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

Tue Mar 24 18:16:28 UTC 2020

Speaking of my dear friend Lee Siegel: he often tells the story that he
only decided to study Sanskrit after hearing a speech of Richard Nixon the
California senator (before he became president), in which the latter
quipped that the University of California's budget should be slashed
because 'instead of doing anything useful, they are studying things like
Sanskrit'.

On Tue, Mar 24, 2020, 4:30 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> 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>, 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
>>
>> Am 24.03.2020 um 11:24 schrieb patrick mccartney via INDOLOGY <
>> 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
>> 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* ;-)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>    -
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 6:38 PM Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <
>> 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> on behalf of
>>> Christophe Vielle via INDOLOGY <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>
>>> Cc: indology <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> 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
>>> 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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>>> –––––––––––––––––––
>>> Christophe Vielle
>>> <https://uclouvain.be/en/directories/christophe.vielle>
>>> Louvain-la-Neuve
>>>
>>>
>>>
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