Table of Contents

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	Introduction: The Story Behind the Book	1
	Meeting with the US-based Sringeri leader and one of the major donors	9
	Meeting with Sheldon Pollock	13
	Trip to Sringeri Sharada Peetham	17
	Who will control our traditions?	19
	What is at stake?	21
	Assault on Sanskrit goes mainstream	26
1.	The Hijacking of Sanskrit and Sanskriti	29
	Why this book matters?	29
	Highlighting the disputes between the two intellectual camps	35
	Where is the Home Team?	43
	Offering my humble attempts	48
2.	From European Orientalism to American Orientalism	50
	Origins of Orientalism	51
	The rise of European Orientalism	54
	Sir William Jones, the European Orientalist	55
	The American frontier	61
	The rise of American Orientalism	68
	Comparing European Orientalism and American Orientalism	74
	Impact of American Orientalism on the study of Sanskrit	75
	Introducing Sheldon Pollock: Pandit from America	78
	Comparing two pioneering Orientalists: Sir William Jones and Sheldon Pollock	94
3.	The Obsession with Secularizing Sanskrit	96
	Integral unity of Hindu metaphysics	98
	Discarding the transcendent/sacred aspects of Sanskrit	102
	Sidelining the oral tradition	105
	Accusing yajnas of being linked to social hierarchy	113
	Rejecting the shastras as Vedic dogma	114
	Using Buddhism as a wedge for secularizing Sanskrit	125
	Disconnecting kavya from Vedas and shastras	129
4.	Sanskrit Considered a Source of Oppression	135
	The crisis of Indology and a novel solution	135
	Exposing Sanskrit’s ‘poisons’	144
	Response: Debating varna	146
	Blaming Sanskrit for European atrocities	167
	Pollock’s call to action to politicize Sanskrit studies	173
5.	Ramayana Framed as Socially Irresponsible	179
	Pollock’s view of Ramayana as a project for propagating Vedic social oppression	179
	The divinization construct	182
	The demonization construct	188
	Sociological criticism of the Ramayana	189
	Claiming Ramayana was popularized to demonize Muslims since the eleventh century	192
	Ramayana considered secular	196
	Claiming Valmiki Ramayana came after Buddhist influence	196
	Summary: Ramayana interpreted as atrocity literature	197
	Ramayana-based political action plan of intervening in Indian politics	199
6.	Politicizing Indian Literature	202
	A dramatic break from earlier Orientalism	204
	Sacredness removed from rasa and kavya	206
	The theory of the aestheticization of power	210
	Kavya characterized as primarily political	217
7.	Politicizing the History of Sanskrit and the Vernaculars	222
	Overview of Pollock’s account of history of how power shaped languages	222
	Introducing the ‘Sanskrit Cosmopolis’ and sidelining sanskriti	226
	Grammar as a form of political power	234
	The role of itihasas in spreading the Sanskrit cosmopolis	238
	Summary of issues with the grammar-itihasa power theory	241
	The rise of the vernaculars	243
	What led so many kings to vernacularize?	250
	Claiming parallels between European and Indian vernacularization	253
8.	The Sanskriti Web as an Alternative Hypothesis	256
	Diglossia versus hyperglossia models	262
	Approaches suggested by T.S. Satyanath	265
	Integral unity, open architecture and sanskriti web	270
9.	Declaring Sanskrit Dead and Sanskriti Non-existent	273
	Agenda in declaring the death of Sanskrit	273
	Claiming Sanskrit has been dead for many centuries	276
	Claiming Hindu kings killed Sanskrit, and Muslim rulers tried to save it	280
	Accusing other Indian languages of killing Sanskrit	286
	Sparing British colonialism and Nehruvianism	286
	Silence on the extraction and digestion of Sanskrit shastras into the West	293
	Chamu Krishna Shastry responds on behalf of the tradition	294
	Western academic critiques of Pollock	300
	The history of attempts to ‘kill’ Sanskrit	304
	Rejecting Indian civilization and Indian nation	307
10.	Is Sheldon Pollock Too Big to Be Criticized?	314
	Two goals	315
	The academic ecosystem	317
	The hegemonic discourse goes mainstream	327
	Third-party echoes: Pollock’s ideas go viral	337
	The re-colonization of Indian minds	341
	The Murty Classical Library of India	345
	The rise of the American-English cosmopolis	348
	Reversing the gaze: Interpreting Pollock using his own concepts	351
11.	Conclusion: The Way Forward	356
	The Sanskrit ecosystem must be revived in a holistic way	357
	Non-translatable Sanskrit terms must enter the mainstream	358
	Shastras must be seen as a platform for innovation	359
	New itihasas and smritis must be written	360
	‘Sacred philology’ must compete against political/liberation philology	362
	The purva-paksha tradition must be revived	364
	Well-qualified home team and institutions must be developed	372
	Defining the hard work that is needed	373
	Appendix A: Pollock’s Theory of Buddhist Undermining of the Vedas	381
	Appendix B: Ramayana Evidence Prior to the Turkish Invasion	392
	Appendix C: Pollock’s Political Activism	397
	Appendix D: Acknowledgements	400
	Appendix E: Editorial Policies Adopted	403
	Notes	405
	Bibliography	455
	Index	463