In Search of the Cradle of Civilization

by Georg Feurstein and Subhash Kak and David Frawley

The book shows that the ancient Indians were no primitives but possessed a high spiritual culture, which not only influenced the evolution of the Western world in decisive ways but which still has much to teach us today. India's archaic spirituality is codified in the rich symbols, metaphors, and myths of the magnificent Rig-Veda, which is shown to be much older than has been widely assumed by scholars. The present book also unravels the astonishing mathematical and astronomical code hidden in the Vedic hymns. Anyone interested in ancient cultural history, India, archaeo-astronomy, or spirituality will find this well-researched and cross-cultural work spellbinding and enriching.

This text claims that India was the birthplace of advanced culture and reinterprets existing archeological, linguistic, and Vedic documentation. It is a historical detective story in which the authors aim to prove that history as we know it must be examined.

With this work, the authors, all three renowned Yoga and Vedic scholars with multiple publications to their names, set out to challenge the generally held theory that advanced culture began in Sumer in southern Mesopotamia. Relying on a reexamination of redated Vedic literature and denying that an "Aryan invasion" from the north ever took place, which allegedly would have introduced advanced culture into India at a relatively late date, they claim instead that advanced culture already existed in the Indus valley?before the flourishing of Sumer. The work is broad in scope, well documented, and extensively illustrated. Although this book is written for the lay reader, the authors hope that it will stir the scholarly world as well. Public and academic libraries will want to have this title.

About the Authors:

Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D. is an internationally known Yoga researcher and historian of religion with over twenty books to his credit, including Sacred Paths, Wholeness or Transcendence, and Holy Madness. SUBHASH KAK, Ph.D. is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Louisiana State University, who also is a Sanskrit scholar. In addition to numerous academic papers, he has written several books, including The Nature of Physical Reality, The Astronomical Code of the Rig-Veda, and India at Century' End.

David Frawley, O.M.D., is director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies and an Ayurvedic specialist. His many books include Gods, Sages & Kings, From the River of Heaven, and Hymns of the Rig-Veda.

Review:

"The student who diligently reads every paragraph in this text will enjoy some of the novel approaches of the book."

"For decades, schoolbooks have taught that Sumer was the cradle of civilization. conventional scholarship has also held that Aryan civilization came to India by way of invasions from the north. In Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India is a ground-breaking book wherein three renowned scholars show that there was no "Aryan invasion", and that India, not Sumer, was the cradle of civilized humanity."

"A scholarly tour de force that will revolutionize the way we view the ancient world." - Midwest Book Review