• 27 /1980

·iHE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ASIAN STUDIES

DEPARTMENT O~ SOUTH ASIAN AND BUDDHIST STUDIES

ANNUAL REPORT 1979.

General Comments, Courses and Enrolments.

The Department is concerned with languages and literatures of South Asia from the earliest times until the present. There is a three-year course and a four-year honours course for both Sanskrit and Hindi.

The three-year course in Sanskrit is devoted to the study of grammar and the reading of selections from the Epics and easy prose texts in the first year; the works studied in the second and third years represent a diversity of styles and subject matter. The four-year honours course includes the study of Pali, Prakrit, Vedic and more difficult philosophical and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit texts.

The aim of the Hindi course is to provide the student with the ability both to communicate in spoken Hindi - the official language of the Republic of India - and to read a wide range of material written in Hindi, including novels, newspapers and scholarly works, assuring the student of a strong background in the culture of Hindi­speaking people.

An optional component of readings from Urdu literature was available, which this year was taken by students enrolled in Hindi II. As from 1980 two half-units of Urdu will be offered to students who are concurrently enrolled or who have completed Hindi II.

Literary Persian this year was again conducted by Dr. S.A.A. Rizvi of the Department of Asian Civilizations.

Literary Sinhala was offered this year for the first time, but it was not given due to insufficient enrolment.

The total enrolment as at 30 April 1979 comprised 36 undergraduates, of which 6 were Non Degree Non Examination. Out of this enrolment 27 sat for the final examination.

Student participation.

Meetings were held of the Departmental Committee, which consists of an equal number of full-time academic staff and students. This year that amounted to 4 academic staff nembers and 4 students. The main topic was the method of assessment: for Hindi the students prefer to be assessed as follows: 40% for work done during the year; 40% for end-of­year examination; 20% for the oral examination. The Sanskrit students favour end-of-year examinations in combination with an assessment of their progress during the year.

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Postgraduate Research • Mr. P.M. Harrison submitted his doctoral thesis in August. He has accepte an offer of a 4 months' Fellowship by the Reiyukai Library in Japan. He will then spend 8 months as a Post-doctoral Fellow with Professor Dr. Lambert Schmithausen at the University of Hamburg ('Seminar filr Kultur und G.eschichte Indiens') before taking up a lectureship at Auckland University.

Mr. Tso Sze-bong and Mr. H.Matsumura, A.N.U. Ph.D. Scholarship holders, will be finishing their theses in the course of next year.

Mr. Hari Shankar Prasad arrived from Varanasi (India) in January to take up a Ph.D. Scholarship.

Mrs. J.Matsumura is continuing her work on an annotated edition of a Prakrit narrative text which is the subject of a thesis for the M.A. degree.

Staff Movements

Dr. L.A. Hercus is spending her "outside studies" as a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies.

Staff activities and Research

In 1979 Professor de Jong's book on the Bodhisattvavadanakalpalata was published by the Reiyukai Library in Tokyo. The Director of this Library is Dr. A. Yuyama, who for many years was a member of the staff of our Department.

At the Fourth World Sanskrit Conference meeting in Weimar in May 1979, Professor de Jong was nominated as member of the International Editorial Committee for the project "Critical Inventory of Rarnayana Studies" sponsored by the Sahitya Akademi [National Academy of Letters] in°New Delhi.

He gave a 2-hour lecture for the Chinese department on the structure of the Tibetan language.

Dr. L.A, Hercus spent the year working on the final version of the Bagandji Grammar, on the edition of a number of short texts, and on a trans­lation and commentary of parts of the Sirikahakosu in conjunction with Dr. C.M Mayrhofer of the Department of Classics. In the month of December she is paying a short visit to London, Oxford and Cambridge to consult with scholars on Indian studies.

Dr. R.K.Barz is bringing to completion his English translation of Father Camil Bulcke's Hindi study on the origin and development of the Rarnayan The translation should be ready in 1980.

In August Dr.Barz attended the International Conference on Indian Ocean Studies, held in Perth and presented a paper on the cultural significance of Hindi in Mauritius. While in Perth Dr.Barz was interviewed in Hindi in a half-hour programme for the Indian community in Perth, broadcast over the Perth ethnic radio station.

In Canberra Dr.Barz gave a talk to a class in Ancient History at the Copland College on caste in India. He also gave a series of four lectures on Hinduism for the Religious Studies course; a series of four lectures on the traditional ideological basis of Indian social and caste divisions for an anthropological course given by Dr. Gell; two lectures on Hindi and other modern Indian lang~ages for the first year South· Asia section in the Departmen of Asian Civilizations.

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Dr. T. RajaEatirana hopes to bring his work on the Tibetan text of the Jatakamala to completion in the course of next year. For the Chinese Department he gave a 2-hour talk entitled 'From Sanskrit to Chinese'; two radio talks for the Interface Religious Service on 2CY and a radio talk on the significance of Vesak (2XX).

Staff

Professor and Head of the Department

J.W. de Jong, Ph.D. (Leiden)

Reader

Luise A. Hercus, M.A. (Oxon), Ph.D. (A.N.U.), F.A.H.A.

Senior Lecturers

T. Rajapatirana, M.A. (Ceylon), Ph.D. (A.N.U.) R.K. Barz, B.A. (Arizona), M.A. (Chicago), Ph.D. (Chicago)

Senior Tutor

Y.K. Yadav, B.A., B.Ed. (Agra), M.A. (Aligarh).

Research Assistant (part-time)

Mrs. S.M.M. Loofs

Publications

de Jong, J.W., Textcritical Remarks on the Bodhisattvavadanakal alata Pallavas 2-108 , Studia Philologica Buddhica: Monograph

Series, II), Tokyo, The Reiyukai Library, 1979. x + 303 pp.

Textcri tical Notes on the Prasannapada, J?art--II~ __ Indo-:-Iranit Journal 20 (1978), pp. 217-252.

Brief History of Buddhist Studies, translated into Chinese by Fok Tou-hui, Nei Ming 81-91, Hongkong 1978-1979 (to be continued)

Review of Katsumi Mimaki, La refutation bouddhi ue de la ermanence des chases (Sthirasiddhid~~~a et La preuve de

la momentaneite des chases Kl:?~~abhangasiddhi) [Publication~ de l'Institut de Civilisation Indienne, fasc. 41J, Paris, 1976 - Indo-Iranian Journal 20 (1978), pp.314-316.

Review of Dieter Schuh, Ti betische Handschriften und Blockdr1 sowie Tonbandaufnahmen tibetischer Erz8.hlungen. Teil 5, Wiesbaden, 1973. Teil 6, Wiesbaden, 1976. - ibid., pp. 317-:

Apropos de Antonino Forte. Political Propaganda and Ideolo£ in China at the end of the Seventh Century, Napoli, 1976 -T'oung Pao, 64, 1978, pp. 158-161.

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Review of Etienne Lamotte, Le traite de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse de Nagarjuna (Ma.haprajflaparamitasastra). Tome IV, .. chapitres XLII (suite)- XLVIII. Louvain, 1976 - T'oung Pao, 64, 1978, pp. 168-173.

Review of J. Duncan M. Derrett, Bharuci's Commentary on the Manusmrti (The Manu-58.stravivarana Books 6-12). Vol. I: Text; Vol. II~The translation a..~d notes). Wiesbaden, 1975 - Indo­Iranian Journal 21 (1979), pp. 57-61.

Review of Ludwik Sternbach, Maha-subhasita-samgraha. Vol. III: a-i-i. Hoshiarpur, 1977 - ibid., pp. 62-64.

Review of Michael Coulson, Sanskrit, An Introduction to the Classical Language. London, 1976. - ibid, pp. 64-67.

Review of Barbara Stoler Miller, Love Song of the Dark Lord. Jayadeva's Gitagovinda. New York, 1977 - ibid., pp. 288-291

Review of J.F. Sprockhoff, Sru;inyasa. Quellenstudien zur Askese im Hinduismus. I, Wiesbaden, 1976 - ibid., pp. 292-294.

Review of M. Cone and R.F. Gombrich, The Perfect Generosity of Prince Vessantara. O.U.P., 1977 - ibid., pp. 297-299.

Review of Claus Oetke, Die aus dem Chinesischen Ubersetzten Versionen des Suvarnaprabhasasutra, Wiesbaden, 1977 - ibid., pp. 300-304. .

Review of Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, Das Hung-ming chi und die Aufnahme des Buddhismus in China, Wiesbaden, 1976 - ibid., pp. 304-306.

And several other reviews.

Hercus, L.A. 'A Note on Narinari', Papers in Australian Linguistics No. 11, Pacific Linguistics, Series A no. 51, 1978, pp. 119-131.

'Distinction and confusion: a study of neuter plural endings in Middle Indo-Aryan', BSOAS, 42 (1979), pp. 329-333.

'In the margins of an Arabana-Wanganuru Dictionary: the loss of initial consonants', Pacific Linguistics, Series C - no. 54 [Australian Linguistic Studies J, Department of Linguistics, RSPacS, A.N.U., 1979, pp. 621-651.

Barz, R.K., Review of Kabir, the Apostle of Hindu-Muslim Unity by Muhammad Hedayetulla.h, Delhi 1977 - Religious Traditions, ·Vol. 2, No. 1, 1979, pp. 54-56.

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Subject

SANSKRIT

SANSKRIT

SANSKRIT

PALI

HINDI I

HINDI II

HINDI II

HINDI III

HINDI IV

I

II

III

H

HINDI II/URDU

LIT. PERS IAN

I

THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF

2 3 Enrolled Sitting as at 30 .4. 79

7 6

2

1

32

10

4

2

14

zS

16

57

.1.wi th drawn 21 x NDNE

1

2

8

3

2

1

1

5

SOUTH ASIAN

4 Wastage

11

11

11

z3

31 x NDNE; 1 x withdrawn 4p/o M.A. Qual. As.Civ.

& BUDDHIST STUDIES

5 6 Failure Sitting

6

1

1 2

2 8

3

2

1

1

1 5

51 x course suspended; 1 x p/o As.Civ. IV

ANALYSIS OF

7 High Dis-tinction

1

2

1

=

3

STUDENT PERFORMANCE

8 9 Distinction Credit

2 4

1

2 1

1

1

1

1

1

6though enrolled NDNE, student elected to sit for Urdu section of Examination. 71 p/o As.Civ. IV. e ----------· ----· ---·----------.. ··-------------- --·---

Enrolled (as at 30.4.79} Final Honours _____ i_l_ x 50% part of As .Ci v .Honours; l x course suspended

M.A. 1 Ph.D. 4

10 11 12 Pass Pass Fail with merit

N.A.

1

1 2

2

ABS/N