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A Note on Sanskritization and Westernization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

M. N. Srinivas
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Extract

The concept of “Sanskritization” was found useful by me in the analysis of the social and religious life of the Coorgs of South India. A few other anthropologists who are making studies of tribal and village communities in various parts of India seem to find the concept helpful in the analysis of their material, and this fact induces me to attempt a re-examination of it here.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , August 1956 , pp. 481 - 496
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1956

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References

1 See “Soma” in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, XI, 685–686.Google Scholar

2 See Thurston, E., Castes and Tribes of Southern India (Madras, 1909), V. 237fGoogle Scholar; see also Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th ed., XIV, 162.Google Scholar

3 See Monier-Williams, M., A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1899), p. 632Google Scholar: “put or pud (a word invented to explain putra or put-tra, see Mn. ix, 138, and cf. Nir. ii, 11) hell or a partic. hell (to which the childless are condemned)”; and “putrá, m. (etym. doubtful… traditionally said to be a comp. put-tra ‘preserving from the hell called Put,’ Mn. ix, 138) a son, child …”

4 See “Brahmā Samäj” in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, II, 813–814.Google Scholar

5 (Ahmedabad, 1946) See the Appendices which contain “testimonies by eminent men” to the greatness of Indian culture. Among the eminent men are Max Müller, J. Seymour Keay, M.P., Victor Cousin, Col. Thomas Munro, and the Abbé Dubois.

6 It is nearly a year since the preceding essay was written, and in the meantime I have given some more thought to the subject. The result is the present Note in which I have made a few additional observations on the twin processes of Sanskritization and westernization. In this connection I must thank Dr. F. G. Bailey of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, for taking the trouble to criticize my paper in detail in his letters to me. I must also thank Dr. McKim Marriott of the University of California, and the delegates of the Conference of Anthropologists and Sociologists held at Madras on Oct. 6–7, 1955, for criticisms which followed the reading of the paper.

7 See Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India, p. 19.Google Scholar

8 See my essay, “Varna and Caste,” in A. R. Wadia: Essays in Philosophy Presented in his Honour (Bangalore, 1954).Google Scholar

9 Ibid., p. 362.

10 Dr. Adrian Mayer, however, states that the Balais (Untouchables) in the Malwa village which he is studying are trying to move into the Shūdra varṇa. It would be interesting to see if they succeed in their efforts. I thank Dr. Mayer for allowing me to read his unpublished paper “Caste and Hierarchy.”

11 See Caste and Class in India (Bombay, 1952), p. 65.Google Scholar