[INDOLOGY] On Sanskrit in the USA

[Eli Franco]

That article was a bit one-sided. Here is a response from one of  
Granoff's students:

LETTER 04.19
The Yale Daily News	Apr 18, 2018

On “Yale’s last Sanskrit expert to leave”

“Yale’s last Sanskrit expert to leave” is plain wrong. In order to be  
right it minimizes the work of Phyllis Granoff, a religious studies  
professor, to the point of erasure. Far beyond “proficient,” Granoff’s  
linguistic mastery is legendary among Sanskritists worldwide. At Yale  
she revived premodern South Asia and continues to train a vital cohort  
of scholars.

The article seems too busy lamenting the loss of Yale’s historic  
“reputation” in Sanskrit to ask: Why has Salisbury’s chair sat vacant  
since Stanley Insler’s retirement some seven years ago? A question for  
Linguistics, not Religious Studies. Inaugurated for Sanskrit and  
Arabic, this chair won fame through William Dwight Whitney, when  
rededicated to Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in 1869.  
Accordingly, for nearly five decades, Insler taught Sanskrit within  
the comparative study of languages — from proto-Indo-European to Old  
Norse. Currently, Linguistics has turned from this  
philological-historical project to a presentist, computational model,  
reflecting broader shifts in that field. Even if the department  
enthusiastically pursued his replacement, it would struggle to find a  
scholar today with Insler’s skills.

If we want Sanskrit to continue at Yale, we had better spend more time  
getting our arguments straight rather than courting disparagement from  
non-Yale faculty members whose mansplaining comments are best not  
given published validation.

Sanskrit succeeds as a site of comparative interest. In Granoff’s  
hands, it’s but one of many languages for art, ritual, narrative and  
philosophy. To that extent to call her — or Insler —a “mere”  
Sanskrititst would be a disservice. That is exactly why Sanskrit has  
thrived at Yale in their care.

Marko Geslani, GRD ’1




Zitat von alakendu das via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>:

> Thank you very much for highlighting such an encouraging piece of  
> event.It's heartening indeed to know the esteem with which Sanskrit  
> is held in the West.
> Alakendu Das.
>
> Sent from RediffmailNG on Android
>
>
>
>
> From: Christophe Vielle via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
> Sent: Wed, 30 May 2018 22:23:05 GMT+0530
> To: Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
> Subject: [INDOLOGY] On Sanskrit in the USA
>
>    
> https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/04/17/yales-last-sanskrit-expert-to-leave/
>
> –––––––––––––––––––
> Christophe Vielle
> Louvain-la-Neuve
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Prof. Dr. Eli Franco
Institut für Indologie und Zentralasienwissenschaften
Schillerstr. 6
04109 Leipzig

Ph. +49 341 9737 121, 9737 120 (dept. office)
Fax +49 341 9737 148