use of historical present in Sanskrit

[Frits Staal]

Hi Madhav!

I guess we may meet in March at Stanford and I look forward to it.

As regards the Classics student at Michigan - I am sure (s)he knows
Kurylowicz. I believe (without checking) that there may also be something
to be found in some of the earlier monographs of Jan Gonda.

I in turn am interested to learn where we find that Greeks looked upon
Persians as feminine.

best wishes,

Frits


At 10:18 PM 12/6/01 -0500, you wrote:
>A student here at Michigan from the Classics Dept is working on the use of
>historical present in Greek dramas, and wanted to know if there was any
>similar study of the use of historical present in Sanskrit.  Evidently, he
>finds the use of historical present more typical in the usage of female
>characters, or of those males who were looked upon as being feminine, i.e.
>Persians.  Any suggestions will be appreciated.
>
>
>Madhav Deshpande
>
>***************************************************************
>Madhav M. Deshpande
>Professor of Sanskrit and Linguistics
>Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
>3070 Frieze Building
>The University of Michigan
>Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1285, USA
>***************************************************************
>
Frits Staal

http://philosophy.berkeley.edu/staal