Veda`s demise at NY Hinduja Ctr.

[ucgadkw at ucl.ac.uk]

I do not really wish to become involved in a public discussion about what Prof.
Witzel in Cambridge MA thinks his colleagues in New York ought to be doing.  I
really see no point in the discussion at all.  But since Prof. Witzel has used
the INDOLOGY forum to mount a strong attack on certain other members, regarding
an issue which I happen to know something about, I shall say a few words (and
try to stick to the "two-screen" rule!).

I have been personally involved in extensive negotiations with the Hinduja
family concerning a similar endowment which has been created in Britain (at the
real Cambridge :-).

I only wish to say this: during many, many hours of detailed discussion, and in
many meetings since, the Hinduja family has made it abundantly clear that their
aims in providing these endowments are to explore the Hindu religious and
cultural tradition in the broadest sense.  At first they used the word "Veda" to
characterise this tradition.  This is the sense of the word that is commonly
used outside academic circles, and especially in religious circles, from which
they had presumably drawn the usage.  When all we academic negotiators began
talking about the samhitas and brahmanas, etc., and the wonderful opportunities
for study that exist in "vedic" literature in this sense, it eventually became
clear that this was not what the Hinduja family meant.  In order not to mislead
academics like Prof. Witzel, they have permitted the names of the research
centres to be changed from "vedic" to "indic."

The Hinduja family have given every sign of being delighted with the activities
of both the Columbia and the Cambridge centres.  It is their endowment and they
therefore have every right to state their preferences about how it is used
(within the limits set by the agreements with Universities, of course).  The
fact that these centres are not pursuing vedic philology in the academic sense
is disappointing to vedic philologists, of course.  But the centres are
committed to fulfilling the aims of their founders, and that is exactly what
they are doing.

Dominik Wujastyk


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Dominik Wujastyk