It has been observed in the previous book titled ‘Origin of Hindu √ The Name’ that the dictum of going, moving forward became the central tenet of a huge number of human beings who essentially were the residents of India. Those people were termed as the Hindu. Even when the root of this concept is logically proven, then also a question arises and remains unanswered. Why did the act of going, moving forward become so important that a large number of people needed to accept it as the guiding principle of their lives? Nobody put a sword on their necks to adopt that way of life and nobody hanged a lollipop in front of their hungry cavum oris for that purpose. No tangible evidence has been found of any such occurrences, not even in the folklore or in the legends. The adherence in all probability was voluntary and self-imposed.
For this happening, two broad categories of influences may be credited to: physical and/or cerebral.
The physical environment of the land in reference was set by the actions and interactions of the geological forces.
Cerebral input must have come from some knowledge base. Structured and recorded knowledge base that is unique to India is found in the Vedas and its annotations.
Mainstream academicians let us know that the traceable history of the Ganga Plain can throw light up to a period of 2500 years BP. Before that period many references may be found, the presence of which is undeniable, but the time range of their coming into existence may not be conclusively finalized with the presently available tools and techniques. The most important ones of this set of references are the Vedas, the Ramayan and the Mahabharat.
When the description of the historical accounts of this place of around 2500 years BP is looked at, then it is known that the presence of human settlements mesmerized even the visitors from the most matured and advanced Greek empire. Certainly, that chapter must have had antecedents. A very advanced human society cannot appear from the thin air overnight. But till date a sketch of the events before this period in this land could not be drawn.
Traceable history of other parts of the Indian subcontinent goes much further back in time in the form of Indus Civilisation for which archeological evidences are present.
Various caves in India like Bhimbetka, in the Central Indian Highland in Madhya Pradesh and Billa Surgam in Andhra Pradesh stand witness to the presence of human beings in this land in a period which seems unbelievably old.
Leaving all these aside, when the spotlight is turned on the Ganga Plain, then 2500 years BP is the time around which historical accounts may be traced back.
Naturally, an indeterminate phase of the historical timeline of this area remained present where the searchlight based on the scientific findings could be focused.
Up to the chapter 4 of this work, the focus is remained on the Ganga Plain related scientific findings which could be accumulated till date. In the next two chapters, an effort has been made to apply these scientific findings to untangle the mysterious past of this area.
Human beings, by biological construct, are capable of moving. All over the world, people have moved from place to place since time immemorial. It is quite obvious for the question to come to mind that why such an action was assumed so much of importance in the Vedic Indian context? This is a very natural question that should occupy the minds of the interested. The childlike simplicity of the physical action may sometimes draw derision about that way of life itself. A deep search may be needed to find out the importance of this physical action in the context of ancient India to find out a viable answer to this query. Can a physical investigation to this effect be installed that may provide unquestionable proof? The answer to that question is ‘no’; it is not feasible. Whatever to be investigated has to be done through the process of logical deduction based on the foundation of accepted findings vetted by the scientific community. The process has to be a conceptual one.
How many entities are involved in the act of human movement? The answer is, basically, two. One is the human being, the wanderer and the other is the geographical area to be trodden. No account is available that shows that the human beings present within the Indian Territory were of any unique construct that mobility was a problem for them. Very early in the history of existence, human beings occupied a major part of this land and that included the nearby island systems also. Experts tell us that some findings suggest that the presence of human beings on this land may be traced back in time up to around 40000 years. The caves of Billa Surgam at Banganapalli in the Kurnool District of the present-day Indian state of Andhra Pradesh contain evidences of the existence of such people. Those evidences indicate the presence of human beings during the middle or upper Paleolithic era. That is a very old time. The paleolithic era started 2.5 million years ago (25 lakh years). The middle of the Paleolithic era mathematically indicates 1.2 million (12 lakh) years BP. In a subject-specific reference, this period refers to 300000 years BP to 50000 years BP. Those people overcame whatever hurdle came in their way. Thus, their physical ability to move was beyond any question.
The remaining entity that is involved in the process of human movement is the geography of the concerned territory. One needs to make a mental sketch of this land on the basis of accepted scientific data that was present at the time of the perceived Vedic period which has been given little attention till date.