V. Agrawal's interminable responses

[Guest guest]

Back in town, I see more obfuscation by our vociferous friend, V. Agarwal...

 

Dominik Wujastyk wrote :

 

>It is regrettable that an argument has developed over so simple a

>matter as remembering with kind and positive thoughts the brilliant

>work of a recently departed colleague.

 

I agree fully.

 

However, Vishal Agarwal continues. His *real* point was, of course --

REVENGE for his having been thrown out of the INDDOLOGY list by its

founder, D. Wujastyk.

 

Agarwal latched on to D. Wujastyk's warm rememberance of our recently

departed Guru and colleague to broadcast his own agenda, (not, QUOTE: "by

the way statement", and if it really were so, WHY at all, in heaven's

name?? -- QED) as will be clear from re-reading his this full quote:

 

INDOLOGY, Dominik Wujastyk <ucgadkw@u...> wrote:

>>One of my personal favourite pieces by Prof. Thieme

>>is his amazing interpretation of the Isa Upanisad,

 

> The passing away of Dr. Paul Thieme is indeed a great loss to Indian

Studies. On the above, Patrick Olivelle rejects Thieme's

interpretation of the Isha Upanishad (so do I for similar reasons) -

see the relevant 'notes' in PO's recent edition(s).

The text is actually much more 'harmonious' and more of a monolgue in

my opinion, contary to what Dr. Thieme (or say, even Sri

Shankaracharya) had suggested.

Regards

Vishal <

 

Unfortunatetly, Agarwal has dragged my old guru into his very private match

with D. Wujastyk, and I felt I could not let it stand but had to expose

this young, unpublished but very loud member of this list for what he

really is.

 

The reason, though not immediately visible in above message, is well known

to old members of INDOLOGY: V. Agarwal was thrown out of the original list

last year for his then equally distateful and offensive behavior, his

uncivilized and slanderous speech.

 

He has not forgotten that tort and refers to it at every occasion that may

arise -- so far on other lists. Here two recent examples of his

offensive, even slanderous jottings:

 

4/24 on the Indian Civilization list:

 

"I was expelled unfairly from the now defunct Indology list (and before

that and after

that, many others were expelled too) for voicing my opinions which

were not liked by Eurocentric Indologists. (see April 2000 archives).

 

That old list tolerated all kinds of anti-Indian and anti-Hindu

opinions but anyone who stood for India or Hinduism was summarily

expelled. Racist and hate mongering remarks were patronized and

tolerated in that list endlessly and now we only know what happened to

it.

 

The list master himself had prejudiced views about social and

political set up in India and commented on matters which were beyond

his expertise and kow towed to a coterie of his influential

colleagues. ... ... Vishal""

 

or, cf. ditto 4./17:

 

"... DW himself ... has distinctly prejudiced opinions on Indian politics

and related topics, he chose to have selective deafness, and

effectively undermined his own list. .... Decent people have been expelled

or pressurized to leave from his list most unfairly, .... the impression I

got that Indologists ON THAT LIST are

OFTEN more shallow than academicians in any other discipline in which

I have experience. "

 

I really like the last sentence!

 

His amusing opinions apart, Agarwal conveniently forgets, of course, that

the reason he (and others) was thrown out was his abusive SPEECH, not his

VIEWS ...

 

In short, his outbursts last week and now (add: "You are bigtime liar.

....." 4/28) were just more cases of rash, thoughtless giving in to his

itching fingers and his vengeful mentality...

 

Since the original post on the Isa Upanisad, not his recent answers <who

cares?> , was so distasteful, I thought I should not let it pass.

 

He continues, of course, on this new list, what he has practiced before

and is practicing elsewehre ... As Readers will have amply noticed by

now.

 

And there I will let it rest.

 

MW

 

 

PS.: Of course, we all will *patiently* await the first scholarly paper by

Vishal Agarwal, B.A., on the interpretation of the Isa Upanisad. May we

live long enough to see this path breaking article within this century!

========================================================

Michael Witzel

Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University

2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138, USA

 

ph. 1- 617-496 2990 (also messages)

home page: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm

 

Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies: http://www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs

Attachment: (text/enriched) [not stored]

[Guest guest]

Sigh! Some people really have time for all this.

 

I hope you devote some of your precious time to finally publish your

texts listed as 'forthcoming' since 1974 in your publications. That

will be certainly better appreciated.

 

Please spell my name correctly in future BTW. It is Agarwal,

not 'Agrawal'.

 

Vishal

INDOLOGY, Michael Witzel <witzel@f...> wrote:

> Back in town, I see more obfuscation by our vociferous friend, V.

Agarwal...

>

> Dominik Wujastyk wrote :

>