Rajaram's "horse seal"

[Jan E.M. Houben]

I join in congratulating Steve Farmer for the excellent detective work in
exposing Rajaram's "horse" and showing it to be the more commonly expected
bull.
A moment of reflection, not just object-oriented but also with regard to
research tradition and presuppositions, at this (so-manieth) historical
event in the history of Indus Valley research).

Rajaram's horse was false and unreliable. Was it also an intentional fraud?
If so, how easily does this pass to bookform in the Indian scholarly
research tradition? Or was it sloppy methodology and low research ethos
combined with eagerness to find and demonstrate ideologically desirable
results? Our judgement will depend on Rajaram's reaction now. Let's see
whether it "bespeaks a t[h]eological rather than a scientific mindset":
whether he is able to admit his mistakes (even good scholars may misjudge
and blunder), and to change and adapt his position in the face of the
evidence (as a good scholar should be ready to do).

In any case in his eagerness to find certain results he has now greatly
helped to prove the opposite. That is, not what HE perceived and presented
as the opposite, viz. the nineteenth century Aryan Invasion Theory, but in
any case the conspicuous absence of horses in the earlier Harappan layers
(which, as repeated *ad nauseam* on this list in the last few years and in
several recent publications, need not imply massive and destructive
invasions of "Aryans").

Greetings, Jan Houben

-----Original Message-----
From: Jogesh Panda <shiromanee at YAHOO.COM>
To: INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK <INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK>
Date: Monday, July 31, 2000 4:14 AM
Subject: Re: Rajaram's "horse seal"


>Thank you Steve Farmer for the excellent detective
>work in exposing Rajaram's bull. Thanks for the
>excellent images in the page you provided. I have not
>read Rajaram's book. You, along with other noteworthy
>members on the list, have spared people/lurkers like
>me the trouble of looking for the Rajaram/Jha book.
>That's done. Rajaram no no. Let us drum the imposter
>out.
>
>But.. but, why are you so bitter and angry ? You even
>misspelled the culprit's name. Were/are you equally
>bitter/angry with those illustrious names who read
>Tamil in the IVC scripts [and supposedly broke the
>code]? Just curious.
>
>Always on the middle path,
>Jogesh Panda
>
>--- Steve Farmer <saf at SAFARMER.COM> wrote:
>> The discussion of N.S. Rajaram's "horse seal" has
>> continued over
>> the past week on a mini-List including Michael
>> Witzel, Rajaram,
>> S. Talageri, V. Agarwal, K. Elst, and a number of
>> others. Rajaram
>> finally revealed this morning (as I suggested on
>> this List a
>> while back) that his "horse seal" was "computer
>> enhanced."
>>
>> The evidence (not mentioning the computer
>> enhancement, but
>> otherwise complete) is newly summarized at:
>>
>> http://www.safarmer.com/horseseal/rajarambull.html
>
>
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