David Frawley

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri)
Vedic astrologer, writer
SpouseYogini Shambhavi Chopra
AwardsPadma Bhushan in 2015
Websitewww.vedanet.com

David Frawley (born September 21, 1950), also known as Vamadeva Shastri is an American writer, astrologer, teacher (acharya) and a proponent of Hindutva.

He has written numerous books on topics spanning the

Vedic astrology.[1] His works have been popular among the general public. In 2015 he was honored by the Government of India with the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in India.[2]

A prominent ideologue of the Hindutva movement, he has also been accused of practicing historical revisionism.[3][4]

Early life and education

David Frawley was born to a Catholic family in Wisconsin and had nine siblings.[5] Frawley is largely an autodidact.[5] He studied ayurveda under B. L. Vashta of Mumbai for a span of about a decade, and obtained a "Doctor of Oriental Medicine" degree via a correspondence course from the International Institute of Chinese Medicine, Santa Fe, New Mexico,[4] a school for acupuncture which closed in 2003 due to "administrative and governance irregularities" and financial problems."[6]

Frawley is the founder and the sole instructor at the American Institute of Vedic Studies at Santa Fe, New Mexico[7][8] and is a former president of the American Council of Vedic Astrology.[9] He also previously taught Chinese herbal medicine and western herbology.[10]

Views and reception

Views

Frawley rejects the

racial interpretations of Indian prehistory, and went on to reject the theory of a conflict between invading caucasoid Aryans and Dravidians.[13]

In the sphere of market-economics, Frawley opposes socialism, stating that such policies have reduced citizens to beggars.

Advaita tradition.[16]

Reception

Popular reception

While being rejected by academia, he has been successful in the popular market; according to Bryant, his works are clearly directed and articulated at such audiences.

Edwin Bryant, he is "well-received" by "the Indian community,"[7] noting that a Westerner rejecting the Aryan Migration Theory has an obvious appeal in India and Frawley (along with Koenraad Elst) fits in it, perfectly.[21] Frawley commands a significant following on Twitter, as well.[5]

Academia

Hindutva

He has been described as a prominent figure of the Hindutva movement[22][23][24][9][25][26] and numerous scholars have also described him as a Hindutva ideologue and apologist.[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][14] He has been widely described as practicing historical revisionism.[3][4] Martha Nussbaum and others consider him to be the most determined opponent to the theory of Indo-Aryan migrations.[34][35]

Indigenous Aryans hypothesis.[41]

Bruce Lincoln attributes Frawley's ideas to "parochial nationalism", terming them "exercises in scholarship (= myth + footnotes)", where archaeological data spanning several millennia is selectively invoked, with no textual sources to control the inquiry, in support of the theorists' desired narrative.[42] His proposed equivalence of Ayurveda with vedic healing traditions has been rejected by Indologists and David Hardiman considers Frawley's assertion to be part of a wider Hindu-nationalist quest.[43] Joseph Alter notes that his writings 'play into the politics of nationalism' and remarks of them to be controversial from an academic locus.[44]

Book reviews

In a review of Hymns from the Golden Age: Selected Hymns from the Rig Veda with Yogic Interpretation for the Journal of the American Oriental Society, Richard G. Salomon criticized Frawley's "fanciful" approach to stand in complete contrast to the available linguistic and scholarly evidence, and perpetuated Vedic myths in what seemed to be a bid to attract readers for the recreation of the ancient spiritual kingdom of the Aryans.[45]

A review by

Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute called In Search of the Cradle of Civilization a "beautifully printed" contribution that made a strong case for their indigenous theory against the supposed migratory hypotheses but chose to remain silent on certain crucial aspects which need to be convincingly explained.[46] Prema Kurien noted that the book sought to distinguish expatriate Hindu Americans from other minority groups by demonstrating their superior racial and cultural ties with the Europeans.[47]

Dhavalikar also reviewed The Myth of the Aryan Invasion of India and found it to be unsupported by archaeological evidence.[35] Irfan Habib criticized Frawley's invoking the Sarasvati River in the book as an assault against common sense.[48][clarification needed]

Honors and influences

In 2015, the South Indian Education Society (SIES) in Mumbai, India, an affiliate of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, conferred upon him their special "National Eminence Award" as an “international expert in the fields of Ayurveda, Yoga, and Vedic Astrology.”[49] On 26 January 2015, the Indian Government honored Frawley with the Padma Bhushan award.[50]

Referring to his book Yoga and Ayurveda, Frawley is mentioned as one of the main yoga teachers of Deepak Chopra and David Simon in their book, the Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga (2005).[51] In 2015, Chopra said of Frawley's book, Shiva, the Lord of Yoga, "Vamadeva Shastri has been a spiritual guide and mentor of mine for several decades. For anyone who is serious about the journey to higher divine consciousness, this book is yet another jewel from him."[52]

Selected publications

Hinduism and Indology

  1. Hymns from the Golden Age: Selected Hymns from the Rig Veda With Yogic Interpretation. Motilal Banarsidass Publications, 1986.
    ISBN 8120800729
    .
  2. Wisdom of the Ancient Seers: Mantras of the Rig Veda. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers (Pvt. Ltd), 1999.
    ISBN 8120811593
    .
  3. Arise Arjuna: Hinduism Resurgent in a New Century. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.
    ISBN 9388134982
    .
  4. Awaken Bharata: A Call for India’s Rebirth. Bloomsbury India, 2018.
    ISBN 9388271009
    .
  5. What Is Hinduism?. Bloomsbury India, 2018.
    ISBN 9789388038638
    .

Yoga, Vedanta and Ayurveda

  1. Ayurvedic Healing. Passage Press, 1989.
    ISBN 1878423002
    .
  2. Ayurveda and the Mind: The Healing of Consciousness. Motilal Banarsidass Publications, 2005.
    ISBN 812082010X
    .

Co-authored

  1. The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine. Motilal Banarsidass Publications, 2004.
    ISBN 8120820347
    .

See also

Notes

References

  1. ^ "David Frawley is the American hippy who became RSS's favourite western intellectual". ThePrint. 17 November 2018.
  2. ^ "The unusual story of David Frawley aka Vamadeva Sastri". Deccan Herald. 28 October 2018.
  3. ^
    S2CID 140268498
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7914-7816-5
    .
  5. ^ a b c d e Bamzai, Kaveree (2018-11-17). "David Frawley is the American hippy who became RSS's favourite western intellectual". ThePrint. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  6. ^ Acupuncture Today – October, 2003, Vol. 04, Issue 10, International Institute of Chinese Medicine Closes
  7. ^
    ISBN 9780195137774
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-7914-7816-5
    .
  9. ^
    S2CID 145681756
    .
  10. ISBN 978-0941524278
    .
  11. S2CID 145756604
    .
  12. ISBN 9780268074692
    .
  13. ^ Arvidsson 2006:298 Arvidsson, Stefan (2006), Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, translated by Sonia Wichmann, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
  14. ^
    JSTOR 10.3366/j.ctt1r27ks
    .
  15. doi:10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00264.x
    .
  16. JSTOR 10.1525/nr.2014.17.3.6
    .
  17. ^
    OCLC 697790495
    .
  18. ^ "Yoga Journal". Yoga Journal. 28 August 2007. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  19. ISBN 978-0-385-52134-5
    .
  20. ^ Anand, Shilpa Nair (Feb 28, 2014). "An Enlightened Path". The Hindu.
  21. ISBN 9780195137774
    .
  22. OCLC 52254519
    .
  23. S2CID 144343833
    .
  24. S2CID 146826096
    .
  25. S2CID 171592481
    .
  26. ISBN 9780203957349
    .
  27. S2CID 144284403
    .
  28. OCLC 474649157
    .
  29. OCLC 889952434
    .
  30. ISBN 9788170339953
    .
  31. S2CID 144085595
    .
  32. S2CID 144701033
    .
  33. ISBN 9780415156714
    .
  34. OCLC 1006798430
    .
  35. ^
    JSTOR 41694966
    .
  36. JSTOR 23065638
    .
  37. JSTOR 40279263
    .
  38. OCLC 731901376
    .
  39. S2CID 145463239
    .
  40. ^ "Why Hindutva's foreign-born cheerleaders are so popular - Times of India". The Times of India. 11 April 2017. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  41. ISSN 0018-2656
    .
  42. ISBN 978-0-226-48201-9
    .
  43. S2CID 144288544
    .
  44. ISBN 9780812205251
    .
  45. JSTOR 604160
    .
  46. JSTOR 41702199
    .
  47. OCLC 703221465
    .
  48. JSTOR 3518272
    .
  49. ^ "Suresh Prabhu gets SIES award for national eminence". Economic Times. Retrieved 27 Dec 2015.
  50. ^ "Padma Awards 2015". Press Information Bureau. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  51. ISBN 978-0471736271
    .
  52. ISBN 978-0-9406-7629-9
    .

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to David Frawley.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=David_Frawley&oldid=1218878856"