The British colonial powers had endeavoured to undermine our rich heritage and culture by distorting scriptures, history and culture with the intent to evangelise the whole population and permanently colonialise Bharat. The Boden Sanskrit chair, set up at the Oxford University in 1827 as per the will of August 15, 1811 of Joseph Boden, was one such devastating endeavour to distort our history and scriptures. Right from misinterpreting the Vedic scriptures and distorting Smritis, Puranas, Sutras and other Dharmshastras through alterations and interpolations, they even crafted farce and false dictionaries. In addition to printing of distorted scriptures, they even endeavoured to eliminate and destroy the authentic and real manuscripts. The dreaded will of Joseph Boden that created the Boden Sanskrit Chair at Oxford University, the related Statutes of the University and the manifestos of the contestants to the Boden Chair were replete with such sinister designs to distort the ancient Sanskrit scriptures.
Boden Sanskrit Chair For Evangelising
The Boden Sanskrit Chair of the University of Oxford was established from the money bequeathed by Colonel Joseph Boden of the East India Company through his will of August 15, 1811. He wished the university to establish a Sanskrit Chair to assist in the conversion of the people of British India to Christianity. His bequest was also used to fund scholarships for vitiating Sanskrit scriptures. The professors who were elected by the Oxford graduates under the Statutes of the University were mandated to be those who committed themselves, in writing, to distort the Sanskrit scriptures to the utmost extent.
Sinister Will of Boden
Joseph Boden had explicitly mandated for vast conversions of British Indians to Christianity through his will of August 15, 1811, which was accepted by the Oxford University in 1827 by incorporating such provisions in its Statutes. A single extract from his will is enough to expose the British designs to engineer vast evangelisations in Bharat and distort our history, scriptures and culture.
Precarious Clause in Boden’s Will
On August 15, 1811, the Will said: “I do hereby give and bequeath all and singular my said residuary estate and effects, with the accumulations thereof, if any, and the stocks, funds, and securities whereon the same shall have been laid out and invested, unto the University of Oxford, to be by that body appropriated in and towards the erection and endowment of a Professorship in the Shanskreet (Sanskrit) language, at or in any or either of the Colleges in the said University, being of opinion that a more general and critical knowledge of that language will be a means of enabling my countrymen to proceed in the conversion of the natives of India to the Christian religion, by disseminating a knowledge of the sacred scriptures amongst them, more effectually than all other means whatsoever.”
Oldest Surviving Chair on Sanskrit
The Boden Chair is the oldest chair in Sanskrit at Oxford University. Now it is the only surviving chair of its kind in the United Kingdom. Established with a bequest from Colonel Joseph Boden of the East India Company in 1827, its first professor, Horace Hayman Wilson, was elected in 1832 to engineer distortions in our history, culture and scriptures or Shastras. He was succeeded by Sir Monier Monier-Williams. A number of professors have succeeded, including, the recently appointed Thomas Burrow and Richard Gombrich. Now the sinister provisions of Boden’s will are no more in vogue in the University’s statutes and the incumbents are also appointed, instead of election to the post.
Vitiating Sanskrit Scriptures
As per the then Statutes of the University of Oxford, the successive chairmen were elected since 1832 by collegium of university graduates on the basis of express commitments expressed in writing by the contestants to vandalise and distort Indian Sanskrit scriptures. The first Chairperson elected was Horas Hoymen Wilson in 1832. He continued till 1860. The second election was held in 1860 and was fiercely contested by Monier Williams and Max Muller. Two excerpts from the manifestos of these two contestants to Boden Chair in 1860 are enough to expose their venomous intentions towards Sanatan Hindus.
Contest for Boden Chair
Monier Williams had contested for Boden Chair in 1860 and he defeated Max Muller by a margin of 200 votes. He, inter alia declared his intent in these words: If elected, “my utmost energies shall be devoted to the one object which its Founder had in view;—namely ‘The promotion of a more general and critical knowledge of the Sanskrit language, as a means of enabling Englishmen to proceed in the conversion of the natives of India to the Christian religion.’
Max Muller’s Declaration to Grab the Chair: Max Muller was also one of the five candidates for Boden Chair in 1860 and he explicitly expressed his anti- Hindu agenda in following words: “I shall lose no time in collecting Testimonials from the most eminent Sanskrit scholars in Europe and India, and submitting them to Members of Convocation. I shall likewise submit Testimonials from Missionaries in India, explaining the assistance they have derived from my publications in their endeavors to overthrow the ancient systems of idolatry still prevalent in that country, and to establish the truths of Christianity among the believers of the Veda.”
Venomous Intent of Monier Williams
Monier Williams had too much malice towards Hindus and culture of Bharat, which is reflected in all his writings. In his book titled Modern India and Indians – third edition of 1869. Two of his quotes from page 261 and 262 of this book are worth mentioning here. At page 261, he wrote that “Brahmanism, therefore, must die out. In point of fact, false ideas on the most ordinary scientific subjects are so mixed up with its doctrines that the commonest education-the simplest lessons in geography-without the aid of Christianity must inevitably in the end sap its foundations.”
The Britishers succeeded in distorting the smritis, purans and other scriptures such distortions Need to be corrected
Another quote of his, at page 262 is more devastating. It says, “When the walls of the mighty fortress of Brahmanism are encircled, undermined, and finally stormed by the soldiers of the cross, the victory of Christianity must be signal and complete”.
Agenda of Colonial Power
The British had intended to kill the Sanatan Hindu culture as they and all European colonialisers had done in the two American continents, large parts of Africa, Australia and New Zealand to permanently colonialise. They crafted the hypothetical Aryan-Dravidian divide, Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) and Caste divide on the hypothetical lines of upper and lower castes, caste based untouchability, linguistic divide to divide the Hindu society. They incorporated ridiculous and false interpretations of animal sacrifice and porn rituals in Shastras. However, the biggest myth they imposed was of Aryan and Dravidian divide by hypothetical and false divide between Aryan and Dravidian languages and theoretising the concept of Indo-European language family separate from South Indian languages.
All Bharatiya languages were always categorised and analysed as a group until the Missionary endeavours of priest Caldwell and Max Muller, who crafted the divide between north and south Indian languages as the false division of Aryan and Dravidian languages. Since the earliest antiquities, all Bharatiya languages were described with their common attributes. As early as in 1560 AD, Markandey has authored a treatise on the survey of all Bharatiya languages without any segregation of North and South Indian languages. It was the Missionary priest Caldwell, who created this divide and published his book A Comparative Grammar of Dravidian or South Indian Languages. Earlier, there was no such text with the nasty term like Dravidian language. It was altogether a concoction to separate Dravidian languages.
Then, on the pretext of Indo-European languages, Caldwell and Max Muller fabricated a hypothetical narration of Aryan invasion into India in 3000 BC and destruction of Indus Valley Civilisation by emigrant Aryans. To the contrary, scores of scientific studies, including several archeological studies, reveal that the Indus Valley Civilisation was deserted in 4000 BC. This was more than a millennium earlier than the false date of the Aryan invasion. Moreover, all the Bhartiya and international studies have discovered and established that more than a dozen similar civilisations from Tamil Nadu to Iran, including the Indus Valley Civilisation have been displaced around 4000 BC due to turbulence in climate spread across 300 years. So, the Aryan emigration and attack theory proves to be concoction of the colonialising European powers. Several thousand myths like this are incorporated by them in the history and scriptures.
Need to Rectify Distortions
In light of the above discussion, it becomes well established that British had distorted our scriptures beyond imagination, causing social discord, caste discrimination and other misinterpretations like animal sacrifices. They also distorted our glorious history as well. It was difficult to alter and interpolate the Vedic scriptures, so they misinterpreted and composed misleading dictionaries. But they succeeded in distorting the smritis, purans and other scriptures too much. So, it all needs to trace as many as possible of such distortions and rectify for rightly perceiving and interpreting our ancient vision in the right perspective and correct our history.
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