Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction
1. Defining 'Hindu' and 'Hinduism'
2. The early Aryans
3. Indo-European linguistics
4. The Indus civilization
5. The Indus religion and the Indus script

Part I: The Early Aryans
6. Proto-Indo-European homelands
7. Early Indo-Iranians on the Eurasian steppes
8. The BMAC of Central Asia and the Mitanni of Syria
9. The Rigvedic Indo-Aryans and the D?sas
10. The Asvins and Mitra-Varuna
11. The Asvins as funerary gods
12. The Atharvaveda and the Vratyas
13. The Megalithic Culture and the Great Epics

Part II: The Indus Civilization
14. The language of the Indus civilization
15. Fertility cults in folk religion
16. Astronomy, time-reckoning and cosmology
17. Dilmun, Magan and Meluhha
18. Royal symbols from West Asia
19. The Goddess and the buffalo
20. Early Iranians and 'left-hand' Tantrism
21. Religion in the Indus script

Conclusion
22. Prehistory of Indo-Aryan Language and Religion
23. Harappan Religion in Relation to West and South Asia
24. Retrospect and prospect

Bibliographical notes
References
Index

About the Author

Asko Parpola is Professor Emeritus of Indology and South Asian Studies at the University of Helsinki.

Reviews

"Written with scholarly rigor and great erudition, this volume will be warmly received by supporters of the views that the Indus Valley script is a proto-Dravidian language and that continuities exist between IVC and Hinduism. Highly recommended."--CHOICE
"A highly innovative and welcome volume, bringing together the linguistic and archaeological evidence for the cultures that underlie Hinduism. Asko Parpola is uniquely well qualified to undertake this, through his major research on the Vedas and Vedic ritual and on the Indus Civilization, combined with an excellent understanding of the archaeological evidence beyond India itself. No one interested in any of these fields can afford to miss it." --J.L.
Brockington, Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit, University of Edinburgh; Vice President, International Association of Sanskrit Studies
"The Roots of Hinduism is undoubtedly a major contribution -- like Parpola's earlier book on deciphering the Indus script -- to the understanding of the Indus civilisation, the Aryan migrations into India, and the development of Hinduism." --Current World Archaeology