Misra (1): Linguistic approach

[Guest guest]

Prof. S. S. Misra, (author of The Aryan problem, a linguistic

approach. New Delhi : Munshiram

Manoharlal, 1992) is considered an expert linguist among certain

circles of Indians.

 

Prof. Witzel gives a piece from the "linguistic approach" of Misra in

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/EJVS-7-3.htm

 

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104 Some other topics of this nature will be taken up below (§13 sqq.)

The following passage, however, does not need any comment: "In

ancient times in India such RSis were very powerful. They were great

teachers, researchers, philosophers and scientists. If agastya had

some power he might have helped in bringing down the abnormal height

of the vindhya mountains which created a lack of contact of North and

South. Thus a least this is much likely that due to some factor the

height of the vindhya mountains became abnormally high, so that

the path for contact of North and South was blocked and due to the

growth of population the people in the North had to spread, naturally

farther North. They used the routes like the Khyber pass and left it

and lost all contact and were finally lost to their people ... as a

result the Aryans had to go outside to North-West through the

Himalayan passes and this consequently was responsible for the spread

of Indo-European language family to the outside world." (Misra 1992:

70) Is this linguistics, prehistory, a 'scientific' mahA-bhArata? Or

just a reverse version of O. Rosenberg's Myth of the Twentieth

Century?

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