The oldest composition of South Asia is generally believed to be the Rigveda, one of the four sacred Vedas of Hinduism. In this video, Dr. M considers the evidence for the age of this amazing ancient book and explains how it fits into the history of Indo European languages.

NOTE: I used an old translation of the Rigveda, and near the end I recite a verse that reads "fort of iron." This is a mistranslation that I should not have used. The word translated "iron" is ayas, which does not actually mean iron, but is a generic word for metal.

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► REFERENCES
https://amzn.to/47Fwxl5
https://archive.org/details/rigvedacomplete/mode/2up
https://sci-hub.se/10.1007/BF03030845
https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.10.012
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep26555
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01643-9
https://www.episodes.org/journal/view.html?doi=10.18814/epiiugs/2020/020034
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53489-4
https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106656

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