Where Peter Frankopan in 'The Silk Roads' says Sita's abduction takes place in the Mahabharata ??♀️ pic.twitter.com/BTNJSIfkbW
— Deepa Kumar (@dipaah) June 24, 2019
I’m really glad to know that the Greeks (read white people) were responsible for the Ramayan. That’s a huge weight off my mind.
The author apologised in the following tweets but I’m posting it that we may remember. There is a very subtle historical bias that constantly pumps up the Greco-Romans at the expense of other civilisations. It’s a way to justify not only colonialism and a linkage that there has always been something exceptional (and outward looking) about Western Civ.
Frankopan is riding high on the “here, I have corrected the eurocentric/whatever bullshit of the past with my new insights” formula, but his books are rather unimpressive (and less original than claimed).. he also makes silly mistakes like this one.. see my review here https://www.brownpundits.com/2017/06/14/book-review-the-silk-roads/#more-2638
patrick wyman did not like the book.
‘nuf said.
Huge topic. I would not know from which side to approach.
First – the author is a Croatian who are becoming one of the greatest falsifiers of history in the world. They never had their own state until they asked Serbs to be accepted in Yugoslavia after the WW1 (1918), short time as a Nazi genocidal puppet during the WW2 and in this banana form since 1992. But, for the school children they made their history with almost 40 kings and teach them that Croatia existed since the Stone Age. The ‘nation’ of converts (80%+) and about 10% of Avars from whom they got their name. By mafia organization, they were assigned the role to be their iron (genocidal) fist and to do (so as Ukrainians) the dirtiest jobs in the invasion of the East. Known as the people who don’t know for shame. In this context you can see his above writings.
Second – Greeks are not white. It was written before in their encounters with Persians (can’t remember who wrote) and Goths, whom they named Celts, what means – whites. Also, they took the language from locals (Pelasgian Serbs), changed their own Hurrits language and smuggled into history as white Indo-European (whatever does it mean). The text presented is just a crap, Alexander was the greatest Greek enemy, they were not in his army when he fought Persians (where more than a half were Greeks). They took mythology with blonde deities from their landlords much earlier than they came even close to Olympus. Homer was not a Greek, he was Serb, so as Sorbey (known as Orpheus), Iliad was translated to Greek language almost 600 years after the battle. They utilized the globalization and boundaryless world after Alexander’s invasion of the East.
Third – Good (and rare) observation re Greco-Roman appropriation of the whole history. I wrote several times about this. I would need a long separate comment why all ancient history is given as a present to Greeks, making of them miracle nation, while even bare existence of others is not recognized in official history. If you try to find one Greek in last 200 years who is significant on a global scale, you will find none. But, if you consider for e.g. one Tesla, you will see a man who changed the stream of world civilization. Apply this approach to SA history and one may scratch his head and ask himself/herself what the truth is actually and if the Hinduism is really only a fantasy. There was a skeptical reception of my recent remark that the greatest historian Thucydides was a Serb so as Thales and seven sages (wiki falsely claims that Greek Solon was a member). Unfortunately, it seems that BP admins are not receptive on such topics or maybe they lack a courage to just ask the obvious questions about history which also impacted SA history. Food topics are much safer bet and attract many comments.
Having said all previous, I should remind that Anan and Arjun (in my presence) discovered some similarities between Mahabharata and Iliad. I mentioned the basis of these similarities, but all credit goes to them. I consider this as globally significant thing. I hope they follow my advice and they are hard working to put this on the paper in order to be published.
This tactic of incorporating the Hellenic Civilization as a part of “Western Civilization” is egregious. There is too sharp a discontinuity post Constantine to justify Plato and Socrates as somehow being the “precursors” of Christianity.
The West vs East BS binary never really existed in the Hellenic classical world. We should aim to throw it away as well.
PS: Zack should not go purely by skin colour. Racist Brown Sahib like Slapstik has said
” what matters is the lesson that India of Skt epics was as (if not more) terrible for women as it is today. Also Sanskrit writers copied Greek stories esp prurient bits. Brahminical patriarchy doing the usual.”
How is he different from Peter Frankopan here?
There is too sharp a discontinuity post Constantine to justify Plato and Socrates as somehow being the “precursors” of Christianity.
this is a complicated issue. but in general i think this is *on the whole* wrong. the continuity with the ancients is not as strong as as in india or china, but it is not like iraq or egypt, which are totally distinct from their antiquity.
More gems from deracinated Brown Sahib
“Yes, I for one would like to see the experiences of brown women who no longer had to suffer “self” immolation under the barbaric suttee system that was outlawed under the Empire”
Aside from the fact that he is clueless about the nature of how Sati was practiced in the 18th Century ( it was more specific to Bengal in reaction to Dayabhagha inheritance scheme, nowhere as popular as what racists would like to tell you),
we need to move beyond melanin as measure of evaluating arguments.
He has *Pandit Privilege* 🙂
Even the Indian sense of outrage was learnt from the British. Gentoos who appreciate the Empire for what is was are doing themselves a favour.
I don’t mind giving (possibly undue) credit to the ‘West’ so long as we are allowed to blame them for all our faults and misfortunes as well. 🙂
Well we do it anyway, dont we?
Um… that was my point actually.