These are harsh words to say, and calculated no doubt to shock many a
European mind trained to look up to what is termed "scientific
authority" with a feeling akin to that of the savage for his family
fetich. They are well deserved, nevertheless, as a few examples will
show. To such intellects as Prof. Weber's--whom we take as the leader
of the German Orientalists of the type of Christophiles--certainly the
word "obtuseness" cannot be applied. Upon seeing how chronology is
deliberately and maliciously perverted in favour of "Greek influence,"
Christian interests and his own predetermined theories--another, and
even a stronger term should be applied. What expression is too severe
to signify one's feelings upon reading such an unwitting confession of
disingenuous scholarship as Weber repeatedly makes ("Hist. Ind. Lit.")
when urging the necessity of admitting that a passage "has been touched
up by later interpellation," or forcing fanciful chronological places
for texts admittedly very ancient--"as otherwise the dates would be
brought down too far or too near!" And this is the keynote of his
entire policy: fiat hypothesis, ruat caelum! On the other hand Prof.
Max Muller, enthusiastic Indophile as he seems, crams centuries into his
chronological thimble without the smallest apparent compunction....
These two Orientalists are instances, because they are accepted beacons
of philology and Indian paleography. Our national monuments are dated
and our ancestral history perverted to suit their opinions; the
pernicious evil has ensued, that as a result History is now recording
for the misguidance of posterity the false annals and distorted facts
which, upon their evidence, will be accepted without appeal as the
outcome of the fairest and ablest critical analysis. While Prof. Max
Muller will hear of no other than a Greek criterion for Indian
chronology, Prof. Weber (op. cit.) finds Greek influence--his universal
solvent--in the development of India's religion, philosophy, literature,
astronomy, medicine, architecture, &c. To support this fallacy the most
tortuous sophistry, the most absurd etymological deductions are resorted
to. If one fact more than another has been set at rest by comparative
mythology, it is that their fundamental religious ideas, and most of
their gods, were derived by the Greeks from religions flourishing in the
north-west of India, the cradle of the main Hellenic stock. This is now
entirely disregarded, because a disturbing element in the harmony of the
critical spheres. And though nothing is more reasonable than the
inference that the Grecian astronomical terms were inherited equally
from the parent stock, Prof. Weber would have us believe that "it was
Greek influence that just infused a real life into Indian astronomy" (p.
251). In fine, the hoary ancestors of the Hindus borrowed their
astronomical terminology and learnt the art of star gazing and even
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account