IIAS Seminar
17-18 November, 1994
Leiden, The Netherlands

IDEOLOGY AND STATUS OF SANSKRIT IN SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

By Jan E.M. Houben

Socio-historical considerations have played a crucial role in the study of
Sanskrit in its South and Southeast Asian context, a fact which emerges, for
instance, from the elaborate discussions by early Indologists about caste
relationships in the Vedic period and the precise place and time of the
grammarian Pþnini (Weber 1862, 1868). In the study of language change and
variation, Labov's theory of the social motivation of linguistic change
(Labov, 1965, 1972) has given a new impulse to the formulation of models of
linguistic change in recent years, and has provided the basis for a great
number of well-documented socio-linguistic studies (Hock, 1991). Nowadays the
main factors taken into account in socio-linguistic studies of the relations
and interaction between different languages in particular regions are usually
limited to those of socio-economic and political power versus solidarity and
affect (Gibbons, 1992). The fact that a language is spoken by an economically
and politically powerful group should be sufficient to explain the adoption
of that language by a group aspiring to a higher status or, conversely, of the
conscious rejection of that language by a group opposing the dominant powerful
group. In the recent work of Pierre Bourdieu, as far as it deals with language
and power, the power factor is represented mainly by the state and his
examples usually centre on the socio-linguistic conditions in France and
Algeria (Bourdieu, 1991).

THE RISE OF SANSKRIT
In the development and history of Sanskrit as a standard language (not
unchallenged by other high-status languages) on the Indian subcontinent and
in neighbouring areas - a process which has covered more than two thousand
years and which still continues to some extent to the present day -
socio-economic and political factors, and a desire for solidarity, have all
played roles of which the importance has not yet been fully assessed. As
Pollock has convincingly argued, the intimate relation between the power
factor and Sanskrit was not coincident with the development of Indological
studies about India and its languages (something which some of the critics of
orientalism seem to suggest), but has its roots much further back in the
pre-colonial past (Pollock, 1993). Whatever the validity of Bourdieu's
theories of state-related power for the situation in France and its colonies
and for socio-linguistic relations in the modern Western nation-states, it is
dubious if they can be applied directly to the situation in Asian countries,
and especially if they would be able to account for the pre-colonial period
in this area when the "nation-state" had not yet been "invented".
The spread of Sanskrit in South Asia and beyond, and its tenacity in retaining
its role as lingua franca of the cultural and political elite in the first
millennium CE are phenomena which transcend the temporal and spatial
boundaries of states and centres of political power. In order to account for
these phenomena, it may well be necessary to take other factors, either
dicrete or those which partly overlap the all pervasive factors of power and
social relations, into account. The simple fact that a detailed standard
grammar was available for Sanskrit - and, in the early period, not for its
rival South Asian languages - made it possible to employ and implement it in
different social contexts, which was actually done, not only by Brahmans but
also by Buddhists and Jainas. What were the preconditions for and subsequently
what were the effects of the formulation of a standard grammar of Sanskrit?
What were the elaborate theories and metaphysical ideologies which evolved
around this grammar and the language? What was the interaction between grammar
as standardized, reproducible knowledge, and power? What was the scope and,
conversely, what were the limitations of the role played by Sanskrit in
different social and cultural contexts? What was the role played by Buddhism
and Jainism, movements which to a considerable extent were anti-Brahmanic in
orientation, in the spread and standardization of Sanskrit? Why did the
pre-colonial socio-linguistic factors disappear, remain or transform in the
colonial and modern period?

POWER AND SOLIDARITY
So far none of these questions has been satisfactorily answered, although
several important beginnings have been made towards the methodical study of
the familiar factors of power and solidarity, as well as of possible
additional factors. Apart from Pollock's work, attention should be drawn to
Hock (1976), Deshpande (1993), and, for the pre-history of Sanskrit, Kuiper
(1967, 1991). It is clear that the historical dimension is extremely
significant for a critical assessment, including the modern developments,
especially in countries such as India which have a strong traditionalist
orientation. Moreover, because India offers such an immense wealth of social
and linguistic data over an extremely long period of time, it forms an ideal
milieu for developing descriptive and theoretical models for a more general
understanding of language change and stability in a complex socio-economic and
political context.
The seminar "Ideology and Status of Sanskrit in South and Southeast Asia" will
bring together scholars and researchers in the field of South and Southeast
Asia, working from different perspectives and employing different strategies
and methods. The focus will be on the implicit and explicit ideologies which
have developed around Sanskrit in the course of time, if possible against the
background of early and recent socio-political developments as far as these
can be reconstructed and observed. There will also be room for contributions
to criticism and development of research methods and theories of
sociolinguistic change and stability on the basis of the data provided by
Sanskrit in different periods of South and Southeast Asian history.

For detailed references contact:
Jan E.M. Houben
Research Fellow IIAS
Postbus 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
Tel:(+31)-71-275492