08.03.09
Comment on Sinha
Comment from James on Sinha Preface
James said,
08.03.09 at 4:27 pm ·
Overall, I like the book, but I think Sinha makes a few mistakes. Monotheism, for instance, is mentioned quite frequently in the oldest Buddhist scriptures. It seems like the idea was circulating in the air during the Axial period even if the concept didn’t become popular in India until the medieval period.
Good point. The complexity of these issues is great. But I find it telling that two Indian leftists (The other is Bazaz, also quoted extensively on this blog) should write books expressing their sense of ‘ill ease’ at the Bhagavad Gita. (Note how they zero in on Samkhya, the materialist philosophy behind much Indian thinking (but note how the issue of the purusha/prakriti distinction tends to confuse them, as they emphasize materialist rationality).
I trust these leftists even as I distrust them, or their scholarship. It is both profound and confused. And mainstream scholars will soon cover up the issues.
They are stumbling on the exploitations of the gurus, and/or the chameleon adaptation to monotheism as it spread to India (certainly also granting James’ point that the ‘god’ idea was present already in the Axial period.