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    The Penguin History of Early India, From The Origins To AD 1300 - Romila Thapar - Part43

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    MukeshChhawari
    This document discusses how notions of race influenced the study of early India, or Indology. It explains that linguistic studies of Sanskrit helped develop the field of comparative philology in Europe. This led scholars to study early Asian languages and re-examine the early history of Eurasia. The study of Sanskrit and Indian ethnography also fed into the emerging field of "race science." Certain scholars like Max Muller reflected on race while studying Sanskrit texts. Based on his analysis of the Vedas, he reconstructed the perceived presence of an Aryan race in India and described Indian society as the reversal of European society. His theories about the Aryans drew from the idea that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin descended from a

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    The Penguin History of Early India, From The Origins To AD 1300 - Romila Thapar - Part43

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    MukeshChhawari
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    This document discusses how notions of race influenced the study of early India, or Indology. It explains that linguistic studies of Sanskrit helped develop the field of comparative philology in Europe. This led scholars to study early Asian languages and re-examine the early history of Eurasia. The study of Sanskrit and Indian ethnography also fed into the emerging field of "race science." Certain scholars like Max Muller reflected on race while studying Sanskrit texts. Based on his analysis of the Vedas, he reconstructed the perceived presence of an Aryan race in India and described Indian society as the reversal of European society. His theories about the Aryans drew from the idea that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin descended from a

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    This document discusses how notions of race influenced the study of early India, or Indology. It explains that linguistic studies of Sanskrit helped develop the field of comparative philology in Europe. This led scholars to study early Asian languages and re-examine the early history of Eurasia. The study of Sanskrit and Indian ethnography also fed into the emerging field of "race science." Certain scholars like Max Muller reflected on race while studying Sanskrit texts. Based on his analysis of the Vedas, he reconstructed the perceived presence of an Aryan race in India and described Indian society as the reversal of European society. His theories about the Aryans drew from the idea that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin descended from a

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pdf or txt
    177 views1 page

    The Penguin History of Early India, From The Origins To AD 1300 - Romila Thapar - Part43

    Uploaded by

    MukeshChhawari
    This document discusses how notions of race influenced the study of early India, or Indology. It explains that linguistic studies of Sanskrit helped develop the field of comparative philology in Europe. This led scholars to study early Asian languages and re-examine the early history of Eurasia. The study of Sanskrit and Indian ethnography also fed into the emerging field of "race science." Certain scholars like Max Muller reflected on race while studying Sanskrit texts. Based on his analysis of the Vedas, he reconstructed the perceived presence of an Aryan race in India and described Indian society as the reversal of European society. His theories about the Aryans drew from the idea that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin descended from a

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    of 1

    EARLY I N D I A

    subcontinent do not seem to have left itineraries of where they went or


    descriptions of what they saw. Distant places enter the narratives of storytelling only very occasionally.

    Notions of Race and their Influence on Indology


    Linguistic studies, especially those of Sanskrit grammarians, helped develop
    the discipline of comparative philology in Europe, which in turn led not
    only to encouraging the study of the early languages of Asia but also to
    re-reading the early history of Eurasia. The study of Sanskrit and the
    ethnography of India also fed into what was emerging as a new perspective
    on human society, the discipline of 'race science' as it came to be called.
    Race was a European invention that drew from a variety of contemporary
    studies and situations, such as the categorizing of plants by Linnaeus,
    Social Darwinism arguing for the survival of the fittest, and the triumph of
    imperialism that was used to claim superiority for the European.
    Social concerns, which later incorporated racial attitudes, governed the
    British approach towards their empire. Traditional aristocracies were
    regarded as racially superior and their status upheld prior to their being
    incorporated into the new colonial hierarchy. This also enhanced the status
    of the colonizer. Traditions could be invented, drawing on a supposed
    history and legitimizing authority. But theories of race were also applied to
    larger categories of people, believed to be the authors of civilizations.
    F. Max Miiller is one example of a scholar who reflected on race while
    studying Sanskrit. His major contribution to the interpretation of Indian
    history was the reconstruction of a perceived Aryan presence, or even on
    occasion a race, from his study of the Vedas. Like Mill, Max Miiller did not
    think it necessary to visit India, yet he projected Indian society as a reversal
    of the European, evidenced by his books India, What Can it Teach Us? and
    Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas. His fanciful descriptions
    of Indians made of them a gentle, passive people who spent their time
    meditating. His study of Vedic Sanskrit and philology brought him to his
    theories about the Aryans. In showing the similarities between Sanskrit,
    Greek and Latin, William Jones had argued for a monogenesis of language,
    suggesting that they had all descended from an ancestral language. IndoEuropean was now projected as such a language, a hypothetical language
    reconstructed from known languages that were related to each other within
    a structure of linguistic rules. This was often incorrectly extended to equating
    all those who spoke Indo-European languages with membership of an Aryan
    z

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