Fw: Re: Re: Q: intervocalic -k- preserved as intervocalic -g-

[RM.Krishnan]

At 10/28/99 2:28:00 PM, you wrote:
>N Ganesan writes :
>
>>  200 years of philological work and the summaries by current
>>Indologists tell a lot on the date of the Rig Veda,
>>Aryan intrusion, real purport/meaning of varnashrama system, ...
>
>195 years of this was without any significant opposition. They just
>existed on the same preconceptions which do not map to the reality
>of the social conditions in India and were never contested. I guess
>it was the case of some professors in Western universities who
>formed opinions just by reading texts and making a couple of trips
>to India. Even if they did spend some time in India, there's little
>chance that they got to interact extensively with orthodox brahmins
>(who for most part would've avoided them. Probably that's the reason
>Gough shows so much bias against brahmins). Quite a bit of what
>was written especially with respect to the "violent" invasion theory
>over an "advanced" people, is to a great extent guided by intelligent
>concoction and imagination, and is with little factual base.
>
>And as I said before, IMO, most scholars have little idea as to what
>the varnAshramam system is really about. As to non-brahmin Indians,
>those who understood the system were generally spiritual saints who
>never protested against it and were rightly honoured by Brahminism.
>The few brahmins themselves who condemn it are usually inspired by
>Western concepts of democracy and equality and are more comfortable
>leading a Western way of life than adhering to their dharma. To
>understand the varnAshrama dharma requires right knowledge (of reality),
>insight into human psychology and vision - which sadly is not in great
>supply.
>
>Indian scholars and those sympathetic to the Indian viewpoint,
>contesting such views have surfaced only in the past five years or so
>and already we're witnessing some change. Let's give it a few more
>years and then decide.
>
Dear Nanda Chandran,

Original topic of this thread was on the origin of the name 'Agastya'. I proposed that it may be equivalent to the
ancient generic name like Athan in Tamil, Augustus/Augustine in western languages, Adam in early Hebrew etc.
Unfortunately, there was no response on that point yet.

Now the discussion is getting diverted into Aryan invasion and varNasrama dharmA etc. Why should we move on to
HindutvAti arguements? If we divert all our arguements to the same old problem which has defied answers so far, we
may not find any. By avoiding that and looking for kaizan type small advancements, we may succeed one day.

Let us drop our coloured glasses. I do not have to emphasize: if we want to see the history through a coloured glass, it
will look coloured.

With regards,
RM.Krishnan