message from Dr. Elst

[Michael Witzel]

Prof. Gupta writes:
>I thank you too Dr. Witzel for calling me a surrogate.

Yes : he transmitted a letter by Dr. Elst who writes instead of Dr.
Rajaram, who tells (some of) us that he is too busy translating the Indus
seals. Of course, we can only *invite* him to defend his "decipherment"
himself on this list, and not via-via:   He *does* have email, vide:

>>>From: Vedicinst at aol.com
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 01:00:25 EDT
Subject: Re: Spoked -wheels in the Rv
To: saf at safarmer.com
CC: navarat at bgl.vsnl.net.in (N.S. Rajaram),
        vishalagarwal at hotmail.com (Vishal Agarwal), witzel at fas.harvard.edu,
        kendra at bol.net.in, koenraad.elst at pandora.be, dirkgysels at hotmail.com,
        Vedicinst at aol.com <<<

Rajaram finds time, though, to write elaborate, ---how shall we phrase it
politely--- elaborate denouncements of virtually anything in Indian/South
Asian Studies/Indology that does not come from an *Indian* pen or keyboard.
The insulting quote given a few days ago is just a small specimen. I invite
members to read his effusions on the (generally rather poisonous)   website
: The Sword of Truth":

http://www.swordoftruth.com/
Read some of their news, commentary, between the lines, and very revealing,
their POLLs!! With regard to Indology proper,  read Rajaram himself:

http://www.swordoftruth.com/swordoftruth/archives/byauthor/navaratnarajaram/arti
cles.hml

and on the linked site :
http://voi.org/reviews/


>When I decided to forward Dr. Elst's message, who was so anxious to sign off,
>I knew the risk I was running in being a forwarder/emissary.

Simple question? Why did Elst not send a last message himself? Why some
much via-via??
-----------------

PS: I just see that he has bothered to briefly rejoin us....

========================

========================================================
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