Dear
Dominik,
Thanks
for asking this useful question.
In
addition to Isabelle's earlier
contribution to this thread I would like
to add a few elements: the BA in
Sanskrit at the Sorbonne Nouvelle is
pedagogically one of the best in the
world -- the only limitations I
would add are: in the occidental world,
for a Western public, because the
strategy to teach Sanskrit to Indian /
South Asian students can be and should
be different as most of them, even if
their main subjects are IT, engineering
etc., are already so much familiar with
Sanskrit and Sanskritic vocabulary which
often helps but may frequently also put
the student on a wrong or deceptive
track.
Hence
during my stay at IIT-Bhubaneswar as
visiting professor in 2019 (teaching,
among other things, an introductory
course on Sanskrit, German and
comparative linguistics specially for
IIT-students with an Indian linguistic
background), I planned and organized a
seminar on "Functional and Communicative
Sanskrit" on 21 December 2019 with
contributions by Godabarish Mishra, Amba
Kulkarni, Siniruddha Dash and others. My
plan to help to develop this further, in
2020, to an introductory course on
Sanskrit and comparative linguistics
specially for these students could not
be realized due to the Corona crisis.
As
for the BA in Sanskrit at the Sorbonne
Nouvelle, another plus is that it is in
French, so that the student at the same
time can develop familiarity with the
language which was the first occidental
language of the scientific study of
Sanskrit, extensively used also by the
earlier generation of German Sanskrit
scholars such as the brothers von
Schlegel and Franz Bopp.
As
for the Sorbonne Nouvelle, the manual
used, or one of the major manuals used,
is Le Sanskrit by
Nalini Balbir (Paris, 2013) of which an
English version is in preparation. The
specialty of Le Sanskrit is
that it presents, for the first time,
the language not only in its grammatical
structure but also as a living means of
expression and communication, entirely on the basis of
examples attested in Sanskrit
literature (fiction, fables, dramas) --
hence it is different both from
classical occidental introductions to
Sanskrit and from modern introductions
to "spoken Sanskrit". It is a worthy
contribution to the series "Assimil" in
which Le Sanskrit is
published, as it follows throughout the
"assimilation" method (nipāna-rīti) of
language learning.
When
it appeared I composed a brief verse:
निपानरीतिमार्गेण
संस्कृताध्यापनार्थकम् ।
चकार नलिनी
शास्त्रम्
अतोऽध्येता प्रसिध्यति ॥
nipānarītimārgeṇa
saṁskṛtādhyāpanārthakam |
cakāra
Nalinī śāstram
ato’dhyetā
prasidhyati ||
Jan
Houben
N.B.
Specifically to practice
and read Sanskrit there is a
yearly "stage de Sanskrit" organized by
Sylvain Brocquet at the Université de
Provence et Aix-en-Provence (https://cpaf.cnrs.fr/spip.php?article423&lang=fr);
another "stage de Sanskrit" is expected
soon at the new institute ILARA, here in
Paris.
Dear Dominik,
That our BA in
Sanskrit includes a few courses
without Sanskrit requirement does
not disqualify our BA as one in
Sanskrit! It definitely focuses on
the Sanskrit language, as is
specified on the first page to
which I sent a link:
son objet principal
est le sanskrit et ses
littératures, dont elle met en
évidence la richesse:
l’apprentissage du sanskrit s’y
fait avant tout par la lecture
et la traduction intensives de
textes appartenant à des genres
très différents (contes, épopée,
poésie savante, littérature
historiographique, traités
philosophiques, traités
d’esthétique, etc.).
With all best wishes,
Isabelle
What about
l’histoire de la
société, des philosophies et
des religions indiennes,
ou encore
l’histoire de la
connaissance de l’Inde.
Those would not be
courses involving reading
Sanskrit as such, would they?
They would be in French, about
India?
Similarly at UT Austin,
it looks like students have to
take lots of courses called,
Asian Studies
related to South Asia
Again, that
wouldn't be actual reading
of Sanskrit texts, would
it? And there appear to be
a lot of courses under
"Core" that are not
Sanskrit. (US History;
Social and Behavioural
Science, etc.). Presumably
students take a few of
these? So it's a general
humanities degree with a
high Sanskrit content.
Would that be right, or am I
misunderstanding?
I was thinking
about a degree that focussed
on Sanskrit language and
literature, not a course
where Sanskrit was a
component (even a large
component). I'm thinking of
the Oxford BA, or the BA at
SOAS, when it existed, in
the days when it was taught
by Mr J. E. B. Gray with his
legendary cyclostyled,
typewritten, four-year
course. Or the courses
taught at German
universities in the days of
the old MA system.
Best,
Dominik
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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)
LabEx
Hastec OS 2021 -- L'Inde
Classique
augmentée: construction,
transmission
et
transformations d'un
savoir scientifique