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Re: Rigveda
Shrisha Rao wrote:
>
> In article <ghenDsrsrH.L19@netcom.com>, DiannaFos <diannafos@aol.com> wrote:
> >There is also a partial translation by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty. She has
> >translated many of the more well known selections such as the Purusha
> >Sukta and other verses on creation, death, sacrifice, women, and many of
> >the Vedic gods such as Agni, Soma, Varuna et al. She also attempts to
> >explain some of the meanings of the verses.
>
> It should be added here that Wendy Doniger is one of the least
> competent scholars to have lent their pen to the exposition of the
> Vedas, ever. She has absolutely no idea what she is talking/writing
> about, and has a rather perverse, preconceived "ours is superior"
Agree emphatically. Ms. Doniger has a one-track mind. Everything vedic
is to be analyzed according to Freudian psychoanalysis, according to
her. She revels in finding undercurrents of oedipal complex, fear of
castration and other neuroses that Freud found in patients who had way
too much time on their hands and nothing to do with it. It might also be
worth remembering that it somewhat passe now to analyze religious motifs
according to psychoanalysis. At one point of time, everybody tried to
jump onto that bandwagon. Now it is obvious to every academician, except
Ms. Doniger, that this is a stupid and futile endeavor.
> attitude, to boot. These characteristics are somewhat common in
> Western scholars of the Vedas, but few, if any, have sunk to such
Actually, the contemporary, serious Western scholars like Prof. Witzel
of Harvard, Prof. Parpola from Finland and others of their kind don't
seem to have such biases, and we would be doing them a disservice if we
judge them to be similar to the 19th cent. Westerners. Witzel is the
general editor of the online Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, by the
way. These scholars are also very unhappy with Wendy Doniger's
shenanigans that pass for scholarship. There are many deficiencies in
Wendy Doniger's translations and interpretations that the more serious
scholars have pointed out.
S. Vidyasankar
