shahr-i-Sokhta samples.

I don’t know where Dravidians were living during the proto-Elamite period, but I know that a number of archaologists identify Shahr-i Sokhta as the capital of the land of Aratta mentioned in Sumerian sources– see at
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.academia.edu/170786/Invisible_Exports_in_Aratta_Enmerkar_and_the_Three_Tasks&ved=2ahUKEwjLruffsMTkAhX_AGMBHXMvByQQFjADegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw0j_eTA61cqbntItGW7_UxT&cshid=1568054622610

“Almost certainly Proto-Dravidian would have been spoken in the IVC by then.”

Actually maybe not. The mature Harappan period dates from 2600 BC, and the Indus script comes into use during that time period.

Assuming that Proto-Dravidian was the elite language of the time encoded in the script (supported by Indus script symbols being found in megalithic graffiti from the south), then it is possible that later Iranian farmers could have introduced Proto-Zagrossian languages and genes by then.

This post dates the shahr-i-sokhta samples, and the Rakhigarhi lady from the mature phase may not have been in the core Dravidian speaking region of the IVC (e.g. Sindh).

Correction – Shahr-i-Sokhta is not found in the core of Elam, but is in an adjacent region. But is contemporary with protohistoric Elam.

Is it really all ‘local Indian’ iranian related hunter gatherer ancestry?

That would be surprising considering that those skeletons were found in the Proto-Elamite phase (3200 – c. 2700 BC) in the region of protohistoric Elam.

Almost certainly Proto-Dravidian would have been spoken in the IVC by then.

And the Elamite agricultural terms found in both Brahui and Proto-Dravidian attest to at very least cultural diffusions from Elam to the IVC (if not a common origin of the languages).

I would have expected some gene flow from the Iranian farmers to the IVC by then.

Joker in action:

https://youtu.be/IMfVN97XQlM

No one wants to anger the people who have ultimate access to the skeletons and ancient DNA. I suspect a compromise was made. I am sure Vagheesh will be very careful with what he says on the podcast.