20 Facts About Michael Witzel

Michael Witzel was born on July 18,1943 and is a German-American philologist, comparative mythologist and Indologist.

Michael Witzel is an authority on Indian sacred texts, particularly the Vedas, and Indian history.

Michael Witzel was born July 18,1943, at Schwiebus in Germany.

Michael Witzel has taught at Tubingen, Leiden, and at Harvard, and has held visiting appointments at Kyoto, Paris, and Tokyo.

Michael Witzel is editor-in-chief of the Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies and the Harvard Oriental Series.

Michael Witzel has been president of the Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory since 1999, as well as of the new International Association for Comparative Mythology.

Michael Witzel was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003, and was elected as an honorary member of the German Oriental Society in 2009.

Michael Witzel became Cabot Fellow, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard U, recognizing his book on comparative mythology.

Michael Witzel has begun, together with T Goto et al.

Michael Witzel aims at indicating the emergence of the Kuru tribe in the Delhi area, its seminal culture and its political dominance, as well as studying the origin of late Vedic polities and the first Indian empire in eastern North India.

Michael Witzel studied at length the various Vedic recensions and their importance for the geographical spread of Vedic culture across North India and beyond.

Michael Witzel has questioned the linguistic nature of the so-called Indus script.

Michael Witzel cites the presence of a large number of rare signs in Chinese and emphasizes that there is "little reason for sign repetition in short seal texts written in an early logo-syllabic script".

In 2005, Michael Witzel joined other academics and activist groups to oppose changes to California state school history textbooks proposed by US-based Hindu groups, mainly The Vedic Foundation and Hindu Education Foundation, arguing that the changes were not of a scholarly but of a religious-political nature.

Michael Witzel was appointed to an expert panel set up to review the changes and helped draft the compromise edits that were later adopted.

Michael Witzel's efforts received the support of academics and some community groups, but attracted severe criticism from those supporting the original changes, who questioned his expertise on the subject and his appointment to the expert panel.

Michael Witzel was issued a subpoena by the California Parents for Equalization of Educational Materials, a group founded specifically for the schoolbook case, in November 2006 to support their law case against the California authorities' decisions in the textbook case.

Michael Witzel was sued by CAPEEM to compel with the subpoena in Massachusetts courts, which was however dismissed twice.

Michael Witzel had already submitted documents to CAPEEM and undergone a deposition.

Michael Witzel was accused of being biased against Hinduism, an allegation he denies.