WHOSE VEDA? -- WHAT VEDA !!

[witzel at HUSC3.HARVARD.EDU]

Just as Dominik recently wondered about the neo-brahmana homology 
established between the WEST and the US,  I was rather puzzled  about the 
Hinduja Center`s  conference announcement `WHOSE VEDA`.

Pondering the question  for a while, I rather think, we have first to ask 
`WHAT VEDA`?

In general, I think, we should  be very happy that finally, after some 75 
years of neglect, also persons who do not belong to the rather narrow and 
increasingly sub-specializing band of Vedic scholars  have begun to take 
interest (dare I say: to `discover`?) these oldest decipherable texts of 
India, -- and of course, that all of this is done on a grand scale within 
the 4 million dollar framework of the Hinduja Institute at Columbia U., 
New York.

However, I write here as the whole announcement, just as the Hinduja 
programs in general,  talk AROUND the Veda and not about it. In fact, the 
`study groups` study anything but the Veda -- which was the original 
intent of the Hinduja donation: the study of  `Veda and Vedanta`.

Now we read:
 `` a) deepening and advancing research on Indic traditions of learning 
[B<<< from Veda ``sacred knowledge`` to learning in general??>>> ;
 b) addressing practical problems in the modern world, especially those 
that come within the purview of science and medicine <<< from 
herbal/psychosomatic medicine in the Atharvaveda and geometry in the 
Sulbasutras to modern science?>>>; 
c) advancing the causes of tolerance and interreligious understanding 
<<<in the tradition of the Rgvedic Purusa-Sukta and the Arya::S`udra 
divide?? and the systematic exclusion of the S`udra from sacrifice, that 
is from the possibility to attain Heaven?? Not to speak of this world.>>> ``

Since no `study group` studies the Veda itself  -- they  even have 
conflicting  definitions of it --  they talk about, what Heesterman used 
to call: `DAS GROSSE LALULA`, or, to speak with one of the greatest 
scholars on the Veda, W. Caland,  in Dutch: not OVER  but  OMTRENT de 
Veda. The list of conference speakers is indicative of the fact that, 
with one exeption perhaps, none of them has written on the problems 
touched on above, and that the conference will revolve around a big 
vortex of  S`UNYATAA, the big BLACK HOLE around which various galaxies 
(the ``study groups``) orbit, rather vaguely attracted by the apauruseya 
force of the anirukta and unsolved issue of the Veda itself.

In the same vein, since the Hinduja `groups` hardly include any Vedic 
specialists,  their announcements and circulars  bristle with 
misunderstandings and with `traditional` misconceptions about the Vedas 
which better get addressed before the work is completely derailed.  
Of course, I have voiced those concerns in camera, even some years ago, 
without effect, as the course was already set. I also remember similar 
discussions  on ``Indology`` some two years ago by persons belonging to 
the Indian community in the US . Yet, the program has continued on its 
pre-set track. 

Therefore, in the spirit of Dominik`s intermittent warnings about 
undesirable developments in the British academic world, -- this is part 
of our work if we do not want to be completely shut up in our various 
ivory towers -- I now voice my concerns about this one in North America.

For the moment, the following note is,  -- expectedly, isn`t it --- an 
entirely philological, boring, even `grammatically correct`  look at the 
WHOSE VEDA conference announcement  (`philology` here  defined as `slow 
reading`).

ENJOY!



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            durjanasya ca sarpasya varam sarpo na durjanah |

            sarpo dazati kaalena durjanas tu pade-pade    ||


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Michael Witzel                              Department of Sanskrit
Wales Professor of Sanskrit                 and Indian Studies	
Chair, Committee on South Asian Studies     53 Church Street
Harvard University                          Cambridge MA 02138, USA

phones: - 1- 617 - 495 3295 (messages)      Electronic Journal of
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