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Abstract
A translation of the named article by the early Soviet Indologist A. P. Barannikov (1890–1952) is introduced. The topicality of the article in relation to current trends in scholarship is discussed, and a brief consideration of the historical context of the publication of the original article is provided. This includes reflections on the specificities of pre-Revolutionary Indology in Russia, especially as represented in the work of S. F. Ol’denburg (1863–1934) and F. I. Shcherbatskoi (aka Theodor Stcherbatsky, 1866–1942), and the development of a new form of Indology as represented by the translated article. Information is provided about the intellectual sources of the article, highlighting the development of sociological approaches to language in the early USSR, and comparisons with the ideas of Antonio Gramsci. It is suggested that Barannikov's work, with its discussion of the centrality of conflictual relations between Sanskrit and vernacular traditions, anticipates some recent works on the anti-caste movement, and it suggests a more complex relationship between colonial philology and oriental studies more generally, and the intellectual traditions of the indigenous elite.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Among the many valuable works see Aloysius (Citation1998), Omvedt (Citation2008) and Mani (Citation2015).
2 One important work that begins to establish these wider connections is Ober (Citation2016).
3 This began with the important work of Vasilii Pavlovich Vasil’ev (1818–1900) and Ivan Pavlovich Minaev (1840–1890), but a consideration of their work lies beyond the scope of the current introduction.
4 There is evidence of contacts between Barannikov and Sankrityayan in Gavriushina (Citation2018, 227).
5 In a letter from founding member, Honorary Secretary, and editor of the Journal of the Greater India Society Upendra Nath Ghoshal (1886–1969) on 6 June 1935, Obermiller's formal election as an honorary member of the Society is acknowledged and he is thanked for his “warm and sustained interest in our Society” (AV 100/1/74/1–8). Obermiller may well have been influenced by the French Indologist Sylvain Lévi (1863–1935), who was the supervisor of the Society's founder Kalidas Nag (1892–1966), contributed to its publications, and who was a close associate of both Ol’denburg and Shcherbatskoi.
6 Via the work of Arab Marxists like Anouar Abdel Malek (1984–2012), this characterization exerted a formative influence on Edward Said's 1978 book Orientalism. On this see Tolz (Citation2006).
7 On the relevance of Marr's work in this context see Brandist (Citation2022a).
8 This was part of a general trend, probably launched by the Soviet Japanologist and Sinologist Nikolai Konrad, to consider the category of the Renaissance as a general movement in Asian cultures. This intellectual trend was controversial, but did yield some interesting studies. Konrad’s 1965 article on the question did appear in a somewhat flawed and abridged English translation (Citation[1965] 1967). For a discussion see Petrov (Citation1989).
1 Stalin (Citation1939, 546) [Stalin (Citation1976, 851)].
2 550,000 people speak Mon-Khmer; 3,974,000 speak Muna; 12,885,000 speak Tibeto-Chinese.
3 [Grierson (Citation1903–1928)].
4 64,128,000 speak Dravidian languages.
5 In India some 232,847,000 people speak Indo-Aryan languages.
6 Wackernagel (Citation1896, xix ff.).
7 [The Sanskrit term Apabhraṃśa literally meant “corrupt” or “non-grammatical language”].
8 Wackernagel (Citation1896, xliv ff.).
9 [Barannikov is here referring to the Purusha sukta, hymn 10.90 of the Rigveda, and also found in the Shukla Yajurveda Samhita 31.1–16 and Atharva Veda Samhita 19.6].
10 [Also termed Vishnuism, i.e. devotion to Vishnu and his incarnations. Devotees are termed Vaiṣṇnavas or Vishnuites].
11 Stalin (Citation1931, 194). [Stalin (Citation[1925] 1954, 141)].
12 Keay (Citation1920, 23–24).
13 Munshi (Citation1935, 115).
14 Tukaram (Citation1909, 1).
15 Tulsi Das (Citation1876, 213).
16 Grierson (Citation1903–1928, Vol. 9, Part 1, 6–8).
17 As an example one might take Winterlinz's course (1909–1920), where of some 1,609 pages, literature in all the Modern Indian languages (including all Dravidian languages) is given 27 pages.
18 Winterlinz (Citation1909–1920, Bd. III, 5, 578).
19 Ol’denburg (Citation1919, 8–9).
20 Wilson (Citation1828, 32).
21 Grierson (Citation1888, xii).