Languages and Sanskrit

 

MatShrcph e17cdut,go imt20nsdoi1rre9fmd  · 

I wish we had a dedicated world class learning centre or research institute for ancient Indian languages which have original texts to their credit. My generation reads loose English/Hindi translations of Sanskrit, Pali, and Dravidian languages which I feel is a great loss. I think amidst all chest thumping and noise, we could do with an institutionalised effort to study the written texts and oral histories that form the underlying fabric that binds this country together. There are unpopular, sporadic efforts to "save" these languages where scholars are dedicated but are reeling with scarcity of funds, infra support, or a lack of public interest. As a North Indian student, I was never exposed to any Dravidian language systematically. If there is so much leakage in translation from Sanskrit to Hindi itself, I can't even imagine the losses in Tamil to English translations I read. This institute could help bridge that gap as well.

The thing about these languages is that they are mathematically perfect, scientifically effective and spiritually satisfying. Ask any linguistics expert, learning a new language, any language, physically changes our brain ,thought patterns and how we perceive our world. An attempt to show the same was in the Hollywood movie "Arrival" based on Ted Chiang's book "Story of your Life". When it comes to these ancient languages, they are a lot more than means of communication. They are a portal to the never ending journey of self discovery and God realisation. These languages were given to mankind by ascended masters or simply put, by a civilisation ancient but much advanced than us. They perceived space-time differently than we do in our linear cause-effect fashion.

More than any other language, I can simply speak for Sanskrit. The subtle and gross effects of this language are therapeutic, to say the least. It has to be more than tokenism and cheap political hegemony over a religion or language, to be able to share the hidden treasures we are sitting on.

When my daughter would go for her Sanskrit classes with the best of teachers, a friend would tell her, "Oh my, Sanskrit ! You are so strange !". My daughter having learnt to ignore random comments persisted and benefitted vastly.

That friend, herself good in Sanskrit, dropped out as she was getting ragged by her friends who were proud to speak only English !

The pathetic modern eduated indian.

Their self hate. Their hatred for their heritage, their local languages, their clothing, their gods ... and also for the local indians rooted in all of this.

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  Aparna Krishnan

  Hatred for roots. And self.

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• Mohammad Chappalwala

  I think sanskrit and english to be the same. Language of the rulers

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  Vishwanath Srikantaiah

  Your ability to take one random comment and then sweepingly generalise is fabulous. The occupation of a moral high ground is also wonderful. There are children around the neighbourhood who are learning Sanskrit , some pick French too. There maybe some who sneer but many encourage too. Why bring strong stuff like hatred for roots and self ? What is roots for someone whose entire generations of forefathers have not spoken the language ? I am baffled.

  

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    Chitra Sharan

    Never thought learning a language was about being rooted. Anyways what is the definition of being rooted? Children comment, rag, snigger and say a lot of things to their friends and reading such deep meaning, may not be warranted. Sanskrit is strongly associated with a community and is seen as leaning towards religion and God, which probably has distanced people from it. We have Jabali an aetheist in Ramayana and therefore believing in God does not indicate rootedness. So what is being rooted?

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  Aparna Krishnan

  Vishwanath Srikantaiah

   Seeing that you don't seem to understand, I will leave it to another who serves more straight. Yes, you may find him also in your category of 'moral high ground'. Yet, maybe you will understand the point at least.

  Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, writes in The Dance of Shiva,

  “It is hard to realize, how completely the continuity of Indian life has been severed. A single generation of English education suffices to break the threads of tradition and to create a nondescript and superficial being deprived of all roots—a sort of intellectual pariah who does not belong to the East or the West.”

  

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• Mohammad Chappalwala

  Yes please watch achooling the world the white mena last burden. And u will get that we are on the same page. However promoting Sanskrit or for that matter the language of dominant or ruler caste does not justify ur post. Same goes for urdu.

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  Aparna Krishnan

  We are not in n the same page. You cannot see the realities and richness and difficulties of people except through your lenses of oppressor and oppressed. And so you see just your conceptions, and miss reality. The same incidentally holds for those sold to any ideology, over reality.

  

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  • Mohammad Chappalwala

    how does this argument hold in what we are discussing about sanskrit

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    Aparna Krishnan

    Move to a village. Live there. Immerse. Understand religion as they see it. Understand Sanskrit as they see it.

    I have no other path to suggest. Namaskaram.

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• Subramani Reddy

  Modernism = English education = affixing to doctrine is equivalent to my way or no way kind, which is derived from monothiest faith system. State is also of the same kind.

  

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• Manohar Kamath

  If we loose Sanskrit and the local languages, we lose the knowledge and wisdom in them. I am working with Ayurvedic doctors to dig deep into ancient knowledge and discovering how most don't know good Sanskrit (to understand and interpret ancient texts). We can build a case against anything, but loss of knowledge and wisdom is a real loss.

  Once we loose our ancient wisdom (& I don't care who created them, they are for humanity now) we have nothing much to offer other than labour and consumption...

  

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  Aparna Krishnan

  Yes. I have ceased to engage with those who cannot see beyond limited understandings of oppression and depression.

  Also all folk stories speak of the poor Brahmin priest. The very ideal of brahminical was poverty and learning, a learning to be used for society. This whole brouhaha of the oppressive brahmin of yore ... And then to seek to throw our Sanskrit, Ayurveda etc, along with this notional oppressor ... Is self centred irresponsiblity at its extreme.

  

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• Ramanan Jagannathan

  It is unfortunate that Sanskrit is just looked at as the language of Hindus.People forget that just as Latin was Lingua academica among other things, Sanskrit was the lingua academica. Just ditching it citing the same means that we lose all the treasures that are there.

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  Aparna Krishnan

  I more and more feel that these modern heroes and heroines, self declared saviors if the land, actually care less for the land than for their notions. They will happily sacrifice anything to protect their theoritical notions. What is Sanskrit, or the cornucopia of inherited learnings. Far more than that they will be happy to jettison.

When I used to go to Dr. PLT Girija, and tell her I needed reading suggestions to learn ayurveda quickly, she would tell me to first learn sanskrit. The impatience of youth was not satisfied with those directions.

But I did start reading the texts, Charaka Samhita, Ashtanga Hrudaya. And I was glad that I parallely had also been learning Sanskrit.

Our vast inherited learnings, to be understood in essential principles, need a sound understanding of the language they are written in. There are no short cuts.