--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "kishore patnaik"
<kishorepatnaik09@...> wrote:
> *Klaus Klostermaier * ...
Since you say you're not an OITer, why do you invite comments on a
paper written by an Indologist who is one of the very few existing
Western academicians that support the so-called "Out-of India"
scenario? One who dates the earliest Vedic hymns to 4000 BCE and who
fully endorses the fringe theories elaborated by N.S. Rajaram and D.
Frawley, two of the best known champions of the OIT?
This is M. Witzel's opinion on Klostermaier's views expressed in a
post (of Witzel) to the old Indology List dating from the year 2000:
http://tinyurl.com/3k4s2f
Consider the following quotes from [Klaus Klostermaier's] long,
laudatory introduction to:
N.S. Rajaram & D. Frawley [sorry: 'Vamadeva Sastri'], Vedic Aryans
and the Origins of Civilization. 2nd ed., New Delhi 1997:
"It will not be possible to brush aside this book as the wishful
thinking of Hindu-Chauvinists... Massive evidence available today
(from archaeology, geology, satellite photography, and a more
adequate understanding of ancient literary documents) disproves most
of the assumptions... on which... the chronology of early Indian
literature was based... It is a most welcome development to see
scientists [i.e. Rajaram?] with a wide variety of backgrounds
entering a field that so far has been worked over only by
philologists [factually wrong!]... a need to rewrite the early
history of civilization... [and best of all:] The facts referred to
in this book are incontrovertible. The conclusions drawn have a
high degree of plausibility. Consequently, the implications
are nothing less than sensational... Rajaram and Frawley are true
pioneers blazing new trails."
Question: trails whereto? "Holzwege", more likely.
If one chooses such words (more than page long) to back up a book
that finds the origin of human civilization in "Vedic India" at 8000
BCE, -- the Vrtra myth describing the end of the Ice age at 8000 BC
(!) and with 3100 BCE as the end of the Vedic age -- where do you
stand, float or swim??
Read Rajaram & Frawley p. 247:
"On the basis of archaeology, satellite photography, metallurgy and
ancient mathematics it is now clear that there existed a great
civiliziation -- a mainly spiritual civilization perhaps -- before
the rise of Egypt, Sumeria and the Indus Valley, the heartland of
this ancient world was the region from the Indus to the Ganga -- the
land of the Vedic Aryans. [They were] part of a great
civilization... before the dawn of civilizations."
Sounds as scientific as Lemuria, Mu, or Atlantis to me: 8000 BC, of
course, is just at the beginning of agriculture in the Near East,
and more than 1000 years too early for Baluchistan/S.Asia; and, the
*iron* age, Brahmana texts cannot be dated (a la Kak) at 2300/2900
BCE becaue of some astronomical observation; for more on this see
EJVS 1999).
In short: a great civilization of "Vedic" hunters and gatherers,
indeed! The book has, of course, all the other trappings of the "Out
of India" theory.
Someone, like Klostermaier, who hails all of this -- beyond the
hesitant, often avoided, "I look forward to reading your ... highly
interesting, innovative, thought provoking... book", as:
"highly plausible" -- where does he place himself? On the very
fringe. Who *forced* him to write this? Not the RCMP, I suppose...
He should have taken a lesson from Mahatma Gandhi, and I quote from
memory, who wrote to Chaman Lal about his phantastic (!!)
book "Hindu America" (Maya from India...), in 1944 or so:
"Dear Chaman Lal, thank you for your book. I have not yet found the
time to read it... *If* your conclusions are correct, this would
indeed be a the great contribution to research! "
Let's emulate Gandhiji!
Michael Witzel>>
Regards,
Francesco