Rahul Sankrityayan and the Buddhism of Nepal (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
This lecture traces some of the ways in which Nepal has been imagined, starting over 1500 years ago when the name referred to the Kathmandu Valley ruled by the Licchavi dynasty. That spatialised hierarchical conception (‘Nepal mandala’) is contrasted with later ideas of Nepal as interface, empire, nation-state, and multicultural federal republic. At each stage, Nepal has been imagined as made up of different kinds of people. In the modern period formal and official categorisations have become increasingly egalitarian and, recently, even explicitly antihierarchical. Since 1990, ethnic identities have been massively transformed and politicised. Entirely new ‘macro categories’ have come into existence. However, the old order has not simply disappeared, but remains ‘back stage’, reworked; it can be discerned in informal but still powerful hierarchies of language and national belonging.
Contributions to Nepalese Studies
Contributions to Nepalese Studies, 2008
From the 1990’s onwards, an interesting dynamics within the Nepali speech community is taking place both in Nepal and in India regarding ethnicity within which the issue of language is embedded. The present paper seeks to understand how the languages of the various nationalities3 in the different socio-political realities play a role in asserting identity, democratic values and norms, functions for the aspiration and the agenda of these dynamics. The language politics, policies, and practices vis-à-vis the role of the Nepali language in the contemporary Nepali speech community are examined in the contact, conflict and cleavages among the nationalities in these countries.
Ivan Minaev’s Sketches of Ceylon and India: A Russian Perspective on Nepal
Prithvi academic journal, 2023
Ivan Minaev (1840-1890) was one of the first great Russian Indologists and students of Buddhism. Between 1874 and 1886, he made three long journeys in which he visited Ceylon, India, Burma and Nepal. Thanks to his profound knowledge of the classic (Sanskrit and Pali) and modern languages of the Indian subcontinent, he had the opportunity not only to read ancient works, but also to meet government and elite figures as well as the people. This paper focuses in particular on Minaev's depiction of Nepal in a series of travel notes such as Ocherki Tsejlona i Indii (Eng. trans. Sketches of Ceylon and India, 1878) and in a number of essays. Aware of the military and ideological clash between England and Russia that was taking place in Central and South Asia, Minaev took an original stance towards the British colonial domination: he supported the need for the Russian government to imitate the British Empire in building important infrastructures (roads, bridges, railways), but, with regard to Nepal, he emphasises the importance of respecting the appalling richness, variety and originality of its languages, religious rites, legends and songs, which are preserved in a much uncontaminated form here than in India.
Bibliography of Indian Scholarship on Nepal
This is the first draft of a bibliography of works done by Indian scholars on themes related to Nepal. We started with a short bibliography prepared by Pratyoush Onta while he was researching the status of area studies in India during the year 2000 and enlarged it through new research and compilation. Sources consulted included relevant books, edited volumes, academic journals published from India, Nepal, and elsewhere, occasional paper series published by various research centers and universities, and relevant dissertation databases. We also did research at the Tribhuvan University Central Library (TUCL), and the libraries of the Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS) and Martin Chautari. We consulted the online catalogs of the US Library of Congress (catalog.loc.gov) and World Catalog (www.worldcat.org) and did research in the online archives of JSTOR (www.jstor.org/) and Google Scholar (scholar.google.com). We also contacted several individuals and asked for lists of their relevant publications and details about dissertations that had been completed in their universities. This bibliography is incomplete in several ways. First, relevant entries in the theme covered are missing simply because we did not have access to that information. This might especially be true for MA, MPhil and PhD dissertations done by Indian scholars on subjects related to Nepal in universities in India, elsewhere in South Asia and beyond. Also we had access to a limited number of journals published from India and it is possible that more writings by Indian scholars on Nepal have been published in other Indian journals. Second, this bibliography mostly covers work done since India gained its independence in 1947. Hence, works that were done in earlier periods are missing. Third, our focus has been on core social science disciplines. So, works written from disciplines in the humanities are missing. Perhaps even some other social science disciplines might have been under‐represented in this bibliography. Based on this draft bibliography, we can say that Indian scholarship on Nepal is quite substantial in volume. Hundreds of books, edited volumes, journal articles and occasional papers have been published in the last 65‐70 years. The themes that have dominated Indian scholarship related to Nepal include political history, Indo‐Nepal diplomatic and trade relations, trans‐border migration, challenges of regional cooperation, and hydro‐related politics. There is very little engagement with the substantial amount of social science writings (especially anthropological) available on Nepal by non‐South Asian scholars in Indian scholarship on Nepal. Research by Indian sociologists and anthropologists on Nepal is virtually absent. All efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the entries given herein. However there might still be inadvertent errors in them. We would appreciate suggestions regarding any corrections that need to be made in the entries given here and additions of relevant items missing in this edition of the bibliography. Such suggestions should be sent to us at either library.asst@martinchautari.org.np or sinhas@mos.com.np. Relevant and correct additional information will be incorporated in revised editions of this bibliography in future.