Jennifer's friend is clearly deeply grounded in the intellectual tradition of the West. As is well known, Egypt is the mother of all idolatry, and the connection between Egypt and "sanskrit" (Jennifer's friend here clearly refers, synecdochically, to what other scholars have recently labelled "the Sanskrit cosmopolis") is firmly established in the work of many learned writers such as François Catrou, Pierre Daniel Huet and Mathurin Veyssière de la Croze. The connection is also acknowledged by Indian scholars: M.N. Srinivas describes the "Egypt fixation" which his teacher G. S. Ghurye had inherited from W. H. R. Rivers, and which led him to wonder if ancestor shrines among the Coorgs were derived from the pyramids. 

Jennifer's wrong about Arabic being prettier, however.

Will

On 3/10/2011, at 9:09 AM, Dominik Wujastyk wrote:

I came across this post in a Yahoo site just now.  It made me gasp aloud. 

Jennifer asks,

What is the difference between sanskrit and Arabic?

I wanted to get a tattoo in Arabic because I have an egyptian fascination and want a consistent flow of relativity on my body seeing as how I already have an ankh. A friend of mine told me I should get sanskrit because it is more closely related to egypt. And I think Arabic is prettier.

In fact, Jennifer has received five informative answers, setting her straight, one even explaining Panini and the Astadhyayi.  The correspondent "Z" makes an unassailable truth claim by asserting "I am arabic."

The conclusion we must draw is that tatoo parlours badly need more Indologists.  And Arabists, and Egyptologists.

Dominik