Fire Altars and Astronomy

"vishalsagarwal" <vishalagarwal@...> wrote
<<With due regards, I did not see anyone talking about relative
superiority of one system vis a vis the other. There is certainly
some give and take postulated for the two systems, especially in the
late Siddhantic Astronomy where we have Babylonian influence via the
Greeks in a more 'Foundational' manner. Hence, your question is totally
extraneous to this discussion. Or is your question just a bait for some
imaginary list member who believes in 'Bharat uber alles'?>>

No, rather I was saying that even if Indian astronomy had unique qualities -
as Achar has suggested - it would not mean a lack of outside influence.

And forgive me for this but I thought this discussion you mention had
something to do with the suggestion that India might be the IE homeland. I
was just not getting what fire altars and indigenous astronomy had to do with
that proposition. And I still don't.

If there's supposed to be some proof in the idea that early Indian culture
was totally isolated from any influence from the west (or east), perhaps the
comparative linguists will permit us a compromise.

How about two *PIE homelands, one east and one west, both coincidentially
coming up with the same language, with the Near East and Mesopotamia as a
kind of inconsequential buffer zone in between?

Steve Long