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It's interesting that a Sanskrit breakthrough happens not in India, but in England, a Western nation, by a PhD candidate researching under a European scholar.
by rg111 4y ago
It's interesting that a Sanskrit breakthrough happens not in India, but in England, a Western nation, by a PhD candidate researching under a European scholar.
Can someone explain to me why the breakthrough didn't happen in India?
What I think is that as the language is closely related to the religion, Indian people tend to worship it and hence cannot produce critical and innovative research nowadays. Am I right in thinking this? Or am I making an epistemological oversimplification?
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> Mr Rajpopat said he had "a eureka moment in Cambridge" after spending nine months "getting nowhere".
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> "I closed the books for a month and just enjoyed the summer - swimming, cycling, cooking, praying and meditating," he said.
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> "Then, begrudgingly I went back to work, and, within minutes, as I turned the pages, these patterns starting emerging, and it all started to make sense."
Diffuse thinking at play.
Happened with me many times.
- maphew 4y agoThere may be dozens of similarly profund discoveries being made in Indian institutions but we wouldn't hear about them simply because they wouldn't be reported in English or talked about in places like HN.
- Someone 4y ago> Can someone explain to me why the breakthrough didn't happen in India? Many of the brightest students in India go abroad for their PhD studies. Given that the article says “Indian student Rishi Rajpopat cracked the 2,500-year-old problem” and “I hope this discovery will infuse students in India with confidence, pride and hope that they too can achieve great things," said Mr Rajpopat, from India.” I think this is an example.
- rg111 4y agoMy question is, for Physics or CS or Bio, Indians coming to West makes sense to me. But why for Sanskrit, too? India should be the top place to study Sanskrit and do research in it? Why is that not the case?
- thunkshift1 4y agoThere might be similar or better phd research programs in india as well. However, there is a slim chance they can match the funding that western universities can
- rg111 4y agoDoes Sanskrit research- linguistic research in general- require much funding? I would think that it is like traditional number theory or philosophy research in terms of funding. Please inform me if I am wrong.
- dartharva 4y ago> Can someone explain to me why the breakthrough didn't happen in India? It's always more about the university than the country. India doesn't have a single university that competes with the likes of MIT, Stanford and Cambridge. Naturally, rich and privileged institutes like this occur more in suitably rich countries with high QoL.