Re: An apology to Mr. Kelkar

Oh good grief!

Man, you've let this guy sucker you royally!

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Daniel Koechlin <d.koechlin@...>
wrote:

>
> Mr. Kelkar wrote :
> "We do not think that Sanskrit was the
> first language spoken by "Man" or that the Rig Veda is divinely
> inspired or,India is the greatest of all lands etc. The Rig Veda

is a

> liturgical text that is open to examination by ALL, not just
> comparative linguists. There are astronomical, geographical,
> geological, zoological, botanical, agricultural references in the

Rig

> Vedas which have been used by experts in these fields to arrive at
> estimates of when that text may have been composed. Many times

these

> estimates are at variance with those worked out by comparative
> linguists. But again these are scholarly disagreements not debated
> between creationist crackpots and scientists as some would like to
> portary them."
>
>
> Fair enough : after reading Mr. Kelkar's answer, I feel I misjudged

his

> motives and owe him an apology. He comes through as both rational

and

> dignified. Having spent quite some time in India (my wife is

Indian), I

> have become somewhat (maybe excessively) suspicious of Hindutva

rhetoric

> but my fears have been alleviated by this last post.
>
> Alas, I still have difficulty in believing that the Hindu scriptures
> were written in "Harrapean times". I am almost certain the words for
> rice, etc. are non-indoreopean but I do not have my books with me. I
> wrote that the Ganga river was not mentioned "in the oldest vedas",

the

> most ancient ones which were composed when the incoming indo-

iranians

> still lived closed to the Afgan border. The river does appear in

later

> vedas.
>
> Bharat me sab kuch ho sakta hai...
>
> Yours sincerley,
>
> Daniel Koechlin
>