linguistics (was: Tamil words in English)

[Bhadraiah Mallampalli]

Hello everyone,

Humanities vs sciences divide is artificial, it only exposes lack of
openmindedness on either side.  Every artist knows that his/her art has to
follow certain (scientific) measurements to be valid as a piece of art.  And
every scientist knows (should know) that the entire edifice of science is
based on the initial assumptions which are not necessarily scientific.
Linguistics for Indology more appropriately needs an approach that combines
scientific and linguistic approaches, not one that separates them.

I am a big fan of Prof Max Mueller.  He made some very valid observations even
though many of his conclusions wrong.  One that I can never forget is his
comparision of Biblical poetry of David and Vedic poetry.  Prof Mueller says
that Vedic poetry is more mechanical and lacks the beauty of Biblical poetry.
Such statements have only helped Prof. Mueller being branded the way he was;
but the fact remains.  Vedic poetry is mechanical, in my opinion, for the
simple reason that it is written by observing the various stages of the
thought cycle.  Different stages of the thought cycle are subject to various
mechanical stresses and strains of the muscles that are often stimulated by
the nervous impulses which follow their own logics.  For a beginning on this
subject please visit my site.  I have not encountered any one who proved me
wrong so far.

BTW, the difference in skin color between higher castes and others does not
prove the higher castes are a different race.  There is no difference between
features of dark and fair skinned Indians except for skin color; definitely
not as much as the difference between African and European features.  The
preference for a spouse having fair skin is well known in Indian marriages.

Presence of people with blue eyes in north western India does not prove
anything either (it is just a matter of settlements across the border) ; in
fact it raises the question why the blue eyes are not to be seen in higher
castes in most other parts of north India.

Indians of south Indian origin do have dark features, but Indians from eastern
states have mongoloid features (a fact conveniently ignored by IE gang), which
again proves that India was seen as a good place to settle.  The incoming
races mixed thoroughly for many millennia, being protected by ocean on one
side and snow mountains on the other, had enough time to research into various
subjects - an advantage not available to other civilizations.
Thanks,
Bhadraiah Mallampalli
http://members.aol.com/vaidix