Most of the Indological dictionaries are copied heavily from ShabdaKalpadruma by राजा राधाकान्तदेवः।

Initial ‘Indologists’ deployed an army of “pundits” to do the ‘grunt work’ & taking credit without any referencing

Would be pretty much plagiarism under modern standards
The origin of Sanskrit dictionaries in the west is quite interesting

HH Wilson published the first one in 1838

Pretty much ‘copied’ the entire ShabdaKalpadrumah

Petersburger Worterbuch also relied heavily on शब्दकल्पद्रुमः & sources referenced in this magnum opus Image
HH Wilson has been explicitly acknowledged to fully ‘incorporate’ शब्दकल्पद्रुमः।

The initial review in the Asiatic Journal is useful

‘has, of course been carefully reproduced by the learned lexicographer, who was in possession of 3 volumes’

Mr Davis ‘uses’ it in his ‘essays’ ImageImage
William Jones deploying a ‘Pundit’ to create his works referenced here

Delicately phrased as ‘taking assistance of’ 🤣 ImageImage
Within 2-3 iterations, by late 1800s, Indologists had started the process of creating their own ‘interpretations’ without any connection to traditional Indian sources

Which continue till today, all the while appropriating & twisting native beliefs & epistemological categories Image
Given this appropriative & racist enterprise masquerading as an academic subject, tough questions need to be asked & a minimum standard expected from these folks

The free passes need to ✋ ImageImage

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More from @pvaal2

4 Jun
संस्कृत-नाटकानि। Samskrita Stage Production

Samskritam has one of the largest repositories of Drama & stage productions. Right from भरतमुनिः who wrote नाट्यशास्त्रम्, the treasures within संस्कृतम् is amazing

Here is a collation of traditional & modern नाटकानि in संस्कृतम्।
कर्णभारम्। Karnabharam

भासः । Bhasa

अभिज्ञान-शाकुन्तलम्। Abhijnana Sakuntalam

कालिदासः। Kalidasa

Read 16 tweets
7 Apr
On scrutiny, the Indological edifice turns out to be flimsy & fundamentally rotten

Analysis of even 1 word [godhuma] & 1 author [Witzel] confirms this dismal truth

-Scholarship riddled with errors
-Overt racism
-Claimed knowledge & mastery of संस्कृतम् missing

Disappointing!
Witzel’s scholarship shown to be problematic

1. For a Harvard “Sanskrit’ professor, no references to Sanskrit etymological sources. Why?

2. As we see, plain wrong info, fallacious arguments & specious reasoning abound

3. Irrelevant/wrong referencing. Potential ethical issues
Western “Sanskrit” scholarship relies on translated Indological works & NOT संस्कृतम् source documents

Errors in early Indological works transmitted unthinkingly & in unscholarly fashion by later Indologists

Bohtlingk’s godhuma/godhumi error flows to Witzel

No error correction
Read 6 tweets
24 Jan
Re: Witzel’s linguistics claim re: origin of “Godhuma” for Wheat & claims of it being a ‘nonsensical’ loan word

Claims etymology is “cow smoke” - seems extremely dubious, to say the least

2 references provided include Mayrhofer (EWA) & Kuiper

@vakibs Lets dive deeper..
Reference 1: Mayrhofer [EWA 498-499]

*godum analyzed as [go-dhuma - ‘cow smoke’]

Mayrhofer says-“Folk etymologies from gav-go-dhuma to be assumed”-what is the basis?? *crickets* 🦗 🦗

*Chinese origin theory by Mahdihassan rightly trashed as worthless. So should his own be.😁
Reference 2: FBJ Kuiper (IIJ34, 119)

Basis of Witzel’s claim - “even Avestan ...has such foreign words as ‘gantuma’ (wheat)”

Thats it.

The *entire* evidence

Just a random throw-away last sentence as the entire basis of the ‘cow-smoke’ claim!

‘Cow-smoke’ - my foot. 😁🤣😂
Read 11 tweets
17 Jan
How to decode संस्कृत shlokas?

The process is called अन्वयः

The natural order/connection of words in a sentence, reflecting grammatical order or relation - पदानां परस्पराकाङ्क्षा योग्यता च।

Once you learn basics of संस्कृतम्, Anvaya knowledge is critical to your progress👍🏼
Why is Anvaya process critical?

Shlokas are often written ‘scrambled’ in order to meet metrical (छन्दस्) requirements

While word order does NOT matter in संस्कृतम्-unzipping in the correct manner is critical to get the meaning

Anvaya provides the rules to unzip the Shloka
Anvaya process has multiple steps

१ पदविभागः। Break up words

२ सन्धिः। Break up unions

३ वाक्यविश्लेशणम्। Characterize words

४ आकाङ्क्षाक्रमेण अन्वयः। Unzip in sequence

५ व्याकरणांशाः। Grammatical analysis
Read 18 tweets
13 Aug 20
1/n

frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/wh…

Honestly, I am scratching my head here

After reading this twice, I am truly at a loss, vainly trying to parse the incoherent ramblings of this so-called संस्कृतानुरागी।
2/n

Part rant, part rage and all polemic, this ‘English Professor’ turned researcher of ‘kutiyattam-the exotic keralan sanscrit théâtre’, seems horror stricken at the prospect of संस्कृतम् not only showing signs of life, but decidedly kicking from the grave....
3/n

.. contrary to all the solemn assurances given by the Burra Sahibs!

Le sanscrit n'est pas mort - the horror, the horror!
Read 16 tweets
30 Oct 19
#StartupSamskritam 40

Learning संस्कृतम् through Pradeshika Bhasha

[h/t @Narayan29691877 ]

१. Kannada

संस्कृत सम्भाषणम् - Introduction to basic संस्कृतम् in Kannada

youtube.com/playlist?list=…
#StartupSamskritam 41

Learning संस्कृतम् through Pradeshika Bhasha

२. Tamizh - Aksharam Samskritam

youtube.com/playlist?list=…
#StartupSamskritam 42

Learning संस्कृतम् through Pradeshika Bhasha

३. Telugu - Samskritam Nerchukundam

Spoken Samskrita course

youtube.com/playlist?list=…
Read 7 tweets

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