Malati J. Shendge (1934–2015) was an

Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

. She received her Ph.D in Buddhism from the

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

.“CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE.” Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 10, no. 2/3, 1967, pp. 237–238. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24650172. She had been a fellow of the

Indian Council of Historical Research The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is a captive body of the Ministry of Education, Government of India established by an Administrative Order. The body has provided financial assistance to historians and scholars through fellowshi ...

, and of the

Indian Institute of Advanced Study The Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) is a research institute located in Shimla, India. It was set up by the Ministry of Education, Government of India in 1964 and started functioning from 20 October 1965. History and establishment The ...

, Shimla. She was a faculty member at

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is a public major research university located in New Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university is known for leading faculties and r ...

, and Founder Director (Hon.) of the Rang Datta Wadekar Centre for the study of Indian Tradition, Pune.

Theories

Shendge has written a number of books on the connections between the Indus Valley civilization and

Vedic culture upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...

. Her early work, ''The Civilized Demons'', reinterprets the heavenly battle between the

Asura Asuras (Sanskrit: असुर) are a class of beings in Indic religions. They are described as power-seeking clans related to the more benevolent Devas (also known as Suras) in Hinduism. In its Buddhist context, the word is sometimes translated ...

s and the Devas described in the

Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ('' śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one ...

as a historical record of an earthly war in the Indus Valley between the Asuras (identified by her as being the Assyrian people) already living in the valley as the

Harappan Civilization Harappa (; Urdu/ pnb, ) is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named after the site, which takes its name from a mod ...

, and the invading Devas (identified by her with the Aryans). Her 1997 book ''The Language of the Harappans'' extends this theory by claiming that the unknown

Harappan language The Harappan language is the unknown language or languages of the Bronze Age () Harappan civilization (Indus Valley civilization, or IVC). The language being unattested in any readable contemporary source, hypotheses regarding its nature are re ...

was the

Akkadian language Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218-280 is an extinct East Semitic language th ...

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

, and that

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

is a descendant of Akkadian. In ''Unsealing the Indus Script'' (2009) she purports to decode the

Indus script The Indus script, also known as the Harappan script, is a corpus of symbols produced by the Indus Valley Civilisation. Most inscriptions containing these symbols are extremely short, making it difficult to judge whether or not they constituted ...

based on this theory.

Books

* (1977) ''The Civilized Demons: the Harappans in Rig Veda''Reviews of ''The Civilized Demons'': ; * (1989) ''Rigveda: The Original Meaning and its Recovery'' * (1993) ''Indian Historiography and History'' * (1996) ''The Aryas: Facts Without Fancy and Fiction. Abhinav. '' * (1995) ''Songs and Ruins: Rigveda in Harappan Setting'' * (1997) ''The Language of the Harappans: From Akkadian to Sanskrit. Abhinav. '' * (2004) ''Sat-Sashastrika Hevajratika'' * (2009) ''Unsealing the Indus Script: Anatomy of its Decipherment'' * (2009) ''Buddhahood in this Body: Japanese Esoteric Buddhism (Shin-gon) in Context''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shendge, Malati Indian Indologists Marathi people 1934 births Delhi University alumni Scholars from Delhi Indian women scholars Women writers from Delhi 20th-century Indian linguists 20th-century Indian historians Indian women science writers Women educators from Delhi Educators from Delhi 20th-century women writers 2015 deaths Academic staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University 20th-century Indian women