Rg Veda etc.

[Robert Zydenbos]

On Fri, 26 Nov 1999 19:04:18 +0100, Koenraad Elst wrote:

> Dear Mr. Sergei Schmalz, Dear Mr. Francis Parmar,
>
> You seem to be unaware that the topic of the Aryan invasion theory
> has been banned from this list.  Anyway,

"Anyway" Dr. Elst continues, so I don't mind adding a few lines
myself.

> Prof. Dinesh Agarwal's text pointed out by you is not bad but it is a
> bit obsolete.  The debate has moved on. For a discussion of recent
> contributions including the Sergent and Deshpande & Bronkhorst books,
> I invite you to visit my website:

Dear Mr. Sergei Schmalz, Dear Mr. Francis Parmar,

I don't know whether the 'debate', in Dr. Elst's personal view, includes
Rajesh Kochhar's recent book _The Vedic People: Their History and
Geography_ (Orient Longman, 1999). As far as I know, Elst has not
hacked that one yet. There was an article about it in _The Hindu_ a
short while back:

www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/1999/11/07/stories/13070671.htm

I found it quite reassuring to see that a leading Indian natural
scientist (director of the National Institute of Science, Technology
and Development Studies, New Delhi) with an interest in ancient
Indian history need not be a card-carrying Hindutvavaadin.

> From the look of things, it seems Elst would have to write that
although Kochhar is an Indian and a scientist, he believes that the
Aryans entered India from outside and therefore he is in the same
camp with Hitler (as Elst wrote about me in another piece on his
website).

You'll see that Elst has this odd preoccupation with Hitler. He
brought H. into his 'review' of Deshpande & Bronkhorst too, as we
see. On the other hand, he falsely reprimanded me for supposedly
doing this (he calls this 'smearing') to one of his friends, so don't
expect any consistency, or even fairness. Keep this in mind in your
further reading, also of his messages on this list. (If anyone here has
a clue as to why Elst does this, please let me know. I'm curious.)

RZ