This book is an intellectually honest attempt to re-construct the so-called “Indo-European” identity based on existing sources in archeology, anthropology, linguistics, mythological studies, folklore, philology, the origins and philosophy of religion and travels. The chapters move away from a pedantic treatment of the origins of Indo-Europeans, and instead contrast the ancients with contemporaries, and build up to examining current geo-political, religious and nationalistic problems through the lens of the ancients.
Expected completion: 2011
Chapters
- The origins of Indra and Odin
- Norse, Greek, Iranian and Indian mythologies
- The world was "flat" before we called it flat: Did the ancients travel?
- Ancient hubs in Iran, Bactria (Afghanistan) and India
- Urbanites in the Indus valley and Mesopotamia
- Zoroastrianism and Vedic religion- Peeking into Indo-Iranian civilizations
- Of Cattle, Men and Women
- The influence of the Greeks
- Fertility cults
- The Four Yogas
- Wilderness and societal paradigms- the origins of looking for "oneself"
- Gautama: Existentialism before it existed
- Time before Nietzsche & Heidegger
- The original nihilists
- The "real" pilgrims: Nagarjuna, Hsuan-Tsang and Shankara
- Floating the Amu Darya
- From Iceland to India- Contemporary folklore, language and myths
- Three "modern" hubs- The Ottomans, Persians and Moghuls
- Who are we?
- The Four Yogas today
- The scars of the great game and colonialism
- Afterthoughts
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