Shivram Dattatray Joshi (1926–2013) also known as S. D. Joshi, was an Indian

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

scholar and grammarian based in

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

Life

Personal life

Joshi was born in a family of Sanskrit scholars in

Ratnagiri Ratnagiri (IAST:Ratnāgirī ; �ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a port city on the Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri District in southwestern Maharashtra, India. The district is part of Konkan division of Maharashtra. The city is known for the Hapus or ...

Konkan The Konkan is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, bound by the river Daman Ganga at Damaon in the north, to Anjediva Island next to Karwar town in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau to the eas ...

, Maharashtra. His father died when Joshi was a child. He married Kalavati Bhagavat, his college classmate, in 1958. Joshi had two children, a son named Anandavardhan (Nandan) and a daughter named Suvrata. Joshi died on 29 July 2013 at the age of 87.

Education and career

Joshi's initial learning was from his uncle Maheshwar Shastri Joshi in Pune. He mastered Sanskrit grammar before the age of twenty, passing various examinations from

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is a city situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district. The city is named for its abundance of banyan ...

and Pune. He began teaching at the Poona Sanskrit College and served as its principal from 1947 to 1955. Joshi was the teacher to Daniel Ingalls in 1950s. Ingalls was very impressed with Joshi and persuaded him to come to

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. As Joshi had learned Sanskrit only in the traditional system, he had to first complete a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1955, after which he applied for a fellowship at Harvard University. Joshi completed his PhD from Harvard University in 1960 in the field of Sanskrit lexical semantics, with Ingalls as his advisor. Joshi returned to India in 1960 and joined the Department of Sanskrit Dictionary at the Deccan College, Pune. In 1964, he joined the Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit at the

University of Poona Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Pune, is a public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshkhind. The uni ...

as a Reader. In 1970, he was appointed the Head of Department of Sanskrit and Prakrit at the university. From 1974 to 1987 he was the Director of Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit. From 1987, he led the Deccan College Sanskrit Dictionary Project. Joshi was a visiting professor at Harvard University from 1971 to 1972, and at

Nagoya University , abbreviated to or NU, is a Japanese national research university located in Chikusa-ku, Nagoya. It was established in 1939 as the last of the nine Imperial Universities in the then Empire of Japan, and is now a Designated National Universit ...

from 1976 to 1977.

Major works

*Commentary on

Patanjali Patanjali (, , ; also called Gonardiya or Gonikaputra) was the name of one or more author(s), mystic(s) and philosopher(s) in ancient India. His name is recorded as an author and compiler of a number of Sanskrit works. The greatest of these a ...

’s Mahābhāṣya planned in 11 volumes, with J.A.F. Roodbergen, but which was abandoned after 2 volumes. *Commentary on

Pāṇini (; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE. The historical facts of his life ar ...

’s grammar in 15 volumes, with J.A.F. Roodbergen.

Awards and recognition

Joshi was awarded the title of National Scholar (Rashtriya Pandit) by the

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

in 1991. Joshi is credited with attracting the attention of theoretical linguists to the Aṣṭādhyāyī. He is sometimes referred to as the new

References

External links

Background of the Aṣṭādhyāyī
Keynote speech delivered at th

15–17 January 2009.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joshi, Shivram Dattatray 1926 births 2013 deaths Writers from Pune Sanskrit grammarians Indian Sanskrit scholars Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni 20th-century Indian linguists Indian expatriates in the United States