[INDOLOGY] Comparison of Brahmins (and their cultural context) with Nazis (and their cultural context)? both inappropriate and inapt

Sun May 9 14:29:28 UTC 2021

Thank you, Jan, for introducing this point and for the references to your
papers.

Best wishes,

Joanna

---

Prof. dr hab. Joanna Jurewicz

Katedra Azji Południowej /Chair of South Asia Studies

Wydział Orientalistyczny / Faculty of Oriental Studies

Uniwersytet Warszawski /University of Warsaw

ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28

00-927 Warszawa , Poland

Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages

College of Human Sciences

UNISA

Pretoria, RSA

Member of Academia Europaea

https://uw.academia.edu/JoannaJurewicz

niedz., 9 maj 2021 o 15:59 Jan E.M. Houben via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> napisał(a):

> Dear All,
> A fascinating symposium on "Greater Magadha" is at present taking place at
> Edmonton (Alberta), Canada, and on account of the ongoing epidemic it is
> entirely online: the announcement (http://eventleaf.com/GreaterMagadha)
> is accessible on several lists.
> In a brief presentation and subsequent discussion of his theory at the
> beginning of this symposium -- a detailed argument and extensive references
> to pieces of evidence for this stimulating and well-researched theory is
> found in his *Greater Magadha: Studies in the culture of early India* (Leiden
> 2007) --   Johannes Bronkhorst referred briefly to his comparison between
> Brahmins (and their cultural context) and the German Nazis (and their
> cultural context). On this specific reference by Johannes Bronkhorst during
> the symposium, I posed a question in the special section set up by the
> organizers of the conference: "Questions and answers will be conducted over
> a separate service, sli.do."
> Since my question, although it received several "upvotes", did not pass
> the censorship of the anonymous "moderator" of the online questions -- who
> wrote to me "3 days ago (only visible to you) There was no such comparison"
> -- it would be useful to pose the question in other fora such as this
> Indology List.
> Those familiar with the work and especially the *Greater Magadha* book of
> Johannes Bronkhorst -- this apparently does not include the anonymous
> moderator of the Questions section of the symposium -- will have
> immediately recognized that the remark by Johannes Bronkhorst refers to pp.
> 251-252 of *Greater Magadha* (and similar passages elsewhere), where we
> read:
>
> "when it came in contact with cities, Vedic civilization did not like them.
> ...
> It is hard to resist the temptation of a comparison with the Third Reich.
> Among the hundreds of paintings brought together in the House of German Art
> in Munich, opened by Hitler in 1937, not a single canvas depicted urban and
> industrial life (Watson, 2004: 311-312)."
>
> The comparison is both inappropriate and inapt, especially since a very
> different analysis of the situation of the community of practicing Brahmins
> in ancient India is possible, for instance the one proposed by me in:
>
> “From Fuzzy-Edged ‘Family-Veda’ to the Canonical Śākhas of the Catur-Veda:
> Structures and Tangible Traces.” In: *Vedic Śākhās: Past, Present,
> Future. Proceedings of the Fifth International Vedic Workshop, Bucharest*
> 2011, ed. by J.E.M. Houben, J. Rotaru and M. Witzel, p. 159-192. Cambridge,
> Mass. : Harvard University, 2016.
>
> As the book is at present no more available but will soon again be
> available in a new edition, I have made this study *temporarily* accessible
> on my Academia.edu page.
>
> The main principles followed in this study to explain the situation of the
> community of practicing Brahmins in ancient India are (1) "natural
> selection" in the transmission of knowledge through any current medium of
> transmission (at first exclusively ritual, next ritual plus written texts,
> inscriptions and manuscripts -- much later printing is added and at present
> the internet...): see e.g. Houben 2001; (2) ritual in the context of an
> *evolving* economical and ecological world: see Houben 2019 (see also:
> Gadgil and Guha, *This Fissured Land: an Ecological History of India*,
> 1992 and Perennials edition 2013).
> N.B. Both Houben 2001:
> “’Verschriftlichung' and the relation between the *pramāṇa*s in the
> history of Sāṁkhya.” *Études de Lettres* 2001.3: *La rationalité en Asie
> / Rationality in Asia*, ed. by J. Bronkhorst: 165-194.
> and Houben 2019:
> “Ecology of Ritual Innovation in Ancient India: Textual and Contextual
> Evidence.” [NB: partly comparing and contrasting Vedic and ancient Iranian
> ritual.] In: *Self, Sacrifice, and Cosmos: Vedic Thought, Ritual, and
> Philosophy. Essays in Honor of Professor Ganesh Umakant Thite’s
> Contribution to Vedic Studies*, ed. by Lauren M. Bausch, pp. 182-210
> (References to this article integrated in id., “Bibliography,” pp.
> 223-238.) Delhi: Primus Books
> are now accessible on my Academia.edu page.
>
> I hope and expect the issue will lead to further fruitful discussions.
>
> All best, Jan Houben
>
> --
>
> *Jan E.M. Houben*
>
> Directeur d'Études, Professor of South Asian History and Philology
>
> *Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite*
>
> École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, Paris Sciences et Lettres)
>
> *Sciences historiques et philologiques *
>
> Groupe de recherches en études indiennes (EA 2120)
>
> *johannes.houben [at] ephe.psl.eu <johannes.houben at ephe.psl.eu>*
>
> *https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben
> <https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben>*
>
> *https://www.classicalindia.info* <https://www.classicalindia.info>
>
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>
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