Sanskrit As A Language Of Science • Hacker News Board

Re: Sanskrit As A Language Of Science

#31

Post by coastside_geek » Tue, Jun 26, 2012, 4:39 AM UTC

rushabh wrote: post #10

tokenadult wrote: post #2

There are several very controversial ideas here about the prehistory and history of India. And the history of India is such a controversial subject within India that many thoughtful writers who live in India pass up the opportunity to dig into the sources and write thorough histories of their own country. http://www.historytoday.com/mihir-bose/india%E2%80%99s-missi... Readers from India who read widely are probably a…

It often surprises me that in discussions of Indian History (including that article by Mihir Bose that you site), one of the best historians of ancient India is conveniently forgotten. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romila_Thapar

I've found her writings to be very nuanced and rational. However she seems to be classified as a "Marxist historian" by the Indian media. I have no idea what that means.

Her book and articles on Somnath are very interesting.

Re: Sanskrit As A Language Of Science

#32

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 26, 2012, 5:21 AM UTC

tokenadult wrote: post #2

There are several very controversial ideas here about the prehistory and history of India. And the history of India is such a controversial subject within India that many thoughtful writers who live in India pass up the opportunity to dig into the sources and write thorough histories of their own country. http://www.historytoday.com/mihir-bose/india%E2%80%99s-missi... Readers from India who read widely are probably a…

[deleted]

Re: Sanskrit As A Language Of Science

#33

Post by elangoc » Wed, Jun 27, 2012, 8:21 AM UTC

elangoc wrote: post #11

statictype wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be nice if you could expand on what the actual controversies are.

The Indus Valley Civilization is the indigenous civilization in the region of India, Pakistan, and parts of Afghanistan and Iran. It traded with Ancient Egypt, Sumeria, Greece, and Rome. For its time, it was the largest ancient civilization, and it was highly impressive (they had uniform brick buildings, perpendicular grid streets, covered sewers, a base-10 system of standardized weights, etc. : http://en.wikipedia.o…

minor correction, for the record: Max Müller did a lot of research into 'Aryan' culture via Sanskrit. Müller attempted to learn more about the origins of European religion and culture by reconstructing proto-Indo European language. Müller was opposed to Darwinism applied to people, and was very opposed to people using the term Aryan for racist purposes. He believed the shared history of different races should show we're all the same. The term 'Aryan' was coined for Western ears slightly before Müller. Robert Caldwell was the first one who came up with the term 'Dravidian' following his research into the matter. Prior to Caldwell, Dravidian languages and cultures were seen entirely through the lens of Sanskrit, although even today, as I mentioned before, this Sanskritic perspective to explain more than the evidence supports is kept alive by some people & interests.

On an interesting side note, according to Wikipedia, Müller also said, "the blackest Hindus represent an earlier stage of Aryan speech and thought than the fairest Scandinavians". That statement is true, even though Müller was not alive when the IVC was discovered -- swastika symbol clay seals have been found in the IVC, meaning that the swastika predates anything 'Aryan'. And there's similar irony with the red-and-black colors, in case you're wondering.