Dear Sri/Smt Gleb Sharygin,

There are multiple ways in which this issue can be approached:

1. There are studies on different psychologically relevant Vadika Shaastras, Bauddha and Jaina granthas and panthas that are published. Those could be used to collect the Sanskrit terms and concepts that are focused on there. For example, Yoga Sutras is one such book full of such terms and all publications on Yoga Sutras help in collecting the terms. Works on Vedanta, Sankhya, Rasa aspect of Alankara Shastra, Vakyapadiyam and other Arthika granthas of Vyakarana, Mind related aspects of Ayurveda, and Tantra works are all useful for such a collection. Publications on Bauddha and Jaina theoretical and practice-related works are particularly very rich in Psychological terms and concepts.

2. There started a movement of Indian Psychology some decades ago and all the publications from that group may also be helpful.

3. Nowadays, the term and concept of Vedic Psychology are gaining a new significance with various universities starting courses on Vedic Psychology. I myself designed and am teaching a six semester undergraduate stream of courses on Vedic Psychology at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology's School of Vedic Sciences, at Pune. Chinmaya Vishva Vidyapeeth now has focus on Vedic Psychology. Sri Sri University, Bhuvaneshwar started a Department of Contemplative and Behavioural Studies with special focus on Vedic Psychology. More and more such institutes and departments are emerging. It may be useful to focus on the terms and concepts as being taught in these courses.

4. Another important approach could be to trace the Sanskrit origins of some of the contemporary psychological theories, practices and concepts. Mindfulness is one such. Its origin in the (practices referred to by) the Pali term Sati and its Sanskrit chaayaa Smriti are already widely discussed. Though discussions on 'self' can variously be tracked, its connection with the Sanskrit Atman, at least in the case of some important contrubutions in psychology, can not be overlooked. The term 'self-actualization' sounds very close to Aatmasaakshaatkaasra. The discussions on 'consciousness' and their connection and comparability with the discussions on Chit, Chaitanya etc. is another such interesting aspect. There are more such.

Following all such approaches, it may be worthwhile project to prepare a glossary of psychology related Sanskrit terms. To my knowledge, such a work doesn't currently exist.

Best wishes for your work in this direction,

Regards,

Nagaraj

On Wed, Aug 19, 2020 at 2:50 AM Gleb Sharygin via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear learned members of the List,

I wonder if someone might be able to help me find any well-done linguistic or psychological quantitative study of the psychological "dimension" of Sanskrit language/literature. By "Sanskrit" here I mean all classical/ancient Indo-Aryan languages of India, including Prakrits.

It is intuitively obvious to me that Sanskrit is an immensely psychologically rich language, and an extremely psychologically sophisticated tradition of literature. As C. G. Jung and C. A. F. Rhys Davids put it:

"But what we have to show in the way of spiritual insight and psychological technique must seem, when compared with yoga, just as backward as Eastern astrology and medicine when compared with Western science". (C. G. Jung in his "psychological commentary" in "The Tibetan Book of Great Liberation" (W.Y. Evans-Wentz. Oxford University Press, London, 1954))

"Even a superficial inspection of the Manual should yield great promise to anyone interested in the history of psychology. When in the year 1893 my attention was first drawn to it..., I was at once attracted by the amount of psychological material embedded in its pages". (C. A. F. Rhys Davids in the preface to her pioneering translation of the Dhammasaṅgaṇī, tr. "A Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics" (Pali Text Society, Oxford, 1900).

But I struggle to find any well methodologically done study, that would quantitatively measure or assess that.

I dimly remember the study that I read some 15 years ago by an Indian scholar by the last name Basu (or Vasu), that estimated that Sanskrit has about 30-40% more psychologically relevant terms/words, than classical languages (i.e. Greek and Latin), and 80% more than modern European languages.

But all my attempts at finding that study failed. I would be very grateful if someone helped me to identify that study or suggested something recent and authoritative on the subject. I would be grateful for any comments as well.

Kind regards,
Gleb Sharygin
PhD Candidate
Institut fur Indologie und Tibetologie
LMU München

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