Asko Parpola

Asko Parpola (2010)

Asko Parpola (born 12 July 1941, in Forssa) is a Finnish Indologist, current professor emeritus of South Asian studies at the University of Helsinki. He specializes in Sindhology, specifically the study of the Indus script.

Quotes about Parpola

• The picture we derive from Parpola is of a traffic to and fro of cultural modes—continued from a fairly long past and across sufficiently wide areas—against a common religious background of various shades. It is a picture of contacts and exchanges. . . . none of them necessarily bespeak large-scale movements of population.
  • K. D. Sethna,The Problem of Aryan Origins (1992) (229). ** in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 10

• Parpola's account has received criticisms from various other quarters. Sarianidi (1993b) notes:
  It should be indicated that the available direct archaeological data contradict the theory, suggested long ago, concerning the intensive penetration of the steppe Andronovo-type tribes into traditional agricultural areas. Direct archaeological data from Bactria and Margiana show without any shade of doubt that Andronovo tribes penetrated to a minimum extent into Bactria and Margianian oases, not exceeding the limits of normal contacts so natural for tribes with different economical structures, living in the borderlands of steppe and agricultural oases.
  • Sarianidi (1993b) in Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 10

• A. Parpola is an abundant writer, but not very rational.
  • p. 805 (footnote) Fussman G. Entre fantasmes, science et politique. L’entrée des Āryas en Inde. Annales Histoire, Sciences Sociales. 2003;58(4):779-813.