"A great difficulty is the fact that archaeology offers no firm evidence either for the Aryan invasion theory or for the Aryan emigration theory, or even for the historically attested multiple later immigrations or invasions into South Asia - at least if we restrict ourselves to the evidence of skeletal types and general cultural tradition. As already indicated earlier, invasions of this kind probably do not leave the kind of traces that traditional archaeology would expect. (246)... We can therefore conclude that the Aryan invasion theory is preferable to the emigration theory. But this conclusion is only valid as long as our knowledge of Indo-European culture and expansion or of the Indus culture remains unchanged... If, on the basis of this decipherment, the language of the Indus culture should clearly prove to be Indo-Aryan, then our conclusion would of course have to be revised fundamentally. (246-7)... All existing interpretations of the early and prehistory of South Asia are at best scientific hypotheses, hypotheses that differ only in their degree of probability. In view of the often tense political situation in India with regard to the Hindutva and Dravida self-image, it is in my opinion appropriate to remember the hypothetical nature of these hypotheses. There is no such thing as complete certainty and there cannot be. Why should people then be hostile, heretical or even beat each other up over these hypotheses? (247)"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesAcademics from GermanyLinguists from the United StatesLinguists from GermanyIndologists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Hock, H. H. (2002). Wem gehört die Vergangenheit?: Früh-und Vorgeschichte und indische Selbstwahrnehmung.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hans_Henrich_Hock
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Hans Henrich Hock
29 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Hans Henrich Hock →
Related Quotes
"A close reading of the Rg-vedic passages in which terms meaning white or light and dark or black are employed in refe…"
"[RV 1.100.18] is the only one among these that contains a word meaning white or light. Given that the very next line …"
"Examples 6-9 contain references to black or dark or even black skin; and Geldner's interpretation is almost consisten…"
"Moreover, to get his racial interpretation in [RV 4.6.13-14], Geldner has to unnecessarily assume "attraction", i.e. …"
"The word tvac 'skin' ... does not necessarily designate human or animal skin, but can also refer to the surface of th…"
"Moreover, in [RV 2.20.7 , 1.101.1] , Geldner's translations of the krsnayonih... as meaning 'having blacks or embryos…"
"Geldner's interpretation of [RV 9.73.5 , 10.116.4 ] strike me as even more arbitrary, given the limited context; Gras…"
"In light of the preceding discussion, the racial interpretation of the of the notions light/white and dark/black foun…"
"Early Sanskrit literature offers no conclusive evidence for preoccupation with skin color. More than that, some of th…"
"“….the ‘Sanskrit-origin’ hypothesis runs into insurmountable difficulties, due to the irreversible nature of relevant…"