You are here: SriPedia - Ramanuja - Archives - Jan 2005

Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00028 Jan 2005

 
Jan 2005 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]




Dear Srivaishnavas,

Adiyen came across this article in a website (which ofcourse may be 
old and may have been put in the forum before), neverthless posting 
this once more will enlighten the srivaishnavas of the kainkaryams 
to the sanatatna dharma and Srivaishnavism as a whole, by Swami. 
please visit the following address for the article. 
http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Magazine/story/75/

Quote"
To many, Sanskrit is a dead language. Some think it's a 'useless' 
language. Quite a few Hindus preen themselves that it is exclusively 
theirs. But did you know serious scholars are beginning to marvel at 
the rigour, reach and secularism of Sanskrit? Many of these --all 
over the world-- are mining it for values the modern world can 
benefit by. But nearly no one does this exposition with greater 
commitment, catholicity and religious neutrality than Prof M A 
Lakshmi Thathachar at the Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote, 
Karnataka. On the 15 acres of the Academy, the assertions in 
Sanskrit texts regarding ecology, farming, health and right living 
are on view. The Professor is a farmer, livestock breeder, 
conservationist, researcher, teacher, computer adept and most of 
all, a man who embodies all that is best in the Indian tradition. He 
is a Renaissance man unique to India. 
An ancient seat: 
Melkote [pronounced 'May-l-kottay'] claims a connection with 
Sanskrit since the mythical times when Saint Dattatreya is said to 
have taught his disciples the 'true knowledge'. More certainly, 
history confirms a connection at least since the 12th Century when 
Sr Ramanujar, scholar, social reformer, father of the bhakti 
movement and founder of Vishistadvaita philosophy made Melkote his 
home. One of his devotees -- Ananthalvan -- is a direct ancestor of 
Lakshmi Thathachar. Their family, has been custodians of Sanskritic 
heritage ever since. One of the country's oldest, formal Sanskrit 
college was formed in Melkote in early nineteen century. 
Young Lakshmi Thathachar was a robust young man, farming the acre 
behind his house. He produced all the vegetables and fruits for the 
family. He tended the household cattle. He had a scientific bent of 
mind too and wanted to study science in college. But his father 
forbade him 'sciences'. It was feared he would be distracted by the 
western way of thought and miss the self-contained scientific system 
in Sanskrit. Thathachar -- now 68 -- feels his father was right. He 
worked for his Masters in Sanskrit at Madras university. While at 
it, he was also a pupil at a small gurukulam run by the great 
Sanskrit scholar, Sri Karappankadu Venkatachariar. The learned man 
was ageing and repeatedly urged Thathachar to build a centre that 
will bring the works of Sri Ramanujar to the world. That message was 
to remain with him throughout his career in Bangalore University as 
Professor of Sanskrit. 
In nearer history, Melkote had been ruled by a dynasty founded by 
Yaduraya. His clan had built several water retaining structures --
kalyanis-- of great effectiveness and beauty. A small scholarly 
community had thriven there. In early 19th century, Tipu Sultan's 
army descended on a Deepavali day and massacred 800 citizens, mostly 
of a sect known as Mandyam Iyengars. Sanskrit scholarship had been 
their forte. [To this day Melkote does not celebrate Deepavali]. 
That slaughter rendered Melkote a near ghost town. Its 
environmentally connected life was broken, kalyanis went to ruin, 
water shortage became endemic, the hills went brown. Sanskrit lost a 
home. 
Revival begins: 
By 1977 Thathachar had persuaded the Karnataka government to 
commission an Academy of Sanskrit Research. He was given 15 acres in 
Melkote, if he would set up the Academy; funds for building and 
running the centre however was not assured. He had to depend on his 
considerable reputation and energies to raise the money. He took the 
challenge on. He quit his job as professor and returned home. An 
adventure awaited him. 
Thathachar stood on the windswept ridge allocated for the Academy. 
Years of deforestation and water run off had rendered it a rock 
strewn moonscape. From the valley below the wind howled. Most of the 
stone-stepped kalyanis lay in disrepair. The Academy buildings and 
research teams seemed far away and impossible. 
He began at what he knew. The line of Ananthalvan of which he was 
the current heir, had always been the chosen one for gathering and 
bringing various strictly specified flowers for worship. The 'sthala 
purana' ['local history'] extensively described the flora and fauna 
of the hills. Thathachar decided to recreate a garden that will hark 
back to the gentle times. 
This was easier conceived than done. It was then that Thathachar re-
discovered the Hallikar bulls. These had been Tipu's beasts of 
burden dragging his guns and carrying his rations and other supplies 
to war. They have a fine head and their horns crown them well. They 
are fierce, fast, strong and loyal. It was said Tipu would tie 
flaming torches to their horns and drive them to speed at nights; it 
was Tipu's 'shock and awe' play. 
Thathachar recruited this proud, handsome, native species for a new 
enterprise now, and began to breed them. The Hallikars were used to 
bring soil, water and materials to the Academy site which was up a 
gentle slope from the temple town. Soil was strategically filled in 
the hollows between rocks and he began to plant them with jasmines, 
sampige and other Indian flowering trees and shrubs. As the garden 
formed in this hard rock place, the professor --without any place to 
research Sanskrit yet-- began to observe the emerging world around 
him. He dipped into the texts to learn of 'rishi-krishi paddati' or 
the system of zero cultivation. His growing Hallikar herd and rising 
grove meshed with each other and encircled Thathachar. He doesn't 
take organic material to compost somewhere. He lets material fall 
where they might. He takes raw dung and piles it over organic 
matter. There they lie and decompose and create soil again. Today 
after 24 years of this practice there are 300 species of plants 
growing in mixed wilderness. There are 26 species of jasmine alone. 
Between running around for funds to construct the Academy buildings 
Thathachar has remained focused on letting nature rebuild desolated 
wasteland. When some old houses were being demolished in Melkote 
town, he discovered the walls were made of rich red earth. His 
Hallikars ran convoys for days carrying this rich rubble to his 
rocky estate. The clumps were broken down and spread everywhere. He 
restored eight lined kalyanis and unlined ponds within the campus. 
He harvests no more than half the fruits and flowers. "It is the way 
of the wild. One takes what one needs and lets the rest feed the 
birds and animals or drop to the ground to rot. Modern farming 
thinks it is smart to maximise produce and wipe it clean. The 
ancient way was to live with nature, not treat it as a profit 
centre," he says. 
>From land to knowledge: 
When the handsome centre was eventually built it stood in a micro 
landscape that approximated to what the ancient texts described. 
>From there he leapt to very modern times. It was a time when desktop 
computers began to be affordable. Thathachar was quick to scent 
their importance and relevance to his work. He soon became an 
adept. "I simply exposed myself to it and realised its potential," 
he says by way of explaining how he can handle all the gear and 
understand how programming languages work. 
The Academy began to publish authentic English translations of Sri 
Ramanujar's works as also treatises on Vishishtadvaita. He began to 
collect works written on palm leaves. He went all over south India 
and householders happily gave him their heirlooms. "This is what is 
marvellous about an India not yet gone 'modern'," he says. "In the 
West people would hand these to Sotheby's for getting the greatest 
price; the people I met gave them away when I told them I would care 
for them." He has a collection of over 10,000 palm based texts, 850 
rare old paper texts and over 25,000 books -- all related to 
Sanskrit. A large bowl of lemon grass oil is constantly kept warm 
amidst the array of shelves. It is enough to effectively preserve 
the treasures. 
The Academy has state of the art facilities for digitisation of 
vulnerable texts. It has an in-house printing press. Thathachar has 
gathered a team of Sanskrit scholars from all over India to organise 
the texts for publication. The Academy also publishes media for 
popularising Sanskrit learning. There are lexicons and commentaries 
for students. 
With passing time however, it is becoming clear that Sanskrit is 
just the visible skin over a vast throbbing organism called 
cosmos. "How silly to think Sanskrit is a language for a ritual or a 
religion," he says. And then asks: "Tell me how you 
translate 'gyan'? You'd say knowledge, knowledge system etc and you 
would still not have captured the spirit of the word. The closest 
perhaps is, 'right and total knowledge of the cosmos'" 

Approaches to the source: 
Lakshmi Thathachar's view of Sanskrit's nature may be paraphrased as 
follows: All modern languages have etymological roots in classical 
languages. And some say all Indo-European languages are rooted in 
Sanskrit, but let us not get lost in that debate. Words in Sanskrit 
are instances of pre-defined classes, a concept that drives object 
oriented programming [OOP] today. For example, in English 'cow' is a 
just a sound assigned to mean a particular animal. But if you drill 
down the word 'gau' --Sanskrit for 'cow'-- you will arrive at a 
broad class 'gam' which means 'to move. From these 
derive 'gamanam', 'gatih' etc which are variations of 'movement'. 
All words have this OOP approach, except that defined classes in 
Sanskrit are so exhaustive that they cover the material and 
abstract --indeed cosmic-- experiences known to man. So in Sanskrit 
the connection is more than etymological. 
It was Panini who formalised Sanskrit's grammer and usage about 2500 
years ago. No new 'classes' have needed to be added to it since 
then. "Panini should be thought of as the forerunner of the modern 
formal language theory used to specify computer languages," say J J 
O'Connor and E F Robertson. <http://www-gap.dcs.st-
and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Panini.html> Their article also 
quotes: "Sanskrit's potential for scientific use was greatly 
enhanced as a result of the thorough systemisation of its grammar by 
Panini. ... On the basis of just under 4000 sutras [rules expressed 
as aphorisms ], he built virtually the whole structure of the 
Sanskrit language, whose general 'shape' hardly changed for the next 
two thousand years." 
Every 'philosophy' in Sanskrit is in fact a 'theory of everything'. 
[The many strands are synthesised in Vedanta --Veda + anta--, which 
means the 'last word in Vedas'.] Mimamsa, which is a part of the 
Vedas, <http://www.san.beck.org/EC11-Hindu.html> even ignores the 
God idea. The reality as we know was not created by anyone --it 
always was--, but may be shaped by everyone out of free will. Which 
is a way of saying --in OOP terms-- that you may not touch the 
mother or core classes but may create any variety of instances of 
them. It is significant that no new 'classes' have had to be 
created. Thathachar believes it is not a 'language' as we know the 
term but the only front-end to a huge, interlinked, analogue 
knowledge base. The current time in human history is ripe, he feels 
for India's young techno wizards to turn to researching Mimamsa and 
developing the ultimate programming language around it; nay, an 
operating system itself.
Professor's wish-list 
1-- Funds are always short for running the Academy and creating new 
facilities. The Professor spends most of his time running around to 
raise the required funds and is beginning to tire of this non-
creative work. He seeks generous well-wishers to come forward to 
relieve him of this chore. A detailed proposal for potential donors 
is available which lists requirement of funds for capital and 
recurring costs. You may email the Professor 
<mailto:asrbng@xxxxxxxx> directly to receive the document. 
2-- Academy's website  <http://www.sanskritacademy.org>is somewhat 
dated and requires a facelift. Professor readily admits the Acdemy 
does not have in-house skills to build a contemporary site to 
showcase its works. He seeks enthusiastic youngsters to redesign, 
host and maintain the website. It would of course mean that 
volunteers would have an interest in the work of the Academy and are 
willing to set aside regular time for running the site and also 
raise the required money for hosting it. 
3-- The Professor yearns for young post doctoral computer science 
researchers at the cutting edge to spend extended periods at the 
Academy to explore ways of developing natural language computing 
based on Sanskrit. Modest, comfortable accommodation can be provided 
though the Academy is not in a position pay any stipends. Better 
than emailing, it is better to talk over the phone or best, pay a 
visit after making an appointment. 
4--The Professor's greatest dream is to create a Gurukulam at a five 
acre piece of land available near teh Academy. He would like it to 
be his final endeavour to show that Sanskrit-learning can lead to 
viable, contemporarily relevant careers. For something like about 
Rs. 10 lakhs a new educational system can be pioneered. Prospective 
donors can also particiapte in developing the curriculum. Please 
write to the Professor <mailto:asrbng@xxxxxxxx>
Thathachar believes that not enough is being done to explore the 
rich veins in Sanskrit's knowledge mines. Yoga, ayurveda, 
architecture, music, dance, statecraft and the like are but a few 
products that have been brought out. Agriculture, metallurgy, 
computer sciences etc can gain if new forays are made into the 
depths of Sanskrit. He is gratified recognition for the Academy's 
work with Sanskrit is coming slowly. It is an approved 'Scientific 
and Industrial Research Organisation' [SIRO]. It is recognised by 
the University of Mysore as a centre that can guide doctoral 
candidates. Visveswaraiah Technological University, Belgaum has 
permitted it to award PhD and MSc degrees by research in Information 
Technology, Materials Science, Aeronautics and Social engineering. 
Indian Space Research Organisation [ISRO] has commissioned it to 
prepare an Indian view of the cosmos. 
We are out in the fields again. "If there is one thing I denounce 
the West for, it is the concept of banks and interest. Yes, you can 
quote me -- I am closer to Islam in this respect. Money as an end 
measure of attainments is ruining everything. Our governance, 
commerce, farming and relationships are all drifting away from the 
reality that can work without conflicts. We are fooling ourselves 
with what is progress. We will face the wall soon," he says. He 
sounds far from being despondent or extremist, though. In fact there 
is a glint in his eyes, almost as if he can sense that the trend may 
be reversing. 
All around him the trees are wilting because of the worst drought he 
can remember. Reluctantly he drilled a bore-well this year. But 
there is still some water in one tank. And enough spirit in this 68 
year old man. 
He readily concedes compromises need to be made while living the 
modern life and he doesn't wish that anything should be forced. All 
he dreams of is that a large mass of people will live the connected 
life. What we learn, what we believe in, what we speak, what we do, 
what we create, what we care for, what we grow, what we eat and what 
we leave behind have all to be connected. It is foolishness to 
believe --as modern economics believes-- that these can exist 
separately. 
Compromises may have to be made yes, and many may not have the 
opportunity yet to live a connected life. But truly wise ones must 
seek such a life. Professor Lakshmi Thathachar has steadfastly clung 
to his citizenship in eternity. He lives and works close to the 
source of all streams that govern life -- a source called Sanskrit.
__________

Academy of Sanskrit Research
Melkote - 571431
Mandya District
Karnataka, India

The nearest railway station is Mandya, on the Bangalore-Mysore route.

Prof. M A Lakshmi Thathachar
email:  asrbng@xxxxxxxx 
Website: sanskritacademy.org 
Phones:(+91) (08236) 298741, 298781; 298742 [after hours]
__________
August, 2003 

"unquote

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan,
Nallan Chakravarthy Narashiman








azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam
 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ramanuja/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ramanuja-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 




[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
ramanuja-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list