Nepalese ms destruction

[Mi. Witzel]

J. Huntingdon wrote:

>About eighteen  months months ago, in Dang ...  The "Maoists" burned  the
>western branch of the Sanskrit University to the ground. It contained
>an estimated 12,000 Sanskrit manuscripts, ....

Are you SURE about the mss?  The newpaper at the time (see below)  spoke
only of printed  books, and a friend whom I asked mentioned only, if I
recall correctly,  "office materials, files" not mss.  I also  doubt that
they would have collected 12,000 or even 50,000 mss. in just 14 years...

The destruction was bad enough, but perhaps not a serious as mentioned...

MW
------------
The news (nepalnews.com, etc.) had this: 5/13/2002:

Rebels set ablaze Mahendra Sanskrit University

By K P Ghimire

KATHMANDU, May 12 Maoist rebels on Saturday night set
ablaze offices of the country's only Sanskrit University - Mahendra
Sanskrit University-in Beljhundi of Dang district, reducing estimated
property worth Rs. 27.5 million to a cinder.

The university is located about 15 kilometres west of Ghorahi, the
district headquarters of Dang. But nobody was hurt in the incident,
university officials said.

Around 200 rebels, most of whom were women, surrounded the
university's premises and torched most of the offices which include
Administration
Office, Office of the Controller of Examinations and offices of
Vice-chancellor, Registrar and Rector.

Following the arson of the university complex, around 50,000 ancient
Sanskrit textbooks, including Kalchakra Ambika have been completely
reduced to ashes.

Talking over telephone, Chudamani Adhikari, administrative officer of
the university, told The Kathmandu Post that the rebels doused the
offices with kerosene and set them on fire. All the furniture and
records of students for the last 14 years were destroyed, said
eyewitnesses. The rebels snatched keys of the offices from security
guards and ravaged the university property, Adhikari said, adding that
the students of All Nepal Independent Students' Union-Revolutionary
(ANISU-Revolutionary) were largely responsible for the attack.

The rebels had also blocked the road leading toward the university in
a bid to prevent the security forces from reaching there. It was just
last year that the rebels exploded a powerful crude bomb in the office
of the Vice-chancellor, Purna Chandra Dhungel, who usually stays in
Kathmandu.

NB : about half a year later, the  Govt. abolished compulsory Skt. in this
multi-ethnic/ling. country:

 KATHMANDU, DEC 7 (AP)

Nepal has ordered its schools to drop compulsory Sanskrit lessons, but
denies it's caved into demands by Maoist rebels who say the language is
foreign to  the Himalayan kingdom....
...  Sanskrit had not been taught at the infant school level and would now
no longer be compulsory for primary students either.
... arrangement will be  made to carry out primary level education in
mother-tongue languages in areas where it is feasible and education up to
secondary level will be free for women, Dalit and the oppressed and
backward communities like Thami, Raute, Chepang and Hayu.

For the general sentioment cf also teh newsmagazine NEPALI TIMES:
http://www.nepalnews.com.np/ntimes/issue153/stateofthestate.ht
============================================================
Michael Witzel
Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
1 Bow Street, Cambridge MA 02138, USA

ph. 1- 617-496 2990 (also messages)
home page:  http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm