[INDOLOGY] The study of Sanskrit as the epitome of uselessness

Tue Mar 24 18:16:04 UTC 2020

Andrew Bird's song "Ten-You-Us", presumably about academics and their obscurities, begins:
"Tenuous at best was all he had to say when pressed about the rest of it
The world that is
>From proto-Sanskrit Minoans to porto-centric Lisboans
Greek Cypriots and and Hobis-hots
Who hang around in ports a lot."
-j

Joseph Walser

Associate Professor

Department of Religion

Tufts University

________________________________
From: Jeffery Long [dharmaprof108 at yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2020 2:10 PM
To: Walser, Joseph; Madhav Deshpande; Andrey Klebanov
Cc: indology
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] The study of Sanskrit as the epitome of uselessness

On the popular culture side, the late, great Lou Reed writes in "What's Good (The Thesis)," "Life's like Sanskrit read to a pony."

Cheers,
Jeffery D. Long
Professor of Religion & Asian Studies
Elizabethtown College

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad<https://overview.mail.yahoo.com/?.src=iOS>

On Tuesday, March 24, 2020, 10:29 AM, Walser, Joseph via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

One of my favorites, although I am having difficulty finding the source, is: "A knowledge of Sanskrit is of little use to a man trapped in a sewer." The internet tells me that this is attributed to Tom Weller, but I suspect that he got it from someone else.
Greetings from the sewer.

-j

Joseph Walser

Associate Professor

Department of Religion

Tufts University

________________________________
From: INDOLOGY [indology-bounces at list.indology.info] on behalf of Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY [indology at list.indology.info]
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2020 9:41 AM
To: Andrey Klebanov
Cc: indology
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] The study of Sanskrit as the epitome of uselessness

Here is my description of what we as Indoloogs do:

खफछठथेति रटन्त: स्वशिरोभारेण गौरवं प्राप्ता: ।

गणयन्ति काकदन्ताननिशं ते पण्डितंमन्या: ।।

Hope it makes you laugh at ourselves!

Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 4:56 AM Andrey Klebanov via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
“To study Sanskrit” (учить Санскрит) became a rather popular idiom (a kind of meme) in Russia in 2015, and it has been used since then frequently exactly as an epitome of a useless time-consuming and exhausting activity, which, in a long run, may be still more rewarding than engaging in Russian politics (especially as a member of the opposition). It was popularized by journalist Oleg Kashin<http://kashin.guru>, who has famously used this expression (the original wording was actually slightly different) in his debate with politician Alexey Navalny, who, in 2015, campaigned for opposition parties to participate at regional elections at any cost. See, for example, here<http://lurkmore.to/%D0%9E%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B3_%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%88%D0%B8%D0%BD#.D0.9C.D0.B5.D0.BC.D1.8B> or here<https://echo.msk.ru/programs/klinch/1742522-echo/>. The original debate is here<https://echo.msk.ru/programs/klinch/1592616-echo/>.

best,
Andrey
On Mar 24, 2020 11:57 +0100, Sven Sellmer via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>, wrote:
Dear All!

One may also add a passage of Hermann Hesse's "Glasperlenspiel" here, though also rather in the category of useful uselessness:

… schon manche von ihnen haben ihr Leben an sehr entlegene und oft wunderliche Arbeiten gewendet, wie etwa jener Lodovicus crudelis, der in dreißigjähriger Arbeit alle überlieferten altägyptischen Texte sowohl ins Griechiche wie ins Sanskrit übersetzt hat …

… not few of them devoted their lives to very marginal and often rather strange occupations, like one Lodovicus crudelis, who in the course of thirty years translated all preserved Old Egyptian texts both into Greek and into Sanskrit …

Best wishes,
Sven

****************************
Sven Sellmer, PhD
Adam Mickiewicz University
Institute of Oriental Studies
Department of South Asian Studies
ul. Grunwaldzka 6
60-780 Poznań
POLAND
sven.sellmer at amu.edu.pl<mailto:sven.sellmer at amu.edu.pl>

Am 24.03.2020 um 11:24 schrieb patrick mccartney via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>:

Sort of related, on page 100 of chapter 5, of Amazing Stories (1943) issue 17 no 05, the following is said:

She put her hands on her hips, her
face thoughtful. Then she grabbed hold
of the grab-rail on the side of the door-
way, stepped into the bipedomobile.
She wasn’t a tall girl, but she had to
stoop.

Her eyes were grave. Suddenly she
pointed into the distance.

“Godwa te lele!”

“It’s all Sanskrit to me, Jamie,” he
said sadly. “They’ve sure done you up
brown, haven’t they — ^you’ve forgotten
entirely, haven’t you? Well, if you want
to go in that direction, okay. It’s as
good as any, and maybe we’ll solve a
few mysteries while we’re at it. We
might even find out how to get your
memory back again.”

She smiled dazzlingly. She pointed
again.

This link will take you to the relevant page - https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v17n05_1943-05_cape1736/page/n99/mode/2up/search/sanskrit

All the best,

パトリック　マッカートニー
Patrick McCartney, PhD
Research Affiliate - Organization for Identity and Cultural Development (OICD), Kyoto
Research Associate - Nanzan University Anthropological Institute, Nagoya, Japan
Visiting Fellow - South and South-east Asian Studies Department, Australian National University
Member - South Asia Research Institute (SARI), Australian National University

Skype / Zoom - psdmccartney
Phone + Whatsapp + Line:  +61410644259<tel:+61410644259>
Twitter - @psdmccartney @yogascapesinjap
 Yogascapes in Japan<http://yogascapes.weebly.com/> Academia<https://patrickmccartney.academia.edu/> Linkedin<https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=241756978&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile> Modern Yoga Research<http://www.modernyogaresearch.org/events/>

bodhapūrvam calema ;-)

[https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=19R8Cikbi8EiQ5UYFEBkervRVqXt-_Plr&revid=0B0ONiOO-EUx-TW1CYjlVQzhaeDVReUhFRzdubWdBLzRxaTlvPQ]

  *

On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 6:38 PM Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
This reminds me that one of my teachers, the great Prof. Padmanabh Jaini, lost several students in the late 70s because the job market seemed particularly bad. They switched to law and easily passed the special examinations, the "Law Boards," for entering American Law Schools. Jaini joked that the field could be saved and even expanded by converting Sanskrit to a pre-law required course.

Matthew Kapstein
Directeur d'études, émérite
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Chicago
________________________________
From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info<mailto:indology-bounces at list.indology.info>> on behalf of Christophe Vielle via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2020 4:32 AM
To: Tieken, H.J.H. <H.J.H.Tieken at hum.leidenuniv.nl<mailto:H.J.H.Tieken at hum.leidenuniv.nl>>
Cc: indology <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] The study of Sanskrit as the epitome of uselessness

The Classicist Nuccio Ordine has published a stimulating (useful) essay "De l'utilité de l'inutile" (English translation: The Usefulness of the Useless").
where Sanskrit studies, together with Classics, are given as an example of (useful) usefulness, cf. p. 95 of the Engl. Transl.:
https://books.google.com/books?id=NCArDgAAQBAJ<https://books.google.be/books?id=NCArDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=nuccio+ordine+the+usefulness+of+the+useless+sanskrit&source=bl&ots=JmMiqWAORS&sig=ACfU3U0_SDl4ZpYaNsGhUnflgLpFvJYTDg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-rMSM5bLoAhXEMewKHYVdDp4Q6AEwAXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=nuccio%20ordine%20the%20usefulness%20of%20the%20useless%20sanskrit&f=false>
See also it in his oral presentations:
https://uclouvain.be/en/research-institutes/incal/conference-du-pr-nuccio-ordine.html
Quel danger courons-nous actuellement ? Dans une université-entreprise, quand un professeur de sanskrit aura deux étudiants, le Conseil d’administration de l’Université pourra dire que celle-ci ne peut pas se permettre le luxe de payer un professeur de sanskrit pour deux étudiants. Demain, cela sera pour dix étudiants en grec, et après-demain pour quinze étudiants en latin.

Le 24 mars 2020 à 09:49, Tieken, H.J.H. via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> a écrit :

Dear List members,
Last night I started reading Ever After by Graham Swift. On p. 3 of the pocket edition (Vintage International) of 1993 we hear the protagonist think:

"Before they [academics] are sixty, they are emulating one of the many varieties: ... the wide-eyed, latter-day infant, helpless in all mundane matters but possessed of a profound understanding of Sanskrit."

A few months ago I was reading Nader tot U (1969) by Gerard van 't Reve gain. One of the characters has to fill in a profession on an official paper. In the end he decides to fill in "indoloog", which is considered to be better than "general in the Hungarian army" or "stratenmaker of zee" (general dogsbody) (p. 113). There is some confusion if indoloog refers to a civil servant in the Dutch Indies here (Indie verloren, rampspoed geboren) or to an indologist, which is later resolved by remarks about gurus and bhakti. I was amazed to see that I had bought the book in the summer of 1970, just a few months before I started with the study of Sanskrit.

Are there more accidental references of this type to sanskritists or indologists in literature?
(Leaving aside Lee Siegel's novel about Professor Roth being killed by Monier-Williams Sanskrit dictionary.)

With kind regards Herman

Herman Tieken
Stationsweg 58
2515 BP Den Haag
The Netherlands
00 31 (0)70 2208127<tel:00%2031%2070%202208127>
website: hermantieken.com<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhermantieken.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cchristophe.vielle%40uclouvain.be%7C2ebe73edfa3d487755a208d7cfd05574%7C7ab090d4fa2e4ecfbc7c4127b4d582ec%7C0%7C0%7C637206365997980559&sdata=knZj3KCyfVrhEl8UT1nRa97QamdqJ1dnMK8PR5N0U9A%3D&reserved=0>
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