Rajaram unrepentent!

[Steve Farmer]

Michael Witzel writes, of the recent article in THE PIONEER (New
Dehli) on Rajaram's faked "horse seal" and faked "decipherments":

> Indeed, we are not done with Rajaram yet!

Michael is a master of understatement! Stay tuned to much more
spectacular stories in the Indian press in the next few days. :^)

Steve Farmer

Michael Witzel wrote:
>
> A friend in India has alerted me to yesterday's news story on the front
> page of:
>
> ----------------------------------------------
>
> THE PIONEER,  New Delhi, Sunday, September 24, 2000
>
> Indus `horse' has historians on the trot
>
> http://www.dailypioneer.com/archives/def1.asp
>
> directly:
> http://www.dailypioneer.com/archives/secon22.asp?cat=\story7&d=fpage&t1=Sep24
>
> ----------------------------------------------
>
> What is really remarkable in this news item is that Rajaram shows himself a
> real Acalanaatha, and unrepentent:
>
>                           "In his e-mail reply to The Pioneer, Rajaram
> clarifies, "Both the photocopy of the seal (Mackay 453) and the artwork (of
> the horse image) were
> sent to me a couple of years ago by my coauther (sic!) Natwar Jha. I
> checked with the original postage-stamp size seal photo in the book and
> agreed with his identification and put those graphics in as an
> afterthought."
>
> So now, the poor, email-less(?) co-author N. Jha is the guilty one!
> But, the recent reprint of the original publication that Rajaram says he
> checked out in the Mythic Society, Bangalore, looks just the same as the
> one in the original publication by Mackay (*we* checked!), and not at all
> like his "computer enhancemnet", see S.Farmer's web site:
> http://www.safarmer.com/horseseal/update.html
>
> In addition, Rajaram takes refuge to his usual hobby horse, conspiracy theory:
>
>                           "However, Rajaram terms the charge as a
> "vilification campaign" against him. "I see the charge of fabrication (of
> the horse image) as a diversionary attack -- to discredit the whole book,
> including the decipherment (of the Indus script) by raising extraneous
> issues," he writes. "In the process, they want to rob Indians of their
> history and tradition, making them an intellectual colony of the West," he
> says. "
>
> extraneous, indeed!  -  As my web site
> http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm
> shows sufficiently enough, the "decipherment" is more than flimsy, it is
> pure fantasy. I hope he does not mean that Indians want to have *his*
> script as their "tradition" !
>
> The note concludes:
>
>                           "Historians, meanwhile, are fiercely debating an
> ancient past that may have what may the debate continues."
>
> Indeed, we are not done with Rajaram yet!
> ____________________________________________________
>
> ========================================================
> 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