The Early Cultural Relations of India and Iran

This book deals with the cultural relations between India and Iran. It evaluates the cultural heritage which bequeathed upon each one of them as a collective phenomenon or individually and the indigenous growth, in each case actions and interactions of ideas and conceptions and determining influences to which they were subjected.

In the first two, chapters cultural backgrounds of both countries and the growth of civilization in the neighbouring region of Iran has been examined. An analytical study of the Indus culture with all its aspects has elaborately been done in the chapter three concluding that its original roots are Iranian. The chapters from IV to VIII cover the cultural history of Aryans from the Indo-Europeans to the Indo- Aryans. The most controversial point of original home of Aryans has been touched pinpointing, the region extending from Hindukush to Pamir. The comparison of all Indo-European languages has been constituted in respect of vocabulary, syntax and formation of sentences, substantiating that Sanskrit is the mother of all Indo-European languages which preserved original words and original meanings. It includes the facts that Iranian Aryans and Indian Aryans were once one and the same people speaking the same language, worshipping the same gods and following the same social customs and traditions. The close affinity between Sanskrit and Avesta has elaborately analysed proving it is so great in syntax, vocabulary, diction and general style that by mere application of phonetic laws whole stanzas may be translated word for word into Vedic mantras so as to produce verses correct not in form but in poetic spirit. In dealing with the Indo Aryan culture, the author, first of all, adequately emphasized the place of the Rigveda which contains the original feelings, the oldest thoughts and primitive ideas of undivided Ayrans. In this field no substantial work has been done, whatever has been done is not free from bias and prejudices and national sentiments have been allowed to colour the facts. The Semitic religious beliefs and the legends which crept in the religions of Avesta and Rigveda have been ingeniously traced.