Rahul Sankrityayan

Kedarnath Pandey, who later changed his name to Rahul Sankrityayan, after Gautam Buddha’s son, Rahul and Sankrityayan, meaning Assimilator; did perfect justice in giving himself this new name, for he went on to become a renowned Buddhist scholar. Popularly recalled as the Father of Hindi Travel Literature, his collection of knowledge had begun at an early age of nine, when he ran away from home in order to explore the unexplored. His journey took him too many parts of India and abroad. Even though he had a limited formal education, Sankrityayan learnt many languages all by himself and wrote around 150 books. His writings included an array of subjects. He travelled all around, participated in the Indian Freedom Movement and got jailed thrice for creating anti-British writings and speeches. Sankrityayan became a Buddhist monk and eventually, took up Marxist Socialism. He is often referred to as a Mahapandit (greatest scholar), Writer, Scholar, Nationalist, Traveller, Polymath and Polyglot. Remembering the eventful life of Rahul Sankrityayan, a great scholar, who knew nearly 30 languages but almost always wrote in Hindi

Life

Rahul Sankrityayan aka Kedarnath Pandey was born on 9th April, 1893 in Azamgarh District of Uttar Pradesh, India to an orthodox Brahmin family. His father, Govardhan Pandey was a farmer by profession, while his mother, Kulawanti stayed with her parents. Sankrityayan received formal education only up to 8th grade in Urdu medium. However, this didn’t deter him from educating himself as he went on to master many languages by reading and frequently travelling across India and abroad. After the death of both his parents, mother at the age of twenty eight and father at the age of forty five, he was brought up by his grandmother. It was when Rahul was nine that he first ran away from home to explore the world. He visited many pilgrim centres of India and mainly survived on alms. In 1919, the Jallianwala Holocaust impacted him to such a level that he turned into a nationalist, participated actively in Indian freedom for independence, and even went to jail three times in his life.

Career

A writer, a scholar, a socialist, a nationalist, a traveller, a polymath, and a polyglot - with a career as broad as that, it’s highly unlikely that India or any other country for that matter will come across such a figure in a very long time. Even though Sankrityayan’s formal education had ended by 8th grade, he climbed the mountain of paramount knowledge that many educated people across the world failed to. It was as much as theoretical education as it was practical: involving a lot a travel that took him to many parts of India including Ladakh, Kashmir, Kinnaur etc and countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tibet, China, Iran, and Soviet Union. It was Sankrityayan’s urge to learn and search for prestigious artefacts including manuscripts of Pāli and Sanskrit, paintings, and even books. Such was his glory that the Patna Museum in Patna, Bihar has dedicated a special section to a number of items brought back by Rahul. In 1937-38 he was appointed as the Professor of Indology by the University of Leningrad. Again in 1947-48 he was appointed as the Professor of Indology by the University of Leningrad, for the second time.

His Writings

Rahul Sankrityayan’s writing and scholarly career had begun when he was in his twenties. Over the years, he had written around 150 books covering a variety of subjects such as sociology, history, philosophy, Buddhism, science, drama, folklore, politics, tibetology, lexicography, biographies, autobiography, essays, and pamphlets in as many as five languages: Hindi, Sanskrit, Bhojpuri, Pali, and Tibetan. His book “Volga se Ganga” translating to “A journey from Volga to Ganga”, 7500-years of historical accounts woven with fiction and then published, is one of his major accomplishments. The book begins in 6000 BC and ends in 1942 AD and presents a fictional account of migration of Aryans from the steppes of the Eurasia to regions around the Volga river; then their movements across the Hindukush and the Himalayas and the sub-Himalayan regions; and their spread to the Indo-Gangetic plains of the subcontinent of India. The book got translated in Tamil, Telegu, and Malayalam and remains hugely popular among youth intellectuals in Kerala till date. His book “Madhya Asia ka Itihaas” even won him the Sahitya Academy Award in 1958 and he was awarded with the Padma Bhushan in his lifetime and the Indian government issued a postage stamp to commemorate his birth centenary in 1993. If this wasn’t all, Sankrityayan was made the professor of Indology by the University of Leningrad, twice.

Personal Life

Since Sankrityayan got married at a very young age, he never came to know who his child-wife was. It was on his second visit to Soviet Union where he went to teach about Buddhism in the University of Leningrad, when he met Ellena Narvertovna Kozerovskaya aka Lola, a Mongolian scholar. The two got married and had a son named Igor. However, both mother and child were not allowed to travel to India when Rahul went back after completing his teaching assignment. It is said that later in his life he married a Nepali lady and had a daughter named Jaya and a son named Jeta.

 Death

During his teaching stint at the Sri Lankan University, a combination of diabetes, high blood pressure, a stroke had left Sankrtiyayan seriously ill. It was in Darjeeling that he breathed his last breath and passed away on 14th April, 1963. He died at the age of 70.

 Awards in His Honour

Rahul Sankrityayan National Award - Awarded to those who have contributed to Hindi travel Literature (also called Travel Litterateur's Honour) by the Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Government of India

Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan Paryatan Puraskar  - Awarded for contributing significantly in the field of travelogue and Discovery and Research in Hindi, for books written originally in Hindi on Tourism related subjects by the Ministry Of Tourism, Government of India

 

Rahul Sankrityayan’s Contribution to Buddhist Sanakrit Literature

Rahul Sankrityayan, an outstanding scholar is well known for his contribution in the field of Buddhism and we must convey our deepest respect to him for his scholastic works. He was a versatile genius working on many fronts and an indefatigable writer and author. He has dedicated himself to these works with all his energy. The pinnacle of his glory works on the Sanskrit Buddhist Literature that he brought from the Tibetan Monasteries and others. By his learning tack and profession of Buddhism he favours with the monks and examined the manuscripts collection under their care, persuading them for permission to prepares photographs and hand copies. He was able to discover a number of texts of which the following may be noted!

1. Pramanavartika of Dharmakriti in original Sanskrit with his own commentary (Svopajna Vrti).

2. Alankara Bhasya.

3. Manoratha Nandi Vrtti.

4. Commenfary by Karnagomin.

5. Hetu-Bindu and its Tikas.

6. Dharmottars Pradipu.

7. Nyayas text of Jnanasrimitra and Ratnakirti.

8. Abhidharma Kosha of Vasubandu.

9. Vijnapati Matrata-Diddhi.

10. Vada – Nyaya. 11. Abhyardha – Sataka.

12. Vigraha _ Vyavartini.

13. Kasika – Panchika.

14. Ashtasahasri Kaprajnaparam.

Mahapandit Rahulji as a true scholar fulfilled his obligation to the Valuable treasure which he had himself discovered. This he accomplished in two ways firstly by editing the texts and secondly by writing Tikas and Translations on them, e.g. he edited the Vada - Nyaya (JBORS, XXI, 1935) PramanaVarttika (Vol. XXIV.1938), Abhyartha – Sataka (Vol. XXIII, 1937), Vigraha – Vyavartini of Nagarjuna (Vol. XXIII, 1937), pramana Varttika of Dharmakirti (Vol. XXII, 1936), Under second he wrote a Tika on Abhidharma - kosa, Vijnapti – Matrata-Siddhi, (Sanskrit restoration of Jan Chwang’s translation), Hitu Bindu, Samdandha – Pariksha and Pramana-varttika itself. It is obviously true that Rahul made a balanced analysis of Buddhism. While highlighting Dharmakristi’s vident attacks against many established belief, he never hesitated to criticize Buddhist practices. He quoted from Dharmakīrti: accepting the authority of the Veda and someone as the creator, the desire of getting merit through the holy dip, the vanity of casteism and torturing the body to redeem the sins these are the five characteristics of stupidity. “Rahul wrote at the same time” In spite of such radicalism in their philosophy, their belief in rebirth. Jogic moisticism and some other views are the same as in other religions”.  Later, he also prepared a Tibetan-Hindi dictionary for the Akademi. Unfortunately, only one volume of this important work could see the light of day.

Rahukl was awarded Tripitakachariya by Vidyalankar Parivena and    D. Litt (hon) by Vidyalankar Visvavidyalaya of Sri Lanka for his erudition and his contribution to Buddhist studies. He had formed a dynamic conception about the history and critique of Indian philosophical literature as it developed form the time of Dharmakīrti up to the last days of the Nalanda teacher. He had visualized that the Buddhist, Jaina and Brahmanical logicians had developed a system of dialectic in which the points of controversy formulated in one system were met with one another and vice versa so that in courage of time a very subtle system of arguments and counter – arguments dominated the whole field preserving a faithful record of the intellectual activity of great mind for about 800 years without parochial distinction of sect and religion. He wanted to approach the problem in the same broad spirit and to reintroduce the study of medieval logic and metaphysics amongest scholars of India Philosophy at the present day, the in to make India Philosophy a creative subject of live interest and not a day load to the mind as it is today. He had an inspiration that Indian scholars should contribute their full share to the realization of this idea and that the old texts which at one time returned with fame throughout Asia should once again shed their luster on the philosophical studies at modern times.