prof. Vera Kochergina (1924-2018)

[Mārcis Gasūns]

Namaste,

Soon there will be no sad news from Russia - nobody will be left to tell them because the last Sanskrit scholar in Moscow died. The day before yesterday in Moscow Vera Kochergina at age 93 died at home at 3 a.m. and was cremated today. She taught Sanskrit at the Moscow State University since 1956 till 2014, for almost 60 years.

She learned Sanskrit from Peterson in Moscow. There is a Western-parampara that starts with Bopp and continues with Lenz, Petrov, Fortunatoff, Peterson Kochergina, Likhushina and ends on me.

Just in last four months, we have lost three biggest and most well-known Russian Sanskrit scholars: Ivanov, Zaliznyak, and Kochergina. She printed a trilogy:

1) Sanskrit Manual 1956; 1994, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2015

2) Sanskrit-Russian Dictionary 1978, 1987, 1996, 2005, 2007

3) Sanskrit Textbook 2009

The Sanskrit Manual is a bestseller for learning Sanskrit in Russia and V.A. Kochergina died just a week before the 6th, revised ed. of 2018 is planned to come out. She was the incarnation of Saraswati in Moscow for generations of students of linguistics.

The Sanskrit-Russian Dictionary contains 29 000 words and is based mainly on XIX century Sanskrit-German dictionaries. It is the most well known Sanskrit Dictionary in Russia (there are three more), although it is known, that only an 84 000 word dictionary could serve all the purposes of a translator from Sanskrit (like DICCIONARI SANSCRIT-CATALA, OSCAR PUJOL).

The Sanskrit Textbook remains almost unknown, because of many type errors and small, unclear Devanagari print. Nonetheless, I'm not aware of many other cases when the same person has shown his skills in all three genres. She was a scholar, writing mainly on samasas in Sanskrit, Historical linguistics, History of Linguistics and a teacher.

I've got only one photo of her: http://samskrtam.ru/kochergina/

Full bibliography: https://istina.msu.ru/profile/kocherginaVA/

Please let me know if there is a printed journal on Sanskrit where I could print my Obituary. 

PhD. Mārcis Gasūns,

Krasnodar, Russia

[Dr.BVK Sastry(G-MAIL)]

Namaste

 

Sad to see the veterans of ‘Western Parampara’ of Sanskrit Enthusiasts and teachers is dwindling;  and  sadder is the fact that  the ‘ Local Native Bharateeya paramparaa’ of ‘Paninian scholars .  

Should we, then call this  Samskruth Scholars team an  ‘ endangered species’  needing special attention for preservation  and efforts for rejuvenation and replication ?   

 

The situation also opens the deeply hurting debate : What has made the ‘Samskruth studies’ to become a dwindling stream – Staring as  mighty  ‘Ganga’ from Himalayas , sought by every one for its ‘ glory and mystic enchanting powers’   and now,  seemingly ending  like ‘ Saraswati’ ?  Has time overpowered the ‘ Life of Gods language’?

 

May be we need to  rethink on Application and Utility of  Samskruth: Global  ‘ VINIYOGA’  benefits beyond the narrow lanes of classical goals of ‘ Moksha’  and explore the ‘ Purushaartha’ aspects.

 

 May be time to revisit the ‘ battle: sanskrit’ program as a .Rebuild : Samskrutham from Sanskrit’ . There is a lot of wisdom in what Madam Saroja Bhate ji  had posted earlier : <  Dialogue between the oriental erudition and modern scholarship is the need of the time. We should honestly accept पुराणमित्येव न  साधु सर्वम् while glorifying the achievements of our predecessors. at the same time a deeper penetration in to the treasure of literature of the past is bound to yield many a precious gems of wisdom relevant to the modern times.For this however a clear unprejudiced open approach is badly needed. The main problem is: Who will do it? >  [  Post of   Monday, 1 January, 2018 ] .

 

Let us think of doing the needful work together so that Marcis does not have to  feel   < with Bopp and continues with Lenz, Petrov, Fortunatoff, Peterson Kochergina, Likhushina and ends on me.>

 

We need to work together for keeping the ‘ Samskrutha-Ganga-Gita –Pravaha’ flowing by rejuvenating Samskruth  language tools needed to understand Ramayana and practice Yoga’s of  Srimad Bhagavadgita.  

 

Regards

BVK Sastry

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bvparishat+...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to bvpar...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.