No incoming Sanskrit students....

[mkapstei at UCHICAGO.EDU]

It is of some interest to compare the current lamentable situation in regard to Sanskrit education in India with the 
considerable flourishing of interest at major Chinese
universities, including Beijing University, Renmin
University, and Fudan University, among others. I have heard of introductory enrollments topping 60 in some cases.
And the interest of Chinese students of Sanskrit is
by no means limited to Buddhism, as one might have
predicted, but now embraces kaavya, epic, and philosophical
subjects. Although it is only tangentially related, as in
the West, one may note that China is in the midst
of a burgeoning yoga-craze as well.

Matthew T. Kapstein
Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies
The University of Chicago Divinity School
Directeur d'études
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris