SV: , Idiom, and, Grammar, (and, chariots, again!)

[Lukas Werth]

>I can't help pointing out that even the modern "war chariot", the tank, is
>transported to battle by another vehicle. Tanks are vulnerable to certain
>kinds of conditions, and it makes sense not to run them on roads for long
>stretches. The same probably holds true for ancient war chariots. They were
>built for specific purposes, and you did not want to spoil them by running
>them on rough ground not suited for them. And as a means of ordinary
>transport, they must have been both uncomfortable and unpractical.
>
>Lars Martin Fosse
>
The discussion in this thread demonstrates for me the difference between
religious/ideological/nationalistic and scientific interpretation. But: in
this case, was not historically much of the present discourse about the RV
initiated by its scientific treatment during the British Raj (witness
Trautmann's 'Aryans and British India')?
The historical interpretations of the RV, which by and large orignated in
this time, played a big role in the formation of a new, unified brand of
Hinduism.
The position of the RV as installed by Victorian Indology is reflected in
modern scholarship, too: I am thinking of, for intance, Biardeau's wirings,
for instance her "histoire des poteaux" in which she traces back central
aspects of folk traditions to the Vedic sacrificial pole. To me, her
arguments appear to be straight from some pundit's mouth, and imposition of
one "high" tradition on a rich cluster of traditions, some quite alien to
the RV.
I have hesitated to write these lines, because I am no specialist at all on
RV studies, but I would like to point at a discrepancy which does, for all
I can see, exist: for all I know, there is no evidence to speak of of the
composers of the RV apart from the text itself, and there does exist a
history of differing translations. The role of chariots does not appear to
me to emerge from the text except in very general terms, nor do most other
contested features. It is absolutely unclear to me which scope of society
one should presume for the people of the Rg Veda: a few tribes among many,
or an extended kingdom?

Lukas Werth