Survey Finds Hindus Lived 74,000 Years Ago

     
      Hey guys. Happy Winter Holidays. Today, I'll be revisiting topics relating to our Hindu religion. I'm sorry for not posting last week. This was because I was busy finishing up my third translation of my mom's Mahaperiyava Satsangam. I'm very happy to say that I'm done with this translation and will be posting it next week. Because of this, this article is the only thing that I'll post this week. With that said, I'll be happy to introduce the article, "Survey Finds Hindus Lived 74,000 Years Ago."



      Without any research, any evidence, or any type of technology to prove them otherwise, Hindus remain confident that their religion is by far the oldest religion in the entire planet. They stand reluctant to accepting any opposing thoughts. They have their religious texts, temples, etc. to prove doubters wrong. Nothing would make a Hindu to budge into thinking that some other religion is older than Hinduism. Hindus don't want any contradictions and confusions with their religion's place as the oldest religion ever. Now surveys put forth thicker evidence that seals or confirms the thoughts of Hindus on their religion.
      At first people only have been talking about the Rig Veda as 5,000 years old. Further into time, there was citations about Hinduism being dated 50,000 years back. Now even this is way off the mark. New evidence suggests that Hinduism existed in Indonesia 74,000 years ago and it is safe to assume that Hinduism antedates this period. Earlier to this finding a city older that Mohenjodaro has been found. About 76,000 years ago, the volcano Toba, located in present-day Indonesia, erupted to create the most massive and calamitous volcanic event of the past 2 million years. Almost 3,000 cubic kilometers of magma was spewed out, causing chunks of sulfuric acid to rain over Earth as far away as Greenland. The world became subject to a volcanic winter and one of the most dreadful ice ages in recorded history followed.
      Shifting views to India, there was land showered with 15 centimeters of volcanic ash, which can still be seen today, working as a distinct age marker in the earth's stratigraphy. Contrary to all logic, archaeologists excavated assemblages of stone tools both above and below the ash deposit in India's Jwalapuram Valley.
      The tools are surprisingly similar to those made and used by humans in Africa, which indicates that these tools were built by humans. Yet, if humans still were in India after the horrific deposition of ash (an incredible feat itself), they would have extreme difficulties of survival during that time. The sheer magnitude of the eruption caused both volcanic gas and sulfuric acid to be suspended in Earth's atmosphere for several years, causing sunlight to be redirected away from Earth. This plummeted the atmosphere to have at least 3-5 degrees C° lower than normal temperatures after the event.
      Newly discovered archaeological sites in southern and northern India are evidences which reveal the bigger topic of how people lived before and after the colossal Toba volcanic eruption 74,000 ago. The international, multidisciplinary research team, led by Oxford University in collaboration with Indian institutions, unveiled to a conference in Oxford what it calls 'Pompeii-like excavations' beneath the Toba ash. The project went on for seven years and they stumbled upon examinations of the environment that humans lived in, their stone tools, as well as the plants and animal bones of the time. With further clues and indications, the team inferred that many forms of life survived the super-eruption, contrary to other research which has suggested significant animal extinctions and genetic bottlenecks. According to another team, 'a potentially ground-breaking implication of the new work is that the species responsible for making the stone tools in India was Homo Sapiens.' The analysis from the stone tools disclose that the artifacts consist of cores and flakes, which are classified in India as Middle Palaeolithic and are similar to those made by modern humans in Africa.
      "Though we are still searching for human fossils to definitively prove the case, we are encouraged by the technological similarities. This suggests that human populations were present in India prior to 74,000 years ago, or about 15,000 years earlier than expected based on some genetic clocks," said project director Dr. Michael Petralgia, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford.
      This evidence that humans survived the Toba super-eruption arises new information questions. The speculation which concluded is that the Toba super-eruption nearly drove humanity to extinction. Dr. Petralgia says, "The fact that the Middle-Palaeolithic tools of similar styles are found right before and after the Toba super-eruption, suggests that the people who survived the eruption were the same populations, using the same kinds of tools."
      These evidences didn't give the team surmises, it gave them cold hard conjectures. Some scholars have theorized the Toba volcano as a sever and wholesale environmental destruction, while the Oxford-led research group in India suggests that a pattern of ecological settings was existing, and some areas received a relatively speedy recovery after the harsh volcanic event. The team didn't find any bones lying in the Toba ash sites, but in the Billasurgam cave complex in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, the researchers have discovered remains and deposits which they believe range from at least 100,000 years ago to the present. They contain a wealth of animal bones such as wild cattle, carnivores, and monkeys. They also noticed plant materials in the Toba ash sites and caves, yielding important information about the impact of the Toba super-eruption on the ecological settings.
      Dr. Petralgia said, "This exciting new information questions the idea that the Toba super-eruption caused a worldwide environmental catastrophe. That is not to say that there were no ecological effects. We do have evidence that the ash temporarily disrupted vegetative communities and it certainly choked and polluted some fresh water sources, probably causing harm to wildlife and maybe even humans."
      Some even say Hinduism dates back to older than Harappan era. A team of archaeologists from the Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute is back from Haryana where they bumped upon a record 70 Harappan graves at a site in Farmana, discovering the largest burial site of the civilization in India so far. This is among one of the best and extraordinary archaeological finding. A huge housing complex that thrived during the Harappan era was discovered by these archaeologists who have been working in this little known village for the past three years. The archaeological team here uncovered an entire town plan. The skeletal remains belong to an era between 2500 BC to 2000 BC.
      From this I can definitely stop assuming how old Hinduism is, as experts have given us a concrete answer. I especially liked how these archaeologists had a nonstop motive to finding the answer to how the Toba super-eruption impacted our Hindu civilization. Also, this story rewrites the essence of our culture and how people survived through this eruption. Certainly, there should have been a godly nature which was integral to their survival. And on top of that, if mere humans from India with these type of powers lived 74,000 years ago, imagine how old God dates back. But, this could be overwritten by future evidence which proves otherwise and creates an older date for us to visualize. Our Hindu religion has been living through tough times such as the Toba super-eruption and survived for 74,000 years. Let's keep believing in Hinduism and hope it'll live longer.

Here are the websites used for research on this wonderful topic. Tune in for more content like this.
www.indiadivine.org/survey-finds-hindus-lived-74000-years-ago/
indiaarising.com/hindus-lived-74000-years-ago-survey-finds/3/