Black as Evil

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>that RV could be around 1000-900 BCE. (Different from
>"mainstream" authors Klostermaier, ... date RV to 4 or 5 thousand
>years before Christ.)

I don't see why Witzel or Klostermaier or anybody else needs to
be brought into this. The former is here but doesn't seem to be
interested in it, and the latter doesn't seem to be on this list.

As far as I can see, there are at least three separate issues
that you first need to sort out -

1.  Rgveda and its range of dates
2a. Avesta and its range of dates
2b. Zaratushtra and his possible date
3.  Bible (OT) and its range of dates

For some reason, you seem to be extrememly interested in proving
that black vs. white racism anywhere in this world originated
first in Iran/India. It seems to me like your own version of
Indigenous Aryanism. I don't know why this is important to you,
but I hope you realize that this goes a step further than talking
about the general influence of Persia on a particular stratum of
Judaic texts.

My opinion is that the global issues involved are much more
complicated, and things are not so black and white as they seem
(pardon the pun). It is not clear whether the religious imagery
of light and darkness correlates strongly with white and black
in the skin color of people or with other generic color symbolism.
The good or bad values associated with any color seem heavily
dependent on culture and context. Black-mail is bad, but a black
mole on a supermodel's face is beauty. One can turn green with
envy, but it is nice when the leaves turn green. One can turn
white with fear, but a bride can wear white. The list goes on.

In any case, do take the time for a more thorough reading of the
texts as promised. Till then, this thread would be best left to die.

Best wishes,
Vidyasankar

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