The Sanskrit Studies Podcast

16. Amba Kulkarni | Sanskrit and Computers

My guest this month is Amba Kulkarni [https://sanskrit.uohyd.ac.in/faculty/amba/] from the Department of Sanskrit [https://sanskrit.uohyd.ac.in] at the University of Hyderabad, who has also been associated with IIT Kanpur [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IIT_Kanpur] and the National Sanskrit University [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Sanskrit_University]. Professor Kulkarni is best known for her work [https://sanskrit.uohyd.ac.in/scl/] linking traditional Indian linguistic theory (starting with Pāṇini [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pāṇini] and focussing on aspects such as Śabdabodha [https://dharmawiki.org/index.php/Shabda_Bodha_(शाब्दबोधः)]  and Kāraka [http://www.glottopedia.org/index.php/Kāraka] theory as studied especially within the Navya-Nyāya [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navya-Nyāya]/'Neo-Logical' school of philosophy) and AI theories of Knowledge Representation [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_representation_and_reasoning] to effect computer-based cognition of Sanskrit texts.  Find out more about her recent book 'Sanskrit Parsing based on the theories of Śabdabodha' here [https://dkprintworld.com/product/sanskrit-parsing/]. The article by Rick Briggs that she mentions as her inspiration to apply her Computer Science background to Sanskrit is reprinted here [https://ojs.aaai.org/aimagazine/index.php/aimagazine/article/view/466], that by Rajeev Sangal [https://faculty.iiit.ac.in/~sangal/web/] and Vineet Chaitanya [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vineet-Chaitanya] can be accessed here [https://aclanthology.org/C90-3005/], and there is discussion of  Bhāratīkṛṣṇa Tīrtha [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharati_Krishna_Tirtha]'s book on Vedic Mathematics here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_Mathematics]. She has collaborated extensively with Gérard Huet [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A9rard_Huet], best known in Sanskritist circles for his Sanskrit Heritage Site [https://sanskrit.inria.fr/] (part of which is the Segmenter [https://sanskrit.inria.fr/DICO/reader.fr.html]). Relating to the parsing of the sentence yānaṃ vanaṃ gacchati  'the vehicle goes to the forest', she mentions the factors śabdabodha considers essential for verbal cognition: yogyatā or mutual compatibility, ākaṅksā or expectancy and saṃniddhi or proximity (read some discussion of these here [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23447819]). More on the three types of meaning of a word (abhidhā  or literal, lakṣaṇā or metaphoric/extended and vyañjanā  or suggested meaning) e.g. here [http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/S000027PH/P001110/M016762/ET/146648833614.15.1.pdf]. If you are a Sanskritist interested in working in computational linguistics, Professor Kulkarni suggests a thorough focus in Kāvya [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kāvya]/Kāvyaśāstra [https://www.wisdomlib.org/kavyashastra], Mīmāṃsā [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mīmāṃsā], Nyāya [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyaya] or Vyākaraṇa [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyākaraṇa].

15. Robert Zydenbos | The Life of Sanskrit Traditions

My guest this month is Robert Zydenbos [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._Zydenbos], who is Professor of Modern Indology [https://www.indologie.uni-muenchen.de/personen/2_professoren/zydenbos/index.html]at the LMU Munich. (Full disclosure: we thus are colleagues!) His first point of contact with Indian languages and philosophies was through Collier's Encyclopaedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collier%27s_Encyclopedia]. It introduced him to such ideas as rebirth, a concept found in various traditions (see e.g. here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation], here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebirth_(Buddhism)] or here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metempsychosis]) His first degree was in Indian Studies at the University of Utrecht, at an institute that developed into a centre of Tantric Studies [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantra] and that has in the meantime been closed.  His teachers included Jan Gonda [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Gonda], T. Goudriaan [https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/T.-Goudriaan/120329753] , Henk Bodewitz [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henk_Bodewitz],  Leen van Dalen [https://www.dutchstudies-satsea.nl/deelnemers/daalen-leendert-antonius-leen/], George Chemparathy [https://www.dutchstudies-satsea.nl/deelnemers/george-chemparathy/], Kamil Zvelebil [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamil_Zvelebil], Sanjukta Gupta [https://ochs.org.uk/dr-sanjukta-gupta/], Karel van Kooij [https://www.dutchstudies-satsea.nl/deelnemers/kooij-karel-rijk/]. He did his PhD and much subsequent work in Mysore [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysore], where he frequently visited the university [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Mysore]and the Oriental Research Institute [https://uni-mysore.ac.in/english-version/oriental-research-institute]; and whereas his early interest in Jainism brought him to Karnataka, he also studied religious currents such as Vīraśaivism [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingayatism] and Mādhva Vaiṣṇavism [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadh_Vaishnavism]. Through his close acquaintance with Bannanje Govindacharya [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bannanje_Govindacharya], he began working on Madhvācārya [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhvacharya] and his writings [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Madhvacharya], also those concerning the Bhagavadgītā [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita]. (The article he mentions may be found here [https://www.academia.edu/92019121/Madhva_and_the_Reform_of_Vai%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%87avism_in_Karnataka].) He would use the SSPRG, the Sanskrit Studies Podcast Research Grant, to learn Old Javanese [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Javanese]. For anyone interested in learning about Sanskrit  for the first time, he recommends Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat [https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Sylvain_Filliozat]'s Le sanskrit [https://www.puf.com/content/Le_sanskrit]/The Sanskrit Language [https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Sanskrit_Language.html].

14. Saroja Bhate | Vyākaraṇa and Good Teachers

My guest this month is Professor Saroja Bhate, former Professor of Sanskrit and Head of the Department of Sanskrit and Prakrit Languages [http://www.unipune.ac.in/dept/fine_arts/sanskrit_and_pakrit/sanpak_webfiles/profile.htm] at Pune University, who has published prolifically [http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n85103890/] on Vyākaraṇa [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyākaraṇa]. Her first contact with Sanskrit was through the recitation of stotras [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stotra]. She was educated at Pune University and at Ṭiḷaka Mahārāṣṭra Vidyāpīṭha [http://www.tmv.edu.in/DeptBalmukund/frmBalmukundHome.aspx], and among her teachers were Pundit Vāmanaśāstrī Bhāgavata [http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n85103154/], T. G. Mainkar [https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au="Mainkar,%20T.%20G."] and S. D. Joshi [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivram_Dattatray_Joshi]. Among the texts she read during her studies are the Rāmāyaṇa [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana], Mahābhārata [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata] including the Bhagavadgītā [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita], Meghadūta [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meghadūta], Raghuvaṃśa [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raghuvaṃśa], plays by Kālidāsa [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalidasa] and Viśākhadatta [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishakhadatta], Śiśupālavadha [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishupala_Vadha], Kirātārjunīya [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirātārjunīya] as well as selections from the Brāhmaṇas [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmana] and the Upaniṣads [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads]. The linguistic texts she mentioned include Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aṣṭādhyāyī], the Brahmakāṇḍa, a portion of Bhartṛhari [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhartṛhari]'s Vākyapadīya, the Paramalaghumañjūṣā [https://archive.org/details/ParamaLaghuManjushaDr.JayaShankarLalTripathi/mode/2up], texts from the Cāndravyākaraṇa [https://archive.org/details/Liebich1902] and Kātantra [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katantra] traditions,  and the works of Nāgoji (or Nāgeśa) Bhaṭṭa [https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagoji_Bhatta], such as the Paribhāṣenduśekhara [https://www.worldcat.org/title/paribhashendushekhara/oclc/28853148]. The modern linguists she mentioned are George Cardona [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cardona] and Paul Kiparsky [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kiparsky]. Her advice for those embarking in the field includes learning languages and studying Mīmāṃsā [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mīmāṃsā], Nyāya [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyaya], manuscriptology [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codicology], and symbolic logic [https://philosophy.lander.edu/logic/symbolic.html].

13 Patrick McCartney | Sanskrit in the World

My guest this month is Patrick McCartney. His written work, on Sanskrit-speaking villages, Sanskrit in the Indian census, the popular use and the politics of Yoga (and many other topics), is very conveniently linked to here [https://nanzan-u.academia.edu/PatrickSDMcCartney]. His Yogascapes project has its own website [http://www.yogascapesinjapan.com]. The Himāl article on Spoken Sanskrit he mentions is linked to here [https://www.himalmag.com/sanitising-power-spoken-sanskrit/]. His videos, including his 'A Day in our Ashram' [https://youtu.be/xZHJVkhVBPc] and the videos on his search for the Sanskrit-speaking villages, are available on his YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfGaSWlfxH4er_TsQBmSINQ/featured]. You can read more about the Sanskrit programme at Australia National University here [https://chl.anu.edu.au/study//language-study/sanskrit-studies]. (And of course there is the SSP interview with the wonderful McComas Taylor [https://www.sanskritstudiespodcast.com/1759898/8827962-1-mccomas-taylor-pura-as-open-access-and-wild-geese], the heart of Sanskrit at ANU.) The article on the 'Sanskrit Boulevard' from the Hindustan times is here [https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/sanskrit-boulevard/story-u8M0ylD1druUeSPAd404hN.html]; this [https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/this-bengali-family-speaks-only-sanskrit-at-home-to-keep-alive-the-ancient-language/story-Q3R57iAwwRdBN5QWtudYqI.html] is a related article. Read more about M. N. Srinivas [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._N._Srinivas] and the concept of Sanskritisation [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskritisation]. If you are interested in the SOAS- based Haṭha Yoga Project [http://hyp.soas.ac.uk], their website is here; this is a brief introduction to pole yoga or Mallakhamba [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallakhamba]. The books Patrick recommends for people interested getting into the field are Asko Parpola's Roots of Hinduism [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-roots-of-hinduism-9780190226909] and Sheldon Pollock's Rasa Reader [https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7312/poll17390/html].

12. Andrew Ollett | Beyond Sanskrit

My guest this month is Mr Prakrit [http://www.prakrit.info], Andrew Ollett [https://salc.uchicago.edu/andrew-ollett], who teaches at the University of Chicago [https://salc.uchicago.edu]  Perhaps his most well-known publication is the book 'Language of the Snakes', which you can download for free here [https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520296220/language-of-the-snakes]. Among his teachers were Eleanor Dickey [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Dickey],  Gary Tubb [https://salc.uchicago.edu/gary-tubb] and Sheldon Pollock [https://sheldonpollock.org] (whose book 'The Language of the Gods in the World of Men [https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520260030/the-language-of-the-gods-in-the-world-of-men]' Andrew mentions) He talks about his work comparing the language of Theocritus [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theocritus] with that of Prakrit poetry [http://prakrit.info/prakrit/reader.html?r=4], about the work of Mātṛceṭa [https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/matcea] and Aśvaghoṣa [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aśvaghoṣa] , about the rock inscription [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junagadh_rock_inscription_of_Rudradaman] of Rudradāman, and the influence that the Sātavāhana [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satavahana_dynasty] courts had on Prakrit. Among the languages and language forms he mentions are Vedic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_Sanskrit], Pali [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali], Apabhraṃśa [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apabhraṃśa], Gāndhārī [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhari_language] and Old Gujarati or Rajasthāni [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Western_Rājasthāni] .  Among the Prakrit texts he talks about are the Gaha Sattasai [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaha_Sattasai] (and its recent translation [https://sunypress.edu/Books/P/Poems-on-Life-and-Love-in-Ancient-India2] by Khoroche and Tieken), the Setubandha [https://medium.com/desiretothink/the-setubandha-of-pravarasena-6a1383121b8], the works of Kundakunda [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundakunda], the Rasikaprakāśana by Vairocana,  the Jain [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jain_literature] niryuktis ascribed to Bhadrabāhu [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhadrabahu], and the use of Prakrit in Sanskrit plays [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_Prakrit]. You can find out a little more about Madhav Deshpande [https://www.sanskritstudiespodcast.com/1759898/9933527-7-madhav-deshpande-bridging-sanskrit-traditions]'s book Sanskrit and Prakrit: Sociolinguistic Issues here [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25183095]. For his Sanskrit Studies Podcast Research Grant Project, Andrew will work on Kannada [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Kannada]. He recommends A. K. Ramanujan's Speaking of Śiva [https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/389661.Speaking_of_Siva], the Daśakumāracarita [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashakumaracharita] in Isabelle Onians' translation [https://claysanskritlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/10_CSL_TenYoungMen-1.pdf],  Tamil Sangam [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangam_literature] poetry and especially the Kuruntokai [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuṟuntokai], and suggests you go read Bhavabūti's Uttararāmacarita [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttararamacarita] right now.  (And I apologize for the sounds of my cat beating up his toys in the background!)