Malati Shendge

Malati J. Shendge (1934–2015) was an Indologist. She received her Ph.D. in Buddhism from the University of Delhi. She had been a fellow of the Indian Council of Historical Research, and of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. She was a faculty member at Jawaharlal Nehru University, 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. Her early work, The Civilized Demons, reinterprets the heavenly battle between the Asuras and the Devas described in the Rigveda 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, and the invading Devas (identified by her with the Aryans). (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