Sanskrit lessons

[Allen Thrasher]

A lady has called up the Library of Congress asking if Sanskrit lessons were 
offered in the Washington, DC area.  She has already checked all the 
local colleges and universities.  I referred her to the Simhalese 
Buddhist monastery, which offered lessons some time ago, to the 
commercial foreign language schools, and to the Foreign Service 
Institute, whose teachers might have some ideas.  Is anyone aware of 
anyone giving Sanskrit lessons around Washington, or qualified and 
interested in offering them on an individual basis? 

Sincerely,


Allen W. Thrasher

Senior Reference Librarian
Southern Asia Section
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540-4744
tel. 202-707-5600
fax  202-707-1724

Email: athr at loc.gov

 


> From Peter at pwyz.RHEIN.DE 04 1996 Jan +0100 21:06:00
Date: 04 Jan 1996 21:06:00 +0100
From: Peter at pwyz.RHEIN.DE (Peter Wyzlic)
Subject: Re: Alla Upanisad?
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Dear Anshuman,

You wrote


 > [...] reference to the Alla Upanisad. Frawley mentioned that it was probably
 > composed after Islam had formally entered India, and I assume that it is
 > a rather minor Upanisad, but I cannot find any books which offer more
 > detailed information about it, nor can I find it listed in any
 > collections of Upanisadic texts or in any library catalogues (at least
 > those which I can access through this University's system). Does anyone
 > know if such an Upanisad exists, and possibly where it may be found?

At first have a look into the _New Catalogus Catalogorum_.Vol. 1, s.v.  
Allopanisad.

Rajendralal Mitra published as early as 1871 an article in the  
_Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Letters)_. 40 (1871, pp.  
170-176: "The Alla-Upanishad: a spurious chapter of the Atharvaveda- 
text," and a shorter follow-up in the _Proceedings of the Asiatic  
Society of Bengal_. 1871, pp. 140-142. Rajendralal Babu gives the  
Sanskrit text accompanied by an English translation. He pointed to an  
older edition to be found in Radhakanta Deva's _Sabdakalpadruma_ I  
could not verify in the Nagari reprint and I do not have the old  
edition in Bengali characters at hand which was used by him.

A newer edition was brought out in the Adyar Library Series, Volume  
14: _Unpublished Upanishads_. Ed. by C. Kunhan Raja et al. Adyar 1933,  
pp. 392-393. An interesting comment is given by F.Otto Schrader in _A  
Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Mss. in the Adyar Library_. Vol.  
1. Madras 1908 (Adyar Library Ser. No. 2), pp. 136 seq.

This Upanisad is not "probably", but *certainly* "composed after Islam  
had formally entered India." It invokes the gods "mitravarunau" and   
contains at the same time formulae like "allahu akbar" and the shahada  
in a roughly Sanskritized version. Rajendral saw in the "akbar" quoted  
in the text a hint to emperor Akbar -- this might be the case or not.  
Moreover, the Alla Upanisad is not part of the famous list of 108  
Upanisads to be found in the (fairly late) Muktika Upanisad.

BTW the abovementioned Schrader asked brahmins what they think of the  
text. They identified the Alla(h) alluded to with the goddess Ila/Ida.

I hope this helps you

\bye
Peter Wyzlic