V. Raghavan
V. Raghavan | |
---|---|
Born | Venkataraman Raghavan August 22, 1908 Tiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, India |
Died | 1979 |
Alma mater | University of Madras |
Occupation(s) | Sanskrit scholar and musicologist |
Notable work | Translation of Bhoja's Śṛṅgāra-prakāśa Translations of Rabindranath Tagore's plays |
Spouse | Sarada Raghavan |
Children | 4 |
Venkataraman Raghavan (1908–1979) was a Sanskrit scholar and musicologist. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including the
Early life and education
V. Raghavan was born on 22 August 1908, in
He graduated from the
Academic career
After a brief tenure as the superintendent of the Thanjavur Maharaja Serfoji's Saraswathi Mahal Library, Raghavan joined the Madras University in 1934 as a Ph.D. assistant and in 1935 as a lecturer. Rising to the rank of professor and head of the Department of Sanskrit, he held the latter position until his retirement in 1968.[3]
Proficient in reading and deciphering palm-leaf manuscripts in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Pali, Raghavan discovered, edited, and published numerous previously unpublished works during his long tenure at the University of Madras. Starting in 1935 and until his retirement from the university, he cataloged the discovered manuscripts in a publication series called the New Catalogus Catalogorum. For this endeavor, he gathered information on manuscripts in libraries, research institutions, monasteries, and private collections in India and abroad.[4]
From 1953 to 1954, he toured Europe in search of Indian manuscripts in libraries, museums, and research institutions, discovering and cataloging about 20,000 previously uncatalogued manuscripts and an equal number of cataloged manuscripts. In addition, he surveyed Sanskrit and Indological studies in European universities and other institutions. He was invited to the USSR twice and to countries of East and Southeast Asia, Australia, Mauritius, Mexico, and Nepal, where he continued cataloging manuscripts, among other activities such as lecturing.[3]
In 1936, he contributed to the Journal of Oriental Research, submitting the first comprehensive study of the Number of Rasas, i.e., Rasa, Aucitya, and Dhvani.[5] The first edition of Number of Rasas was published by the Adyar Library and Research Centre, Chennai, in 1940.[6]
Raghavan was among the founders of the Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute and served as its secretary and journal editor until his death. He was the secretary (1951–1959) and the general president (1961) of the All-India Oriental Conference.[6] He was a founding member of the Sanskrit Commission of the Government of India, the chairman of the Central Sanskrit Institute, president of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies, and the chairman of the organizing committee of the International Ramayan Conference under the Sahitya Akademi (1974). In the same year, he became the president of the Second World Sanskrit Conference at the University of Turin, Italy.[7]
He was a founding member of the Sahitya Akademi and the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and the founding editor of Samskrita Pratibha, a journal of the Sahitya Akademi (1958–1979).
In 1931, he paid frequent visits to
Early in his career, he wrote reviews for the renowned magazines Sound & Shadow and Triveni on
Sanskrit
V. Raghavan authored numerous articles and books on Carnatic music, Bharatanatyam, and aesthetics in English, Tamil, and Sanskrit.[9][10] He was known both for his command of primary texts in Sanskrit and for making them accessible to scholars, students, and Sanskrit-loving public through his articles and commentaries.[1]
In 1963, he published a fully edited and translated
He translated into Sanskrit
He discovered and edited an ancient Sanskrit play, Udatta Raghavam by Mayuraja.[1]
He founded an organisation, Samskrita Ranga in 1958, that deals with Sanskrit theatre and has enacted Sanskrit plays.[13]
Raghavan translated many well-known Stotras along with notes. His collection of select verses and Stotras titled Prayers, Praises and Psalms was published in 1938 with a foreword by Mahatma Gandhi who referred to the succinct English translation of the Stotras by Raghavan. Other condensed editions that Raghavan wrote include Śrīmad Bhāgavata and Mahābhārata.[2]
In 1948, Raghavan curated and published a detailed diary kept by Ananda Ranga Pillai, the Dubash (an Interpreter in Colonial India) of Puducherry, which dealt with the historical account of the cultural lives of people in the early part of the 18th-century Madras Presidency and the French Administrators of Puducherry.[14][2]
Among Raghavan's works in English written for the general readers is The Indian Heritage, a selected and translated anthology of Sanskrit literature, published by the Indian Institute of World Culture, Bengalūru (1956).[15] With a foreword written by the President of India, Rajendra Prasad, this work was chosen by the UNESCO as one of the best in the Collection of Representative Works in the Indian Series.[2][15]
Music and dance
As a musicologist, he specialized in
Among Raghavan's major works of on dance and drama are the critical edition of Nṛtta Ratnāvalī of Jayasenapati (1254 A.D.) and Śṛṅgāra Mañjarī by Saint Akbar Shah (17th century),[10] and the Nātakalaksanaratnakośa of Sāgaranandin, a 13th century treatise on the Hindu theater translated by Myles Dillon (Irish historian, philologist, and celticist) and Murray Fowler (Indologist and Linguist, University of Wisconsin), with introduction and notes by Raghavan. Raghavan also published comparative notes on concordance with Nāṭya Śāstra and its commentary Abhinavabhārati. His paper on Bharatanatyam, which he presented at the first dance seminar at the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, in 1958, covered both the textual and practical aspects of the art.[17][16]
Awards and honors
Raghavan was a recipient of numerous awards, including the
Among the many honors that Raghavan received, he cherished most the titles of Kavi Kokila for his epic-poetry on the Carnatic music composer Muthuswami Dikshitar titled, Śrī Muttuswāmi Dīkṣita Charita Mahākāvyam, and Sakala-Kalā-Kalāpa, for his multi-faceted scholarship, both honors bestowed by His Holiness Sri Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, the 68th Sankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peeta.[16]
Legacy
On his birth centenary, celebrations were held in August 2008.
No work on Indian aesthetics is complete without its quoting Dr. Raghavan
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Kapila Vatsyayan wants scholars to emulate Dr. Raghavan". The Hindu. 24 August 2008. Archived from the original on 27 August 2008.
- ^ a b c d e "About V. Raghavan".
- ^ JSTOR 23331132.
- ^ "New catalogus catalogorum : an alphabetical register of Sanskrit and allied works and authors".
- ^ "Dr. V. Raghavan Collection". 12 January 2016.
- ^ a b "Sri Muthuswamy Dikshita Charitam Mahakavyam V. Raghav".
- ^ "V. Raghavan".
- ^ "Remembering V. Raghavan" (PDF).
- ^ "Assortment of commentaries on classical music released". The Hindu. 24 August 2007. Archived from the original on 21 October 2007. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
- ^ a b "'Sringaramanjari': Where oceans of culture meet". 3 September 2018 – via www.thehindu.com.
- ISBN 9788120800632.
- Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund.
- ^ a b "Interview - Nandini Ramani: Sanskrit is a vibrant and glorious language - Lalitha Venkat". www.narthaki.com.
- ^ Stephen, S. Jeyaseela (2006). "Diaries of the Natives from Pondicherry and the Prose Development of Popular Tamil in the Eighteenth Century". Indian Literature. 50 (2 (232)): 144–155 – via JSTOR.
- ^ a b "Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute".
- ^ a b c d e f "Raghavadarshanam – Dr. V. Raghavan Centre".
- ^ "Evolution of Bharatanatyam". 9 July 2020 – via www.thehindu.com.
- ^ Anjaneyulu, D. (1979). "Dr. V. Raghavan: A Tribute". Indian Literature. 22 (5): 12–19 – via JSTOR.
External links
- Article Archived 23 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine in Sruti magazine.
- The Music Academy Archived 3 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- "A Colossus Remembered" Archived 25 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine