Editor,
When I had to renew my driving license recently, I was prepared for a long wait and a run from one desk to another, as has been my usual experience when dealing with government departments. You can imagine my surprise and sigh of relief when the whole process took only two days. I did not have to wait and be pushed in the queue as, firstly, there is a separate line for women and secondly the staff members at each counter did their work efficiently and swiftly. What’s more, they were polite and helpful. Cheers to all the staff of the District Transport Office and wishing you a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Yours etc.,
Darilyn Syiem,
Via email
Sanskrit language and western intellectuals
Editor,
It is for the astounding richness of the Sanskrit language a renowned linguist Sir William Jones first translated Kalidasa’s Shakuntala from the original Sanskrit into English in 1789. This stirred the minds and hearts of the top European intellectuals that include Johann Goethe, Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Schiller, August Schlegel, Wilhelm von Humboldt, et al. Impressed by the language and its philosophical plot the father of German literature learnt Sanskrit. And, he plunged into this ancient play Shakuntala for thirty years. He even wrote a thought-provoking poem eulogizing this Sanskrit play. Again, many scholars opine that this ancient play of Sanskrit has immensely contributed towards fortifying the literary edifice of the European world.
Again, one of the fathers of Modern linguistics, Franz Bopp and a great philosopher Friedrich Schlegel, both from Germany, laid the revolutionary foundation of the comparative linguistic by freely borrowing from Panini’s “Ashtadhyayi” which was later further developed by language giants like ‘Ferdinand de Saussure’, Leonard Bloomfield and Noam Chomsky. Panin, an enlightened sage of 4th century BC was the first to systematically put down the comprehensive Grammar of the Sanskrit language. This treatise consists of 3959 sutras which can handle the nuances and intricacies of any language in the universe, empirically and anatomically.
Having been bewitched by Sanskrit language a renowned American linguist Leonard Bloomfield exclaims — “It was in India, however, that there rose a body of knowledge which was destined to revolutionize European ideas about language. Panini Grammar taught Europeans to analyze speech forms; when one compared the constituent parts, the resemblances, which hitherto had been vaguely recognized, could be set forth with certainty and precision.” Yes, here at home we prefer to call Sanskrit a dead language and with enthusiasm and snobbery we choose to learn German.
There are countless western scholars and scientists who have overwhelmingly acknowledged the exceptional richness of Sanskrit language wherein they saw an immense scope in the development of any area of studies. Voltaire, Hegel, Schopenhauer, William Blake, PS Shelley, Emerson, Henry Thoreau, TS Eliot, Neils Bohr, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Oppenheimer, Mark Twain, Carl Jung and others learnt Sanskrit or studied Sanskrit literature to strengthen their intellectual prowess.
John Archibald Wheeler – a famous modern physicist who first coined ‘Black Hole’ and ‘Warm Hole’ and occupied the chair that had previously been held by Albert Einstein, enthuses – ‘One has the feeling that the thinkers of the East (INDIA) knew it all, and if we could only translate their answers into our language we would have the answers to all our questions.’ With the same vigor bursts out another physicist Erwin Schrodinger, best known as the father of Quantum Mechanics — “Some blood transfusion from INDIA to the West is a must to save Western science from spiritual anemia.”
Here are my few earnest questions — had all these rational thinkers, scientists, writers, whose theories, principles, literature, formulae and equations we study in schools and colleges and thus claim ourselves as academically qualified, gone crazy to heap high praise on Sanskrit language and its literary treasure troves? How can we claim to be INDIAN when we joyfully belittle and undermine our own heritage? What is it that makes us see only flaws in our Mother even without ever making a bit of genuine effort to know and realize her uncanny virtues?
I don’t think we have ever seen any country in the world whose citizens speak ill of their heritage, their tradition and values no matter how archaic, rustic and crude they may be. Why does it touch our raw nerves when someone appreciates the values and knowledge of the native land? Sanskrit and myriads of literature produced in this language is as resplendent as the sun over our heads. Can we ever ignore the sun? I don’t think François Voltaire was a fool to announce with vehemence about 300 years ago —- ‘Everything has come down to us from the banks of GANGA’ , ‘The first Greeks travelled to India to instruct themselves’, ‘India, whom the whole earth needs, who needs no one, must by that very fact be the most civilized land’. Should it not call for a dispassionate introspection and thus our self-correction?
Yours etc.,
Salil Gewali
Shillong-2