Date: 05 Aug 2000 16:58:23 EDT
Subject: Re: Translation, Indian vernacular and "Classical" 


Thank you, Shankar. I spoke carelessly and stand corrected.

I also have a question that comes from a position of ignorance: can modern readers of Tamil understand classical Tamil without any special study of it (in contrast with, say, modern readers of Marathi, who  would not be able to understand Sanskrit unless they had studied it) ?

Josna





--- You wrote:
Hello All:

I've followed the lively and informative debate about translation and
Indian literature with interest. Many thanks to Thomas, Radhika and Josna. 

With regard to some off the comments, however: Sanskrit and Persian are
not the only classical languages of India, even by the most conventional
definitions of what is a classical language. Nor is it accurate to say
that some modern Indian languages go back to the 11th Century.

Tamil goes back in high literary form more than 2000 years and is a living
modern language. It is perhaps the oldest living major language in India,
with unbroken continuity reaching back to the classical period. A number
of modern political movements of Tamil India, progressive as well as
chauvinistic, have in fact argued the historical primacy of Tamil with
regard to the literary traditions of "India".. The proper merits of these
claims are of course best left to classical scholars.

At the very least I hope my post adds another wrinkle to the (Rushdie-an)
separation of the English from the non-English with regard to modern
Indian literature, and that is the separation between the Sanskritic and
the non-Sanskritic. This latter distinction is extremely potent within
contemporary India in a variety of ways. There are of course other
distinctions worth introducing.

--Shankar


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
S. Shankar
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Rutgers University 
Newark, NJ 07102
Tel.: 973 353 5279 x 616	Email: sshankar-AT-andromeda.rutgers.edu




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