Richard is probably in a better position to talk about the historical changes and processes, but to flesh out some of the current details (I came up/arrived in Oxford in 2009, and finished the BA in Sanskrit last year):

- The BA in Sanskrit (with a secondary focus on Iranian languages, Pāli, Bengali, Hindi, Prakrit, Tibetan, or another language currently being offered by a member of staff) is three years. There are three terms per year (8 weeks each, starting in October). After two terms (late March), one sits three three-hour exams - "Prelims". Papers include Texts, Grammar, and General (essay). Grammar/Texts are based on Coulson (from day 1), Lanman (Nala story et c., in our year from week 3/4), and 3/4 books from the Gītā (end of first and second term). Topics for General derive from tutorials with your Sanskrit teachers and/or specialists in their respective fields who are currently at Oxford. There are also lectures and introductions, say, on General Indian History, The Study and Nature of Religions, Buddhist Studies et c.

- The second part of the degree (Final Honours School, 7 terms) is based on 9 three-hour papers/examinations at the end of the 9th term/3rd year. 7 in Sanskrit, 2 in your subsidiary language/tradition. The Sanskrit ones are: Unprepared Translation, Essay Questions on the History of Classical Indian Civilisation, Indian Linguistics, Historical Philology of Old Indo-Aryan, Chosen Area Unprepared Translation, Chosen Area Essays, Special Subject (or BA dissertation).

Again, the pool of essay questions is influenced by tutorials, lectures/seminars, and readings during the BA. The idea is to get a good cross-section of different traditions, genres, and themes.

For your subsidiary language/tradition, there are: X Texts and Questions on X Language and Literature.

Only two papers (Linguistics, i.e. mainly Pāṇini; and Old-Indo Aryan) are set texts = more or less based on a fixed syllabus.

Regarding Chosen Area and Special Subject, these can be, as far as I know, fairly flexible and tailored to the student's interests and available expertise (as outlined by Dominik). My fellow Sanskritist chose Buddhist Philosophy and Āyurveda, I opted for Epic Sanskrit, History of Śaivism, and Apabhraṃśa.

In addition, people are encouraged to attend Richard's Pāli Summer School or Sadānanda's Spoken Sanskrit Course.

- The same criteria apply, to a certain extent, to the Sanskritic master's degrees (MSt in Oriental Studies, MPhil in Classical Indian Religion). The 2-year MPhil for example does have a core syllabus of set texts, but one can choose between some of the major traditions, e.g. General Brahmanical, Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava, Bauddha, and so forth. In the one-year MSt, one can read/work on pretty much everything, assuming there is someone who can guide/supervise you. This year, we had people working on paribhāṣa-sūtras/the Ṛg-veda, History of Śaivism/Aiśa Sanskrit, and Brahmanical/Śaiva topics, but there were also readings in Bauddha, Buddhist Chinese (with Sanskrit/Tibetan comparison), and Bauddha Tantra texts.

Hope that helps.

Best wishes,

Paul

On 28 June 2013 08:58, Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk@gmail.com> wrote:

There was a big change in Sanskrit pedagogy in the 70s. Thomas Burrow had taught Sanskrit from the same syllabus for for 32 years. By "syllabus," I mean the printed, published Oxford schools syllabus that gave the editions and even page numbers of what the student would do in each term of each of the three years of the BA. You could look a head and say to yourself, "ah, in October next year, I'll be reading page three of the Mudraraksasa."

When Richard Gombrich became lecturer in Sanskrit, and responsible for the lion's share of u/g teaching, he stopped the use of Perry at Oxford. He hated that book with a passion. When I arrived in '74, Richard had already introduced Coulson, though it was only in photocopied typewritten sheets at that time. (But the same was true of Mr Gray's famous Sanskrit course book at SOAS. It was never published, so I don't know what this is.)

When Richard became professor, he began the bureaucratic Oxford process of changing the syllabus. He said that if he had to teach the same pages of the same books for the rest of his life, as Burrow had done, he would go mad. His idea was to make the u/g as śāstrika as possible, to make it more similar to a traditional pundit's education, but while still keeping it in the general mould of a European university course. Also, because no one Sanskritist can master all the śāstras, he wanted the flexibility to be able to have guest teachers, people like David Pingree, who could give a course out of their special knowledge that would still count towards the undergraduate course credit.

Richard got the changes through committee, and the new u/g course was born (after my time). I'll leave it to others to describe it in detail if they wish, but it contained fixed core components such as readings from Panini, and the Asokan inscriptions, plus other components that were decided year-by-year according to who was in town or what Richard, Bimal, Alexis, Margaret Cone or others wanted to read.

Richard, any comments, corrections?

Best,
Dominik

Dear All,

On a related note, I would be interested to know to what extent traditional Sanskrit grammars have been/are being taught at various universities - this would include the use of Sanskrit terminology to the citation and discussion of sutras. I know Oxford has a regular course on Panini as part of the Sanskrit BA and that Professor Ingalls used to teach a course on Panini at Harvard with some regularity. I'm also familiar with Goldmans' use of Sanskrit terminology. Additional information would be of great interest.

Many Thanks,

Victor D'Avella

PhD Candidate
SALC
University of Chicago

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Paul Gerstmayr
Oriental Studies - Tantric Sanskrit

Balliol College, Oxford

Clarendon - Boden/Sanskrit - Santander Graduate