Thomas R. Trautmann

This book provides an overview of the various positions in the so-called Aryan debate. That is the heated debate about the earliest history of the Indian subcontinent, roughly the period from 4,000 to 1,000 BCE. It is a discussion that is no longer only being conducted by professional historians, but mainly by publicists of all kinds, often with their own agenda. As Thomas Trautmann himself states: “The sober works of academics are now swamped by the often overheated writings and websites of those who are not scholars trained in the history, linguistics, and archeology of ancient India. (…) What used to be a polite disagreement among scholars has become a strident public shouting match in which personal insults are all too freely thrown about.” The author mainly refers to the rise of Hindu nationalism, which wants to make India a homogeneous and exclusive Hindu nation, and projects that vision of the future back onto the past. But it is clear that there are many other elements and motives at play in this debate, which is gradually turning it into an inextricable tangle.
In this reader, Trautmann has made a selection of historical and recent texts that should give the reader an idea of the divergent positions in this controversy, precisely to bring more order to the chaos of the polemics. He admits that he consciously excluded the most radical and least well-founded positions. Interesting, but due to its very specialized focus, it is certainly not a book for the general public. More in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6387205277… (plus d'informations)

I wanted to seek out to understand India, that's why I took this book.

The more I have read history; it seems to me that political history or politics plays a role on narrative of history upon people.

I'am from Tamil Nadu. I can follow his work.

I would not charge him with Western bias.

If you do charge, please write up, how, why, contest his sources.

People might charge anyone who wants to write about India, written by a non-Indian.

The Most Interesting Chapters -- Family, Europeans, Nation State.

Well written book by Professor Trautmann. Clearly organized, easy to follow.


Deus Vult,
Gottfried… (plus d'informations)

Dravidian -- the term, that has shaped political thought of Tamil Nadu.

Professor Trautmann writes this book to expound on Dravidian Proof. The Book is thorough, researched with lot of citations. Trautmann had visited Madras Archives and took the time and effort to do actual research. The Book is dense, academic.

Elis’s central project was writing history of Tamil language and literature, within larger comparative Dravidian framework.

Frequently, people mention Robert Caldwell, scholar-missionary who put forward on linguistic case about Dravidian.Caldwell in his work, acknowledges he builds his work from Francis Whyte Ellis, scholar-administrator who worked in St.Fort George, Madras.

In order to build the case for Dravidian Language, he builds a thorough background on languages, historical context of Indo-European languages.

The Meat of the book is in Chapter 5, Dravidian Proof.

Ellis puts forward his case by comparing root languages of non-Sanskrit language and Sanskrit.


1) He shows contrasting differences in roots of Telugu and Sanskrit

2) From there, he shows intimate radical connection between Telugu, Tamil, Kannada sharing cognate roots

3) And then, he shows relationship among the three languages

4) Although, the roots of the three are common, there is vast difference among idioms

5) Thus Ellis, showed radical case of linguistic roots of Dravidian Language.


If you disagree with his work. I'd suggest writing a decent rebuttal showing why, how, where you disagree, which I think would be a Herculean task without his training and background.

I would recommend this to people interested in linguistics, Tamil Nadu, South India.

Deus Vult,
Gottfried… (plus d'informations)