P.V. KANE DROPS ANOTHER BOMB. This time, on the landscape inhabited by Indian scholars of Sanskrit and Indology. The picture he paints is desolate:
"On the other hand, in India also signs are not wanting that the study of ancient Indian literature and culture may be on the decline in the coming generations. Owing to the projects of industrialization that are now in the air, the most intelligent students are forsaking oriental studies and Arts courses and are plumping for science.
The old methods of learning Sanskrit are not being patronised by clever students. There is a great fall in the numbers attending Sanskrit colleges and Pathasalas in spite of the lure of scholarships. It can be easily seen that the most learned Pandits are not often able… to make both ends meet and students of mediocre intelligence mostly join, if at all, Sanskrit Pathasalas.
The number of Pandits of the calibre of Bal Shastri Ranade, Taranath Tarkavacaspati, Pandit Guttulal, Laksmanasastri Dravid, Vasudeva Shastri Abhyankar is fast dwindling. The new type of University graduates cannot take their places. The motto of the giants that had passed through the discipline of the old methods was to know everything of something and something of everything. The graduates trained under modern methods may perhaps claim to know something of everything but hardly even a few among them can follow the motto of knowing everything of something.
Then there are other clouds also darkening the horizon of Sanskrit studies. There are several schools of thought, one raising vociferous shouts for the sole cultivation of the vernaculars, another for the national language and a third for retaining the influence of English.
It is very much to be regretted that the Bombay University which is one of the first three Universities to be started in India has no department of Sanskrit or of Indian History and Culture.
In the midst of the din created by these several views, the study of ancient oriental learning is very likely to be smothered and stifled." [Emphasis added]
Indeed, since Kane’s doomy prophecy, this hoary field has not only been smothered and stifled but deoxygenated. Again, the ever-optimistic Kane in his speech, offers valuable guidance for preventing this stifling:
It is necessary to start in each Indian province at least one periodical like the Kavyamala issued for many years by the Nirnayasagar Press in which small but valuable works in Sanskrit can be issued periodically. Ancient and medieval writers composed works when there was no Copyright Act and when material gain was hardly in view. They wrote for their own satisfaction and for helping others less favoured than themselves. It is a debt we owe to these thousands of selfless workers that we should try to print their valuable works once at least.
After this, Kane offers his superb oblation to the stalwart scholars of “the older generation” and stuns us with this list of 108 such luminaries:
Krishnaswami Aiyangar; Rangaswami Aiyangar; K.V. Subrahmania Aiyar; S. K. Belvalkar; D. R. Bhandarkar; Binayatosh Bhattacharya; Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya; N. K. Bhattasali; S. K. Chatterji; M. B. Davar; S. K. De; Ervad B. N. Dhabbar; M. N. Dhalla; O. C. Ganguly; M. B. Garde; S. N. Das Gupta; U. N. Ghoshal; M. Hiriyanna; S. M. Husain; Jinavijayji; Jugalkishore; M. H. Krishna; N. N. Law; B. C. Law; R. C. Majumdar; Umesh Mishra; Abdal Azizal-Naiman; Kalidas Nag; Syed Sulaiman Nadvi; Gauri-Shankar Ojha; Pandit Premi; H. C. Raychoudhary; Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan; Bisheshwar Nath Reu; Shaikh Abdul Kadar; Md. Shafi; K. A. Nilkanta Shastri; Sukhlalji; Taraporvala; Unvala; Zahid Ali; G. Yazdani.
Nor does Kane forget to commend his younger contemporaries. That number is 179.
V. S. Agrawal; A. S. Altekar; B. L. Atreya; P. C. Bagchi; P. V. Bapat; Banerji-Sastri; Bhabatosh Bhattacharya; Shivprasad Bhattacharya; Bhagvat Datta; D. C. Bhattacharya; Haridas Bhattacharya; N. P. Chakravarti; Chintaharan Chakravarti; K. C. Chattopadhyaya; R.N. Dandekar; V. Ramchandra Dikshitar; G. S. Gai; A. M. Ghatge; G. S. Ghurye; B. K. Ghosh; P. K. Gode; N. A. Gore; B. S. Guha; R. G. Gyani; Md. Habib; Md. Hamidullah; R. C. Hazra; M. D. Iqbal; Hiralal Jain; E. M. F. Kanga; H. R. Kapadia; A. P. Karmarkar; S. M. Katre; P. C. Lahiri ; V. V, Mirashi; H. K. Mirza; M. H. Nainar; H. G. Narahari; R. S. Panchamukhi; K. R. Pisharoti; A. D. Pusalkar; V. Raghavan; Raghu Vir; C. Kunhan Raja; P. T. Raju; T. N. Ramchandran; Hemchandra Ray; B. R. Saksena; C. R. Sankaran; D. C. Sarkar; Lakshman Sarup; V. A. Ramaswami Shastri; Kshitimohan Sen; S. N. Sene; H. A. Shah; Vishvabandhu Shastri; S. S. Suryanarayana Shastri; C. S. Srinivasachariar; M. Z. Siddiqi; A. N. Upadhye; N. Venkataramanayya; Siddheshwar Verma; P. L. Vaidya; Madhav Svarup Vatsa; H. D. Velankar.
Today, we would be hard-pressed to find even a hundred scholars of this calibre. In a country of 140 crore-plus people. Much as he commends them, Kane equally doesn’t shy away from delivering a much-needed rap on the knuckles of some of them.
"I may mention certain tendencies among some of our scholars noticed by me with regret. Sometimes in the natural desire to earn credit for striking hypotheses wild guesses unsupported by any tangible evidence are put forward. For example, recently I found a scholar stating in a footnote in a brief paper that the Sungas originally seem to belong to some Chinese stock as the family name Sunga which even now exists in China as family name clearly shows. The same scholar proceeds, ‘I believe that the origin of the Samaveda is Chinese as its peculiarly tonal music suggests.’ Comment is superfluous.
…it would be best for all of us to follow the rule of Mallinatha ‘namulam likhyate kincit’.
Another regrettable feature noticed by me among some scholars is that they resent differences of opinion and indulge in acerbity of language and personal attacks. If we have to differ, we must do so as gentlemen and scholars, the only goal of all being the quest of truth."
[Italics in original. Emphasis added]
This unhealthy trend of using unbecoming language and indulging in personal attacks eventually became a full-blown epidemic with no cure in sight.
To be continued
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