Beavers (and bikinis)

[Michael Witzel]

It is amazing  how some on this list manage, time and again, to
misunderstand/misinterpret simple sentences and/or their context.

(a)
Vishal Agarwal:
Dr. Witzel said: Fact is that Palaeoclimate took a dramatic turn after the
end of the last Ice Age, c. 10,000 BCE, also in Central Asia,  where there
were giant
lakes, etc. Though the climate has then remained more or less stable since
3000 BCE or so, even by 2000 BCE there existed,  in the deltas of the
Tiurkmenistan/Tajikistan BMAC area and elsewhere, giant brush areas and the
typical riverine forests.....

VA: True, that the topography and climate of the world was much different
around 10000 BCE. ....
Nor do I think that Indologists would like to trace the Avestan words for
Beaver to some proto word in 10000  BCE.

Certainly not me! How can one  misunderstand the above lines by *that* much
of a margin?

Indo-European did not exist at that time, and Vedic/Avestan even less. Thus
no IE/Avestan beavers. -- Rather, I was speaking of the climatic changes
between 10,000 BCE and 2000 BCE on the one hand [from cool and wet to warm
and dry], but stressed, on the other hand,  that "even by 2000 BCE ...
giant brush areas and riverine forests" existed [thus in the Indo-Iranian
or Pre-Iranian/Pre-Rgvedic  period] and I went on, in the section cut by
VA, to indicate a possible link between the wooded Altai and
Altai-Tienshan-Pamir-Hindukush ranges (cut by VA) [in 2000 BCE and later!
The likely time for the Indo-Iranians, and Avestan language].

Along this belt [when not destroyed by humans and goats], many Alpine
features are preserved, in some cases continuing even along the Himalayas
into Central Nepal:  such as Northern butterflies, birds;  or the birch in
Kashmir (in a slightly diff. variety, though), etc. etc.  These mountains
areas are obviously very different from the Central Asian lowland steppes
or deserts (and equally so, from the Indian plains),  and they have a
special environment which preserves, according to elevation, some Ice Age
plants and animals normally out or range in these (sub-)tropical areas.
East Asian and western features often overlap at Kathmandu.

Again, I have already said that I do not want to argue ex nihilo.
(Palaeontlogy will tell).

But I also do not want to be misunderstood or misconstrued.


(b)
Prasad Velusamy <prasad_velusamy at HOTMAIL.COM>:

MW:
>>All the Iranian Saravati (Anahita)  would get would be a bikini,
>>or  less. Not in fashion then.

PS:
>Yes, Indian girls are portrayed with less or more than bikini.
>Ref.: C. R. Bolon, Lajja-Gowri in Indian art.

Everybody knows of the sparsely clad INDIAN Yaksinis of the Bharhut +
Sanchi Stupa railings,  and onwards... to Victorian times; (not to speak of
the famous female dancer of the Indus civilization).

But the sentences above come from a discussion of *Iranian and Central
Asian* customs and dressing habits.

Any Old Iranian/C. Asian bikinis?

Eager to know, MW>

========================================================
Michael Witzel
Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138, USA

ph. 1- 617-496 2990 (also messages)
home page:  http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm

Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies:  http://www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs