[nukkad] Sanskrit and Muslims

["Dr.M.C. Gupta" <>]

*NO LANGUAGE BARRIER FOR THIS MUSLIM SCHOLAR*

*Hindustan Times, 1 March 2008*

* *

http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=a51b53b7-6475-45cb-bf98-5118d35aa3d1&MatchID1=4666&TeamID1=10&TeamID2=3&MatchType1=1&SeriesID1=1174&PrimaryID=4666&Headline=No+language+barrier+for+this+Muslim+scholar







Pandit Syed Hussain Shastri is a Sanskrit scholar who has been in love with
the language all his life. Pandit and Shastri have been prefixed and
suffixed respectively by people to his name because of his vast knowledge.



In Mirzaganj village, Malihabad, people know him as Shastriji. Malihabad is
20 kilometers northeast to Lucknow city. Shastriji had decided to learn
Sanskrit because his father wanted it. "Once I started learning it in
childhood, I just fell in love with it. The romance continues," he says.



The 79-year-old scholar says: "I find French beautiful, but Sanskrit is the
most beautiful." In the last 56 years people came from far and wide —
Varanasi, Allahabad and Europe — to learn Sanskrit from him. One of them,
Henry Shock, a scholar in oriental studies from Illionis University visited
him about two decades ago. On meeting him Shock said: "It is highly doubtful
that Sanskrit is a living language, but it is never doubtful that it is
living in your body."



Shastriji says: "I was barely four when I took admission in Dharm Sangh
Sanskrit Vidyalaya, Lucknow, and began my journey in Sanskrit. A Hindu
priest initiated me into Laghu Kaumudi (beginner's Sanskrit grammar) and
then I continued with Sanskrit studies at Aminabad High School, Government
Jubilee Inter College and then the Lucknow Univeristy. In 1952 I graduated
in Sanskrit." He has a post-graduate degree in the language. All of his
teaching lessons begin with chants from the Vedas.



He says: "I am waiting for my death to tip toe..." in the same breath he
recites: "...And not a stone to tell where I lie...Just let me live and let
me die." Now most of his time is spent in reading Bhagwad Gita in Sanskrit.



The Muslim scholar is a firm believer in Brahminism. He says, "Take away
Brahminism from Sanskrit, and nothing would be left in it."



"Shock has been the only person who interviewed me in Sanskrit. Many times
during the interview I attempted to drift to English as I knew he was from
the US. But he continued in Sanskrit. When I asked Shock from where he
learnt Sanskrit, he said 'Germany'."



For some people languages know no barrier — of caste, creed, religion or
nationality.




-- 
Prof. M C Gupta
MD (Medicine), MPH,  LL.M.,

Advocate & Health and Medico-legal Consultant

mcgupta44@gmail.com
www.writing.com/authors/mcgupta44
http://mcgupta44.blogspot.com/
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