orientalists

"Dr. Haug, in his introduction to the Aitareya Brahman, has observed that: "The sattras (sacrificial sessions), which lasted for one year, were nothing but an imitation of the Sun's yearly course. They were divided into two distinct parts, each consisting of six months of thirty days each. In the midst of both was the Vishuvat, i.e. the equator or central day, cutting the whole sattra into two halves.""

"Let them not be discouraged if the results be not so flattering to their self-love as they anticipated. So far as their researches disclose what is good and proper in their religion, they must strengthen the belief in its divine origin; and so far as they disclose what is bad and improper, they merely indicate the corruptions introduced by human tradition. Such corruptions can be neither concealed nor defended with safety; but when discovered, they must be rejected as mere human inventions and superstitious errors. All religions have passed through human minds and human hands. .. ."

"If I have succeeded in throwing one or two rays of light on these fragments of the true songs of Zarathustra, rescued from a 4,000 year-old past, ... I will be richly rewarded for the indescribable difficulty and the great sacrifices I had to make."

"Archaeologists point out that there is not a single cultural element of central Asian, eastern European, or Caucasian origin in the archaeological culture of the Mitannian area.... In contrast to this lacuna, Brentjes draws attention to the peacock element that recurs in Mitannian culture and art in various forms (to be eventually inherited by the Iranians), a motif that could well have come from India, the habitat of the peacock. Since this motif is definitely evidenced in the Near East from before 1600 B.C.E., and quite likely from before 2100 B.C.E., Brentjes (1981) argues that the Indo-Aryans must have been settled in the Near East and in contact with India from well before 1600 B.c.E.32 The corollary of this is that the Indo-Aryans "could not be part of the Andronovo culture [a culture dated around 1650-1600 B.C.E. with which they are usually associated], but should have come to Iran centuries before, at the time when the Hittites came to Anatolia"."

"Pāṇini, ArthŚā, Bṛsam and Vṛkṣ(s) define the word [for wheat] as a type of grain distinct from barley and rice […] Additionally, NāmaMā makes a curious remark: it is a mlecchabhojya, a food of barbarians‘."

"There is not a single cultural element of Central Asian, Eastern European or Caucasian origin in the archaeological culture of the Mittanian area [….] But there is one element novel to Iraq in Mittanian culture and art, which is later on observed in Iranian culture until the Islamisation of Iran: the peacock, one of the two elements of the 'Senmurv', the lion-peacock of the Sassanian art. The first clear pictures showing peacocks in religious context in Mesopotamia are the Nuzi cylinder seals of Mittanian time. There are two types of peacocks: the griffin with a peacock head and the peacock dancer, masked and standing beside the holy tree of life. The veneration of the peacock could not have been brought by the Mittanians from Central Asia or South-Eastern Europe; they must have taken it from the East, as peacocks are the type-bird of India and peacock dancers are still to be seen all over India. The earliest examples are known from the Harappan culture, from Mohenjo-daro and Harappa: two birds sitting on either side of the first tree of life are painted on ceramics. [….] The religious role of the peacock in India and the Indian-influenced Buddhist art in China and Japan need not be questioned" .... "The peacock was therefore subordinated to Indra and connected with the thunderbolt, so that in some Buddhist images Indra is sitting on a peacock throne. It is even possible to trace the peacock as the 'animal of the battle' in Elam till the late 3rd millennium B.C - if it is possible to identify two figured poles from Susa with 'peacock' symbols" ... "Yet the development of the Andronovo culture did not start before 1650-1600 B.C. So that we are forced to accept that the Indo-Aryans in what is now Iran, especially Eastern Iran before 1600 B.C., were under the Indian influence for such a long period that they could have taken over the peacock veneration. In that case, they could not be part of the Andronovo culture, but should have come to Iran centuries before."

"An intriguing point emerges from the find of the term Pippali in the list of agricultural terms in the Saunakiya Atharvaveda by the famous Hungarian Sanskritist Gyula Wojtilla. Considering the importance of such an intense study relating to the agriculture of the later Vedic period, it may be useful to draw attention to the broad conclusions of Wojtillaís study (www.sanskrit.nic.in/SVmarsha/V6/ c3.Pdf) ëagricultural knowledge as it is reflected in the Saunakiya Atharvavedaóa reappraisalí.preponderance of rice cultivation indicated by the terms dhanya, vrihi and sasya and the strong position of barley (yava) production. The unambiguous term for wheat (godhuma) is missing here, but it can be attested in the Paippalada Atharvaveda (IX, 11, 12). ìVerse 5 of hymn II, 4 makes a clear distinction between the forest products and that of ploughing. Special hymns have been recited in order to make agriculture successful (III, 17), to promote the abundance of grain (III, 24), to increase barley (VI, 142). The king of gods, Indra, holds down the furrow and Pcan defends it (III, 17, 4). Indra has a hundred abilities (Aatakritu), is called siripati the master of the plough (VI, 30, 1). Visnuís stride is ëstirred up by ploughingí(X, 5, 34). Hymn XII, 1 extols the earth. Verse 3 and 4 say that the earth is ëon whom food, plowing, came into beingí. According to verse 17 she is ëthe all-producing mother of herbs ....The number of attestations is edifying: dhanya is attested nine times, phala seven times, krisi and tandula six times, ksetra, yava, vrihi and surpa five times, urvara, baja and sira three times, kinasa, khanitrima, khalva, tila, tusa, pippali, bija two times, while the remaining twenty-nine only once. It indicates the established position of agriculture among other economic activities, the preponderance of rice cultivation indicated by the terms dhanya, vrihi and sasya and the strong position of barley (yava) production. The unambiguous term for wheat (godhuma) is missing here, but it can be attested in the Paippalada Atharvaveda (IX, 11, 12) ....the text bears the testimony ofsignificant contemporary changes in agricultural production. The main points of these changes are as follows. New tools such as spade, (abhri), or probably varieties of tools or new names for already known tools appear: sickle (parsu), sieve (pavana, surpa). There are formerly unknown plant names: some of them arenot satisfactorily explained such as abayu, pippali and baja, while other are of great economical importance such as sugar-cane (iksu), cucumber (urvaru), black chick-pea (khalva), sesame (tila) and hemp (sana). There is a full-fledged inventory of the place, implements, products and by-products of rice processing: threshing-floor (khala), sieve (pavana, surpa), grain after threshing and winnowing (tanula) and chaff (tusa)."

"Kuiper [...] clearly puts it [the word for wheat] in the group of foreign words adopted before the Aryans reached India, [...] there are problems [...]. The trouble begins with the non-attestation of the word in the Rigveda. [...] It is puzzling because this earliest extant text in Sanskrit is supposed to be linked with the earliest Indo-Aryan speakers who entered India. Moreover, the geographical area of the genesis of the Ṛgveda is considered a fertile wheat producing region [...] As a matter of fact, there is abundant archaeological evidence of wheat remains from the Punjab [...] from the period before the invasion of Indo-Aryan speakers."

"Whatever value these records may possess lies in the fact that when they were made, Japan had within a few years emerged from a peculiar state of civilization which had endured for centuries. Even at that time, however (1877), changes had taken place, such as the modern training of its armies; a widespread system of public schools; government departments of war, treasury, agriculture, telegraph, post, statistics, and other bureaus of modern administration, — all these instrumentalities making a slight impress on the larger cities such as Tokyo and , sufficiently marked, however, to cause one to envy those who only a few years before had seen the people when all the wore the two swords, when every man wore the and . The country towns and villages were little, if at all, affected by these foreign introductions, and the greater part of my memoranda and sketches were made in the country."

"Soon after his first arrival in Japan, Morse became interested in everything bearing on the ancient culture of the people. This was shown in the epoch making discovery and excavation of the . Implements and pottery were found there. In 1878 he wrote that he was starting a collection of pottery. ... In 1890 this great collection was deposited with the Boston Art Museum and two years later the Museum bought it, Morse being made Keeper of Japanese Pottery and holding the office for the rest of his life."

"On the approach of winter, s bury themselves in the ground, and those that have shells retire within the shell as far as possible, and close the aperture of the shell with a film of the mucus which the body secretes so abundantly. In this condition they remain dormant until revived by the warm weather of spring. If the pupil will collect a number of snails in the early spring, and keep them confined in a box, with earth, damp leaves, or bits of rotten wood or bark, the snails in the course of a few weeks will lay a number of little eggs. These eggs will be white and round, about the size of a pin’s-head. By careful tending, that is, by keeping the leaves slightly moist, the eggs will hatch out tiny snails, and these will attain half their mature size the first season."

"One of the reasons why the Catholic Church attains greater success than the Protestants in China is that its missionaries are men, its preachers are men, the dresses in Chinese garb, he lives among them and becomes one of them ; he is careful not to interfere with their superstitions only so far as these interfere with his own, and is especially careful not to inveigh against the . His , , and picturesque ritual does not widely differ from the Buddhist."

"In the gardens of the better classes summer-houses and shelters of rustic appearance and diminutive proportions are often seen. Rustic arbors are also to be seen in the larger gardens. . High fences, either of board or , or solid walls of mud or tile with stone foundations, surround the house or enclose it from the street. Low rustic fences border the gardens in the suburbs. Gateways of various styles, some of imposing design, form the entrances; as a general thing they are either rustic and light, or formal and massive."

"Fifty years ago in , while walking along the road I passed an open field and noticed to my astonishment hundreds of flashing in perfect unison. I watched this curious sight for some time and the synchronism of the flashing was unbroken. Many times after I have watched these luminous insects, hoping to see a repetition of this phenomenon, but the flashes in every instance were intermittent. Since that time I have read about these insects in various books without meeting any allusion to this peculiar behavior. At last I have found a confirmation of my early observations. In of December 9, page 414, is the report of an interesting paper read before the by entitled “ Luminous Insects ” in which reference is made to the remarkable synchronism of the flashes in certain European species of fireflies. ..."

"Iesus in this very district receives the Nazarene Baptism of John; and must therefore be included among the Sabians. The New Testament expressly connects itself with the ‘Nazarene sect’ over the Jordan."

"The Sumerologist is one of the narrowest of specialists in the highly specialized academic halls of learning, a well-nigh perfect example of the man who "knows mostest about the leastest.""

"So whenever I give a lecture, somebody from the audience gets up and says, "Dr Kramer, ... how do you know how to pronounce these words?" And my answer then is as follows: If one of the dead Sumerians that Leonard Woolley dug up at Ur, if he was miraculously resurrected and came into the room and he heard me say, [speaks Sumerian], he would say: "That man Kramer, he’s doing very well; he’s pronouncing his words and I understand them. But my goodness does he have a Jewish accent.""

"Of Christian Lassen, it was said as early as 1890 [Oldenberg 1890:27] that “the sagacity of philological thought is wanting in him”. Need we say more?"

"The result of this inquiry, which is presented here, is that Arja in part in itself, in part in forms derived from it, is proven to be the ancient, indigenous, honorable designation of the Iranian peoples and lands in its widest extension, as it also [designates] the three higher Indian casts and the Brahmanical constitution and the Sanskrit rhetoric of the Indian lands. It shows us the sense in which we are to differentiate the Aryan Indians from the rest. For the name seems not to apply to other peoples of the Indogerman family.’"

"There is little doubt that Lassen was one of the foremost theoreticians of race of the nineteenth century, responsible in large part for supplying the “historical” data that led to the creation of the “Āryan” race concept. This makes the present-day enthusiasm for him even more puzzling."

"The key role played by Lassen in the development of modern ideas of race is not a matter of dispute, but what is less often noted is the central role the Mahābhārata played in his reconstructions of ancient Indian history. If the racism of Gobineau is unimaginable without Lassen’s researches, it is equally true that Lassen’s researches are unimaginable without the Mahābhārata."

"The comprehensive picture of ancient Indian civilization that he was able to give meant that the Indians were now finally and "fully accepted" into the circle of ancient cultural peoples that were significant for the history of mankind and, as such, could be included in historical comparisons. The expansion of the historical-geographical horizon that Lassen's four volumes made possible was a very important step in the process of overcoming the old biblical view of history - after all, just twenty years earlier, like for Peter von Bohlen in his History of the Ancient World, only the old biblically relevant cultures of Egypt, Israel, Persia, Greece and Rome had been considered the roots of human culture."

"In spite of his copious studies on the Mahābhārata, however, Lassen’s work was not especially innovative: once laid down, his basic views on the epic remained unchanged for nearly a quarter century. Later studies amplified and provided additional “ethnographic” evidence for views he had already articulated in his 1837 article, but they did not in any way question or otherwise critically illuminate the basis for these views. Regardless, Lassen’s pedantic, self-assured tone and the confidence with which he put forth speculative assertions about ancient India as established fact greatly impressed a generation of scholars. Albrecht Weber, Theodor Goldstücker, and Adolf Holtzmann Jr. all accepted his reconstructions of ancient Indian history and ethnography."

"It was already in the middle of the former century that Christian Lassen qualified the opposition of arya and dasyu or dasa as a contrast between different religions expressed by the age-old symbolism of black opposed to white and not as a contrast of darkcomplexioned to white coloured men."

"Often enough it seemed as though, like the river Sarasvatī, the lost stream of the old Sapta-sindhavas, the river of Indian thought had disappeared beneath the surface or had become lost in shallow marshes and morasses . . . But, sooner or later, we see the stream reappear, and then old ideas resume their way."

"The Hindoos as well as the Chinese have ever laid claim to an Antiquity infinitely more remote than is authorized by the Belief of the rest of Mankind."

"The World does not now contain Annals of more indisputable Antiquity than those delivered down by the ancient Bramins."

"This thesis will receive—and has already received—cheers from dilettantes. Dilettantes desperately need one thing: the proof that the population of the Armenian Plateau spoke Armenian ever since the Palaeolithic period, if possible."

"The Proto-Indo-European term for 'horse' shows only that horses were known (nobody doubts this); it does not mean that horses were already domesticated."

"From our point of view there was no migration as such. . . .There was a gradual spread from one center in all directions. In the course of such a spread the groups of dialects and specific isoglosses that had developed were maintained. . . .The biological situation among the speakers of modern Indo-European languages can only be explained through a transfer of languages like a baton, as it were, in a relay race, but not by several thousand miles' migration of the tribes themselves. (152-153)."

"In Old Iranian, Proto-Aryan s has become h. In old Persian an ethnic name Daha- is attested, also as a proper noun in the administrative tablets found at Persepolis; the masculine plural is used as the name of a province of the Persian empire, placed before the similarly used name of the Sakas in a Persepolis inscription of Xerxes (h 26). In the Greek sources Herodotus (1,125) is the first to mention the people called Daoi, as a nomadic tribe of the Persians. More accurate information on them , however, is delivered by Alexander's historians. According to Q. Curtius Rufus (8,3) and Ptolemy's Geography (6 ,10,2) , the Dahas lived on the lower course of the river Margos (modern Murghab) or.. in the northern steppe area of Margiana. Pomponius Mela (3,42), based on Eratosthenes, tells that the great bend of the river Oxus towards the northwest begins near the Dahas (juxta Dahas), Tacitus (Ann. 11,10) places the Dahae on the northern border of Areia, mentioning the river Sindes (modern Tejend) as the border. These placements agree neatly with that of Namazga V culture of Margiana and Bactria [in greater Iran]."

"The word pani means dealer, trafficker, from pan (also pan, d. Tamil pan , Greek ponos, labour) .... " A footnote to pan reads:"Sayana takes pan in Veda - to praise, but in one place he admits the sense of vyavahara, dealing. Action seems to me to be its sense in most passages. From pan in the sense of action we have the earlier names of the organs of action, pani, hand, foot or hoof, Lat. penis, d. also piiyu."

"The Greek form of the name, Parnos«: (from Iranian * Parna-) , corresponds to Sanskrit Pani-, if it is assumed to be a "Prakritic" development of the reduced grade form *Pmi-, The full grade seems to be found in the name Parnaya- attested as an enemy of the king (Divodasa) Atithigva in Rlgveda] Slamhira] 1,53,8 and 10,48,8. These names may go back to the same Aryan verbal root as the name of the Dasa king Pipru, namely pr- (present piparti, pr1)ati) 'to bring over, rescue, protect, excel, be able'. The ar:r• variation reflects a dialectal difference within Indo-Iranian. Some other proper names of the Dasa chiefs are also clearly of Aryan origin, for example Varcin- 'possessed of (vital) power' (ct. ~S varcas = Avestan varscan 'vital power')."

"The picture we derive from Parpola is of a traffic to and fro of cultural modes—continued from a fairly long past and across sufficiently wide areas—against a common religious background of various shades. It is a picture of contacts and exchanges. . . . none of them necessarily bespeak large-scale movements of population."

"Parpola's account has received criticisms from various other quarters. Sarianidi (1993b) notes: It should be indicated that the available direct archaeological data contradict the theory, suggested long ago, concerning the intensive penetration of the steppe Andronovo-type tribes into traditional agricultural areas. Direct archaeological data from Bactria and Margiana show without any shade of doubt that Andronovo tribes penetrated to a minimum extent into Bactria and Margianian oases, not exceeding the limits of normal contacts so natural for tribes with different economical structures, living in the borderlands of steppe and agricultural oases."

"A. Parpola is an abundant writer, but not very rational."

"To conclude, the culture and proper names of the Mitanni Indo-Aryans were dominated by the horse and the chariot. Indeed, the Mitanni Indo-Aryans seem to have been the prime motors in the introduction of chariotry into the West Asian warfare around 1500 bce."

"At this time Assyria was trading with Cappadocia and importing tin from the east. The source of this tin may have been in central and northern Afghanistan (Kandahar and Badakshan), whence the Harappans and the Bactrians appear also to have obtained their supplies… On the other hand, from the 18th century B.C. onwards, north Syrian seals show such a typically Central Asian motif as the two-humped Bactrian camel, which is depicted in the BMAC seals several times…These cultural contacts between the Syro-Hittite world and the BMAC do not prove that the hypothetical Aryan authors of the BMAC came from the west, as suggested by Sarianidi (1993b, 1994), but rather foreshadow the takeover of power in Syria by the Mitanni Aryans and support their Central Asian origin.”"

"While virtually no object of clearly West Asiatic origin has been discovered in the Greater Indus Valley, dozens of seals bearing the Indus script have been found in Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf, along with Harappan weights and jewelry. Cuneiform texts also speak of sea trade with foreign countries, and there is nowadays wide agreement that the most distant of these countries, Meluhha, was the Greater Indus Valley."

"Sanskrit Dāsa- as an ethnic name thus has an exact counterpart in Avestan Dåŋha-, which stands for *Dāha-. The corresponding Old Persian ethnic name is Daha-. The plural form Dahā is included among the subjects of the Great King in the “empire list” of Xerxes, immediately before the two kinds of Sakā. Herodotus (1,125) includes the Dā´ai / Dā´oi (intervocalic h is omitted in Greek) among the nomadic tribes of the Persians. According to Q. Curtius Rufus (8,3), the Dahae lived on the lower course of the river Margus (modern Murghab) in Margiana, where they are also located in Ptolemy’s Geography (6,10,2). Eratosthenes, quoted by Pomponius Mela (3,42), notes that the great bend of the Oxus towards the northwest begins near the Dahae. Tacitus (Annales 11,10) places the Dahae on the border river (Sindes, modern Tejend) between Areia and Margiana."

"The etymologies of the names used by the Rgvedic Aryans of their enemies thus speak for their above suggested identification with the carriers of the Bronze Age culture of Greater Iran, and for the proposal that these were speakers of an Aryan language."

"The fire-altars of Kalibangan and Lothal are so far without parallels at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. Indeed, it has been asked [by Raymond and Bridget Allchin]: "Fire- worship being considered a distinctly Indo-Aryan trait, do these {ritual hearths of Kalibangan] carry with them an indication of an Indo-Aryan presence even from so early a date?" This hypothesis new seems quite plausible to me, if "Indo-Aryan" here is understood to refer to carriers of the Bronze Age culture of Greater Iran, who had become quickly absorbed into the Indus Civilization, culturally and linguistically. It is supported further by the cylinder shape of the famous Kalibangan seal showing a Durga-like goddess of war, who is associated with the tiger. The goddess on the Kalibangan cylinder seal is said to be similar in style, especially the headdress, to one depicted on a cylinder seal from Shahdad [in Kerman on the desert of Lut in Iran, a major centre of the Bronze Age cultural tradition]. Seated lions attend to a goddess of fertility on a metal flag found at Shahdad."

"Other such Dasa demons are 'the loud-shouting Dasa with six eyes and three heads', a boar ivaraha) whom Trita slew with his metal-tipped inspired speech (RS 10,99,6), Urana with 99 arms and Arbuda (RS 2,14,4), and the Dasa Vyarnsa who wounded Indra and struck off both of his jaws, before Indra smashed his head with the weapon (RS 4,18,9; 1,101,2). The Dasa dragon (ahi) , from whom Indra wrests the waters (2,11 ,2), has a counterpart in the A vestan aii! dahako."

"The hymns specify by name individual Aryan kings and their Dasa or Dasyu foes , with genealogies. Thus Indra helped Divodasa Atithigva, the king of the Trtsus, in , vanquishing Dasa Sambara, who is mentioned about twenty times in the Rgveda. Divodasa's descendant was king Sudas, most famous for the battle of ten kings (RS 7,18 & 33 & 83). Sudas fought against Dasas as well as Aryans: RS 7,83,1 " ... Slay both the Dasa enemies and the Aryan: protect Sudas with your aid, a Indra and Varuna." Similarly Indra aided Rjisvan, son of Vidathin, to conquer Dasa Pipru, whose name occurs eleven times . .Dabhiti pressed Soma for Indra and was aided by the god, who sent to sleep 30,000 Dasas (RS 4,30,2) and bound a thousand Dasyus with cords (~S 2,13,9), so that the Dasas Cumuri and Dhuni were overcome and their castles destroyed (~S 6,18,8). Other probably historical enemies of the Aryans who are called Dasa and mentioned by name are Varcin, whose 100,000 warriors were slain by Indra; Drbhika and Rudhikra (E-S 2,14,3 & 5); Anarsani and Srbinda (~S 8,32,3); Arsasana (~S 1,130,8; 2,20,6); and Ilibisa (E-S 1,33,12). What an important role the struggles with their enemies played in the lives of the Aryans at this period is illustrated also by the names of some of their own kings: the son of Purukutsa was called Trasadasyu "one who makes the Dasyus tremble""

"The ancient map of Persia, Colchis,. and Armenia is absolutely full of the most distinct and startling evidences of Indian colonization, and, what is more astonishing, practically evinces, in the most powerful manner, the truth of several main points in the two great Indian poems, the Ramayana and the Mahahharata. The whole map is positively nothing less than a journal of emigration on the most gigantic scale."

"Pococke, in his most ingenious work, strongly advocates the same idea, and endeavors to establish still more firmly the identity of the Egyptian, Greek, and Indian mythology. He shows the head of the Rajpoot Solar race -- in fact the great Cuclo-pos (Cyclop or builder) -- called "The great sun," in the earliest Hindu tradition. This Gok-la Prince, the patriarch of the vast bands of Inachienses, he says, "this Great Sun was deified at his death, and according to the Indian doctrine of the metempsychosis, his Soul was supposed to have transmigrated into the bull 'Apis,' the Sera-pis of the Greeks, and the SOORAPAS, or 'Sun-Chief' of the Egyptians. . . ."

"I have glanced at the Indian settlements in Egypt, which will again be noticed, and I will now resume my observations from the lofty frontier, which is the true boundary of the European and Indian races. The Parasoos, the people of Parasoo Ram, those warriors of the Axe, have penetrated into and given a name to Persia; they are the people of Bharata; and to the principal stream that pours its waters into the Persian Gulf they have given the name of Ea-Bharates (Euphrat-es), the Bharat Chief."

"Edward Pococke (1604-1691) English Orientalist says: "At the mouths of the Indus dwell a seafaring people, active, ingenious, and enterprising as when, ages subsequent to this great movement.....these people coast along the shores of Mekran, traverse the mouth of the Persian Gulf, and again adhering to the sea-board of Oman, Hadramant, and Yeman (the Eastern Arabia), they sail up the Red Sea; and again ascending mighty stream that fertilizes a land of wonders, found the kingdom of Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia. These are the same stock that, centuries subsequently to this colonization, spread the blessings of civilization over Hellas and her islands.""

"Without Indian influence Japanese culture would not be what it is today."

"India is culturally, Mother of Japan. For centuries it has, in her own characteristic way, been exercising her influence on the thought and culture of Japan."