Recently I read a news item on MCLI (Murty Classical Library of India) the following para is from that news item.
Originally shared by Krishnamurthi CG
Recently I read a news item on MCLI (Murty Classical Library of India) the following para is from that news item. Below that is my opinion I wrote in a forum for your information.
News item:
"As a PhD student at Harvard, Rohan Murty, son of Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, started reading translations of ancient Sanskrit texts, discovering, as he says, the depth of intellectual thought in ancient India. At around the same time, Sheldon Pollock, Arvind Raghunathan professor of South Asian studies at Columbia University, was on the hunt for a “bhoja raj” who would help him set up an upgraded version of the Clay Sanskrit Library—which has translated more than 50 Sanskrit texts into English. Pollock was its general editor."
I write the opinion of the above news in English so that more people understand (this statement itself proves the pathetic condition in which we are in now - means about Sanskrit I need to write in English). Ever since the news about this Library thing came in Indian press 2 weeks back, I wanted to write a piece on this.
There are certain serious concerns voiced by many Traditional Samskrit Pandits and also by Rajiv Malhotra and scores of Indian scholars in US with respect to this initiative (MCLI). Please note that people behind this are Michael Witzel, Wendi doniger, Sheldon Pollack, and many such who are known to have a history of willful distortion of certain shastras and wrong translations. What are they doing - read the following carefully.
1. They are hijacking Sanskrit texts and their translations - so in research journals when people quote it is the translations that are quoted and not the original - now with this they are copy-writing the publications of even the originals (this is an indirect way of owning) - first they collected these texts in the name of developing Internet library and then do translations and finally people read only translations.
2. Their idea is also to propagate that to study Sanskrit, western universities have the best infrastructure - thus overtime students from Europe, Japan will go there and eventually Indian students will also go there to study Sanskrit.
3. There idea is turn Sanskrit into something similar to a Latin in one hand and Maths on the other hand - totally removed from common people - so that they depend on translations. Note that all the translations are done by them - E.g.: Go to wikipedia and search for any scientific topic on Sanskrit and at the bottom - majority of the references are from books written in English /German /French by western authors - and nothing is quoted directly from texts - Ashtradhyayi, Mahabhashyam directly - even if they are quoted - the versions published by Oxford press, Springer etc. are only quoted and not by our publishers like Chowkamba or Motilal or Ram lal kapoor trust etc.
4. These people are modern day Max Mullers and Monier Williams - their agenda is not for the Prasaara (development) or Prachaara (spread) of Sanskrit but Prataara (deception) with their own version of Sanskrit and their other agendas (Monier Williams in the introduction to his dictionary had said that he is doing this so that Bible can be translated to Sanskrit in the best manner and Christianity can be spread).
5. No doubt that these people are good scholars in Sanskrit and in shastras like Vyakarana, Nyaya etc. - they have a missionary zeal to acquire proficiency in Sanskrit - which we lack (shame on us) - and we find 100 of excuses to not to attend even the free 10 day spoken Sanskrit class by Samskrita Bharati
6. Western University ia publishing the critical edition of Rig veda - this means that Rig veda published there is so called "peer- reviewed"- which in-turn means among their own people and followers - who are spread from America to Europe to Japan to Thailand to even in India - so any scholar, if he/she need to quote any Rig veda mantra - in any research paper /journal article /research thesis he/she want to write - the person need to quote only from the so called "Critical edition" - else it will be rejected in the scholar community and the paper/thesis will not be published and also the person will not get the degree awarded - so you have toe the their line. The pathetic situation is that - a research on our own language, by our own researcher, in our own university has to obey the rules set by westerners.
7. I urge people to connect with Sri. Rajiv Malhotra and read his postings in Facebook, Twitter and Google+, etc. Our scholarship is far inferior to their and thus we are blissfully ignorant about what is going on. FYI, yesterday Sri. Cha mu Krishna Sastri and Sri. Rajiv Malhotra had a long private one-to-one meeting.
8. There are more universities and Sanskrit departments outside India than in India - thus already more number of people are getting Graduations and post-graduations in Sanskrit with the willfully corrupted versions of translations.
9. Over a period of time we ourselves due to our lack of Sanskrit and also shastra language in Sanskrit will become slaves of the western translated versions and will regurgitate what Westerners say - just like a parrot.
10. All these are due to our lack of respect to our traditional scholars who with their brown skin, with their "shikaa" and "veshtee" (dhoti) appear in our eyes like buffoons and the English speaking westerners appear like scholars of Sanskrit - this is our fault.
This is just a Gist of my first hand research - based on my comparative studies during my M.A Sanskrit, M.Phil - Sanskrit and Ph.D Sanskrit (further to me reading Rajiv Malhotra's - digesting of Indian sciences into western science and Vedanta into western philosophy). I am still studying about the shortcomings and willful distortion of facts of sanskrit texts - by people who translate. For example - Even when Brittanica Encyclopedia and many western scholars admitting that the Pythagoras theorem is previously Bodhayana sutram - our own people rejecting these facts as fiction. The second example is that in the many translations of Nyaya and Vedanta in the west - the word "jnana" is translated as knowledge. In Nyaya the word jnana generally refers to "savikalpajnana" and in Vedanta it is "nirvikalpajnana" - this no where is highlighted - so anyone reading the translation will loose out in the first step itself
Already we ourselves are calling our Itihaasa as Mythology (means Myth or fiction- from the Sanskrit root mythyaa) with out even knowing the meaning of the English word "Myth"
In my opinion if we want to buy Sanskrit books, let us buy from Samskrita Bharati, Aurobindo Ashram, Chowkamba, Motilal Banarasidas, Ram Lal kapoor trust, Bhartiya Vidya bhavan, Nag Publishers, Ramakrishna Mutt, and scores of others - else download free from Internet - don't pay anyone- these are our own Sampath (wealth) and we are not obliged to pay any one. International copy-write laws say that the copy-write of a book expires after 60 years.
Rohan Murty's intention is good but the people he choose to fund is where the problem lies.
Funds can be given to 100s of ailing Sanskrit research centers in India which are into Manuscript publishing etc. or one can fund the Catalogus Catalogorum project or 100s of such projects - or some grants can be given to Veda shastra paatashaalas or one can start a shastra paatashalaa to focus exclusively on Gantita shastra (Maths) or Bautika shastra (Physics),or a research center can be set up to digitize millions of Sanskrit texts into electronic formats, or funds can be given to Matas like Siddhaganga, Pejavara, Sringeri in Karnataka (where Infy foundation is located), who are doing great service to Sanskrit and Shastra apart from social services.
I wonder what is the need for funding an initiative by a Western university?, May be, I think the American University doesn't have enough funds so that the so called "third world country" philanthropist can give them some funds ! - shameful
Regards
“If Indian education and scholarship continue along their current trajectory, the number of citizens capable of reading and understanding the texts and documents of the classical era will very soon approach a statistical zero. India is about to become the only major world culture whose literary patrimony, and indeed history, are in the hands of scholars outside the country.” So says Sheldon Pollock
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/men-and-ideas/the-loss-of-inheritance/
While Samskrit Bharati is doing great job in the reviving sanskrit, i wonder what makes scholars in India less accesible for research?
Is the situation really so grim as the blog says?
Let us look at what we are capable doing collectively in the next 4 years time - and forget what Pollock says or anybody else says, I am least bothered about crocodile tears.
ReplyDeleteThere are 4 major things with respect to the promotion and development of Sanskrit, those need to come into place.
1. Jobs outside the plain Teaching arena - means jobs outside schools and colleges for the next generation of Sanskrit scholars
2. Jobs in interdisciplinary areas such as Ayurveda, Vaastu, Ganita, Vrikshayurveda, etc.
3. Research centers focusing in the areas of Ganita with modern Maths, Rasayana shastra with modern Chemistry, Vaastu with modern AEC, Vrikshaayurveda with Botony /Ecology.
4. Finally a CSIR type of lab for Sanskrit sciences - not the emotional setup which should be streed not by People who just love Sanskrit but also who are capable - preferably traditionally qualified Sanskrit scholars with modern orientation. This Lab should also be equipped with a computer center etc. Should be jointly created by Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, 2nd Sanskrit commission, Samskrita Bharati, CDAC, CSIR, and other Sanskrit universities - a good mix of people with research, academic, scientific and shastra backgrounds.
The above should be done jointly by NGOs like Samskrita Bharati and Govt. - it is possible to chart a new path and revive.
It seems a quite good road map. I think qualified Sanskrit scholars with modern orientation are much less than the people just learning it out of their love to learn languages.
ReplyDeleteResearches apart, for a language to survive in the long run, it should be spoken as a first language. Second or third languages are just for convinience. Or may be i think so because Indian states were formed on the basis of languages and we have no sanskrit state.