[INDOLOGY] Sanskrit in the Philippines

Thu Nov 18 06:05:54 UTC 2021

Dear Ananya,
Thanks for these useful references to the research of John D. Kelly!
The spread of "Sanatan Dharm" to Fiji is of course a much later, late 19th
century, phenomenon, parallel to what is seen on the other part of the
globe in South America, in formerly Dutch Surinam -- where, as on the Fiji
islands, Arya Samaj is relatively much stronger among those of Indian
background. Surinam has several languages including a beautiful local
creole, Sranang Tongo, and a specific form of Surinam Hindustani, Sarnami,
rooted in east-Indian Hindustani dialects that predate the formation of
modern Hindi. In the 20th+ centuries this Sarnami has been largely replaced
by "shuddh Hindi" through schooling etc. Incidentally, recruiters searching
for candidates in impoverished areas of British India to settle in faraway
Suriname (they got in fact a return ticket by boat valid for 5 years, but
many finally preferred to stay) said they would be going to the land of Sri
Ram...
Best,

On Thu, 18 Nov 2021 at 04:36, Ananya Vajpeyi via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

>
> You might look at some of the earlier work of John Kelly, a linguistic and
> cultural anthropologist at the University of Chicago, who has done
> extensive work on Fiji and India (not the Philippines, but Fiji, much
> further out in the Pacific Ocean), as well as maintaining an interest in
> Sanskrit. A sample of his relevant publications is below, and more may be
> found here: https://anthropology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty/john-d-kelly
>
> 2011
> Shanti and Mana: The Loss and Recovery of Culture Under Postcolonial
> Conditions in Fiji. In E. Hermann, ed., Changing Contexts, Shifting
> Meanings: Transformations of Cultural Traditions in Oceania. University of
> Hawaii Press, 235-249.
> 2001
> ‘They Cannot Represent Themselves’: Threats to Difference and So-called
> Community Politics in Fiji from 1936 to 1947. In C. Bates, ed., Community,
> Empire and Migration: South Asians in Diaspora. New York: Palgrave, 46-86.
> 2001
> Fiji’s Fifth Veda: Exile, Sanatan Dharm, and Countercolonial Initiatives
> in Diaspora. In P. Richman, ed., Questioning Ramayanas. U of California
> Press, 329-51.
> 2000
> Nature, Natives, Nations: Glorification and Asymmetries in Museum
> Representation, Fiji and Hawaii. Ethnos. 65(2):195-216.
> 1999
> (co-authored with Martha Kaplan) On Discourse and Power: Cults and Orientals
> in Fiji. American Ethnologist. 26(4): 843-63.
>
> 1996
> What was Sanskrit For? Metadiscursive Strategies in Ancient India. In
> J.E.M. Houben, ed., Ideology and Status of Sanskrit: Contributions to the
> History of the Sanskrit Language. Leiden, E.J. Brill, 87-107.
> 1994
> (co-authored with Martha Kaplan) Rethinking Resistance: Dialogics of
> Disaffection in Colonial Fiji. American Ethnologist 21:123-151.
> 1993
> Meaning and the Limits of Analysis: Bhartrhari and the Buddhists, and
> Poststructuralism. Asiatische Studien/Etudes Asiatiques 47:171-94.
> 1991
> A Politics of Virtue: Hinduism, Sexuality, and Countercolonial Discourse
> in Fiji. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
>
> On Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 8:45 AM sennicolas via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Greetings!  The best sources on Sanskrit in the Philippines are the
>> writings of my teacher, Prof. Juan Francisco.  If you search on Google
>> Scholar "Juan Francisco Sanskrit Philippines" one can get all the titles of
>> his work, in addition to others.  Prof. Francisco finished his PhD at
>> University of Madras
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 8:57 AM Dean Michael Anderson via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>>> A few decades ago I was in the Philippines and a professor there told me
>>> that the native Filipino languages had some words that originated with
>>> Sanskrit. He was not interested in Indology really, and this was long
>>> before Hindutva, so I don't think it's due to exaggerated cultural
>>> nationalism. I was only able to find one brief reference in a book there
>>> that said that their word for 'teacher' came from 'guru'. The Sanskrit
>>> influence was apparently later mostly effaced due to Islam and Christianity.
>>>
>>> As most people here are well aware, there was significant Hindu
>>> influence in Bali and the rest of Southeast Asia. So the Philippines is not
>>> beyond the imagination.
>>>
>>> Are there any reliable sources that talk about the extent to which Hindu
>>> or Buddhist culture may have reached the Philippines?
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Dean
>>>
>>>
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>>
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>
>
> --
> *Ananya Vajpeyi*
> https://www.csds.in/ananya_vajpeyi
>
>
>
>
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-- 

*Jan E.M. Houben*

Directeur d'Études, Professor of South Asian History and Philology

*Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite*

École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, Paris Sciences et Lettres)

*Sciences historiques et philologiques *

Groupe de recherches en études indiennes (EA 2120)

*johannes.houben [at] ephe.psl.eu <johannes.houben at ephe.psl.eu>*

*https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben
<https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben>*

*https://www.classicalindia.info* <https://www.classicalindia.info>

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