Illogical inferences of modern researchers?

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I've seen a bunch of documentaries over the years - mostly by Western researchers (archaeologists, indologists, etc.) on India, its traditions, history, etc. While some of these were well researched and very informative to the western (and sometimes even Indian) audience, they feature somewhat ludicrous inferences/ideas. Maybe I shouldn't rubbish their ideas as ludicrous, but here are a few examples.

A Facebook post began making the rounds recently, one about a History Channel documentary of the discovery of the 'lost city' of Dwaraka. I'd seen this one before and thought I should write about it. Here's an excerpt from the documentary.

The Mahabharata says that Dwaraka was submerged under the ocean 36 years after the Mahabharata itself. Krishna (and to a lesser extent, Arjuna) are said to have played a role in the evacuation of some of the people, after a period of societal decay. I wonder if the story of Dwaraka submerging was actually part of the original Mahabharata, or if it was included only in the retelling of the Mahabharata by sage Vaishampayana (on request by King Janamejaya, son of Parikshit -> son of Abhimanya -> son of Arjuna). Maybe 36 years wasn't that long a period for Janamejaya to come into the picture, but Parikshit himself died early because of a snake bite and Abhimanyu was dead in the war). Maybe I am wrong.. will need to confirm where the story of Dwaraka occurs in the Mahabharata.

While the underwater shots in the documentary are great, the narrator quickly jumps to an alien theory. The mahabharata and our puranas talk of different astras (warheads in today's military parlance). Each divine astra (Pashupathastra, Brahmastra, etc.) is described as being capable of doing certain things (like incapacitating the opponent, bolts of thunder, etc.) There of course were normal 'arrows' that may not be any special astra. This documentary explains these occurrences as caused by aliens and their superior technology. I found the animation shots of a flying saucer shooting lasers to destroy Dwaraka (to help us picture the war between Salwa and Krishna) especially hilarious!

Here's a very well made documentary called 'The Story of India', by the BBC.

There is one particular theory proposed in the documentary that I am not sure how to react to. Go to 4:30 in the video, where the narrator shows you a Brahmin father in Kerala teaching his son Vedic chanting; and a subsequent elaborate yagna. I have a strong feeling that what is being chanted is from the Sama veda (this intuition is with just a wee bit of sama veda chanting experience, and I can't be a 100% sure).

The narrator concludes that this must be non-language based chanting that are likely bird sounds from Africa that some traditions in Kerala still practice, and that these don't actually mean anything to humans.

The sama veda is a branch of the vedas that is musical in nature, and one of the toughest to learn and chant, even with a book in front. Of the ~20 veda/upanishad portions (small ones) that I've had the opportunity to learn to chant, only the Taittiriya upanishad tritiya bhrgu valli (3rd chapter) had a paragraph from Sama veda at the end, fairly simple to learn. Longer portions from the Sama veda, I am sure, are much harder since there is a lot of breath and vocal pitch control required, and each word may be 'sung' for much much longer than the size of the word itself. Sentences and paragraphs of course can go on and on, even if the whole portion is only a page or two long in text.

For people interested in listening to a live Sama veda chant, try the Vishwanath temple in Kashi (Varanasi) in UP. When I was there some 8 years ago, a saptarshi pooja was performed for the shiva linga there, by 7 priests, who chanted from the Sama veda. I believe the saptarshi pooja is performed every week.

It was perhaps this same BBC documentary (it has been a while since I watched it last) where the journalist went searching for soma (soma paana and soma are mentioned frequently in the vedas). The journalist had but one interpretation of soma in mind - an intoxicating drink. He eventually finds an old-world drugs and herbs store in Peshawar, Pakistan where a herb called soma is available. This herb (if I remember right) comes from central asia, and can be used to make an intoxicating drink. The journalist seemed to conclude that the vedas must therefore have been composed in central asia, and not in India. I wish people stopped interpreting ancient Sanskrit with such ignorant callousness.