Dr.Thompson' dating of the RV...

[Vishal Agarwal]

Mr. Vassilkov
If so, what particularly makes you think that you are competent enough
to dismiss Professor Thompson's hypothesis (which is firmly based on the
wide range of Rgvedic, as well as Avestan, texts) and even call it "absurd"?

Vishal writes:
Your post still does not respond to my question. Please read to a relevant
post of mine dated May 13 wherein I have stated that all different methods
of dating the Vedas should reach the same date. If they do not (as is the
case now), then the more accurate method's conculsion should prevail.

Moreover your retort  has a fundamental  flaw of logic. FYI, I had tried to
use a method called 'process of elimination' to arrive at the right
solution. If I cannot question Dr. Thompson's date just because I do not
have a suggestion for the same then by the same token I cannot criticize
Sylvestor Stallone's acting because I cannot act better than him. Or I
cannot cirticize a specific mistake of Coach Spurrier because I cannot coach
the 'Gators football team' better than him. My father does not know
Sanskrit, yet he taught me the following Sanskrit proverb in my childhood-
"Vidya dadati vinayam." And also he told me "Vidyadambhah kshanasthayi". And
therefore, adhereing to the spirit of the Indian tradition (or which Dr.
Thompson and you are scholars), I admitted my limitation when I ought to
have. But your behavior reminds me of the condemned 'Vedavadarataah' of Gita
and of the Rgvedic mantra "Yastanna veda kimrcha karishyati?"

Mr. Vassilkov wrote:
As for your own suggestions, how can you explain the fact that the
civilization of Classical Greece in the first four or five centuries of its
existence produced several times more texts than Vedic India in its
whole history? (If we take into account only surviving texts, which is the
only correct procedure). Should the Greeks too claim a period of several
millenia for their several thousand titles or so? And what about China?

    Vishal writes:
Most of the points have been answered by Mr. Shirish Rao earlier. I would
like to add that you do not seem to have any idea about the extent of the
lost literature of India. Again, to repeat Mr. Rao's statement. your
statement that we should take into account only the surviving texts is
totally bereft of logic. What makes you think that  the 'extant' texts have
not been published. Do you even know that of the Rigvedic Shakhas available,
only the Shakala Samhita has been published and at least 3 others
(Ashvalayana, Shankhayana and Bashkala) lie in Manuscripts? Let us come to
other Vedas. Have you even seen the accented text of the Maitrayaniya
Aranyaka?

As for China, everyone knows that their civilization is indeed several
millenia old (so what are you trying to say?).  Again, as I pointed in an
earlier post, my intent was not only to raise the issue of the large number
of texts, but also the long period of prior developments pre-supposed by
them. Besides, what does your example of Greece show? Can semi nomadic and
'city destroying' Aryans compose the texts that we have today? Did
Euripedes, Sappho, Pindar, Sophocles et al belong to city destroying, semi
nomadic races or to city states? I fail to understand the comparison.

Regards,

Vishal



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