The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive orLiberating, Dead or Alive? by Rajiv Malhotra

Author:Rajiv Malhotra
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2016-01-10T07:00:00+00:00

The role of itihasas in spreading the Sanskrit cosmopolis

One of his key insights is that the itihasas became the carriers of raj dharma across royal courts, where they were installed and interpreted by brahmin pandits. These brahmins also carried and reproduced Sanskrit grammar texts, as well as their own interpretations of dharmashastras.

The same template of the Ramayana, for instance, could get adapted to include many local fables, local places, characters and actors. Pollock explains that the core Sanskrit principles and Vedic metaphysics got exported from one place to another by travelling brahmins who convinced the rulers to accept their system and give them patronage. These structures got adapted into localized dharmashastras and localized itihasas. By implication, the metaphysical structures installed in his kingdom gave the king the benefit of absolute dictatorial power and the licence to oppress his subjects. The brahmins, in turn, became powerful as the developers and implementers of the elaborate structures across numerous kingdoms. Pollock calls this the culture–power connection through which Vedic systems proliferated and dominated across vast territories.

He explains that the social structure of the Vedas was being spread among the populace throughout the Sanskrit cosmopolis by making public performances that had a strong political dimension. Yajnas became a public spectacle that made the kings seem divine. Itihasas were adapted for local use and their performances became a political platform to justify the king’s rule. Grammars were reproduced and learned, and the correct use of language became the signature quality that enabled brahmins and kshatriyas to claim elite status.

Pollock says that the deepening of Sanskrit Power would not have been possible without the spread of itihasas and Puranas, particularly the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. These travel wherever Sanskrit goes and put down deep roots locally by reproducing a sacred geography and corresponding narratives. The process begins with the production of multiple editions and multiple copies of the Mahabharata. Again, Pollock claims that we should interpret these texts and their geographical dissemination primarily in terms of power. His evidence consists of showing that there was royal patronage in popular oral performances of the Mahabharata. Oral performance was ‘the final component of the epic’s supraregional diffusion’ and was

perhaps more effective and vital than any other in ensuring that the transregional narrative achieved transregional impact. Endowments or other forms of support for public recitation and exegesis of the Mahabharata were provided by the ruling elite over a long period of premodern history.31

In response, one must point out that royal patronage of the arts is not necessarily a tool for self-aggrandizement and naked oppressive power over others. Most governments, even today, like to patronize the arts.

Another important factor he mentions as a cause for Sanskrit’s success was its ability to express narratives that went beyond the region. Pollock lists many instances in which the places mentioned in itihasa get substituted by local places. Sanskrit was also trans-ethnic, he says; hence its views did not seem limited to any particular place and were applicable everywhere. This ability to localize the message was important.

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