Making the Argument for Sanskrit

[Donald R. Davis, Jr.]

Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) the famous French sociologist and member of the 
Année Sociologique studied Sanskrit.

Best,

Don Davis
Dept of Languages & Cultures of Asia
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dominik Wujastyk wrote:
> Further to David's point below, it could be useful to compile a list 
> of particularly famous people who had Sanskri, sometimes unexpectedly, 
> in their backgrounds.  Using such a list would be purely a rhetorical 
> device, but could still be effective in winning some hearts and minds.
>
> examples off the top of my head:
>
> Hermann Grassmann (1809-1877), famous mathematician.
> Leonard Bloomfield (1887--1949), structural linguist, behaviourist,
>   scholar of American Indian languages, and founder of the Linguistic
>   Society of America.
> Ferdinand de Saussure (1857--1913), linguist, founder of structuralism.
>
> Dominik
>
>
> On Thu, 11 Jan 2007, David Rustin Mellins wrote:
>
>> I certainly agree with Andrea and others that the most effective
>> immediate response to the current crisis is to send letters in
>> support of the Sanskrit program in Berlin. As a component of a more
>> comprehensive strategy to redress cutbacks in Sanskrit programs
>> throughout the world, would it be feasible or helfpul to conduct
>> studies to investigate whether studying Sanskrit expedites
>> linguistic capacity more generally? Statistical evidence might well
>> strengthen the argument for Sanskrit studies.
>>
>>                          David Mellins