The Sanskrit Studies Podcast

The Sanskrit Studies Podcast

In-depth explorations into the field of Sanskrit Studies. Featuring candid conversations and interviews with scholars of Sanskrit across the disciplines of Indology, Linguistics, Religious Studies, Philosophy, History, and more. Hosted by Dr. Antonia Ruppel.

  1. 03/02/2023

    16. Amba Kulkarni | Sanskrit and Computers

    My guest this month is Amba Kulkarni from the Department of Sanskrit at the University of Hyderabad, who has also been associated with IIT Kanpur and the National Sanskrit University. Professor Kulkarni is best known for her work linking traditional Indian linguistic theory (starting with Pāṇini and focussing on aspects such as Śabdabodha  and Kāraka theory as studied especially within the Navya-Nyāya/'Neo-Logical' school of philosophy) and AI theories of Knowledge Representation to effect computer-based cognition of Sanskrit texts.  Find out more about her recent book 'Sanskrit Parsing based on the theories of Śabdabodha' here. The article by Rick Briggs that she mentions as her inspiration to apply her Computer Science background to Sanskrit is reprinted here, that by Rajeev Sangal and Vineet Chaitanya can be accessed here, and there is discussion of  Bhāratīkṛṣṇa Tīrtha's book on Vedic Mathematics here. She has collaborated extensively with Gérard Huet, best known in Sanskritist circles for his Sanskrit Heritage Site (part of which is the Segmenter). Relating to the parsing of the sentence yānaṃ vanaṃ gacchati  'the vehicle goes to the forest', she mentions the factors śabdabodha considers essential for verbal cognition: yogyatā or mutual compatibility, ākaṅksā or expectancy and saṃniddhi or proximity (read some discussion of these here). More on the three types of meaning of a word (abhidhā  or literal, lakṣaṇā or metaphoric/extended and vyañjanā  or suggested meaning) e.g. here. If you are a Sanskritist interested in working in computational linguistics, Professor Kulkarni suggests a thorough focus in Kāvya/Kāvyaśāstra, Mīmāṃsā, Nyāya or Vyākaraṇa.

    1h 13m
  2. 09/01/2022

    12. Andrew Ollett | Beyond Sanskrit

    My guest this month is Mr Prakrit, Andrew Ollett, who teaches at the University of Chicago  Perhaps his most well-known publication is the book 'Language of the Snakes', which you can download for free here. Among his teachers were Eleanor Dickey,  Gary Tubb and Sheldon Pollock (whose book 'The Language of the Gods in the World of Men' Andrew mentions) He talks about his work comparing the language of Theocritus with that of Prakrit poetry, about the work of Mātṛceṭa and Aśvaghoṣa , about the rock inscription of Rudradāman, and the influence that the Sātavāhana courts had on Prakrit. Among the languages and language forms he mentions are Vedic, Pali, Apabhraṃśa, Gāndhārī and Old Gujarati or Rajasthāni .  Among the Prakrit texts he talks about are the Gaha Sattasai (and its recent translation by Khoroche and Tieken), the Setubandha, the works of Kundakunda, the Rasikaprakāśana by Vairocana,  the Jain niryuktis ascribed to Bhadrabāhu, and the use of Prakrit in Sanskrit plays. You can find out a little more about Madhav Deshpande's book Sanskrit and Prakrit: Sociolinguistic Issues here. For his Sanskrit Studies Podcast Research Grant Project, Andrew will work on Kannada. He recommends A. K. Ramanujan's Speaking of Śiva, the Daśakumāracarita in Isabelle Onians' translation,  Tamil Sangam poetry and especially the Kuruntokai, and suggests you go read Bhavabūti's Uttararāmacarita right now.  (And I apologize for the sounds of my cat beating up his toys in the background!)

    1h 8m
4.5
out of 5
19 Ratings

About

In-depth explorations into the field of Sanskrit Studies. Featuring candid conversations and interviews with scholars of Sanskrit across the disciplines of Indology, Linguistics, Religious Studies, Philosophy, History, and more. Hosted by Dr. Antonia Ruppel.