German Indology

[Roland Steiner]

On Thu, 20 Feb 1997 17:30:33 GMT, Dominik Wujastyk wrote:

>
>Thanks to Gabriele Zeller for describing the book 'German Indology'
>clearly.  
>
>I was very startled when I first saw this little book some years ago. 
>Such a production in the United Kingdom would be quite beyond the pale. 
>It wouldn't be a problem listing the Oriental Institutes in Britain, say,
>but to go further and list the details of all British-born scholars
>working elsewhere in the world just on the basis of their nationality
>would be felt to be distasteful, to say the least.
>
>To do "German Indology" credit, it does list Emmerick in Hamburg, in spite
>of his Australian nationality (at least I assume he still holds an ozzie
>passport).  But this goes against the spirit of the booklet.
>
>All the best,
>Dominik
>
>--
>Dominik Wujastyk               Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine
>email: d.wujastyk at ucl.ac.uk          183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, England
><URL: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgadkw/>                    FAX: 44 171 611 8545

We think matters should be said straight at the very outset in order to 
avoid any misunderstanding. Readers should be made clear about the purpose 
for "German Indology", a "list of institutions and persons concerned with 
Sanskrit and allied studies" compiled by Prof. Dieter Schlingloff in 1996. 
For those of us in Germany the (unwritten) reasons are very clear.

(1) The list is not propaganda material. It is not intended to show how 
great Indology is represented in Germany - it simply serves the practical 
purpose of helping people in Germany to know (in this day and age of 
constant change) where their colleagues are and what their present field of 
research is. It is obvious that through such a list they can be easily 
contacted.

(2) The list is compiled without absolutely any consideration of gender, 
race and origin (Prof. Emmerick is by no means a unicum in the list). Here 
the definition of "German Indology" by the DFG (Deutsche 
Forschungsgemeinschaft = German Society for Research) is useful to know: 
"German Indologist" means (a) any Indologist who is active in Germany; (b) 
ONLY such a person (irrespective of gender, race and origin) is entitled to 
apply to the DFG for financial support concerning any project in the vast 
field of Indology.

(3) Why are German Indologists outside Germany also mentioned? This, too, 
is for practical reasons. As German speaking specialists they can be called 
upon, e.g., as external examiners, referees, etc., in cases where knowledge 
of this (exotic) language is required.

Against this background one is amazed at Dominik Wujastyk's remark above. 
The selective nature of the list "Germany Indology" is exclusively 
practical and nothing else.

Jayandra Soni and Roland Steiner
Department of Indology
University of Marburg
Wilhelm-Roepke-Str. 6
D-35032 Marburg, Germany
phone: +49-6421/28 4942 (Soni) and 28 2184 (Steiner)
fax: +49-6421/28 8913 (Department)
e-mails: soni at mailer.uni-marburg.de
steiner at mailer.uni-marburg.de


Roland Steiner
Fachgebiet Indologie (FB 11) der Philipps-Universitaet
Wilhelm-Roepke-Strasse 6
D-35032 Marburg, Germany
Tel.: 06421/28 2184
Fax: 06421/28 8913
email: steiner at mailer.uni-marburg.de