[INDOLOGY] Sanskrit in Pakistan

Sat Dec 13 16:25:49 UTC 2025

I vaguely remember that Prof. Karin Preisendanz was trying to prepare a
descriptive catalogue of the MSS either in Lahore or Karachi.

On Sat, 13 Dec 2025, 21:45 Patrick Olivelle via INDOLOGY, <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> What Madhav says is very true. I was fortunate that someone who happened
> to be Pakistan obtained copies of two manuscripts of the Manusmṛti in the
> lat 1990s from the Panjab University Library in Lahore (La1 and La2 in my
> edition). I do hope some international funding will be available to
> digitize these before they all turn to dust.
>
> Patrick
>
>
>
> On Dec 13, 2025, at 10:07 AM, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
> Thanks, Antonia,
>
>     This is a nice detailed article. Many years ago, when I was searching
> for manuscripts of the Śaunakīya Caturādhyayika, I saw a reference to a
> manuscript in the Lahore University library. I contacted the librarian, and
> he responded by saying that there are many rooms filled with Sanskrit
> manuscripts, but no one knows what they are. He was generous in offering to
> help me if I could come to Lahore. Due to my home circumstances
> that did not materialize. I hope someday the collection of Sanskrit
> manuscripts in Pakistan would be digitized and made available for
> researchers.
>
> Madhav
>
> Madhav M. Deshpande
> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
>
> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>
>
> On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 7:26 AM Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> The Tribune article shows up for me without any issues, but perhaps
>> that's because I am in the EU? At any rate, I've pasted the text below:
>>
>>
>> The teaching of Sanskrit has quietly returned to classrooms in the
>> Islamic Republic of Pakistan for the first time since Partition, with the
>> Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) introducing a course in the
>> classical language. What began as a three-month weekend workshop gradually
>> evolved into a full four-credit university course after the overwhelming
>> response it received.
>>
>> Dr Ali Usman Qasmi, Director of the Gurmani Centre, told The Tribune that
>> Pakistan houses one of the richest but least-studied Sanskrit archives at
>> the Punjab University library. “A significant collection of Sanskrit
>> palm-leaf manuscripts were catalogued in the 1930s by scholar JCR Woolner,
>> but no Pakistani academic has engaged with this collection since 1947. Only
>> foreign researchers use it. Training scholars locally will change that,” he
>> says.
>>
>> The LUMS also plans to offer courses on the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad
>> Gita. “Hopefully, this sets a momentum,” says Dr Qasmi. “In 10-15 years, we
>> could see Pakistan-based scholars of the Gita and the Mahabharata.”
>>
>> Dr Qasmi said initially, a weekend programme was offered that was open to
>> everyone--students, researchers, lawyers and academics. “After we saw the
>> response, we decided to introduce it as a proper university course. Even
>> though the number of students is still small, we hope it will grow over the
>> next few years. Ideally, by spring 2027, we should be able to teach the
>> language as a year-long course.”
>>
>> At the heart of the initiative is Dr Shahid Rasheed, Associate Professor
>> of sociology at Forman Christian College, whose interest in Sanskrit began
>> long before the LUMS approached him. “Classical languages contain much
>> wisdom for mankind. I started with learning Arabic and Persian, and then
>> studied Sanskrit,” he told The Tribune. With no local teachers or
>> textbooks, he turned to online platforms, studying under Cambridge Sanskrit
>> scholar Antonia Ruppel and Australian Indologist McComas Taylor. “It took
>> almost a year to cover classical Sanskrit grammar. And I’m still studying
>> it.”
>>
>> After Dr Qasmi reached out, Dr Rasheed took a sabbatical from FC College
>> to teach the course at the LUMS. “I mainly teach grammar. When I was
>> teaching ‘subhashitas’, the wisdom verses or shlokas, many of my students
>> were fascinated to discover that so many Urdu words come from Sanskrit.
>> Many didn’t even know that Sanskrit was different from Hindi. In the first
>> week, they found it a challenging language. But once they grasped the
>> logical structure, they started enjoying it. The pleasure of solving
>> something difficult is immense,” he says.
>>
>> “Modern languages derive from classical traditions. There is just a veil
>> that separates them--once you cross it, you realise they are all our own,”
>> adds Dr Rasheed.
>>
>> Dr Qasmi explains that the initiative also aligns with the university’s
>> broader language ecosystem, which includes Sindhi, Pashto, Punjabi,
>> Baluchi, Arabic and Persian. “We understand the importance of connecting
>> with this incredible tradition, which is part of the Pakistani-Indian
>> global heritage. So much of our literature, poetry, art and philosophy go
>> back to the Vedic age. Many historians believe that the Vedas were written
>> in this region. It then becomes even more important to read the classical
>> texts in their original language.”
>>
>> Despite the political sensitivities involved, both scholars believe the
>> intellectual climate is shifting. Dr Rasheed often encounters curiosity
>> about his own study of the language. “People ask me why I’m learning
>> Sanskrit. I tell them, why should we not learn it? It is the binding
>> language of the entire region. Sanskrit grammarian Panini’s village was in
>> this region. Much writing was done here during the Indus Valley
>> Civilisation. Sanskrit is like a mountain--a cultural monument. We need to
>> own it. It is ours too; it’s not tied to any one particular religion.”
>>
>> “If we want people to come closer, then it’s essential to understand and
>> absorb our rich classical traditions. Imagine if more Hindus and Sikhs in
>> India started learning Arabic, and more Muslims in Pakistan took up
>> Sanskrit, it could be a fresh, hopeful start for South Asia, where
>> languages become bridges instead of barriers,” concludes Dr Rasheed.
>>
>> On Sat, 13 Dec 2025 at 14:55, Shrinivas Tilak <
>> shrinivast_k11612 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Members of the Indology group often provide links to very interesting
>>> topics pertaining to Sanskrit etc to a newspaper in India. Unfortunately,
>>> there is a torrent of ads that you need to negotiate before you finally are
>>> able to reach to the story. I am often tempted to give up and not proceed.
>>> Is there some way to archive the story in an ads-free location?
>>>
>>> On Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 12:20:39 a.m. EST, Ananya Vajpeyi via
>>> INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Congratulations are in order then, Antonia!
>>> Warm best,
>>> AV.
>>>
>>> On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 2:02 AM Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY <
>>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear Madhav,
>>>
>>> Thank you for sharing this! Here's the original piece in the Tribune
>>> that The Wire is referring to:
>>>
>>>
>>> https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/sanskrit-returns-to-pak-varsity-first-time-since-partition/
>>>
>>> Shahid Rasheed, who is behind this initiative, is a true polymath and
>>> co-founder of a school trust (
>>> https://i-care-foundation.org/charity/zaawiya-trust-school/). I think
>>> he began learning Sanskrit with McComas and has been doing Latin and Greek
>>> (and some more Sanskrit) with me at Yogic Studies for a while now.
>>>
>>> Antonia
>>>
>>> On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 at 17:05, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <
>>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>>
>>> A Welcome Development:
>>> https://thewire.in/south-asia/in-a-first-since-independence-a-pakistan-university-is-teaching-sanskrit
>>>
>>> Madhav M. Deshpande
>>> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
>>> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
>>> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
>>> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore,
>>> India
>>>
>>> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> *Ananya Vajpeyi*
>>> https://www.csds.in/ananya_vajpeyi
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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