Arguing techniques

[Michael Witzel]

Re: >Subrahmanya: & jokes

Interesting.  -- As for Belgian jokes, that has been cleared thanks to Dr.
Elst + Subrahmanya.

Incidentally, we had talked about the corresponding Indian jokes -- about
Sikhs--  some time before. Oldest one in Patanjali, c. 150 BCE. The oldest
datable  modern Sikh jokes that I know of go back to the time immediately
after independence. ---  Amusingly, German ethnic jokes are  ...  about
Germans (Eastern Frisians); not current in my youth, as far as I know,  but
very common over the past 2 decades or so.

One not so jocular,  more serious point remains:

Subrahmanya:
>While this forum is merely a mailing list. The techniques
>that Dr.Witzel mentions are found in some of the scholarly
>books as well.  The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia volume edited by
>Erdosy is one such example.

I urge you to check the book and see *who* has said *what*.

I have no time and inclination to go on another "gem hunt", but I vaguely
recall that some have alleged something like the above in emails and in
even recent books.

It is important, in this case, to *see yourself* what, for example, G.
Erdosy has said and what I have said in that 1995 book; and not to
commingle, confuse or juxtapose without real distinction,  our
*individual* views. They just happen to be in the same book.  (E.g. Erdosy
and I do not agree at all on the Unmentionable Theory.)

Also, I urge you to  investigate the individual sequences of *cause and
reaction* in each email debate (or even printed exchanges).  As the
proverbs have it:  'as you shout into the forest, so the echo...', or :
One Yate for another, good fellow!

In sum:  I do not suffer  insinuations/ accusations such as the above gladly.
After having done the homework, please come back!

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