Indology

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Indology refers to the academic study of the history, languages, and cultures of the Indian subcontinent, and as such a subset of Asian studies.

Indology may also be known as Indic studies or Indian studies, or South Asian studies, although scholars and university administrators sometimes have only partially overlapping interpretations of these terms.

Indology would not typically include the study of contemporary economy, government, or politics of South Asia, except insofar as these sometimes express issues that are deeply embedded in South Asian history, and may be illuminated by indological methods and insights.

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Indology overlaps to some extent with many other areas of study, applying their techniques to the South Asian case. These include cultural or social anthropology, cultural studies, historical linguistics, philology, textual criticism, literary history, history, philosophies and the study of the religions of South Asia, such as the Vedic religion, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Shaivism, Vaishnavism (both of which are versions of what those outside of India call "Hinduism"), Sikhism, etc., besides the indigenous forms of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in South Asia.

Finally it may include the study of South Asian sciences, arts and architecture.

Scholars who call themselves indologists often place special value on a thorough knowledge of the languages of India, especially the classical languages such as Sanskrit, Pāli, Prakrit, or classical Tamil, or Persian, and they consider a knowledge of one or more of these languages, coupled with a knowledge of the methods of philology, to be a prerequisite for contributing meaningfully to the indological research and a characteristic feature of indology as a field.

Thus, Indology is the intellectual pursuit of all things Indic, with a focus on the interpretation of the past and its outcomes in the present. Some scholars distinguish classical indology from modern indology, the former more focussed on Sanskrit and other ancient language sources, the latter making more use of contemporary language sources and sociological approaches.

The term Indology or (in German) Indologie [1] is often associated with German scholarship, and is used more commonly in departmental titles in German and continental European universities than in the anglophone academy.

In the wake of 18th century pioneers like Henry Thomas Colebrooke or August Wilhelm Schlegel, Indology as an academic subject emerges in the 19th century, in the context of British India, together with Asian studies in general affected by the romantic Orientalism of the time. The Royal Asiatic Society is founded in 1824, and the American Oriental Society in 1842.

Systematic study and editorial activity of Sanskrit literature becomes possible with the St. Petersburg Sanskrit-Wörterbuch during the 1850s to 1870s. Publication of major Hindu texts in the Sacred Books of the East begins in 1879. Otto von Bohtlingk's edition of Panini's grammar appears in 1887. Max Müller's edition of the Rigveda appears in 1890-92. In 1897, Sergey Oldenburg launched a systematic edition of key Sanskrit texts, "Bibliotheca Buddhica".

Indologists typically attend conferences such as the American Association of Asian Studies, the American Oriental Society annual conference, the World Sanskrit Conference, and national-level meetings in the UK, Germany, India, France and elsewhere.

They may routinely read and write in journals such as Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society [2], Journal of the American Oriental Society [3], Journal asiatique [4], Bulletin de l'Ecole Français d'Extrême Orient [5], Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens [6], Indo-Iranian Journal [7], Journal of Indian Philosophy [8], Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and others.

They may be members of such professional bodies as the American Oriental Society, the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the Société asiatique, the Deutsche Morgenlaendische Gesellschaft and others.

Famous Indologists include:

living


  • Heinz Bechert, Georg von Simson - Einführung in die Indologie. Stand, Methoden, Aufgaben - ISBN 3-534-05466-0.
  • Bryant, Edwin. The Quest for the origins of Vedic culture. (2001) Oxford University Press
  • Chakrabarti, Dilip: Colonial Indology, 1997, Munshiram Manoharlal: New Delhi.
  • Edmund Leach. ``Aryan Invasions Over Four Millennia. In``Culture Through Time (edited by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, Stanford University Press, 1990)
  • Jean Filliozat and Louis Renou - L'inde classique - ISBN B0000DLB66.
  • Gauri Viswanathan, 1989, Masks of Conquest
  • Pollock, Sheldon. Deep Orientalism?: Notes on Sanskrit and Power Beyond the Raj. In: Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament: Perspectives on South Asia, eds. Carol A. Breckenridge and Peter van der Veer. Philadelphia:University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
  • Trautmann, Thomas. 1997. Aryans and British India, University of California Press, Berkeley.

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