I was motivated to read the book authored by Dr. Sampadananda Mishra after attending his talk at Centre for Society and Policy, IISc. In that talk, he touched upon topics which are described in detail in this book. The irony is that this book is about Sanskrit, but is written in English (unfortunate)! But for ignorant people like me, this book is a blessing. It explains in detail the glory of the language. I would like to appreciate the book cover graphic and the paper quality - they are awesome! Even after flipping the pages multiple times, the book remains new without crumpled pages.
The introductory remarks are a prelude to the book contents. The authors remark about the feeling of ecstasy that one experiences upon just hearing Sanskrit words. This is true, I myself have had this experience. They also mention the inhibition and bias that novice speakers/readers/learners of Sanskrit feel when they initially start to understand and learn the devabhaasha. For this, I found a convincing explanation in Rajiv ji's book. I too have felt intimidated in the past while learning and ever since then, I have not made an effort to learn it. Only in the past few months, since the time when lockdown started, I have participated in courses by Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Indian Culture (SAFIC). What I have gathered from this recent experience is that if taught properly, it is easy to be fluent in devabhaasha. This is more like learning carnatic music, it all depends on how it is taught!
The book introduces the trimuni - Panini, Katyayana and Patanjali, instrumental in writing Sanskrit grammar commentaries. The initial chapter also highlights the alphabets, their arrangement order, nuances of grammar, how do words come about and the most essential ideas driving the language. The authors provide some useful insights on ekvachan, dvivachan and bahuvachan, which reveal the thought process behind the language. Also the idea of "synonyms" in Sanskrit vs other languages is very well explained. Following this, the book uncovers hidden gems in literature, arts, science and daily life. These are what Rajiv ji's book terms as "paramarthika" and "vyavahaarika". The descriptions in Sampad ji's book is concise and serves as a pointer to the vast knowledge available. The next part of the book covers human upliftment through sanskrit, it's viability as a national language and the sacredness of the language. This part is filled with mantras, shloka excerpts. Also covered is the ability of Sanskrit to grow and imbibe new words, it's influence on vernacular languages.
Overall, this book exposed me to so much information about sanskrit works, it's beauty and charm, the power it has and how it has sustained an entire civilization. I wish Sanskrit would have been our national language. Then people would have made a sincere effort to learn it, use it and also create new literature in it. However, now, learning, using Sanskrit should become a people movement, a wish that is echoed in the "Battle for Sanskrit"!
"The Battle for Sanskrit" is one of the most focussed, well-edited and informative book that I have read so far. Kudos to the author and editing staff. I can truly feel the hard work done by Rajiv Malhotra in understanding Pollock's works.
The author gives the background events which motivated him to write this book. Along with this, Rajiv ji highlights purva paksha of Pollock's works, the stakes involved for the "insiders" of the sanskriti tradition and what is the key take-away of his efforts.
The first chapter defines the "insiders" and "outsiders" as viewed in this book. Rajiv highlights their individual positions on the aspects of Sanskrit discussed in the book. Each of these are dealt with in subsequent chapters. The second chapter describes european and american orientalism - how they originated, how they are different and yet similar. While Sir William Jones pioneered European orientalism, Sheldon Pollock is the epitome of American orientalism. How both types of orientalism trated Sanskrit is also described in the same chapter - the American one is described in greater detail in the book.
In the next few chapters, Rajiv ji does purva paksha of Pollock's works, his intent and his objective for Sanskrit studies and what does he wish for future of Sanskrit. These chapters also contain uttara paksha from the insiders for each of these aspects. I found these chapters to be a good primer on the basic principles of sanatana dharma. They also serve as pointers for advanced study. Another key take-away is the debating tradition, which was so well honed by our sanskriti. A debate is presented in the form of a book! :)
I was motivated to read this book when I read about Murty classical library and also came to know of a signed petition against it. Further, Sumanjay also recommended reading this book. This book is a tough read in the core chapters and is dense. However, the ideas presented, the arguments given with references compensate for all this. I spent lot of time reading each page, sometimes repeating twice or thrice just to get a better understanding of the issues raised.
The book does not end at purva and uttara paksha. It goes beyond that and highlights the efforts required for retaining the adhikara to sustain Sanskrit studies in our own sanskriti!!
