An interview of Sheldon Pollock to Business world- Your views?

[dipesh katira]

Dear Scholars

Please visit this link to read Sheldon Pollock's interview to the
magazine named 'Business World' recently.
http://www.businessworld.in/bw/2011_01_27_The_American_Born_Confused_Desis_Are_Ideal_Students_Of_Sanskrit.html


He has very cleary and modestly put up his ideas about various issues
related to Sanskrit. I feel it is very necessary to voice our modest
agreement or disagreement to his views. This will help us avoid the
development of a general feeling that these are the views of all the
Sanskrit scholars in general and have only been voiced by Sheldon
Pollock

Thanks to this group we have a forum of scholars almost all at one
place to put this up and ensure that it is thoroughly discussed.

I am pasting the same article bellow for the convenience of those who
for some reason may not be able to access the link provided above -

Renowned scholar Sheldon Pollock’s monograph, The Language Of The Gods
In The World Of Men: Sanskrit, Culture And Power In Premodern India
(2006), is a journey of the pundit's love affair with Sanskrit and
Indian culture. A Padma Shri winner, Pollock continues to fight for
recognition of Sanskrit and other classic languages of India. He is
general editor of the Murty Classical Library of India. BW’s Anjana
Saproo caught up with him over a few cups of coffee during the Jaipur
Literature Festival.

Do you think Sanskrit should get more space in Indian curriculum?
I would love to see Sanskrit being taught extensively at the
university level. This is a subject that needs academic rigour. And
why just Sanskrit, we should teach classical Kannada, classical Tamil,
among others, at the Bachelor’s level. At the school level, Sanskrit
teaching does not make sense simply because of the way it is being
taught. The approach of most teachers is pedantic, and it is being
taught in the rote manner – memorisation by repetition – and this
destroys its very relevance.

What does the future hold for Sanskrit as language of communication?
Sanskrit is dying an exotic death. Over the years, we have seen it
become a tool in the hand of fanatics, creating grave discomfort among
academicians and the public. The relevance of Sanskrit lies in using
its principles of thinking in various other aspects of scientific
study. The reduced number of students doing humanities India has gone
down drastically unlike in the West. This is, in some way, linked to
the decline in Sanskrit learning.

I have been coming to India for long, but in all these years I am yet
to meet a student at the university level who knows enough Sanskrit
that could fill this cup of coffee.

What kind of students take up Sanskrit at Columbia where you are a
faculty?
There are three types of students. First, the post-modern hippies.
They are interested in a little yoga and Ayurveda and then want to
learn Sanskrit too. They fall off on the wayside pretty soon. Then
there are some ABCDs who actually are the ideal students. They are
Indians born in the west and want to have a connection with Indian
culture. So, they spend 2-3 years learning Sanskrit and then go on to
become successful lawyers, doctors and even scientists. They are ideal
because they carry with them a great Indian cultural resource, which
they apply in life. Finally, there are the videsi students, who come
to pick up a degree in Sanskrit and most of them go back to their
country.

I have an inbred connection to India and its language. I was lucky
enough to have many good Sanskrit teachers in India. Above all, I am
married to a professor of Hindi; I call her the Hindiwali.

What are the barriers that you faced in India while promoting
Sanskrit?
I was expecting this question. A group of scholars and I had
approached the Bikaner princess, Rajyashree Kumari, for access to the
thousands of Sanskrit manuscripts lying in their library. We wanted to
photograph these manuscripts and create an online archive, where any
scholar could go and read about the rich Indian culture. But it was
impossible to do so. I waited for four days in Bikaner. And they
didn't allow us to do that. It was so frustrating and killed my
enthusiasm in this whole project. Such historical relics are meant to
be deciphered and disseminated and are not meant to be locked up in
royal palaces to die a dusty death.

So, what next?
I am involved in two or three things, but I would like to talk about
the newest initiative – The Ambedkar Sanskrit Fellowship Program at
Columbia. It aims to establish an endowment to fund graduate studies
in Sanskrit for students from historically disadvantaged communities.
We are ready to support the students till they are able to stand on
their own feet

[Dr. Yadu Moharir]

Dear List:

In this context some of you may have already seen the article in Waal Street Journal:

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/01/21/india-on-verge-of-cultural-ecocide-sanskrit-scholar/?mod=rss_WSJBlog&mod=irt

Once Dalai Lama was asked what can be done about disasters and suffering! He replied, “if something can be done about it then there is nothing to worry about, but if nothing can be done, then there is no point in worrying!!”

Justice Warren Burger in his inaugural address said, "If you ask the question who is responsible? Then the saner must be I am. you are, we are ..... "

Maxmuller was needed to say India has some thing called 'Veda' ! 

 

Briggs was needed  to say 'Samskrit' is very useful for Computers' !

Now we have Prof.Sheldon Polock to point out the significance pertaining to Sanskrit.

IMO - It is important to dwell upon the significance of this and what can possibly be done about it?

Many of us on this list have are on an exit ramp of the highway called "Life Span" and it is up to us, as an individual to something a with specific expertise in the individual discipline of subject and the experience.

Just claiming everything is Vead, and puraaNa is not sufficient a collaborative inter-disciplinary effort from various subjects need to be objectively evaluated without getting personally offended and remain being married in "praaNa and/or pauraaNika concepts".

Recently there is lot of discussion on this list on "yaj~na".  many references have been provided by many scholars of this group. When the term appears in Veda including some grammatical thoughts.  Identifying the references is just one part and determine their corresponding application is another.

Chamaka 10 tells us that all activities are "yaj~na"

aayuryaGYena kalpataaM . praaNo yaGYena kalpataamapaano yaGYena kalpataaM . vyaano yaGYena kalpataaM chakshuryaGYena kalpataa
shrotraM yaGYena kalpataaM mano yaGYena kalpataaM vaagyaGYena kalpataamaatmaa yaGYena kalpataaM
yaGYo yaGYena kalpataam.h  .. 10..

yaj~na as per nirukta 3.19

yaj~naH kasmaat | prakhyaata.m  yajatirkarma iti nairuktaaH |
yaacno bhavati iti vaa | bahu kR^iShNaajina iti aupamanyavaH | yajuu.mShi ena nayanti iti.vaa

Here I have a question to the scholars.  All is clear to me except for the comment of "Aupamanya's statement is the above? Could I possibly interpret the term "kR^iShanajina" as black deer-skin? In one does that then that would mean presence of many Sages (R^iShi) who were sitting on the deerskin as an aasana as they were gracing the yaj~na ceremony !?  Just like a modern day conference.

Personally, what I am trying to understand why those specific "yaj~na" may have been suggested to be performed in a specific manner.  As all of us know  all text has "devataa, R^iShi, chhanda" but no one seems to know the "viniyoga" (upayuktataa) which does appear in various BrahmaNaa's. To determine this "utility", I believe scholars with  expertise in this may be able to contribute a lot.  I am compiling various smaidhaa's that were used in various brahmaNa grangtha and find a profound and direct relationship with the medicinal properties mentioned by Charaka and ShushR^itaa and VagbhaTTa.

Any one having any specific information about documentation of "viniyoga" please contact me off-list as the discussion may be beyond the scope of this list.

Best regards,

Dr. Yadu

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From: dipesh katira <dipesh...@gmail.com>
To: भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत् <bvpar...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sat, January 29, 2011 5:34:00 AM
Subject: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} An interview of Sheldon Pollock to Business world- Your views?