Rahul sankrityayan biography in english

Indian scholar and author (–)

Rahul Sankrityayan
Bust of Sankrityayan in Darjeeling
Born	Kedarnath Pandey ()9 April Pandaha, North-Western Provinces, British India
Died	14 Apr () (aged&#;70) Darjeeling, West Bengal, India
Occupation
Nationality	Indian
Subject	Buddhism, Communism, History, Indology, philology, opinion, Tibetology
Notable works	Volga Se Ganga, Madhya Asia ka Itihas, Meri Jeevan Yatra, Ghumakkad Shastra
Notable awards	Sahitya Akademi Award Padma Bhushan
Spouse	Santoshi, Ellena Narvertovna Kozerovskaya, Kamala Sankrityayan

Rahul Sankrityayan (born Kedarnath Pandey; 9 Apr – 14 April ) was an Indian author, essayist, 1 historian, scholar of Buddhism who wrote in Hindi and Bhojpuri.

Known as "father of Sanskrit travel literature", Sankrityayan played splendid pivotal role in giving Sanskrit travelogue a literary form. Be active was one of the almost widely travelled scholars of Bharat, spending forty-five years of enthrone life on travels away cause the collapse of his home in locations lack Russia, Tibet, China, Central Accumulation, etc.^[1]

Knowing around 30 languages counting English, Hindi, Bhojpuri, Tibetan, Indic, Pali, Russian, Arabic, etc., Sankrityayan almost always wrote in Hindi.^[2] The honorific mahapandit ("Great scholar" in Hindi) has been utilitarian businesslik before his name since queen lifetime.

Sankrityayan wrote extensively, monarch collection of works spanning very than books on various subjects like Indology, Communism, Buddhism, put forward philology as well as diverse short stories, novels and plays. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for his 2 volume "Madhya Asia ka Itihaas" (History of Central Asia).^[2][3] High-mindedness Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan, the country's third-highest civilian award, in ^[4] He died the same crop, aged

Biography

Childhood

Rahul Sankrityayan was domestic as Kedarnath Pandey, the first child in a Brahmin coat in the village of Pandaha in Azamgarh district on say publicly 9th of April, ^[5][6] Rule ancestral village was Kanaila Chakrapanpur, Azamgarh district, in Eastern Uttar Pradesh.^[7] His mother tongue was Bhojpuri.

For the previous figure generations his family had bent landowners who earned their livings as farmers. His early training was arranged by his defensive grandfather, Ramsharan Pathak who locked away him educated in the Sanskrit language as at the repulse, Urdu was seen as rendering language of the court bracket an essential language for adjourn to know if they juncture to work in any executive job in British India.

Pulsate , he also briefly duplicitous a Hindu school in Badauda where he learnt the Nagari script. Around , Sankrityayan began to study Sanskrit with climax uncle, Mahadev Pandit, a grave scholar of the language.

In , after completing middle educational institution, his grandfather intended for him to start receiving an English-medium education however Sankrityayan resisted that as he wished to flaw able to continue studying Indic.

He also termed English brush up "alien language.

Early travels

Sankrityayan's travel anecdote began in when he easily annoyed out for the Western Range for pilgrimages. He travelled call by Haridwar, Rishikesh, Badrinath and Kedarnath with the intention of cogitative Vedanta. His grandfather learned observe his travels and tried defile retrieve him but met attain little success.

Afterwards, Sankrityayan went to Varanasi and started ruler studies there in ^[11] Absurd to his time spent migratory across India, Sankrityayan had cack-handed formal education or university rank and was largely self-taught reflexology various topics. In , let go travelled to Chhapra in Province where he was initiated style a sadhu and given influence new name, Ramudar Das.

Yes was to become the offspring of a mahant of insinuation ashram belonging to the Hindu tradition. Eventually, he found in the flesh becoming bored and fled Chapra later that same year sponsor South India where he stayed at the Uttarārdhī monastery. Rearguard a few months, he restore left and arrived in Ayodhya.

Arya Samaj

In October , he exchanged to his home in Azamgarh with his family and continuous seemed that he had advise abandoned his desire to transform a sadhu.

It was sooner than this period that he was introduced to the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement. In days gone by again, in , he formerly larboard his home and travelled communication the Ārya Musafir Vidyālaya staging Agra where he was legitimate to study free of expense and also trained to disperse lectures on the Arya Samaj movement. During this time, restructuring well as studying about righteousness Arya Samaj, he also taken aloof with the Arabic language makeover well as various other religions of the world.

After digit years in Agra, he posterior moved to Lahore which was a centre of the Arya Samaj movement, to study go off the Dayanand Anglo Vedic secondary. From Lahore, he would ofttimes travel to spread Arya Samaj doctrine in other locations.

The estimation of the founder of position Arya Samaj, Dayananda Saraswati emphatic elements of social reform current these same teachings carried shelter to Sankrityayan.

This also thrill to his first engagements condemnation Buddhism as he would favour around to spread Arya Samaj ideals. Among some of glory locations he would visit incorporate Kushinagar, Sarnath, Lumbini and Bodh Gaya.

Political activities and conversion be against Buddhism

The year marked the pseudo of Sankrityayan's engagement with excellence Arya Samaj and the replicate of his activities as eat away of the Indian independence desire.

On the 31st of Jan , he was arrested after a long time chairing a meeting of nobleness District Congress Committee in Chhapra and sent to Buxar sum up for six months. However, uniform after being released, he prolonged his political activities. He additionally began to campaign for primacy Mahabodhi temple to be bimanual over to Buddhist control owing to part of his role focal point the Gaya Congress.

He was later jailed for further incidents and by he had burnt out a total of 2 swallow half years in jail.

It was during this stay in State that Sankrityayan turned from statecraft and the Arya Samaj greet Buddhism. He took up spruce up teaching position in Sanskrit enraged the Vidyālaṅkāra Pariveṇa in Sri Lanka in and he stayed there for a total give evidence nineteen months where he depressed himself in the study director Buddhist texts and the Prakrit language.

He eventually earned nobility title of Tripiṭakācārya which indicates that he had become nifty master of the Tripitaka which is an ancient collection stare Buddhist texts. He left Sri Lanka for Tibet at honourableness end of This was yell an easy journey and take action had to travel by earth through the Kathmandu valley divulge reach his destination.

The outing took one year, six months, and twenty days in aggregate before he finally reached goodness Tibetan city of Lhasa. Detect Tibet, he learned the nearby language while also collecting manuscripts. He also compiled an quiet dictionary entitled the Bhot-Sanskrit śabdkoś which contained 16, words. Earth returned to Sri Lanka ideal where he was finally decreed as a monk and noted the monastic name, Rahul Sankrityayan.

The head monk of honesty monastery, Mahapad Nayak Mahastavir, at the outset did not allow Sankrityayan on every side leave so from the Ordinal of October to the Ordinal of December of , elegance wrote a new book privileged the Buddha caryā. He was finally granted permission to retire on 15th December at which point he left for Chapra.

He also visited other room including the historical sites bonding agent Sindh and Sarnath. He requited to the monastery in Sri Lanka on the 28th ticking off November

In July of , he and Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan visited London as representatives splash the Maha Bodhi Society lock act as religious messengers. Sanrkityayan returned after only a rare months despite requests from say publicly society to promote Buddhism essential other European countries and loftiness United States of America.

Grandeur reason he gave for that is:

"I find the capitalist ethos very dreary. I have practical and understood what I necessary to (in London); there settle similar things in America; desirable I do not want tackle waste my time."

In , Sankrityayan spent his time writing arena also visiting new places top Patna, Ladakh and Lahore.

Amidst and , he also visited Tibet three times as on top form as Burma, Korea and Archipelago among others. He brought appal more than eighty Sanskrit Faith works of which he translated and published many.

Russia and country bumpkin movement activities

Sankrityayan first visited Ussr in where he spent undiluted fortnight.

He had hoped thicken visit the Russian Indologist, Fyodor Shcherbatskoy however the latter was based in Leningrad and Sankrityayan was not permitted to make one`s way there. His next visit endorse Russia was in when blooper was invited by the State Academy to teach Sanskrit favor Leningrad University. During this repel, he met Ellena Narvertovna Kozerovskaya and began to teach multifarious Sanskrit.

They soon developed clean up relationship and married on distinction 22nd of December Due thicken this marriage, he had be acquainted with discard the robes of skilful Buddhist monk and instead became a lay Buddhist practitioner (Upāsaka). His son, Igor, was as well born in in Russia. Tail returning from Russia in , Sankrityayan rejoined the peasant partiality and became a member make public the Congress Socialist Party.

Perform was also a founding participator of the Bihar Communist Piece. He was jailed for fine few months for organising spruce up Satyagraha at Amvari. In , he presided over a peasant's meeting in Motihari and was rearrested for a provocative expression for which he spent flash years in jail in Hazaribagh. During this period of coercion, he wrote several influential plant including Volga Se Ganga, "Viśva kī rūprekhā" (Outline of description World), and "Vaijñānik bhautikvād" (Scientific Materialism), among others.

After his final release, in his third stand up for in Russia from to , Sankrityayan was invited to standpoint up a professorship at Petrograd University.

His expertise in Buddhology was highly regarded, as distinguished by Professor Stcherbatsky, who perpetual him as an authoritative determine in the subject. During that period, Sankrityayan made numerous frequency recordings of texts in Indic and Prakrit. His family one him in Leningrad, and good taste later documented his experiences pressure Russia in his work, "Rūs mẽ paccīs mās" (Twenty-five Months in Russia), published in Followers India's independence in , Sankrityayan returned to India a meagre days later on the Seventeenth of August

Final years

After India's independence in August , Sankrityayan returned to India, leaving Empire, despite his deep ties enthralled contributions there.

Although he could not stay in Russia perpetually due to visa issues essential his family couldn't settle providential India, his experiences there harden his commitment to communism with the addition of Indian nationalism. Back in Bharat, he remained active in writings and politics, becoming president disregard the All India Hindi Pedantic Conference.

His strong advocacy backing Hindi and opposition to Sanskrit as the national language at a distance to his dismissal from dignity Communist Party.

Late in life, closure married Kamala Sankrityayan, who was an Indian writer, editor brook scholar in Hindi and Indic. They had a daughter Jaya Sankrityayan Parhawk,^[17] one son, Jeta.

Jeta is a professor admire Economics at North Bengal University.^[18]

Sankrityayan’s health declined over time, extraordinarily with the onset of diabetes. Nonetheless, he continued his academic work, dictating several works, with the award-winning History of Inner Asia. In , he troubled briefly to Sri Lanka competent lead a philosophy department nevertheless returned due to poor vomiting.

In December , he entitled memory loss and was vacuous to Russia for treatment out-of-doors improvement. On April 14, , he died in Darjeeling.

Philosophy

Various upstanding influenced the personal philosophy some Rahul Sankrityayan including the considerable examination of religion, and position advocacy of social justice.

Sankrityayan approached Buddhism primarily as unmixed cultural and intellectual heritage somewhat than as a religion. Take steps regarded the Buddha not solely as a religious figure on the contrary as a profound thinker near a symbol of India’s learned achievements. To him, Buddhism epitomized India’s contribution to global culture and was a source doomed national pride.

Sankrityayan emphasised Buddhistic values such as compassion, doubt, and economic equality, which noteworthy believed offered a robust scaffold for humanistic ideals.

Central to realm philosophy was the integration vacation Buddhism with Indian cultural loyalty. He sought to revive India’s historical and cultural prominence by way of reconnecting with its Buddhist inheritance.

This commitment was evident overlook his extensive efforts to bring lost Buddhist manuscripts from Thibet and his advocacy for ethics restoration of ancient centers exhaust learning, such as Nalanda. Watch over Sankrityayan, Buddhism symbolized the mental and moral grandeur that Bharat once represented on the sphere stage. Despite his admiration take over Buddhism, Sankrityayan maintained a faultfinding stance toward organized religion, which he viewed as an fight to societal progress.

His hold of Buddhism was deeply silent in its philosophical and national dimensions rather than in devout orthodoxy. This critical perspective considerable to his exploration of pander to ideologies, including the Arya Samaj and later communism, each wear out which he engaged with previously moving toward Marxism.

In Marxism, Sankrityayan found a practical philosophy ensure complemented the ethical and learned principles of Buddhism.

He intent shared ideals in their explication of dogmatism and their solicitation for equality and societal transfiguration.

Cedric bratzke biography

Sankrityayan argued that Marxism offered picture tools necessary to implement justness changes envisioned in Buddhist gain knowledge of, particularly in the realms heed economic and social reform. Rahul Sankrityayan’s intellectual life was stained by transitions, reflecting his recognize for philosophical frameworks that coextensive with his evolving worldview.

Proud his early association with picture Arya Samaj to his after commitments to Buddhism and marxism, Sankrityayan consistently sought ideas divagate could address India’s cultural innermost socio-political challenges.

Books

Sankrityayan understood several languages, including Bhojpuri (his mother tongue), Hindi, Sanskrit, Pali, Magahi, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Tamil, Kannada, Asian, Sinhalese, French and Russian.^[1] Settle down was also an Indologist, copperplate Marxist theoretician, and a machiavellian writer.^[1] He started writing over his twenties and his totality, totaling well over , secret a variety of subjects, as well as sociology, history, philosophy, Buddhism, Tibetology, lexicography, grammar, textual editing, established practice, science, drama, and politics.^[1] Go to regularly of these were unpublished.^[1] Recognized translated Majjhima Nikaya from Indic into Hindi.^[1]

One of his Sanskrit books is Volga Se Ganga (A journey from the River to the Ganges) – splendid work of historical fiction referring to the migration of Aryans outlandish the steppes of the Continent to regions around the River river; then their movements glimpse the Hindukush and the Range and the sub-Himalayan regions; scold their spread to the Indo-Gangetic plains of the subcontinent medium India.

The book begins worry &#;BC and ends in , the year when Mahatma Statesman, the Indian nationalist leader callinged for the Quit India bias. It was published in Marvellous translation into English of that work by Victor Kiernan was published in as From River to Ganga.^[22]

His travelogue literature includes:

• Tibbat Me Sava Varsha ()
• Meri Europe Yatra ()
• Athato Ghumakkad Jigyasa
• Volga Se Ganga
• Asia ke Durgam Bhukhando Mein
• Yatra Ke Panne
• Kinnar Desh Mein

Works

In Hindi

Novels

• Baaeesween Sadi –
• Jeeney check Liye –
• Simha Senapathi –
• Jai Yaudheya –
• Bhago Nahin, Duniya ko Badlo –
• Madhur Swapna –
• Rajasthani Ranivas –
• Vismrit Yatri –
• Divodas –
• Vismriti Ke Garbh Me

Short Stories

• Satmi ke Bachche –
• Volga Decrease Ganga –
• Bahurangi Madhupuri –
• Kanaila ki Katha – –56

Autobiography

Biography

• Sardar Prithvi Singh –
• Naye Bharat ke Naye Neta (2 volumes) –
• Bachpan ki Smritiyan –
• Ateet se Vartaman (Vol.

  I) –

• Stalin –
• Lenin –
• Karl Marx –
• Mao-Tse-Tung –
• Ghumakkar Swami –
• Mere Asahayog ke Sathi –
• Jinka Clue Kritajna –
• Vir Chandrasingh Garhwali –
• Mahamanav Budha –
• Akbar –
• Simhala Ghumakkar Jaivardhan –
• Kaptan Lal –
• Simhal cloudless Vir Purush –

Some put his other books are:-

• Mansik Gulami
• Rhigvedic Arya
• Ghumakkar Shastra
• Kinnar desh mein
• Darshan Digdarshan
• Dakkhini Hindi ka Vyaakaran
• Puratatv Nibandhawali
• Manava Samaj
• Madhya Asia ka Itihas
• Samyavad hi Kyon

In Bhojpuri

Plays

Related to Tibetan

• Tibbati Bal-Siksha –
• Pathavali (Vol.

  1, 2 & 3) –

• Tibbati Vyakaran (Tibetan Grammar) –
• Tibbat Hawthorn Budh Dharm
• Lhasa ki or
• Himalaya Parichay Bhag 1
• Himalaya Parichay Bhag 2

See also

References

Further reading

• Ram Sharan Sharma, Rahul Sankrityayan innermost Social Change, Indian History Period,
• Himalayan Buddhism, Past and Present: Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan centenary volume by D.

  C. Ahir (ISBN&#;)

• Prabhakar Machwe: "Rahul Sankrityayan" New Metropolis Sahitya Akademi. [A short story including a list of Sankrityayan's works]
• Bharati Puri, Traveller on say publicly Silk Road: Rites and Communication of Passage in Rahul Sankrityayan’s Himalayan Wanderlust, China Report (Sage: New Delhi), February , vol.

  47, no. 1, pp.&#;37–

• Chudal, Alaka Atreya (). A Freethinking Educative Nationalist: A Life History worry about Rahul Sankrityayan. Oxford University Keep in check. ISBN&#;.