Saturday, November 26, 2005
William Jones
A name that most Indians haven't heard of. The original orientalist, proponent of the Aryan Invasion Theory and the person to whom we owe our understanding of the subcontinent's ancient history.
As a Philologist, Jones' crowning achievement was the indepth study of the classical Indian tests. He is best known for observing the affinity between Sanskrit and other Indo-European Languages. The following observation of his had wide-ranging implications on Indian history and altered our racial sense.
The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists
Here are some examples that reveal a startling similarity between an oriental tongue and its distant occidental cousin :
Sanskrit Latin Meaning
trayas tres three
devas divus divine
sarpa serpens serpent
Words for 'father' in different Indo-European languages -
"father"
pitar (Sanskrit)
pater (Latin)
pater (Greek)
padre (Spanish)
pere (French)
father (English)
fadar (Gothic)
fa∂ir (Old Norse)
vader (German)
athir (Old Irish--with loss of original consonant)
It can be said that Sanskrit is much closer to Spanish in origin that it is to Tamil.
The more I read about William Jones' work, I find it increasingly hard to conceive the existence of a Pan-Indian race or an 'Indian' family of languages, as claimed by our obscurantist nationalists.
It's sad though that linguistic research of this kind that could provide a link to our obscured past doesn't get much press in our country.
Here's a fascinating page that explores this topic in greater detail
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A name that most Indians haven't heard of. The original orientalist, proponent of the Aryan Invasion Theory and the person to whom we owe our understanding of the subcontinent's ancient history.
As a Philologist, Jones' crowning achievement was the indepth study of the classical Indian tests. He is best known for observing the affinity between Sanskrit and other Indo-European Languages. The following observation of his had wide-ranging implications on Indian history and altered our racial sense.
The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists
Here are some examples that reveal a startling similarity between an oriental tongue and its distant occidental cousin :
Sanskrit Latin Meaning
trayas tres three
devas divus divine
sarpa serpens serpent
Words for 'father' in different Indo-European languages -
"father"
pitar (Sanskrit)
pater (Latin)
pater (Greek)
padre (Spanish)
pere (French)
father (English)
fadar (Gothic)
fa∂ir (Old Norse)
vader (German)
athir (Old Irish--with loss of original consonant)
It can be said that Sanskrit is much closer to Spanish in origin that it is to Tamil.
The more I read about William Jones' work, I find it increasingly hard to conceive the existence of a Pan-Indian race or an 'Indian' family of languages, as claimed by our obscurantist nationalists.
It's sad though that linguistic research of this kind that could provide a link to our obscured past doesn't get much press in our country.
Here's a fascinating page that explores this topic in greater detail
Labels: languages
Monday, November 14, 2005
Pertinent Observation
"Google wants the rest of the world to put its stuff online to be searchable by Google. Will the stuff Google creates be searchable by everyone else?"
Jeff Jarvis (link via Instapundit)
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"Google wants the rest of the world to put its stuff online to be searchable by Google. Will the stuff Google creates be searchable by everyone else?"
Jeff Jarvis (link via Instapundit)
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Much Ado about Nothing
Compared with China, and measured by value, how much does America manufacture?
About twice as much
This should definitely silence the protectionist doomsayers in the US.
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Compared with China, and measured by value, how much does America manufacture?
About twice as much
This should definitely silence the protectionist doomsayers in the US.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Arbit Musing
The Greatest Loss is the loss of self-confidence.
The Most Dangerous Trait is the absence of self doubt.
Hmmmm. How do you reconcile these two statements.......
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The Greatest Loss is the loss of self-confidence.
The Most Dangerous Trait is the absence of self doubt.
Hmmmm. How do you reconcile these two statements.......
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
An Update...
I was way too gullible in the previous post. Got carried away by the good Professor's number crunching. Micheal Higgins has demystified the statistical quirk since then.
Can somebody point out why it is much more likely for a batsman to have a round figure strike rate of 50 or 100 than 49.88 or 99.74?
Post your answers without reading Higgins' elementary explanation.
Read the article here to know what I'm talking about.
Current Mood - Embarassed.
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I was way too gullible in the previous post. Got carried away by the good Professor's number crunching. Micheal Higgins has demystified the statistical quirk since then.
Can somebody point out why it is much more likely for a batsman to have a round figure strike rate of 50 or 100 than 49.88 or 99.74?
Post your answers without reading Higgins' elementary explanation.
Read the article here to know what I'm talking about.
Current Mood - Embarassed.
Labels: cricket, statistics
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
|Monday, November 07, 2005
An Extension to the Prisoner's Dilemma
It's amazing how seemingly pedantic concepts like this one, have wide-ranging implications.
Here's an excellent post at Cafe Hayek on why people vote. Do read it.
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It's amazing how seemingly pedantic concepts like this one, have wide-ranging implications.
Here's an excellent post at Cafe Hayek on why people vote. Do read it.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
The Quest for Truth
The year was 1663. A Professor at Cambridge was discoursing passionately on natural philosophy, a subject better known to us as Physics, to a class of sophomores. The principles formulated by the great Greek polymaths, which had been an integral part of the textbooks in Europe for more than half a millenium, formed the topic of discussion.
To be more accurate though, it was probably more of a lecture than a discussion. The students were rapt with attention drinking in each word. The more conscientous among them did well to make meticulous notes. One such student, in the backbenches, stopped abruptly midpage,perhaps out of boredom, left a dozen pages empty and wrote the following words in Latin on top of a fresh page -
Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae
(Some Problems in Philosophy)
Amicus Plato Amicus Aristoteles Magis Amica Veritas
( I am a friend of Plato, I am a friend of Aristotle.
But Truth is my greater friend )
The young man was none other than Isaac Newton.
More about him later.
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The year was 1663. A Professor at Cambridge was discoursing passionately on natural philosophy, a subject better known to us as Physics, to a class of sophomores. The principles formulated by the great Greek polymaths, which had been an integral part of the textbooks in Europe for more than half a millenium, formed the topic of discussion.
To be more accurate though, it was probably more of a lecture than a discussion. The students were rapt with attention drinking in each word. The more conscientous among them did well to make meticulous notes. One such student, in the backbenches, stopped abruptly midpage,perhaps out of boredom, left a dozen pages empty and wrote the following words in Latin on top of a fresh page -
Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae
(Some Problems in Philosophy)
Amicus Plato Amicus Aristoteles Magis Amica Veritas
( I am a friend of Plato, I am a friend of Aristotle.
But Truth is my greater friend )
The young man was none other than Isaac Newton.
More about him later.
