Making the Argument for Sanskrit

[gruenendahl]

On 11 Jan 2007 at 13:33, Matthew Kapstein wrote:

> J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the A-Bomb,
> was considered by the late Murray Emeneau
> to have have been his best student and
> quoted the Giitaa, in Skt., at Los Alamos.


Here it could be pointed out to the Berlin authorities that better job opportunities 
may have caused Oppenheimer to pursue a career in indology instead of 
constructing a weapon of mass destruction, the effects of which Berlin escaped only 
narrowly. (Sadly, this cannot be said for the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.)


NOTE:
Speculations to the effect  that it may have been Oppenheimer's brush with 
indology, or his familiarity with the Bhagavadgita (which Heinrich Himmler also was 
familiar with, by the way), that triggered him to construct the atom bomb can be 
discarded as absurd fabrications, attributable to ignorance, charlatanry, or worse.


satyam eva jayate

Reinhold Grünendahl



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Dr. Reinhold Gruenendahl
Niedersaechsische Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek
Fachreferat sued- und suedostasiatische Philologien
(Dept. of Indology)

37070 Göttingen, Germany
Tel (+49) (0)5 51 / 39 52 83
Fax (+49) (0)5 51 / 39 23 61
gruenen at mail.sub.uni-goettingen.de

FACH-INFORMATIONEN INDOLOGIE, GOETTINGEN:
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In English:
http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/fiindole.htm

GRETIL - Goettingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages
http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/gretil.htm