Vicious debate on Aryan, Non-Aryan

[K. S. Arjunwadkar]

To: INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK
Subject: Aryan and Non-Aryan
Cc:

Dec 4, 98
The 'Maharashtrian' zeal for 'vicious debate' involving Aryan and Non-Aryan
division has in recent times centred around Charvak, who is taken by some
motivated writers as the champion of Non-Aryan opposition to Vedic cult. In
his thesis on Charvak and other writings, A. H. Salunkhe, a Sanskrit
scholar and a champion of the non-Brahmanic school of thought, relates
Charvak to the mythological Asura cult and the pre-historical Indus valley
culture. (S. N. Dasgupta goes to the extent of tracing Charvak to Assyrian
origin.) My article in Marathi focussing on Salunkhe's works (Charvakache
Punarutthan) has been published in Navabharat, April-May 1998. My article
on this subject in English focussing on D. P. Chattopadhyay's Lokayata (The
Resurrection of Charvaka) will be published in near future in Prof. M. A.
Mehendale Felicitation Volume. In both, I have questioned the validity of
research in which imagination enjoys priority over evidence, -- the type of
research Indian intellectuals have borrowed from the West.
Would the term 'motivated' be a better substitute for 'vicious'?
KSA