आगमे विश्वासटिप्पन्यः

Source: TW

It is indeed notable most of the Occidental indologists (and sadly H students of the religion too) are not “ubhayavidvAn-s”. Those are who are good at the arcana IE linguistics (its problems notwithstanding) and/or early Aryan philology “suck” at paurANika and tAntrika studies. Conversely, those who are good at the later think the world began ~ 250 BCE.

I agree Sanderson is a doyenne of tAntrika(+atimArga) studies but his paper titled something like “shaiva-s in atharvavedin territory” reflects a certain disconnect with an understanding of the earlier vaidika tradition, its contours and evolution.

A shaMkara-maTha-affiliated v1 asked me, how as a vaidika-oriented v1 I felt so much sympathy or lack of disgust for the essence-sucking yoginI-s of the tantra-sadbhAva. I responded that due to my study of the veda, I could see a direct connection to a rudra yajuSh in the taittirIya-shruti deployed in the shrauta rite. I left it as homework for him to figure that out.

Finally, IMO, as a mantra-practitioner, one has to take a leaf from that great romaka Emperor Julian and learn to be comfortable to simultaneously be a student of multiple cults from different temporal and structural layers.