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Re: Part 1 :Antiquity ... [Re: Age of the Rig Veda]
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To: soc-religion-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Re: Part 1 :Antiquity ... [Re: Age of the Rig Veda]
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From: Prasad Gokhale <f0g1@unb.ca>
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Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 11:12:46 -0400
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In-Reply-To: <4i2l1o$mar@babbage.ece.uc.edu>
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
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Organization: University of New Brunswick
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References: <4hnaf1$hud@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4i0min$5ei@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4i2l1o$mar@babbage.ece.uc.edu>
On 12 Mar 1996, Mani Varadarajan wrote:
> > ------------------------------------------
> > Antiquity and Continuity of Indian History
> > (From Swayambhuva Manu to Gupta Dynasty)
> > ------------------------------------------
> It would take too much time to respond to all the
> errors in this series of posts. Perhaps Gokhale
> could do us a favor and post references to journal
> articles that form the basis for these ``facts''?
I am not interested in entering a debate that may just lead to
name-calling. Exchange of words on a topic requires some background and
understanding from the parties involved, otherwise it just becomes a
"vitanda-vaada" not lending fruit to anyone.
I guess I am also guilty of assuming that the readers are aware of the
numerous things that I am aware of, and that, I can convey the message by
simply stating some of the facts without writing a story around it. I
also tried to quote (please refer to Part 6 of the essay) as many
references as possible, and again assuming that those interested will at
least browse through some of the references for acquiring more
information. But I guess I am wrong.
I do not at all intend to post 50,000 lines on the net in response to all
and every query that will come to the net-land. Of course calling names
and pointing fingers has been an effective mode of shooing away people.
Perhaps, at times, I too may have used this "weapon". But again, I am not
the only unintelligent individual on the net - one among the crowd of
the so-called all-knowing-swamis.
In the introduction of the article "Antiquity and Continuity" I have
clearly stated that the article was intended to provide an overview of
the situation, and every subject in it (for example, the Saraswati-Sindhu
culture) may require thousands of words for full exposition. It is for
this reason that an extended bibliography, apart from the references that
were interjected within the article, was provided of which most of
the books are quite popular and well-known. Anyone interested, please
refer to the last part (part 6) of the article.
Also, as I have said in the article, that compilation of ancient
history, for various reasons, is not a simple task and requires educated
guess work extrapolating from the very little (actually, not so little)
evidences available to us. The fact that some incidents occured some
thousand years ago, to the uninformed, suggests fantastic stories and
"native propaganda". This assumption falls apart if one carefully
analyses the available data, integrates it and allows the formation of a
complete picture ; viewing the puzzle part by part disallows the
conception of any intelligence when it comes to study of history of
antiquity.
I have already responsed to many of the netters whose queries were
directed to me via personal mail. I am thankful to all of them for
allowing me to seek answers to questions that I myself would have never
asked. I am still answering some of them, and will complete the task soon
enough.
Thank you all for your interest in the article "Antiquity and
Continuity".
Sasneha,
Prasad.
