Dear List,

Thanks to Asko, I do now remember reading an essay by Thomson on the word graavan. I took dome interest in it because at about that time I gave a paper on RV 10.94, in which this word played a prominent role. This was in 2001 or 2002, at the Third International Vedic Workshop in Leiden.

In any case, I was not convinced by i\her paper, and in fact, as in the case of this recent paper in TLS, I was rather surprised that it had been published. I think that it was at about this time that I stopped reading JIES.

From the material that Asko has sent me I now see that Thomson also dismisses the Witzel-Goto translation. Another off-list email informs me that Thomson was likewise dismissive of Louis Renou.

I knew that Thomson had had some association with the Univ of Texas in Austin, but did not feel any desire to look into what she was doing there.

I was wrong to dismiss her review as naive. It was nice to see that she had some interest in the history of European scholarship on the history of Vedic Studies. But now I see clearly that her problem is hubris.

Please don't expect me to reply to more emails for the time being. I have developed a bad cold and I am suffering.

George Thompson