Distortion of history

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Tue, 8 Oct 2002, Venkataramani K. wrote:

>
> There is another school, typified by Swami Dayananda Sarasvati [19th century
> CE], which considers all the purAnAs as bogus and as products of evil minds,
> which concocted them during the Muslim rule. This argument too is not without
> its sets of merits.

No it is utterly without merit.  Recently we discussed the distortion of
history in India and this is a prime example.  While some parts of some
puranas may be datable to Muslim times, there is wide agreement (as there
was even amongst Indologists of the 19th century) that the core of the
presently available texts are much older, probably during Gupta vamsha (~
1st - 2nd centuries AD) and maybe older.  Stories such as that of Indra
and Vrtra are mentioned in the very earliest Vedic texts.

God only knows what was going on in the mind of this nastika Dayananda but
isn't ironic that if some Christian or Muslim had poured such vile slander
on our shastras we would be up in arms but if a so-called "Hindu reformer"
says it there is only silence?

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/