Thursday 18 October 2012

German Indology and the God of British Philosophy

Britain boasts some Philosopher Saints but has only one Savant who has been recognized as a God. Needless, to say the philosopher I am speaking of is Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh who cows the sullen Scots, and prevents a Second Enlightenment breaking out North of the Border, by holding a sinister Festival in his honor every Summer. When I was young, copies of 'the wit and wisdom of Prince Philip' featured prominently on the bookshelves of Company C.F.O's and Partners in Auditing firms. But it was only the aborigines of the Channel isles who dared to worship the Prince as a God.
What has all this to do with Western Indology? Well, since only God knows why Western, especially German, Indologists refuse to learn anything from India, only Price Phillip can explain the origin of this scruple. He did so on his visit to China in the 1980's. Meeting a group of British students studying there he observed with surprise that they had not all turned 'slitty-eyed'. So now we know. The parents of good little Gunther, learning he has elected to study Sanskrit rather than Sausage Making at University, naturally get very angry and put their foot down because they don't want their pink and plump little child to turn into a skeletal, ebony colored Mahatma, dressed in a dhoti rather than lederhosen. So Gunther promises them that he will stick with Western Indology which involves only talking to other plump, pink little lederhosen wearing sausage eaters and strictly avoiding any of them damn darkies South of Swabia.

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