Reminiscient of F. max Mueller, writing some 150 years ago (Intro to the
Upanishads, vol. I of the SBE); as you know, it was one piece of a larger
problematic:
“We cannot separate ourselves from those who believed in these sacred
books. There is no specific difference between ourselves and the Brahmans, the
Buddhists, the Zoroastrians, or the Taosze...”
Dear McComas,
This is an interesting paper. Thank you. Yes, this is obviously
an issue that we all, as Indologists, need to confront. But, since I am
not much interested in these mythology wars between Wendy's children and Rajiv's
children, and since I am no one's child, maybe I can present a different point
of view here, an orphan's view, as it were.
I am a Vedicist. When I teach Vedic, I don't teach it as an outsider,
i.e., as about them. I teach it as an insider, i.e., about us.
As a Vedicist, I do not think of myself as studying somebody else's
culture. I think of myself as studying our collective culture, just as
when I study Greek or Chinese culture, or Mayan or Sumerian culture, etc., I
always think of myself as studying our collective culture.
In other words, I think that we are all both insiders and outsiders.
I am a human being. All things human are a part of my culture.
And when, in particular, it comes to a Vedic culture that existed some 3000
years ago, but which in fact survives no longer, nobody has better access to it
than those of us who have spent our lives studying it.
Isn't this obvious? When it comes to the Rigveda, is Rajiv really an
insider?
Best,
George Thompson