Sanjay Sonawani

Sanjay Sonawani (Hindi: संजय सोनवणी, Marathi: संजय सोनवणी); born 14 August 1964) in Jalgaon, Maharashtra), often known as Mr. Sonawani, is an Indian businessman, author, as well as a film producer and film director. Sanjay Sonawani is a Marathi author, writer, critic, and poet. He has penned more than 62 books on different subjects, which include Indology, philosophy, fiction, science, and moral values. He has produced and directed two Marathi films and also acted in it. His novel Nitishastra, based on moral values of human life. Sonawani began his career as a journalist in a Hindi daily published from Pune as a crime journalist. Then he moved to the business sector in the late 1980s.

Early life

Sanjay Sonawani had very poor family background. His Father Devidas Sonawani was a primary teacher at Jalgaon and later in Pune District. His mother is a housewife. His first work "Fituri" was written when he was just eleven years old. Later on he turned to poetry and story writing. While studying in twelfth standard he penned down his first novel "Vikalpa" which later was published in 1991. Since then he has penned over 80 books of variety of genres.

Career

Besides writing Mr. Sonawani ventured into the corporate world too. At the age of 30 he owned two listed companies, that too in diverse fields, such as software and powder metallurgy. His writing career begun at his age of thirteen. His first book was published in 1984. Since then he has penned about 82 books of variety of genres. besides novels he has written on philosophy, history, terrorism and social issues. His contribution to subaltern history is immense. He has written history of Mahar, history of the emergence of the caste system with entirely new perspectives challenging the prevailing theories about the castes in India. He also, as an activist waged wars on the streets for the deprived and underprivileged communities of Maharasthtra.

Recently Sanjay Sonawani's major research work "Origins of the Vedic Religion and Indus-Ghaggar Civilisation" has been published. The book deals with the highly debated issue of the Aryan or proto-Indo-European language speaker’s homeland which still is not reaching to any resolve. The European and some Indian scholars have been proposing drastically opposite theories to prove either Eurasia or Indian homeland, sometimes dramatically stretching the timelines to make one wonder how scholars can play with the archaeological proofs and the indications provided by the ancient scriptures to derive suitable meanings to meet their needs. Mr. Sonawani has attempted to look at the ‘homeland’ scenario; taking cognizance of all the theories forwarded by the scholars so far, from fresh angle and has postulated that; 1. The basis of Indo-European language group theory is migrations of the proto Indo-European language speakers from some homeland. Author challenges the hypotheses’ of such migration and from archaeological, anthropological and scriptural proofs suggests that there has been no massive migrations from any place since 10,000 BC to cause substantial impact on the cultures of other populations. With archaeological evidences he suggests that the people all over the globe had started settling down by 12,000 BC with the invention of early agriculture and process gradually was completed by quite before 10,000 BC, therefore it is out of the question that the so-called PIE speakers started migrating from the hypothetical homelands at about 2000 BC or 5000 BC to impact linguistic and cultural features of other civilisations, as postulated by the scholars. 2. The author further suggests that, when early humans were foragers, period ranging from 60,000 BC till 12,000 BC, he already had learnt to move around in the known territories for his developed geographical consciousness and had already shared, developed rudimentary languages those took separate path when he settled down in the respective regions after invention of the agriculture. However early vocabulary and grammatical traits survived, showing some similarities even today in the territories in question. Such similarities are owed to the early human life and not to the movement of so-called Proto-Indo-European people. 3. Author further proves, from all the results pouring in from the recent geological explorations conducted at Ghaggar basin, and from the careful analysis of Rig Vedic/mythological descriptions of the Saraswati River, the Ghaggar river cannot be at all equated with the Rig Vedic Saraswati. 4. Mr. Sonawani in this book indicates that the many personalities mentioned in Rigveda and Avesta, including Zarathustra and his patron, were contemporary to the early phase of Rig Vedic compositions. This sheds light on the possible date of the Rig Veda and Gathas of the Avesta. Further the author suggests, providing numerous scriptural and archaeological evidences, with in depth analysis, that the Rig Vedic geography is none but Helmand valley, Southern Afghanistan. He has, from Rig Veda and Avesta proved that most of the identifiable tribes mentioned in both the scriptures were and still are located in Iran, Afghanistan and north-west India (now Pakistan), and are speaking the descendent languages even today. 5. Sonawani also points out that the indigenous Vedic Aryan theory is unfounded for as there is no slightest affinity between the Vedic and Indus culture. He explains diligently that, how, even if Rig Vedic period is stretched back substantially, i.e. from presently accepted date of about 1500 BC, to as back as 3000 BC or even earlier, any association of the Vedic people with Indus-Ghaggar Civilisation is improbable. Thus Out of India Theory is untenable because there is no proof to show slightest connection between both the cultures. 6. Since Indus-Ghaggar Valley have not experienced any intruding immigrants from minimum of 7000+ BC, there is no any genetic or archeological proof to prove any foreign influx since then and so there also are not any proofs to prove so-called Vedic Aryans migrated from India to West, the vital question is raised by Mr. Sonawani…how Vedic religion was introduced to India? How it found space here to become a major sect in the later course of time? The author however substantially proves with presenting rows of evidences to show how the Vedic religion was introduced to India and how institutionally it was spread by the handful of disciples and early native converts. This revelation, supported by substantial proofs may help to change our traditional views to look at our ancient socio-cultural and religious history. Also Mr. Sonawani explains how most of the Indus religious and cultural practices show their continuity, though in modified forms, even today in Indus-Ghaggar regions. 7. The important aspect of the book is author points out at the sever social harm caused by the supremacist views taken by the European and Vedicist scholars since last two hundred years to solve non-existent mystery of origin, either of Aryan race or PIE language speakers’ migrations. 8. This book explains the roots of the original Rig Vedic language and how it gradually was modified in ancient times to suite the changed linguistic environments, with providing the internal proofs from the Rig Veda and from the observations of Indian as well as European Sanskrit scholars. This shatters the myth of the Vedic dialect being mother of Sanskrit and other Prakrit dialects. Distorting human history to prove some humans are superior over others, racially or linguistically, is not the way to solve the puzzles of our ancient past, Mr. Sonawani stresses through this book. ^[1]

List of works

Published Work

Suspense Novel

1. Mrutyurekha
2. Vishwanath
3. Asurved (Marathi Novel)
4. Antim Yudha
5. Bloody Ireland
6. Raktarag
7. Mahadwar
8. War Time
9. Parabhav
10. Apaharan

History

1. ...Ani Panipat
2. Maharaja Yashwantrao Holkar
3. Waghyache Satya

References

1. http://granthalaya.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl?q=au:%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A3%E0%A5%80%20%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%AF

External links