It is a matter of great satisfaction for me that this special number of Samskrtavimarsah is being released on the occasion of the 15th World Sanskrit Conference being jointly organized by International Association of Sanskrit Studies and the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan at New Delhi. The papers collected in this volume unfold the vast panorama of Sanskrit studies in the present global scenario. They evince the multi-dimensional spaces and interdisciplinary nature of Sanskrit studies. The volume includes three papers related to Vedic studies.
The authors of these papers have drawn our attention towards certain fundamental questions and key concepts and have also brought out the world view of Vedic seers. Nicholas Kazanas, known for his researches on the theory of the so called Aryan immigration has given considerable data to prove that the Aryans did not immigrate into Saptasindhu during 1700-1500 BCE; they belonged to this region itself. His arguments are based on literary, archeological, anthropological and genetic evidences and they can also be viewed in the light of what Bal Gangadhar Tilak was trying to prove in his Orion - the Arctic Home of Vedas. The linguistic studies by Kazanas show the antiquity of the archaic forms in Sanskrit in comparison to other Indo-Aryan languages. Gaya Charan Tripathi in his exposition of Poets and Poetry in the Rgveda re-discovers the foundations of Indian aesthetics through Vedic sources. The paper not only corroborates the theses presented by T.G. Mainekar in his Rgvedic Foundations of Classical Sanskrit Poetics as well as by Shendye in his Kavi and Kavya in Atharvaveda, it also emphasizes the need to look at the hymns of the Rgveda from the view point of aesthetics. It was Rajasekhara amongst the acaryas of Alankarasastra who established the concept of mutual interdependence between Veda and Alankarasastra. Shashiprabha Kumar shows how the idea of trans-mortality (ati-mrtyu) has been unique in our tradition.
George Cardona is known for his monumental work on Panini, In his article 'Natasya Srnoti' he has made brilliant analysis of a number of sentences that were a part of a vibrantly spoken language from the axioms of grammatical system. Hock in his article on Panini investigates upon the regional variations of Sanskrit and also draws a picture of linguistic pluralism that always existed in our tradition right from hoary past.
The focus of the papers collected here has rightly shifted to the scientific and intellectual traditions that Sanskrit literature envisages. S.R Sarma has substantially contributed to the studies in the ancient Indian science and technology as revealed through Sanskrit sources. His paper on Dhruvabhramayantra not only introduces rare and very important unpublished texts on astronomy, it also proves that the undaunted spirit for scientific investigation and experimentation which Aryabhatta, Varahamihira and Brahmagupta had exhibited was further carried on by less known savants like Nilakantha and Padmanabha in 15th and 16th centuries. Gyula Wojtilla in his paper on Agricultural Knowledge as it is Reflected in the Saunakiya Atharvaveda gives an authentic account of agriculture as gleaned from Atharvaveda. His work also draws our attention to the craft and techniques that were developed with regard to manufacturing of ploughs and other agricultural appliances. Incidentally, Dharmapala, who has worked on India in eighteenth century, has drawn our attention to the fact that the quality of wood work in the tools and appliances in our country during that century was considered technologically so perfect that even the British rulers sent the model of Indian plough for the farmers of their country. Simon Brodbeck in Putrika: Interpretation of the Mahabharata raises very significant issues related to Dharmasastra.
There are two articles related to Kautilya's Arthasastra in this volume. Tieken has discovered the interrelationships between two very important texts of Sanskrit that were produced in BCE - Kautilya's Arthasastra and Vatsyayana's Kamasutra. With regard to the interrelationships between Arthasustra, the Tantrakhyayika, the Sattasai and the Kamasatra, he finds a process of traversing 'from sastra to didactic animal fable, and from sastra to mock-sastra.' Interesting though it is, but quite debatable also. There can be no doubt that Arthasastra and Kamasutra both are very important from the point of view of a powerful prose style that was adopted for intellectual discourses in ancient India. In fact Kautilya, Patanjali and Vatsyayana - these three are pioneers of sastric prose in Sanskrit in the BCE, and the vivacity of their prose is an attestation to the fact that Sanskrit remained a powerful vehicle of expression not only for the intellectual discourses but for all sorts of pragmatic discussions as well in the BCE. The correspondences in the prose style of these three stalwarts also offer interesting studies. Manabendu Banerjee considers Arthasastra from the view point of forest management and revenue that could be generated out of it. Kautilya's concepts for preservation and cultivation of forests are also quite evident in his treatment of forest economy.
Some of the papers published here also raise issues with regards to India's past and present in a larger perspective. T.S. Rukmani examines the spaces for intellectual freedom in India and establishes the democracy of ideas that is reflected through the multiplicity and pluralistic approach to life, a holistic perspective and admittance of the incomprehensible nature of the ultimate reality and the meaning of life. G.C. Pande in his monograph Ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti had earlier given insights into this idealism in Indian traditions. Rukmini rightly admits the gap between the ideology and the stark realities of Indian society. She holds that the 'disjunction between theory and practice' always comes there 'when dealing with actualities on the ground'. The point is very well made, but it does leave scope for several questions. Does the emphasis on individual salvation create a breach in social organizations? When highest notions and sublimation and sanctity of individual life were being conceived, were norms and ethics for the society at large visualized on the same level?' Navjivan Rastogi's brilliant exposition in Tantric Thought of Kashmir: A Framework of Humanistic Culture offers a rejoinder to these questions to an extant. Rastogi does agree that the concept of Moksa requiring psycho-spiritual pursuit (sadhana), as a purely personal and asocial process culminates into a sort of life-negation.
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