Justification for teaching Sanskrit

[kichenas at math.umn.edu]

It is interesting that the initial question, regarding the
need to include indology in university curricula seems to have
shifted to the need for the teaching of Sanskrit. 
As someone pointed out a few weeks ago, division among 
indologists is not desirable, especially in today's
environment. 

A line of argument which tries to equate indology
with the study of Sanskrit-based languages will
lead to undesirable criticism.
For instance, we know that Tamil inscriptions predate
Sanskrit inscriptions, and that contacts of India with 
both East and West (Roman Empire in particular) were made
in many cases by sea, through Tamil kingdoms in South India. 
The role of Sanskrit in the South, while substantial
in some later works, is extremely controversial
(there are examples of Sanskrit translations of Tamil texts which were
passed as the original!).  

It therefore seems that it is indology which should be
defended as a discipline. 



                                Satyanad Kichenassamy
                                School of Mathematics
                                University of Minnesota
                                kichenas at math.umn.edu