1. Silk route and Cultural cohesion -- Sonal Srivastava
2. Sanskrit vs German controversy --prashantparikh@gmail.com ,
3. जर्मन संस्कृत वादातील कवित्व -- वर्णेकर
--------------------------------------------------------From: S. Kalyanaraman <kalyan97@gmail.com>
Subject: [prajnabharata] Silk route and Cultural cohesion -- Sonal Srivastava
http://bharatkalyan97.
chelvapila
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The term Silk Route is a misnomer,” says indologist Prof Lokesh Chandra at a seminar on ‘Sanskrit on the Silk Route’ at Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, New Delhi. “Silk never travelled on this route. The Chinese used silk only as part of political diplomacy; to get horses, they supplied bales of silk,” he adds. The silk route was more of a ‘sutra route’ as monks and pilgrims journeyed on it carrying Sanskrit manuscripts and disseminating Buddhist wisdom. Sanskrit was the cultural bridge between Central Asian countries joined by complex networks of ancient routes. Sanskrit manuscripts were preserved in monasteries and caves across the region. Fragments of these interesting manuscripts have been discovered along the Silk Route and are a subject of intense study among scholars of Brahmi script in Germany, China and Japan.
“Sanskrit is the heritage of many Asian countries, including India. China has one of the largest collections of Sanskrit manuscripts and the study of Sanskrit in China goes back to days of yore,” says Prof Chandra.
Complex Network
The Silk Route connected China to the Mediterranean Sea. It traversed great civilisations including Persian, Indic and Chinese. The ancient route bifurcated at Kashgar, an oasis city located close to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and met at Dunhuang in China.
In 1890, Lieutenant Hamilton Bower discovered the first Sanskrit manuscript in the city of Kucha at the Taklamakan desert’s edge. He went there in search of a murderer and instead, came back with an antique manuscript. For years, this fifth century manuscript — written on birch bark in Brahmi script — was the oldest specimen of Sanskrit writing; it became famous as the Bower Manuscript.
Inspired by the find, the Russian consul in Kashgar, Nikolai Petrovsky, collected similar manuscripts and handed over the collection to St Petersburg’s imperial library. A German expedition reached the oasis of Turfan and carried out excavations and investigations there. This was followed by three more German expeditions.
“The Sanskrit manuscripts in the Petrovsky collection in St Petersburg consist of well-preserved, though incomplete folios, while manuscripts in other collections are generally fragmentary. This may be due to the advantageous position of the Russian consul at that time,” says Prof Seishi Karasimha, professor of Sino-Indian Buddhist philology, Soka University, Japan. He runs a first-of-its kind Brahmi club on Skype. “There is a Kharoshthi club in Seattle, University of Washington. I decided to create a Brahmi club. Through Skype, we read Buddhist fragments from Central Asia; people join in from Russia, China, France and several other countries. We read tiny fragments in Sanskrit,” he says. Sanskrit was earlier written in the Brahmi script and had variations like Ashokan Brahmi, Gupta Brahmi and post-Gupta Brahmi.
Indologist-linguist Prof Raghu Vira discovered the Gayatri Mantra on the Silk Route in four Asian scripts: Manchurian, Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan. Kucha and Kashgar were important centres of Sanskrit studies. Two Indian Sanskrit scholars, Kasyapa Matanga and Dharmaraksa were invited by the Chinese Emperor perhaps in the second century CE. The emperor is said to have built the White Horse monastery for their stay so that they could comfortably translate Sanskrit sutras for the Chinese.
“The Chinese were intrigued that secular gains could be gotten through religion — that mantras could be used for political empowerment, consolidation of power and wellbeing of people. Combining power with virtue was a new concept for them,” says Prof Sashibala, Sanskritist and expert on Buddhist Art. She points to Usnisvijayadharini — an inscription in Sanskrit, on the wall of the Chu-yung-kuan pass of the Great Wall of China — a prayer to Goddess Usnisvijaya for protection of Beijing as an example of Indic cultural influence on China. She says that on the Silk Route, there were texts related to dance, drama, music, metallurgy, chemistry and linguistics. The Chinese invited Indian scholars to share Indic philosophy, and the scholars carried texts with them.
Monasteries also doubled up as academic institutions across the region and Sanskrit was studied as a subject. “Much information on Tantric Buddhism is there in the Silk Route Sanskrit manuscripts. There’s the Ramayana in Tibetan, in 9th to 10th century manuscripts, with local interpretations. Most translations of Sanskrit texts were done by monks; some of these texts were Prajnaparamita, Manjushree Paripeksha and Matangi Sutra,” says Sanskritist Kamal Kishore Mishra.
Shared Culture
Sanskrit was the foundation of many cultures across Asia. Tibetan language evolved with Sanskrit as idiom so that Buddhist texts in Sanskrit could be easily translated into Tibetan. The entire body of Buddhist wisdom — almost all of which is lost in India — is available in Tibetan as Kangyur and Tengyur. Uighurs monks introduced a large number of Sanskrit words in Mongolian. Chinese emperors used cups and saucers blessed by Sanskrit mantras; they also recited Sanskrit dharanis or small mantra-like prayers.
“The Silk Route tradition is the tradition of sharing,” says Prof Chandra. He adds, “Sanskrit and Pali traditions belong to us as well as to other peoples and countries. We’re not Big Brother — in fact we are cosharers and inheritors of a rich, eclectic, common heritage.”
Cultural Cohesion
In the past, Buddhism was widely practised in India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, China and Japan and there’s so much more to discover in terms of sourcing information from documents. Japan is still a Buddhist country, so there are plenty of documents there, mostly Buddhist texts. Japan became Buddhist in the seventh century, to gel better with other countries in Asia; Buddhism provided the cohesive culture and was cosmopolitan, too, points out Prof Karashima.
Perhaps one way of bringing peace, prosperity and intellectual growth back into the region that stretches from Central Asia to China is to revive the cultural cohesion of the Silk Route model of cosmopolitanism.
S. Kalyanaraman
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Harih om, here are my views on the subject. I am grateful to Rajiv ji and would like to credit him for acquainting us with the idea of Western Universalism and reminding us that we have to learn to look at ourselves in our own terms. I hope these arguments help provide us with stronger footing for the ongoing battle.
http://www.hinduhumanrights.
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http://www.hinduhumanrights.
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Hariḥ Om. There has been some uproar about the Government’s decision to have Sanskrit taught in Kendriya Vidyalaya schools in place of German. The common argument is that in this more connected world we should accommodate foreign languages. But we already have- it’s called ‘English’, the official language of India. However, the matter at hand elicits a more nuanced response, therefore I present four arguments to consider:
Pedagogical Exchange Imbalance:
Let’s be fair, no Indian languages (be it Sanskrit, or even Hindi) are offered in the curriculum of German, French and Spanish schools. Nobody has wagged their finger at this exchange imbalance, yet when it comes to India, we are expected to dismiss our own native language and accommodate foreign languages which may not necessarily serve utilitarian benefit for all and sundry.
Let’s be fair, no Indian languages (be it Sanskrit, or even Hindi) are offered in the curriculum of German, French and Spanish schools. Nobody has wagged their finger at this exchange imbalance, yet when it comes to India, we are expected to dismiss our own native language and accommodate foreign languages which may not necessarily serve utilitarian benefit for all and sundry.
On a personal note, I studied French in school/Junior College for 5 years, and another 2 semesters in University. Not once in my life have I had any practical use for it- not even to order a side menu of pomme frites. On the contrary, what I regret most is not taking lessons in Sanskrit as a child, because that is the language which is most beneficial to me today Yet it is noteworthy that going to school, nobody took French thinking it is going to help them in their careers. We all took it because there was a misplaced sense of “cool” associated with it, as opposed to Sanskrit, given the sordid way in which it was being portrayed to us as an ancient, unspoken, dead language, which leads into the next topic.
(In a different article I will try to explain the psychological basis behind why some things are considered “cool” while others aren’t, and how English spoken in a broken European accent (French, Italian etc.) is considered desirable, but perfectly spoken in say a Tamil accent is still looked upon as undesirable, even by Indians… in fact, especially by Indians.)
(In a different article I will try to explain the psychological basis behind why some things are considered “cool” while others aren’t, and how English spoken in a broken European accent (French, Italian etc.) is considered desirable, but perfectly spoken in say a Tamil accent is still looked upon as undesirable, even by Indians… in fact, especially by Indians.)
Attempts to establish Sanskrit as a dead language:
There are global nexuses at work (including some religious bodies) who would greatly profit from our inability to speak the language, knowing fully well the impenetrable barrier it would create for us. Therefore, serious attempts are being made by employing Western Indologists, Sanskritologists and their Indian Sepoys on this front to achieve this end. By relegating Sanskrit to the past, we have a lot to lose. First of all, it forms a continuous thread from the past, leading up to our present and enriches us by carrying the voices and expressions of countless generations of cultural narratives.
There are global nexuses at work (including some religious bodies) who would greatly profit from our inability to speak the language, knowing fully well the impenetrable barrier it would create for us. Therefore, serious attempts are being made by employing Western Indologists, Sanskritologists and their Indian Sepoys on this front to achieve this end. By relegating Sanskrit to the past, we have a lot to lose. First of all, it forms a continuous thread from the past, leading up to our present and enriches us by carrying the voices and expressions of countless generations of cultural narratives.
All languages in India derive their existence from Sanskrit (except Tamil, which developed independently). It has the most well established system of grammar known today. Rest assured this is not quackery or pseudo-science. Rhetoric which invokes unfounded idealism is to be despised. However, the fact remains that Pāṇīṇi’s monumental work, the Aṣṭādhyayi, composed over 2500 years ago, is leagues beyond even the most modern expositions on grammar and goes unmatched in its perfection.
Innumerable works from all fields of knowledge have been written in Sanskrit. It is one of the few things we have today which not only holds modern relevance, but also serves as a connecting link to our own past and wisdom traditions.
Furthermore, Sanskrit is very much taught and spoken in many places in India, it is the second official language of Uttarkhand, and it is not, as is being portrayed, an ancient, dead language, but a living, widely spoken one.
Globalized, Competitive World Argument:
The other day, someone put up an argument that in order to be competitive in this globalized world, we should include German in our syllabus. This is a totally misplaced idea. To begin with, the new world we are headed toward is a world of the rising Asian Economies led by China and followed closely by India. In fact, 2014 marks the fated time when the GDP (PPP) of China exceeds that of the US. The European Union is already in a slump and not likely to recover from it.
The other day, someone put up an argument that in order to be competitive in this globalized world, we should include German in our syllabus. This is a totally misplaced idea. To begin with, the new world we are headed toward is a world of the rising Asian Economies led by China and followed closely by India. In fact, 2014 marks the fated time when the GDP (PPP) of China exceeds that of the US. The European Union is already in a slump and not likely to recover from it.
The shift of power from West to East is inevitable and evident. In fact as we stand today, India is the third largest economy in the world, only after US and China. In such changing scenarios, it would be a far better argument to suggest introducing Mandarin or Cantonese in India than German.
The strong hold that the West somehow appears to have over India is only notional, not real anymore. But of course given that we have still not recovered from our colonial hangover, it will take some time before we begin to see that.
Free-market Economy Comparison Argument:
The other argument made is that in a Free-market you have to give in to demand and supply. This is a flawed proposal, for, what they are in essence proposing, is a model of Free-market Economy in a place where there already exists a Monopoly. Western Universalism (including in Academia) has become a hegemony, and standards set by them have become the global norm. The playing field is uneven and already favored to their advantage. Therefore, special considerations were given to French, German etc during the colonial AND post-colonial era, while Sanskrit remained largely snubbed. If we are to invoke an Economic model here. There is no practical Government in the world which relies solely on the invisible hand of the market, there are always Economic laws and balances in place for their smooth functioning.
The other argument made is that in a Free-market you have to give in to demand and supply. This is a flawed proposal, for, what they are in essence proposing, is a model of Free-market Economy in a place where there already exists a Monopoly. Western Universalism (including in Academia) has become a hegemony, and standards set by them have become the global norm. The playing field is uneven and already favored to their advantage. Therefore, special considerations were given to French, German etc during the colonial AND post-colonial era, while Sanskrit remained largely snubbed. If we are to invoke an Economic model here. There is no practical Government in the world which relies solely on the invisible hand of the market, there are always Economic laws and balances in place for their smooth functioning.
Furthermore, a good Government provides subsidies, grants and incentives for the growth and development of under-represented sectors, especially domestic ones, and creates legislations that check the unhindered growth of monopolies (in our case, the hegemony of Western Academia). Therefore, any effort made by the Government to facilitate the learning of Sanskrit is a welcome move and should be duly appreciated.
At long last Indians have begun to see India on their own terms. As a Bhāratiya, I am half-amused, half-ashamed that this is even a matter of debate. The choice to me is very clear. Let it be a new renaissance.
Saṁskr̥tam Sarveṣām, Saṁskr̥tam Sarvatra!
by Prashant Parikh
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