My Malice and Bias

Often civilizations are known in history by the names they are called by their contemporary civilizations. The sacred land of North-West India that we know as Punjab today has been named with various names over times by the civilization that interacted, communicated, traded, or warred with the people of this sacred land – Sumerian, Persians, Greeks, Chinese, and other regions of India. Figure1:   Greater India and Punjab  I am going to go through these names in chronological order that describes this geographic region. Its important here to note that the definitions are not just limited to the Republic of India but also includes neighboring countries as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Srilanka, Tibet, and many countries in Central Asia as well as SE Asia. Most of these political nations were carved out of India fairly recently relative to the history of the region. Meluhha - Sumerian Name for Indus Valley The oldest ever identity of th...

The Khatris of Punjab Khatri is a group of warrior clans from the northern Indian region of Punjab. The Khatris are of Vedic descent and the only original Kshatriyas in India. Most Hindu gods were of Khatri background. Indra, the king of Hindu gods was the leader of Indo-Aryans who settled in Punjab region over 4,000 years ago. These Khatris later migrated from Punjab to Gangetic plains of Northern India during the reign of Raghu. Hindu God Rama was a descendant of Raghu. Gautama Buddha was a Kshatriya and so were the Sikh Gurus, Disclaimer :  As a practicing Sikh, I consider all castes as equal and DO NOT believe in the outdated  and divisive caste system. The purpose of this blog is to honor the spiritual, military, and service contributions of the ancient Khatri warriors and try to understand their family history purely from a historical perspective Indo-Aryan Migraton to Punjab The Proto-Aryan culture developed on the Central Asian steppes around Kazakhstan as the Sintas...

South Indian vs. North Indian Ten years ago, I met a well known Indian historian on a plane. We spent hours discussing history of India. I mentioned that my ancestors came from the region of West Punjab where the Indus Valley Civilization blossomed 5,000 years ago. Same land where Vedas were composed, Yoga and Sanskrit grammar was defined, and how proud I am of the facts that my ancestors successfully challenged the Assyrians, Greeks, Persians, and the Afghan invaders. I also shared with him my maternal genetic lineage to the original Kshatriya warriors ( Khatri in Punjabi) going back all the way to the Gods of Hindu mythology. I expected some form of acknowledgement from the learned professor from a well known University from South India. He replied, " Actually, the South Indians are the real Indians. " I was shocked and asked, " How about us, the Punjabis ?" He replied with a smug smile on his face, " Mr. Singh, I do not want to upset you but the fa...