i AA "k"VÔCnlaLÑre~ AA Sixty Years of Sanskrit Studies Vol. 2 ii Published on the occasion of 15th World Sanskrit Conference being jointly organised by the International Association of Sanskrit Studies (IASS) and the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan (under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India) iii AA "k"VÔCnlaLÑre~ AA Sixty Years of Sanskrit Studies (1950–2010) Vol. 2: Countries other than India Edited by Radhavallabh Tripathi Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan iv Cataloging in Publication Data — DK [Courtesy: D.K. Agencies (P) Ltd. <[email protected]>] Ṣaṣṭyabdasaṁskṛtam = Sixty years of Sanskrit studies (1950–2010) / edited by Radhavallabh Tripathi. 2 v. cm. Contributed articles. Includes bibliographical references. Contents: v. 1. India — v. 2. Countries other than India. ISBN 13: 9788124606285 (set) 9788124606308 (Vol. 2) 1. Sanskrit language — Study and teaching — India. 2. Sanskrit language — Study and teaching. 3. Sanskrit literature — India — History and criticism. 4. Sanskrit literature — History and criticism. I. Tripathi, Radhavallabh, 1949- II. Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan. DDC 491.20710954 23 ISBN 13: 978-81-246-0628-5 (set) ISBN 13: 978-81-246-0630-8 (vol. 2) First published in 2012 © Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, except brief quotations, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the copyright holder, indicated above, and the publishers. Published by: RASHTRIYA SANSKRIT SANSTHAN 56-57, Institutional Area, Janakpuri, New Delhi — 110 058 Phones: (011) 2852 4993, 2852 1994, 2852 4995 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.sanskrit.nic.in and D.K. PRINTWORLD (P) LTD. Regd. Office: ‘Vedasri’, F-395, Sudarshan Park (Metro Station: Ramesh Nagar), New Delhi — 110 015-11 Phones: (011) 2545 3975; 2546 6019; Fax: (011) 2546 5926 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.dkprintworld.com Printed by: D.K. Printworld (P) Ltd, New Delhi Sanskrit Studies in Argentina v Contents Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 1. Sanskrit Studies in Argentina 11 — Fernando Tola & Carmen Dragonetti 2. Sanskrit Studies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland 35 — L. Soni and J. Soni 3. Sanskrit Studies in Britain 55 — John Brockington 4. Sanskrit Studies in China 75 — Saroj Kumar Chaudhuri 5. Sanskrit Studies in France 105 — Nalini Balbir & Nicolas Dejenne 6. Sanskrit Studies in Japan 181 — Shashibala 7. Sanskrit Studies in Nepal 203 — Radhavallabh Tripathi 8. Sanskrit Studies in Poland 213 — Anna Trynkowska 9. Sanskrit Studies in Russia 237 — Sergei D. Serebriany 10. Sanskrit Studies in Thailand 253 — Amarjiva Lochan 11. Sanskrit Studies in the United States 259 — Sheldon Pollock Contributors 311 vi Sanskrit Studies in Argentina vii Acknowledgements We are sincerely grateful to all the authors who have contributed their papers for this volume and have also checked the proofs carefully and to the authorities of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and its Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies for permitting us to include the articles of Saroj Kumar Chaudhury and Shashibala, published earlier in the Sanskrit Across Cultures edited by Shashiprabha Kumar. This volume would not have taken the present shape but for the meticulous and assiduous efforts of Shri Susheel K. Mittal of D.K. Printworld. Thanks are also due to Dr. Prakash Pande, Officer on Special Duty for Publications, at the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan for collecting and formatting the articles and corresponding with their authors. Radhavallabh Tripathi Introduction 1 Introduction Radhavallabh Tripathi “If I were asked what I consider the most important discovery which has been made during the 19th century with respect to the ancient history of mankind, I should say that it was the simple etymological equation: Sanskrit Dyauṣ-pitṛ= Greek Zeus Pater = Latin Jupiter”. Max Müller had made this pronouncement in his Gifford lectures on Anthropological Religion delivered at the University of Glasgow in 1891.1 Dandekar calls this an utterance that ‘may be said to embody the leit-motif of principle writings of that outstanding scholar.2’ His ulterior motives related to the propagation of Christianity apart, Max Müller at that time was confident that Sanskrit is capable of transforming the world and make a radical change. To an extent this was proved by the role Sanskrit played at the global level during the eighteenth- nineteenth centuries. Earlier, William Jones had published the first printed edition of Abhijñānaśākuntalam with its English translation in 1786 — an even that created an epoch. Soon after its publication, William Forster, a German Scholar, translated Śākuntalam into German and published this translation in 1791. Forster was not a Sanskritist, and he rendered Kālidāsa’s play from its English translation. This rendering reached Goethe, one of the greatest literary figures of the eighteenth century. We all know how Goethe was enamoured by reading Kālidāsa and to what extent he was under the spell of Kālidāsa when he was writing his own magnum opus — The Faust. We are also aware of his beautiful poem in praise of Śākuntala. Through Goethe Kālidāsa cast an impact on the generations of German 1 Dandekar, R.N. : Max Müller — Comparative Religion and Mythology pub. in F. Max Müller — What He can Teach Us? Ed. by Heimo Rau, Shakuntala Publishing House, Bombay, 1974, p.21 2 Ibid. p. 21 2 Sixty Years of Sanskrit Studies: Vol. 2 and English romantic poets. Moreover, the publication of Kālidāsa’s work by William Jones, changed the image of India in the world, and also led to the change in the cultural and literary scenario at the global level Forster, who rendered Śākuntala into German from its English translation was a political activist. In his introduction to the German translation, he expressed the hope that his country which is passing through a difficult period of history will soon need great classics like this to recover from the wounds that history has given. Forster had also hoped that the publication of Kālidāsa’s work in German translation will open vistas for a global understanding — ‘the most delicate feelings which the human heart can sense, can be just finely expressed on the Ganges by the dark brown people, as on the Rhine.’3 With the onslaught of orientalism in the 18th and 19th centuries, the knowledge of Sanskrit in the western world led to the emergence of new schools and disciplines for study like comparative mythology, comparative religion and comparative linguistics. It was through the discipline of comparative linguistics that interrelationship between ancient languages of world’s biggest group of linguistic family — the Indo-Aryan — came to be investigated upon. The school of German romanticism nurtured by stalwarts like Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) who also published the second edition of Śākuntalam’s translation by Forster in 1803, and nourished by Max Müller himself, very soon paved the way for serious researches based on philological grounds. It is evidenced by the articles collected in this volume that the studies of Sanskrit in various parts of the world have covered a vast range of texts and topics pertaining to the Vedic lore, Buddhism, Jainism, Indian philosophy, art, archaeology, epics and classics, literature and literary criticism; and have also embraced Iranian studies and South East Asian studies. 3 Q. By Walter Ruben (1984): Kālidāsa : The Human Meaning of his Works, PPH, New Delhi, p. 6. Introduction 3 They have helped in creating a better understanding of our culture and civilisation. The aspects of history, culture and philosophy are being brought within the purview of Sanskrit studies, which were pursued earlier largely on the grounds of linguistics. — 2 — The World Sanskrit Conferences (WSCs) organised under the authority of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies (IASS) have not only been providing a viable platform to Sanskrit scholars all around the world for a meaningful exchange of ideas and to be acquainted with the research works of each other, but have also given multiple opportunities to take stock of the progress of Sanskrit studies and their prospects. Some of the volumes of the News Bulletin of the IASS, published on the occasion of the WSCs, were devoted to Sanskrit studies in various countries. The News Bulletin released on the occasion of the third WSC (Paris, 1977) contained a list of institutions in various countries with reference to Sanskrit studies there. Wolfgang Morgenroth improved upon this model by the way of editing and publishing the number two of the News Bulletin on the occasion of the Weimer WSC (1979). The two parts of the News Bulletin number two, provide valuable sources of information on Sanskrit studies in as many as 26 countries of the world. In addition to this special number of the News Bulletin of the IASS, Sanskrit Studies in GDR in two parts was also brought out on the occasion of the IV WSC. The first part was devoted to history of Sanskrit studies in GDR, and the second part comprised a bibliography of 765 publications from GDR related to Sanskrit studies. The organisers of the past conferences have also been bringing out volumes devoted to evaluation and assessment of Sanskrit studies during the recent decades. After the first WSC, V. Raghavan4 edited and published the collection of the papers 4 V. Raghavan (Delhi, 1979): Sanskrit and Indology in Centres outside India, volume I – Part II. 4 Sixty Years of Sanskrit Studies: Vol. 2 related to Sanskrit studies in centres outside India (Delhi, 1979), in one of the volumes of the proceedings of the first WSC. Separate volumes were published on the occasions of WSCs held at Varanasi (1981) and Bangalore (1997). To the best of my knowledge and memory, the practice of publishing such useful volumes was not followed in VII, VIII, XIII and XIV WSCs held at Leiden (1987), Vienna (1990), Edinburgh (2006) and Kyoto (2009).