Clarification about Spoken Sanskrit

[Stella Sandahl]

Dear all,
I seem to have stepped on many tender toes by making fun of a certain  
type of Spoken Sanskrit.  My main objection is entirely practical.   
Over the years I have noticed that those who have been taught spoken  
Sanskrit seem to have real difficulties reading even simple classical  
Sanskrit such as the Kathasaritsagara and the Hitopadesa, not to  
speak about the epics. It is important that there still are a few  
students who wish to learn the language of Kalidasa et alii - and it  
is a real pity that alamkarashastra is not given much attention among  
scholars of comparative literature to give just one example.

Spoken Sanskrit can be quite an intellectually stimulating pass- 
time.  Like playing chess. But trying to revive a dead language by  
creating words for nuclear submarines, supermarkets, tennis  
tournaments  etc.  is in my view a rather useless enterprise. Mass  
Sanskrit is  of little interest for the large Indian population  
trying to eke out a meagre living to get  one meal a day. Languages  
are living organism that constantly change - bhasha calti nadi.  
Sanskrit has a normative unchangeable grammar since around 400 B.C.  
So can't we let it be what it is, a beautiful dead language?
Nobody has tried to revive Latin in Italy since the days of  
Mussolini.  However, Latin is still used in Western universities to  
harangue recipients of honorary doctorates and such things.
And it is of course used by the Vatican. There is no reason not to  
use Sanskrit in a similar way to inaugurate dams, swearing in  
cabinets, taking ministerial oaths, and of course in solemn rites of  
passage.  But trying to take a bus in Bombay/Mumbai or disputing the  
taxi fare in Sanskrit is probably not going to have much effect  
except amusing the drivers and the ever-present surrounding crowd.

However, I do believe it is important that students do regular  
exercises translating into Sanskrit, not just the other way around.  
At the Sorbonne we did "themes et versions" on alternating weeks (the  
"themes" were Sanskrit texts translated into an often bizarre French  
which we translated back into Sanskrit), and that was very useful.  
More useful than chatting in Sanskrit about tea and iddlis.

Best to all
Stella Sandahl

P.S. I do know how to transliterate - I just do not like the e-mail  
transliteration. And in the few cases above all members of the list  
can surely supply them.
P.P.S. Does anyone have the full text of Sacchidanandan's wonderful  
poem about the dinosaurs who "died out because they spoke Sanskrit"?
--
Professor Stella Sandahl
Department of East Asian Studies
130 St. George St. room 14087
Toronto, ON M5S 3H1
ssandahl at sympatico.ca
stella.sandahl at utoronto.ca
Tel. (416) 978-4295
Fax. (416) 978-5711