Pratul Agarwal

A very finely researched about book, which has unfortunately lost some of its relevance due to the genetic coding and subsequent research of a woman's skeleton found in RakhiGarhi in 2019. Although Tony outrightly asserts that a mass migration from the central Asian steppes did happen, without taking into account the finds in Sinauli, which precede the date of publication. The 2019 study found no traces whatsoever of the central asian or the 'aryan' gene in the woman's genetic code. However, only one of the two very important DNAs has yet been found to not contain the 'aryan' gene. The book in itself is extremely interesting, and I wasn't able to put it down even for a minute. The agricultural and linguistic analysis is also mind blowing. However, there is a bit of an issue. The book doesn't mention anything about geographical evidence that the civilization was based around a might river known as Saraswati (the long lost ghaggar river). This river also finds mention in the Vedas. The drying up of this river, along with global climatic and geographical reasons were why the Harappan civilization went into decline. Overall, a book worth reading