Pollock's paper

[Guest guest]

Can a lister give the full citation details for

Sheldon Pollock's recent paper, "Death of Sanskrit"?

 

Thanks.

[Guest guest]

INDOLOGY, smadhuresan2000 wrote:

>

> Can a lister give the full citation details for

> Sheldon Pollock's recent paper, "Death of Sanskrit"?

 

There's an abstract at:

 

http://www.journals.cambridge.org/bin/bladerunner?

REQUNIQ=996061358&REQSESS=9491223&118000REQEVENT=&REQINT1=80241&REQAUT

H=0

 

If this doesn't work, just try

 

http://www.journals.cambridge.org/

 

and work your way to the page for the journal Comparative Studies in

Society and History.

 

Lance

[Guest guest]

Using the first link, I was able to download the whole paper, not

just its abstract. I am more troubled by the title of the paper than

by the discussion in the paper itself. I would rather like to

rephrase the title with "Loss of functionality and vitality of the

Sanskrit Tradition." It is not so much that Sanskrit as a language

is dead. There is a large number of poetic and other works

being produced to this day. However, I would have to agree that

Sanskrit has lost its status as the defining paradigm for the

Indian culture and as a primary vehicle for development of new

philosophical and technical thinking. While the current political

tide in India is all in favor of resurrecting this lost status and

functionality for Sanskrit, there are no objective signs that such a

project is going to succeed. I have a feeling that Sanskrit as a

language will indeed survive in India as a tertiary language of

cultural comfort for a sizable segment of society. While those of

us who love Sanskrit dearly may feel disheartened at this "low

energy survival" situation, we can take heart in the fact that

Sanskrit is still being widely studied and used (to some extent

for literary works) and that we need not as yet worry about taking

"The Death of Sanskrit" to literally.

 

Madhav Deshpande

 

INDOLOGY, ln108 wrote:

> INDOLOGY, smadhuresan2000 wrote:

> >

> > Can a lister give the full citation details for

> > Sheldon Pollock's recent paper, "Death of Sanskrit"?

>

> There's an abstract at:

>

> http://www.journals.cambridge.org/bin/bladerunner?

>

REQUNIQ=996061358&REQSESS=9491223&118000REQEVE

NT=&REQINT1=80241&REQAUT

> H=0

>

> If this doesn't work, just try

>

> http://www.journals.cambridge.org/

>

> and work your way to the page for the journal Comparative

Studies in

> Society and History.

>

> Lance

[Guest guest]

INDOLOGY, mmdesh@U... wrote:

 

I would have to agree that Sanskrit has lost its status as the

defining paradigm for the Indian culture and as a primary vehicle for

development of new philosophical and technical thinking. While the

current political tide in India is all in favor of resurrecting this

lost status and functionality for Sanskrit, there are no objective

signs that such a project is going to succeed. I have a feeling that

Sanskrit as a language will indeed survive in India as a tertiary

language of cultural comfort for a sizable segment of society. While

those of us who love Sanskrit dearly may feel disheartened at

this "low energy survival" situation, we can take heart in the fact

that Sanskrit is still being widely studied and used (to some extent

for literary works) and that we need not as yet worry about

taking "The Death of Sanskrit" to literally.

 

 

RESPONSE:

 

I agree with this assessment but would like to add that we cannot

have our cake and eat it too. The west has its own high languages of

Oxford English, medical jargon, legal jargon, Old Boys Networks of

various sorts, etc. and each is regulated as to who is qualified to

be an insider. Yet the same was criticised about Sanskrit, for good

reason in my opinion. The sociological criticism against the elitism

of Sanskrit as Brahmin proprietary know how, was started by scholars

who had little affection for Sanskrit, but has lately spread.

Therefore, the renaissance of Sanskrit as a casual spoken language

with a majority of women participants, should be welcomed as breaking

the social hierarchies of elitism.