Possible convergence of historical literature and archaeology: examples of Harappan burial practices and customs

The ancient literature of South Asia is a source for several features of the socio-cultural aspect of past societies. The ancient literature preserves a wide range of evidences that can date back to second millennium BCE even if its traditional chronology is taken into account. One among the evidences is the reference to various modes of disposal of dead starting from Rigveda onwards. It is interesting to note that these references could be correlated with the several excavated burial typologies from a host of Harappan sites. Various scholars starting with Datta as early as 1936 and as late as Bisht have done the correlation of literature with actual archaeological evidence from Harappan sites. This clearly indicates the vibrant nature of these evidences and the necessity to understand the wide corpus of data presented in ancient literature in relation to archaeological evidences not only from Harappan sites, but also with other contemporary cultures. In this regard, the evidence from a host of Harappan sites with emphasis to Sanauli is presented here to understand the possible convergence of historical literature and archaeologyby V. N. Prabhaka