The Sarasvati Epoch: A Factual Inquiry into India’s Pre-history

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For about 200 years now ever since the days of Max Müller and Sir William Jones-our Indian history has been desperately edited and re-concocted to fit the Biblical timeline. The Aryan Invasion Theory (myth?) has been thrown like a blanket over the antiquity of our Vedic culture Those desperate to protect the blanket from being blown employ an array of tricks-from propagating lopsided debates with flimsy, one-sided arguments to marketing hyperbolic claims devoid of a scientific basis.

The Sarasvati Epoch by Narendran S Thillaisthanam attempts to challenge these one-sided arguments and dig out the truth beneath the cover using genetics, archaeology. geology and anthropology.

The book starts from the beginning from a time when time itself did not exist and takes us on an elaborate journey, unravelling many mysteries. What is Hiranyagarbha? How was the Earth formed? When was the human race born? When did India, as we know it today, come into existence? What is our connection to Africa? What was our very first culture?

Trailing these questions, we reach the earliest civilization of India-poised at the banks of the Sarasvati-Sindhu. It is time to open the gates and walk in to find out the scientific truth of our past. Are you ready?

Narendran Thillaisthanam hails from a technological background with more than two decades of industry experience spanning telecommunications and software. He holds a master's degree in software engineering (MSE) from Brandeis University, USA, a Certificate in Management from Harvard University and a master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Warwick University, UK. Currently, he is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of an India-based MNC where he and his team work on Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Low Code and Hyperautomation.

Thillaisthanam's interests, however, go well beyond just technology. His curiosity has led him to explore multiple disciplines, including economics, history, business and science. He is especially interested in Indian history, actively engaging in lectures and forums.

It is Thillaisthanam's firm opinion that history should be culled out more from evidence and less from individual opinions. Fuelled by this thought, he has spent five years collecting various research materials ranging from books, blogs, and lectures to scientific journals. The culmination of his extensive research is this book - the Sarasvati Epoch.

In the Sarasvati Epoch, Thillaisthanam takes us on a journey to critically question the mainstream narrative of history. In doing so, he presents a plethora of new evidence that readers can draw upon to form their own informed opinions on tenacious topics such as the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT).

Travelling by train to Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, I chanced upon an old man sitting on the floor of the train, his legs outstretched across the corridor. A young boy walking down requested the old man give him way. But the old man asked the young boy to step over his outstretched legs. At this, the young boy hesitantly said, "But, it is not our tradition to do so."

Watching this incident, my mind travelled back several millennia to the Mahabharata, to an episode when Bhima requested Hanuman to move his outstretched tail so that he could walk past. But Hanuman told Bhima to step over his tail. However, Bhima said, "The Divine is found in all beings. If I step over your tail, I disrespect the divine in you."

The incident on the train took place ten years ago. Bhima's encounter with Hanuman took place millennia ago. Yet, we find that spatially and temporally, the same culture flows in the land named Bharat (India), a culture that binds our people through time and space. A great wonder indeed, that India, despite the many invasions that she has borne the brunt of, has not lost her ancient tradition and culture.

We can cite numerous evidence in support of this continuous tradition. For example, take the 'Surya Sankranti festival. This festival goes by different names such as Pongal, Bibu, Lohri, Maghi, etc. When one of the Gurukula students from the Uttar Pradesh-Nepal border requested leave for Khichadi, it took me a while to realize that 'Khichadi' is the name that the people of the region have for the Sankaranthi festival, as much as Tamilians call it 'Pongal'. Despite a thousand kilometre plus separating the two regions, we can see the cultural similarities.

Back in 2016, after a talk in Chennai, a parent approached me asking how they could teach their children the "real history" of India. They had lost faith in their school textbooks, noting the toxic narratives that they contained, and how the system alienated their children from their culture. Dishearteningly, this has been a recurrent theme following every talk that I have given in various cities in India and the USA, when parents lament the education that their children are receiving on the subject of history of India.

There is a silver lining to this widespread discontent. It also means that there is a powerful awakening among several classes of Indians who realize that all is not well in the textbook and media narratives. The wave is becoming larger each year, showing a keen hunger to learn the real story of the Indian civilization-one that does not fall into the clichéd fault lines that are lovingly nurtured by a coterie of obscurant forces, and at the same time, one that does not fly off into flights of fantasy that are bought unquestioningly in some social media circles.

In 2017, I conducted a multidisciplinary history workshop for textbook writers, publishers, teachers and professors. In my audience were two professors from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). After the daylong workshop, one of the professors approached me and said that he would not change his textbooks just because I had proposed a new theory, but would wait for a consensus among the authors who write books on the subject, after which he would consider changes.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages