Classical languages of India

[Robert Zydenbos]

Am 27 Sep 2000, um 22:08 schrieb ravindran sri:

> Classical languages of India
> Toda, Santhali, Mundari, Badaga, [...]
>
> Ofcourse people would say Tamil,Sanskrit etc. (which is an Orientalist
> conspiracy!)

Another evil conspiracy? By whom, and why?

'Classical' does not mean the same as 'ancient' or 'attested since
very old times'. Furthermore, that something is not 'classical' does
*not* mean that it is not worth serious scholarly attention. (Perhaps
this needs to be mentioned here.)

RZ

Prof. Dr. Robert J. Zydenbos
Institut für Indologie und Iranistik
Universität München
Tel. (089) 2180-5782
E-mail zydenbos at gmx.de