How to become a grammarian:Bhavitavyānāṃ dvārāṇi bhavanti sarvatra: ātmakathāof Satyavrataśāstrī (1930-2021)

Abstract

Satyavrat Shastri presents his experience as PhD student in his autobiography (2015), a genre not often found in Sanskrit literature. He moved to Varanasi to get admission to the Kashi Hindu University and, once decided his research topic, he started studying with the learned Pandit Shri Raghunath Sharma, who was an expert in Vākyapadīya. The Pandit tested him for several days before accepting him as his disciple, but as Shastri showed no anxiety or disturbance when being rejected, and always approached him at the appointed time, the Pandit inferred that he desired to acquire knowledge with all his heart. Satyavrat Shastri uses this episode of Pandit Shri Raghunath Sharma examining him as a basis to describe in detail the society of that time. He asks himself (and the reader) if the employed teachers are still effective in determining the eligibility of students because, whether they are interested in studying or not, whether they are brilliant in understanding the subject or not, whether they are intelligent or not, the professors must teach them, as they pay the tuition fee. The autobiography offers an interesting insight into the characteristics and the issues of Indian education system that, in many cases, are still relevant today. Satyavrat Shastri describes many other significant episodes of the period of his PhD studies, which give rise to further digressions. Some of them will be shown to outline the educational system he was exposed to.