Sorry if I am interrupting the conversation. But no one has bothered to adequately check a walking disaster and so I will.
To Ben of post 195:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->1) in which language were the vedas, upanishads and all hindu mantras written?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->The Vedas and Upanishads and older mantras in Sanskrit. Later others in Prakrit and Pali. Others in Tamil (yes, we have mantras in Tamil) and Kannadam, etc.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->2) in which language were the ramayan and mahabharat written?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> The original versions of the Ramayan<i>a</i> and Mahabharat<i>a</i> are in Sanskrit, because the people of these epics spoke Sanskrit (not in Hindi). However, there are local South Indian language versions of Ramayana too.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->3) in which language were treatises on astronomy, astrology, ayurveda, yoga, salbha sutras etc written?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Extensions to the Ayurveda are also in Tamil and other South Indian languages. It was not stagnant, but continued to be added to. Where were the Ayurveda manuscripts preserved? In the South. By whom? Indians - South Indians. <i>Hindus</i> - of the South. The first treatiseson the topics you suggest might have been written partly in the North, but it was a pan-Hindu effort. And additions to the treatises you speak of continued to be made and discovered all over the Hindu subcontinent.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->5) druids, alans, lithwanians, hitties, mittanis, persians, and other vedic peoplle have a similarity in language, literature and religion with whom??<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->The only <i>Vedic</i> people are the Vedic Hindus. Those who know of the Vedas, or accepted it as part of their corpus, were Vedic Hindus. The Persians were Avestan. The Druids, Alans and Lithuanians were never in India when the Vedas were compiled. They are not Vedic people. Vedic means related to the Vedas. Except for Hindus, no one else you mentioned are related to the Vedas. Just because today some Europeans are trying to reconstruct the Proto-Indo-European language and are interested in a Proto-Indo-European religion which supposedly existed (in Central Asia from where the White people they think were called Aryans came) doesn't make the claimants such. They imagine their European ancestors practised the PIE religion in Central Asia, that gave rise to the Indian and old Iranian religion. Some imagine their ancestors wrote the Vedas. They like to call themselves Vedics, Vedicists and other English nonsense terms (like Aryan). Central Asia isn't where the Vedas were written.
Hittites were not, but adopted a kind of Sanskrit-like language probably from the Mitannis. The Mittanis might have been Vedic. But we can't expect people from Bengal or Tamil Nadu to travel all over India, through Persia into Anatolia, now can we? No, it's more likely that the people settled in the Punjab did that.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->6) who always called themselves arya??<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> Only the Indians (Hindus, Jains who both use the term Acharya and Buddhists) and Persians (Zoroastrians). None of the others you listed in 5.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->7) the arya in iran - the children of parasu - used to call which people as hindus??<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> The Airya in Iran were not children of Parasu. They were of the Parshu tribe. They called the people settled near the Sindhu that they came in contact with as Hindus. That includes the ancestors of present day Pakistanis, Afghans and Punjabi, possible UP, Kashmiri,... It also included the ancestors of Jains who were not Vedic (in the sense of taking the Vedas as central). If the Persians met people beyond these regions, realising they practised the same religion they would have dubbed them Hindus also. Even if it was only to not bother inventing a new name, though the region was different, the religion was the same.
The Greeks and Romans callled all of the Indian subcontinent "India" - also based on the river Indus. So if the river is to determine what our religious beliefs and nationality are called then count the opinion of all the ancients.
To Ben of post 195:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->1) in which language were the vedas, upanishads and all hindu mantras written?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->The Vedas and Upanishads and older mantras in Sanskrit. Later others in Prakrit and Pali. Others in Tamil (yes, we have mantras in Tamil) and Kannadam, etc.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->2) in which language were the ramayan and mahabharat written?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> The original versions of the Ramayan<i>a</i> and Mahabharat<i>a</i> are in Sanskrit, because the people of these epics spoke Sanskrit (not in Hindi). However, there are local South Indian language versions of Ramayana too.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->3) in which language were treatises on astronomy, astrology, ayurveda, yoga, salbha sutras etc written?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Extensions to the Ayurveda are also in Tamil and other South Indian languages. It was not stagnant, but continued to be added to. Where were the Ayurveda manuscripts preserved? In the South. By whom? Indians - South Indians. <i>Hindus</i> - of the South. The first treatiseson the topics you suggest might have been written partly in the North, but it was a pan-Hindu effort. And additions to the treatises you speak of continued to be made and discovered all over the Hindu subcontinent.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->5) druids, alans, lithwanians, hitties, mittanis, persians, and other vedic peoplle have a similarity in language, literature and religion with whom??<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->The only <i>Vedic</i> people are the Vedic Hindus. Those who know of the Vedas, or accepted it as part of their corpus, were Vedic Hindus. The Persians were Avestan. The Druids, Alans and Lithuanians were never in India when the Vedas were compiled. They are not Vedic people. Vedic means related to the Vedas. Except for Hindus, no one else you mentioned are related to the Vedas. Just because today some Europeans are trying to reconstruct the Proto-Indo-European language and are interested in a Proto-Indo-European religion which supposedly existed (in Central Asia from where the White people they think were called Aryans came) doesn't make the claimants such. They imagine their European ancestors practised the PIE religion in Central Asia, that gave rise to the Indian and old Iranian religion. Some imagine their ancestors wrote the Vedas. They like to call themselves Vedics, Vedicists and other English nonsense terms (like Aryan). Central Asia isn't where the Vedas were written.
Hittites were not, but adopted a kind of Sanskrit-like language probably from the Mitannis. The Mittanis might have been Vedic. But we can't expect people from Bengal or Tamil Nadu to travel all over India, through Persia into Anatolia, now can we? No, it's more likely that the people settled in the Punjab did that.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->6) who always called themselves arya??<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> Only the Indians (Hindus, Jains who both use the term Acharya and Buddhists) and Persians (Zoroastrians). None of the others you listed in 5.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->7) the arya in iran - the children of parasu - used to call which people as hindus??<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> The Airya in Iran were not children of Parasu. They were of the Parshu tribe. They called the people settled near the Sindhu that they came in contact with as Hindus. That includes the ancestors of present day Pakistanis, Afghans and Punjabi, possible UP, Kashmiri,... It also included the ancestors of Jains who were not Vedic (in the sense of taking the Vedas as central). If the Persians met people beyond these regions, realising they practised the same religion they would have dubbed them Hindus also. Even if it was only to not bother inventing a new name, though the region was different, the religion was the same.
The Greeks and Romans callled all of the Indian subcontinent "India" - also based on the river Indus. So if the river is to determine what our religious beliefs and nationality are called then count the opinion of all the ancients.