‘We Have To Blame Ourselves,
Not
Macaulay’
'We kept importing educational models from outside that had no connection to our cultural and intellectual strengths.'
IMAGE: Professor V N
Jha. Photograph: Shivanand Kanavi
Professor V N
Jha is an eminent Sanskrit scholar renowned for his multidisciplinary
approach, making ancient Indian knowledge systems relevant to contemporary
studies.
A former director of
the Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit, University of Pune, he was also the
founding chairman of the Centre for Sanskrit Studies at JNU.
His expertise spans
Veda, Vyākaraṇa, Nyāya, and Mīmāṃsā, Professor Jha pioneered new academic
disciplines by creating innovative courses in Sanskrit Linguistics and Indian
Logic & Epistemology.
A prolific author, he
has contributed over 45 books and 100 research articles and supervised 35 PhD
students.
He has been a visiting
professor at universities in Japan, Germany, Switzerland, and Mauritius,
promoting Indian intellectual traditions globally.
Honoured with titles
like Sanskrit Mahāmahopādhyāya and Vācaspati, his
life's work, continued through the Rishi Rina Trust, is dedicated to reviving
scholarly interest in India's profound philosophical heritage through intensive
workshops and textual study.
"Only about 5% of
Sanskrit literature is 'scriptural'; the other 95% is secular -- covering
mathematics, law, medicine, aesthetics, and politics," Professor Jha
tells Shivanand Kanavi.
IMAGE: Professor V N
Jha. Photograph: Shivanand Kanavi
I would like our
audience to know about your journey. What attracted you to Bharatiya Darshanas?
How did it all begin?
I hail from West
Bengal, from a small town called Raiganj. I was born on July 20, 1946.
My family originally
came from a village in Dinajpur district, which became part of East Pakistan
after Partition. Anticipating this, my father moved us to Raiganj before
Partition.
I never attended
primary school. In those days, it was optional, and education often began at
home.
One day, my
grandfather decided I was ready for high school. He took me to a primary school
headmaster, Gopal Chandra Mandal, to assess if I could be admitted directly
into Class 5.
The headmaster asked
me a few questions, and I must have answered satisfactorily because he advised
my father to admit me directly to high school.
I joined the famous
Coronation High School in Raiganj. From Class 5, we had Sanskrit. My Sanskrit
teacher, Sita Kanta Acharya, became my real guru.
Seeing me in
traditional dress, he took a special interest. After class, he invited me to
his home.
He had me play with
his children for an hour, and then at 6 pm sharp, my studies would begin.
He ran a
traditional pathshala called Madhusudana Chatushpathi, where
the four Vedas were taught. He was a great grammarian.
This is how I was
introduced to the traditional method of learning Sanskrit and the Shastras.
My grandfather used to
recite Ashtadhyayi and Amarkosha every
morning, so I had already absorbed much of it passively.
My formal training
began under Sita Kanta Acharya, and I progressed through the traditional
levels, earning titles like Nyayacharya Tirtha and Veda
Tirtha while still in school.
Simultaneously, my
father was a devotee of the Gaudiya Math, an ashram on the bank of the river
near our house.
Every morning, we
would go for the aarti. A scholar there, Surendranath Das, would
gather the children afterwards and teach us Sanskrit, Mathematics, and English
-- completely outside the school syllabus.
This selfless work
ignited a deep interest in these subjects, especially mathematics.
After higher
secondary, I went to college and, without telling my father, took admission in
Mathematics Honours.
My father's friend, a
Sanskrit professor at the same college, Ligon's College (now a university),
informed him.
My father took me to
college and changed my course. A compromise was reached: I did my graduation
with Sanskrit Honours and Mathematics as a subsidiary subject.
After graduation, my
father wanted me to go to Kashi. I went to Banaras Hindu University and did my
MA in Sanskrit with a Vedic group.
There, a teacher
noticed my interest in language and structure and advised me to do another MA
in Comparative Philology.
I sought my father's
permission, and he encouraged me to keep studying. So, I went to Calcutta
University for another MA.
This exposed me to the
European perspective on Sanskrit-historical linguistics, the Indo-European
language family, and the Aryan invasion theory.
It gave me a new
vision to complement my traditional training.
After my exams, I took
a job as a Sanskrit professor at a new college in the Sundarbans. But then I
saw an advertisement for a Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit at the
University of Pune, offering scholarships for a PhD. I applied, was selected,
resigned from my job to move to Pune in 1968.
For my PhD, I wanted
to work on the Padapatha of the Rigveda by Shakalya.
To break the
continuous Samhita text into individual words (Padapatha), Shakalya must
have had a deep knowledge of grammar -- a grammar that is pre-Paninian.
My goal was to
reconstruct that grammatical knowledge. My guide, the great linguist A M
Ghatge, directed me to work under the renowned grammarian Professor S D Joshi
at Pune University.
This work allowed me
to understand not just the history of the Sanskrit language but the history of
Indian grammatical thought.
After submitting my
thesis, S M Katre, the director of Deccan College, invited me to join a massive
UNESCO project: The Dictionary of Sanskrit on Historical Principles.
Working there, I met
two stalwarts who truly shaped my intellectual journey: Shivaram Krishna
Shastri, a grammarian and Mimamsaka, and Srinivas Shastri, a Naiyayika and
Vedantin.
For 17 years, I
studied under them, reading texts line by line -- Sutra, Bhashya,
Vritti, Tikā -- understanding the entire history of thought in these
systems.
I would translate what
I learned into English and have them verify it the next day. This shifted my
focus from pure grammar to Mimamsa, Nyaya, and other Darshanas.
Later, Professor S D
Joshi created a post for Indian Logic at Pune University and invited me to
join.
I did and eventually
became the director of the Centre of Advanced Studies in Sanskrit, serving for
20 years until 2006.
In 2001-2002, I took
two years' leave to establish the Centre for Sanskrit Studies at Jawaharlal
Nehru University at the invitation of then chancellor Karan Singh.
My work also took me
abroad. In 1988, I taught Indian Logic at Humboldt University in Berlin.
I had collaborations
with universities in Japan (Nagoya, Tokyo, Osaka) due to the strong interest in
Japan in the Bouddha-Nyaya dialogue.
I also taught as a
visiting professor in Mauritius and at the University of Lucerne in
Switzerland.
IMAGE: Professor V N
Jha with his wife Professor Ujjwala Jha. Photograph: Professor Jha
This is a
fascinating journey. When and why did the idea of establishing the Rishi Rina
Trust come about?
The idea came from a
deep-seated pain. From my childhood, I was exposed to these profound knowledge
systems.
Simultaneously, I was
in the modern education stream. I could see the clarity and depth in our
traditional systems, like Sanskrit grammar, which was often missing elsewhere.
I always felt this
knowledge should be made available to everyone and integrated into mainstream
education.
At the Centre of
Advanced Studies, I created new courses like an MA in Sanskrit Linguistics and
an MA in Indian Logical Epistemology, designed to be 50% traditional and 50%
modern. The goal was to start a dialogue between the two traditions.
Unfortunately, the
university system was often resistant to such reform.
The then UGC chairman
once heard me lecture and asked me to design a common course for all Sanskrit
departments in India, I worked hard to create it but sadly it wasn't
implemented. Teachers weren't trained to teach it.
My wife, Professor
Ujjwala Jha, who was also a scholar of Nyaya, Veda, and Buddhism, told me that
we could not depend on the system of Sanskrit studies in our universities to
reform themselves despite all our effort but we have to share what we had learned.
Thus, we established the Rishi Rina Trust.
The name is
significant. In Dharmashastra, we speak of three debts (rina):
to the sages (rishi), to the ancestors (pitr), and to the gods (deva).
The only way to repay
the debt to the sages is to teach what you have learned from your guru. This
is rishi rina. That is the trust's mission: To repay our debt by
disseminating this knowledge.
Through the trust, we
conduct workshops all over the country and abroad, focusing on textual study of
original texts in Sanskrit.
We have covered all
six Astika (Vedic) Darshanas. But a true understanding requires dialogue with
Nastika (non-Vedic) systems like Charvaka (classical Indian materialism),
Buddhism and Jainism as well.
Our tradition itself
created models for such dialogue, like Vatsyayana's method, which focuses on
four points of discussion to find common ground without sacrificing one's
worldview.
In the last 20-25
years, how many such workshops have you conducted?
I have lost count.
Every year, we conduct many. Each has over 40 students from diverse
backgrounds. The response has been very encouraging.
IMAGE: Professor V N
Jha with Shivanand Kanavi. Photograph: Shivanand Kanavi
People often have
prejudices about Indian philosophy -- that it is dogmatic, other-worldly, or
was restricted to a certain caste. How do you address this?
These notions exist
out of ignorance, a lack of exposure. If you actually study a small text, you
will see these claims are false.
The very existence of
multiple interpretations of the same Upanishads -- Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva,
Nimbaraka -- proves that rationality and debate were celebrated, not
suppressed. There was immense freedom of thought.
The purpose of
Darshana is not just philosophy (love of wisdom) but realisation and
transformation -- to create a better, more empathetic human being who can see
unity in diversity. This knowledge is holistic and human-centric.
Even if there were
restrictions on who is eligible to study these systems in the past, today,
anyone can learn it. There are no restrictions.
In our workshops, we
have people from all communities, faiths and often more women than men. The
knowledge is there for anyone who is curious.
Furthermore, only
about 5% of Sanskrit literature is 'scriptural'; the other 95% is secular --
covering mathematics, law, medicine, aesthetics, and politics.
The analytical tools
developed in Nyaya or the algorithmic structure of Panini's grammar are
incredibly relevant for fields like computer science and law.
I taught Nyaya to law
students for 16 years, training them to distill court judgments into the
five-step Nyaya syllogism. This sharpens their logic, language, and discourse
skills.
We lost this because
we kept importing educational models from outside that had no connection to our
cultural and intellectual strengths.
We have to blame
ourselves, not Macaulay. It is our responsibility to reintroduce this into
mainstream education.
Your point about
the need for dialogue is crucial. The traditional method of vada,
which requires first understanding the opponent's view (purvapaksha) is
really absent today's chaotic debates especially in the media and polity.
Absolutely. Vada aims
at arriving at the truth. The other forms, jalpa (quibbling)
and vitanda (destructive criticism), are what we see today.
The Navya-Nyaya
scholars even developed a precise, technical language to avoid the ambiguities
of natural language during debate -- a concept incredibly relevant in today's
world of computer science and machine learning.
This knowledge can
teach us how to disagree respectfully and intelligently. That is what we need
today.
Thank you so much,
Sir, for sharing your incredible journey and insights.
Thank you. My only
request is: Become a volunteer. Learn Indian intellectual traditions. Don't
depend on secondary sources. Go to the original texts. And share your knowledge
and understanding. This is the only way to repay our debt to the rishis.
For those
interested in Professor Jha's work and the workshops, please visit www.vidyavatika.org
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(Shivanand Kanavi, a
frequent contributor to Rediff,
is a theoretical physicist, business journalist and former VP at TCS. He is the
author of the award winning book Sand to Silicon: The Amazing Story Of
Digital Technology and edited Research by Design: Innovation
and TCS.)