Taxila, Lahore Fort, Shalamar Gardens (Lahore) and Rohtas Fort in Punjab are on the UNESCO`s World Heritage List but Harappa, the most significant site in the history of the subcontinent, suffers from neglect, displaying the cultural and intellectual bankruptcy of Punjab`s ruling elite (It`s not that only being on such the list gives a site historical significance). What it cares for most is Mughal Pulao, not the discovery of an ancient city that changed the view of this region`s history making it as important in human evolution just as the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Harappa was, at some level, more civilised than any other simply for the reason that it was amazingly peaceful and secular; it did not have weapons of war and had no place of worship at the centre of the city. One cannot imagine Mesopotamia and Egypt bereft of temples and weapons which played a central role in their societies.

Just to remind the brain dead Punjabis how crucial Harappa had been to what is generally known asthe Indian civilization I would like to introduce a remarkable book on Harappa and its people by Malati J Shendge (1943-2015),ahistorian of great depth. It`s titled `The Civilized Demons: Harappans in Rigveda` first published in 1977. A little story about how I got this book. I was in Delhi in 2010 for the liver transplant of my younger brother at the Ganga Ram Hospital when my friend, Izzat Majid, called me by phone from London. After inquiring about the health of the patient, he excitedly asked me to buy a book called The Civilized Demons.

The book, he told me, was very close to our view of Harappa civilisation. Strangely, the book was not available in the bookshops at the Connaught Palace and the Khan Market. The reason I came to know after going through the book appeared to be that it blasted the myth of the Aryans being indigenous people or so-called Out of India Theory, which was being peddled by the right wing as India`s national narrative. I had to go all the way to Abhinav Publication at Hauz Khas, quite a distance from the place I was staying at.

Historian Malatai J Shendge, the author of this trailblazing book,had her PhD in Esoteric Buddhism from the University of Delhi. She also served as a faculty member at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). She was a polyglot as she knew Sanskrit, Pali and English, and several other languages. Her other books on Harappa civilisation are: The Languageof Harappans: From Akkadian to Sanskrit; Unsealing the Indus Script; Anatomy of Its Decipherment, The Aryas: Facts Without Fancy and Fiction, and Songs and Ruins: Rigveda in Harappan Setting.

In simple words, her study aims at discovering and decoding the historical life of Harappan people buried under the debris of myths.

The main source is Rigveda. She writes in the introductory chapter that study employs `an interdisciplinary approach, combining the literal interpretation of Rigveda with the study of processes involved in the creation of myths and rendering of narratives of historical events into symbolic ones.

Her thesis is that if the Aryans were a historical force, the opponents they fought against couldn`t be supernatural and they too would have a historical existence.

`The opponents of Aryans wereHarappan tribes such as the Asuras, the Rakshas, the Yakshas, and the Pisachas...When the Aryans created a religion out of these events, they deified their leaders and arrogated to themselves the title of cosmic good. The opponents naturally became demons and represented the cosmic evil...Thus The Rigvedic hymns were given symbolic, mythopoeic and religious significance especially in the context of the struggle between the forces of good and evil, of light and darkness...

The structure and processes of transformation of historical events into mythopoeic and symbolic are unravelled through a method which is applicable to Rigveda, especially in the context of the wars between gods and demons.

The study restores the historicity of Harappan people through the rational and logical analyses of the myths made popular by their opponents (Aryans) as recorded in the ancient scripture, Rigveda. The negative description of their opponents in the Rigveda not only affirms the historical existence of them (Harappans) but also provides clues about their positives which it seems to deny.It takes erudition, critical insight and a highly logical mind to debunk the myths about the Harappans found in a book that has in-built proclivity to demonise its villains (Haparrans) and to use hyperbolic expression to glorify the Aryans. The late Malati`s analytical narrative based on literary and archaeological evidence exposes the lofty claims of Aryan uprightness and fairness. In Rigveda, Vishnu is the companion of Indra, the Aryan warlord. There is a story of Vishnu`s three strides.

Quoting Aitareya-Brahmana, she writes: `Indra and Vishnu fought with the Asuras. After they had defeated Asuras they said to them (the Asuras had defeated the Aryans in several previous battles.

Asura generally means Harappan people conceived as demons); `Let us divide!` Asuras accepted the offer. Indra then said `All through which Vishnu makes his three steps is ours, the other part is yours.` Then Vishnu stepped through three lokas (heaven, earth, and netherworld which all previously belonged to the Asuras), then over the Vedas and lastly over Vac (goddess of speech, speech, which previously belonged to theAsuras)).` Vishnu, it must be remembered, was a Vamana, a dwarf (one of his incarnations) at the time when the above mentioned offer was made and accepted. Being a dwarf was the opposite of his original form, which he resumed when talcing three steps. What it shows is clear; Indra and Vishnu cheated Asuras. It was a sheer breach of trust. They got through trickery more than what was their legitimate share. The principles of fair play were flouted without any qualm of conscience.

In the opinion of Prof Malati, Indra and Vishnu were historical personages and `probably they were deiSed after their death for their heroic deeds and also a cult was dedicated to them.` But these Aryan heroes or gods behaved like ordinarycrooksone Hnds adozena dime in our region.

The people of Harappa conceived by the Aryans, their enemies, as demons were at least much more civilised than the Aryans.

The Aryans who boasted of their superior religious practices invariably used chicanery in their fight against Harappa people for land grabbingand sociopoliticalascendancy. soofiol@hotmail.com