imported>AdarshVerma0: /* History */ Fixed grammar

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History: Fixed grammar

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[[File:Vallana - Haagweg 14, Leiden.JPG|thumb|A poem of the ancient Indian poet Vallana (between 900 and 1100 CE) on the side wall of the building at the Haagweg 14 in Leiden, [[Netherlands]].]]

[[Sanskrit]] has been studied by Western scholars since the late 18th century. In the 19th century, '''Sanskrit studies''' played a crucial role in the development of the field of [[comparative linguistics]] of the [[Indo-European languages]]. During the [[British Raj]] (1857–1947), Western scholars edited many Sanskrit texts which had survived in manuscript form. The study of [[Sanskrit grammar]] and philology remains important both in the field of [[Indology]] and of [[Indo-European studies]].

==History==
The study of [[Sanskrit]] in the [[Western world]] began in the 17th century.<ref name="Gaurinath Sastri"/> Some of [[Bhartṛhari]]'s poems were translated into [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] in 1651.<ref name="Gaurinath Sastri">{{citation|contribution=History of the study of Sanskrit in the West|author=Gaurinath Sastri|title=A Concise History of Classical Sanskrit Literature|year=1987|page=1|isbn=978-81-208-0027-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QYxpvZLg4hAC&pg=PA1#PPA1,M1}}</ref> In 1779 a [[Code (law)|legal code]] known as {{IAST|vivādārṇavasetu}} was translated by [[Nathaniel Brassey Halhed]] from a [[Persian language|Persian]] translation, and published as ''[[Gentoo Code|A Code of Gentoo Laws]]''. In 1785 [[Charles Wilkins]] published an English translation of the [[Bhagavad Gita]], which was the first time a Sanskrit book had been translated directly into a European language.<ref>{{citation | last=Winternitz | first=Maurice | author-link=Moriz Winternitz | title=History of Indian Literature | year=1972 | volume=1 | page=11 | publisher=Oriental Books Reprint Corporation | location=New Delhi }} Second revised reprint edition. Two volumes. First published 1927 by the [[University of Calcutta]].</ref>

In 1786 [[William Jones (philologist)|Sir William Jones]], who had founded [[The Asiatic Society]]<ref>T. K. John, "Research and Studies by Western Missionaries and Scholars in Sanskrit Language and Literature," in the St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India, Vol. III, Ollur[Trichur] 2010 Ed. [[George Menachery]], pp.79 - 83</ref> two years earlier, delivered the third annual discourse;<ref>[http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/books/read01.html A Reader in Nineteenth Century Historical Indo-European Linguistics: The Third Anniversary Discourse, On the Hindus] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.is/20120805180647/http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/books/read01.html |date=2012-08-05 }}</ref> in his often-cited "philologer" passage, he noted similarities between Sanskrit, Ancient Greek and Latin—an event which is often cited as the beginning of [[comparative linguistics]], [[Indo-European studies]], and Sanskrit philology.<ref>{{citation | title=A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature | author=Friedrich Max Müller | author-link=Max Müller | year=1859 | publisher=[[Williams and Norgate]] | page=1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6xUAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1}}</ref>
{{quotation|
The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the ''Greek'', more copious than the ''Latin'', and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the ''Gothic'' and the ''Celtic'', though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the ''Sanscrit''; and the old ''Persian'' might be added to the same family.
}}
This common source of the [[Indo-European languages]] eventually came to be known as [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]], following the work of [[Franz Bopp]] and others.

In 1789 Jones published a translation of [[Kālidāsa]]'s ''[[The Recognition of Sakuntala]]''. The translation captured the admiration of many, notably [[Goethe]], who expressed his admiration for the Sanskrit play [[Shakuntala]]:<ref>{{citation|author=Monier Monier-Williams|author-link=Monier Monier-Williams|title=Śakuntalā|year=1876|page=10|publisher=Clarendon Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bpIDAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP10}}</ref><ref>{{citation|author1=Telford, John|author2=Barber, Benjamin Aquila|title=Classical Sanscrit|periodical=The London [[Quarterly Review]]|volume=XLVI|date=April 1876|pages=309–335|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EZtIAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA317&dq=%22and+all+at+once+is+said%22}}</ref>
{{quotation|
Wouldst thou the young year's blossoms and the fruits of its decline<br/>
And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed,<br/>
Wouldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name combine?<br/>
I name thee, O Sakuntala! and all at once is said.
}}
Goethe went on to borrow a device from the play for his ''[[Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy|Faust, Part One]]''.<ref>{{citation|title=The Recognition of Śakuntala|author1=Kālidāsa|author2= W. J. Johnson (transl.)|isbn=978-0-19-283911-4|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zLvwoEiIpJ4C&pg=PA138|page=138|author-link1=Kālidāsa}}</ref>

In the introduction to ''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'', written in 1818, [[Arthur Schopenhauer]] stated that "the access to [the [[Vedas]]], opened to us through the [[Upanishads]], is in my eyes the greatest advantage which this still young century enjoys over previous ones, because I believe that the influence of the Sanscrit literature will penetrate not less deeply than did the revival of Greek literature in the fifteenth century".<ref>[[Arthur Schopenhauer]]: [[The World as Will and Representation]] ([[s:The World as Will and Representation/Preface to the First Edition|Preface to the First Edition]]). Translated by [[Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane|R.B. Haldane]] and J. Kemp.</ref>

The Irish poet [[William Butler Yeats]] was also inspired by Sanskrit literature.<ref>"The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats Vol. V: Later Essays" by William Butler Yeats, p. 390-391</ref> However, the discovery of the world of [[Sanskrit literature]] moved beyond German and British scholars and intellectuals — [[Henry David Thoreau]] was a sympathetic reader of the [[Bhagavad Gita]]<ref>"The Sanskrit Epics" By J. L. Brockington</ref> — and even beyond the [[humanities]]. [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] was also influenced by Sanskrit literature. In the early days of the [[Periodic Table]], scientists referred to as yet undiscovered elements with the use of Sanskrit [[numerical prefix]]es (see [[Mendeleev's predicted elements]]). [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]] in 1933 met the Indologist [[Arthur W. Ryder]] at Berkeley and learned Sanskrit. He read the Bhagavad Gita in the original language.<ref>"Einstein and Oppenheimer: The Meaning of Genius", by [[Silvan S. Schweber]], Page 189</ref> Later he cited it as one of the most influential books to shape his philosophy of life,<ref>{{Citation|author= Hijiya, James A.|url=http://www.aps-pub.com/proceedings/1442/Hijiya.pdf|title=The Gita of Robert Oppenheimer|journal=[[Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society]]|volume=144|issue=2|date=June 2000|format=PDF}}</ref> and his quotation from the Bhagavad Gita "Now, I become Death, the destroyer of worlds." in reference to the [[Trinity test]] is well known.<ref>Original quote "kālo'smi lokakṣayakṛtpravṛddho lokānsamāhartumiha pravṛttaḥ", appeared in various forms in English; see [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]] for discussion of this quote.</ref>

The nineteenth century was a golden age of Western Sanskrit scholarship, and many of the giants of the field ([[William Dwight Whitney|Whitney]], [[Arthur Anthony Macdonell|Macdonnell]], [[Monier-Williams]], [[Hermann Grassmann|Grassmann]]) knew each other personally. Perhaps the most commonly known example of Sanskrit in the West was also the last gasp of its vogue. [[T. S. Eliot]], a student of [[Hindu philosophy|Indian Philosophy]] and of Sanskrit under [[Charles Rockwell Lanman|Lanman]], ended ''[[The Waste Land]]'' with Sanskrit: [[Shanti Mantra|"Shantih Shantih Shantih"]].

==Current usage and study==
Sanskrit is taught in many South Asia Studies and/or Linguistics departments in Western universities. In addition to this, it is also used during worship in [[Hindu temples]] in the West, being the [[Hindu]] [[liturgical language]], and [[Sanskrit revival]] attempts are underway amongst expatriate Hindu populations. Similarly, Sanskrit study is also popular amongst the many Western practitioners of Yoga, who find the language useful in understanding the [[Yoga Sutra]].

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
*[[Sanskrit grammarians]]
*[[Hinduism in the West]]
*[[International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration]]
*[[Sacred Books of the East]]
*[[Hindu American Foundation]]
*[[Hindu denominations]]
*[[Hindu Temple Society of North America]] (Ganesh Temple, Queens)
*[[Hindu University of America]]
*[[Sanskrit prosody]]
*''[[Invading the Sacred]]''
*[[List of Hindu temples in the United States]]
*[[Parliament of the World's Religions]]
{{col div end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite web |title=A Critical Appraisal of the Contribution of Germany and France to Sanskrit Studies |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/critical-appraisal-of-the-contribution-of-germany-and-france-to-sanskrit-studies/oclc/712017998| last = Gangodawila | first = Chandima |access-date=23 September 2010}}
* CHAUDHURI, S. K. (2011). Sanskrit in China and Japan. New Delhi, International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan.
* [[Rajiv Malhotra]] (2016), ''[[The Battle for Sanskrit|Battle for Sanskrit: Dead or Alive, Oppressive or Liberating, Political or Sacred?]]'' (Publisher: Harper Collins India; {{ISBN|978-9351775386}})

==External links==
* [https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/5BhL9tbxvn11jH60BVpkLL/Finally-Sanskrit-in-your-pocket.html Finally, Sanskrit in your pocket by Chandrahas Choudhury]
* [https://archive.org/details/sanskritenglishd00capprich Sanskrit-English dictionary, based upon the St. Petersburg lexicons]
* [https://archive.org/details/introductiontogr00wilsrich Introduction to the Grammar of the Sanskrit language, for the use of early students]

[[Category:Sanskrit]]

Sanskrit studies - Revision history

imported>AdarshVerma0: /* History */ Fixed grammar