[Advaita-l] Veda VyAsa visits Shankaracharya

[V Subrahmanian]

Namaste Raghavendra ji,

I did see the titles.  I would like to sum up the issue thus:

Sanskrit is such a language that requires a draft to be 'scrutinized' and if
necessary also 'rewritten' by the same author or sometimes, and preferably,
by someone else who is also in the know of things.  I would visualize the
things this way.  Someone, G.V.Iyer, or even Vidvan Ranganatha Sharma, who
is also a scholar in Kannada, could have written the whole story, the script
(dialogues) in Kannada.  This has been translated to Sanskrit for the movie
is in Sanskrit.  This is by Shri Sharma, as per the official 'titles'.  This
'draft' has been examined ('scrutinized') by Dr.Bannanje.  And after several
rounds of consultations, corrections, re-stating, revising, etc. the final
output has come from the pen of Dr.Bannanje.  It is a joint effort.

I shall quote an incident to which I have been a witness not once, but
several times.  In Sringeri, for the Ganapathi VAkyArtha Sabha every year,
many scholars from all over the country come to participate.  Vidwans in the
field of Vyakarana, pUrva mImAmsA, nyAya shastra and Vedanta assemble.  When
even Vyakarana vidwans are in the process of their presentation,
individually, there are occasions when His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Bharati
Tirtha SwaminaH, has intervened to correct a usage of a word.  It could be
with regard to the tense, number, gender, samasa, etc.  And the speaker
takes it and proceeds. No one feels offended.

On one occasion, over twenty years ago, one afternoon, a number of vyakarana
vidwans were with His Holiness when other devotees were also allowed for
darshan.  Even during a  casual conversation, I noticed Him from close
quarters, correcting many a vidwan's usage.  Over the years I learnt that no
matter how great a vidwan's accomplishment is, when it comes to usage,
writing or speaking, there is no such thing called perfection at one
stroke.

This is not unique to Sanskrit. To a lesser degree, even in English authors
often have their scripts examined by those whom they know are 'good' at
English.

Viewed this way, there is nothing odd in the official title acknowledging
Vidwan Ranganatha Sharma's role and Dr. Bannanje's role the way it is
depicted.

I can, if I want, visit Vidwan Ranganatha Sharma, who is in his nineties,
and 'investigate' the matter.  But I find it not worth the trouble, more
than for me, for him.  Years ago, I had the previlege of travelling with him
from Hassan to Bangalore by car after having spent a few days at the
Chaturmasya of Pujya Shri Shankara Bharati Swamigalu, of Yedathore Matha.

I agree with you that this issue is not worth belaboring beyond this point.


With warm regards,
subrahmanian.v

<http://vishalagarwal.voiceofdharma.com/articles/acharyas/sundarapandya/index.htm>

On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 10:29 PM, Raghavendra Hebbalalu <
hs_raghavendra at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Not to belabor the point too much - watch the movie and note the titles. No
> more posts from me on this.
>
> -
>