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

[nanda chandran]

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.


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