9-15 January, 1994
Melbourne, Australia
The IXth World Sanskrit Conference

By M.S. Oort

The International Association for Sanskrit Studies held the IXth World
Sanskrit Conference in Melbourne, Australia on January 9th to the 15th,
1994. It was not surprising that an attempt would be made to place this
conference closer to participants coming from Asia.  In 1984 the host city
was Philadelphia in the USA, and Europe claimed 1987 with Leiden, the
Netherlands and 1990 with Vienna, Austria. Unfortunately the expense of
travel and lodging is a limiting factor to the majority of scholars in the
mother country of Sanskrit, India, but times are difficult in universities
all over the world these days so that even potential participants from more
affluent countries must count their pennies.

BAD MANAGEMENT
Only about 120 people showed up in Melbourne as compared to almost 500 in
Leiden and Vienna. Distance was probably one of the factors explaining the
lack of attendance, but bad management was certainly the major source of a
lack of enthusiasm for the conference. The first two circulars had the
wrong dates for 1994 and finally in the 3rd circular the correct dates
appeared with the excuse that no calender for 1994 was previously
available. Letters and faxes with requests for information and queries as
to whether checks, etc. for the registration fee had arrived were not
acknowledged. In short the good intentions of the organizers was not enough
to make the conference run smoothly.
Unfortunately  for the first time the President of the International
Association of Sanskrit Studies, Prof. R.N. Dandekar was unable to attend.
The Secretary General, Prof. S. Lienhard from Sweden acted as the official
speaker at the opening session. The sections covered in the conference
varied from the traditional subjects such as Vedic, Epic and Pur‘¿ic
studies, literature, and Hindu, Buddhist and Jain philosophy to more modern
concepts such as Sanskrit and Environmental studies.

DEJA VU
The printed programme received at the registration immediately became
obsolate and one did not know from one day to another what the schedule
would be for the next day. The caliber of the papers in the sections I
attended was not very high.  The participants from Europe, Japan and the
North America were almost without exception the better qualified speakers.
It was regrettable that the good Indian scholars did not attend.  In one
instance the speaker gave the same paper that he gave in Philadelphia and
Vienna, but with a different title. This prompted the chairman to remark
that he had a feeling of deja vu. There are limits to scholarly recycling.
As often is the case at conferences some of the most interesting exchange
of ideas took place at lunch or in the evenings. The highlight of the
social programme was most certainly the dinner and Indian cultural evening
hosted by a local jeweller dealing in opals and Australian souvenirs. The
very capable dancers in Mohini Attam style and the Indian and Australian
musicians and singers provided the participants with a memorable evening. 

BANGALORE OGLES
It is very difficult to organize a conference and the tenor of this short
report does seem very critical. However the people involved in the
organisation do deserve thanks for their perserverance in trying to make
the best of the situation and who with good humour tried to bring some
order in the chaos.
The next conference will be held in Bangalore, India which is sometimes
called the center of the Indian Silicon Valley.  Let us hope that the
hightech atmosphere will be condusive to producing a well managed Xth World
Sanskrit Conference in 1997.