Rahul Sankrityayan

Rahul Sankrityayan (9 April 1893 – 14 April 1963), is called the Father of Indian Travelogue Travel literature. He is the one who played a pivotal role to give travelogue a 'literature form', was one of the most widely travelled scholars of India, spending forty-five years of his life on travels away from his home. 

He travelled to many places and wrote many travelogue approximately in the same ratio. He is also famously known for his authentic description about his travels experiences, for instance- in his travelogue "Meri Laddakh Yatra" he presents overall regional, historical and cultural specificity of that region judiciously. He became a Buddhist monk (Bauddha Bhikkhu) and eventually took up Marxist Socialism. Sankrityayan was also an Indian nationalist, having been arrested and jailed for three years for creating anti-British writings and speeches. He is referred to as the 'Greatest Scholar' (Mahapandit) for his scholarship. He was both a polymath as well as a polyglot. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan in 1963.

Childhood
He was born as Kedarnath Pandey in a Brahmin family on 9 April 1893 in Pandha Village and his ancestral village is Kanila Chakarpanur village, Azamgarh district, in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. He received formal schooling at a local primary school, though he later studied and mastered numerous languages independently, as well as the art of photography.

Philosophy of his Life
In his initial days he was a keen follower of Arya Samaj of Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Buddhism came to him and changed his life. He lost faith in God's existence but still retained faith in reincarnation. Later he moved towards Marxist Socialism and rejected the concepts of reincarnation and afterlife also. The two volumes of Darshan-Digdarshan, the collected history of World's Philosophy give an indication of his philosophy when we find the second volume much dedicated to Dharmakirti's Pramana Vartika. This he discovered in Tibetan translation from Tibet.

Travels
Sankrityayan's travels took him to different parts of India including Ladakh, Kinnaur, and Kashmir. He also travelled to several other countries including Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Iran, China, and the former Soviet Union. He spent several years in the "Parsa Gadh" village in the Saran district in Bihar. The village's entry gate is named "Rahul Gate". While travelling, he mostly used surface transport, and he went to certain countries clandestinely; he entered Tibet as a Buddhist monk. He made several trips to Tibet and brought valuable paintings and Pali and Sanskrit manuscripts back to India. Most of these were a part of the libraries of Vikramshila and Nalanda Universities. These objects had been taken to Tibet by fleeing Buddhist monks during the twelfth and subsequent centuries when the invading Muslim armies had destroyed universities in India. Some accounts state that Rahul Sankrityayan employed twenty-two mules to bring these materials from Tibet to India. Patna Museum, Patna, has a special section of these materials in his honour, where a number of these and other items have been displayed.

Books
Sankrityayan was a polyglot, well versed in several languages and dialects, including Hindi, Sanskrit, Pali, Bhojpuri, Magahi, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Tamil, Kannada, Tibetan, Sinhalese, French and Russian. He was also an Indologist, a Marxist theoretician, and a creative writer. He started writing during his twenties and his works, totalling well over 100, covered a variety of subjects, including sociology, history, philosophy, Buddhism, Tibetology, lexicography, grammar, textual editing, folklore, science, drama, and politics. Many of these were unpublished. He translated Majjhima Nikaya from Prakrit into Hindi.

One of his most famous books in Hindi is Volga Se Ganga (A journey from the Volga to the Ganges) – a work of historical fiction concerning the migration of Aryans from the steppes of the Eurasia to regions around the Volga river; then their movements across the Hindukush and the Himalayas and the sub-Himalayan regions; and their spread to the Indo-Gangetic plains of the subcontinent of India. The book begins in 6000 BC and ends in 1942, the year when Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian nationalist leader called for the quit India movement. It was published in 1942. A translation into English of this work by Victor Kiernan was published in 1947 as From Volga to Ganga. It was translated by K.N. Muthiya-Tamilputhakalayam in Tamil as Valgavil irundu gangai varai and is still considered a best-seller. The Kannada translation done by B.N Sharma as "Volga Ganga" . The Telugu translation (Volga nunchi Ganga ku) inspired many readers. Volga muthal Ganga vare, the Malayalam translation, became immensely popular among the young intellectuals of Kerala and it continues to be one of the most influential books of its times. The Bengali version is Volga Theke Ganga [ভল্গা থেকে গঙ্গা], which is still acclaimed by the critics. 

His most important travelogue literature is- "Tibbat me Sava varsha(1933), "Meri Europe Yatra" (1935), "Athato Ghumakkad Jigyasa", "Volga se Ganga", "Asia ke Durgam Bhukhando Mein", "Yatra Ke Panne" and "Kinnar Desh Mein".

More than ten of his books have been translated and published in Bengali. He was awarded the Padmabhushan in 1963, and he received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958 for his book Madhya Asia ka Itihaas.

He maintained daily diaries in Sanskrit which were used fully while writing his autobiography. In spite of profound scholarship, he wrote in very simple Hindi that a common person could follow. He wrote books of varied interest. He was aware of limitations of Hindi literature and singularly made up the loss in no small measure.

The historian Kashi Prasad Jayaswal compared Rahul Sankrityayan with Buddha. Rahul's personality was as impressive and memorable as are his achievements. He traveled widely and wrote in five languages – Hindi, Sanskrit, Bhojpuri, Pāli and Tibetan. His published works span a range of genres, which include autobiography, biography, travelogue, sociology, history, philosophy, Buddhism, Tibetology, lexicography, grammar, text editing, folklore, science, fiction, drama, essays, politics, and pamphleteering.

Soviet Union
Although he had little formal education, in view of his knowledge and command over the subject, University of Leningrad appointed him Professor of Indology in 1937–38 and again in 1947–48.

Contributions
Many of Rahul's personal collections including the ones he gathered from his multiple trips to Tibet were distributed across to multiple Universities and Museums.
Patna Museum has an extensive collection of Buddhist scrolls which he assimilated through his journeys across Tibet. Many of these are considered rare gems of Indian scriptures translated into Tibetan.

Personal life and family

Rahul was married when very young and never came to know anything of his child-wife, Santoshi. Probably he saw her only once in his 40s as per his autobiography: Meri Jivan Yatra. 
During his stay in Soviet Russia a second time, accepting an invitation for teaching Buddhism at Leningrad University, he came in contact with a Mongolian scholar Lola (Ellena Narvertovna Kozerovskaya). She could speak French, English, and Russian and write Sanskrit. She helped him in working on Tibetan- Sanskrit dictionary. Their attachment ended in marriage and birth of son Igor. Mother and son were not allowed to accompany Rahul to India after completion of his assignment due to restrictions imposed by Stalin regime.

Late in life, he married Dr. Kamala, an Indian Nepali lady and had a daughter (Jaya), two sons (Jeta) and (Jayant) .

Death
Rahul accepted a teaching job at a Sri Lankan University, where he fell seriously ill. Diabetes, high blood pressure and a mild stroke struck him. Most tragic happening was the loss of memory. He breathed his last in Darjeeling in 1963.

His last residence at Darjeeling was at 21 Kacheri Road: Rahul Nivas.

Awards

Works

In Hindi
Novels
 Baaeesween Sadi – 1923
 Jeeney ke Liye – 1940
 Simha Senapathi – 1944
 Jai Yaudheya – 1944
 Bhago Nahin, Duniya ko Badlo – 1944
 Madhur Swapna – 1949
 Rajasthani Ranivas – 1953
 Vismrit Yatri – 1954
 Divodas – 1960
 Vismriti Ke Garbh Me

Short Stories
 Satmi ke Bachche – 1935
 Volga Se Ganga – 1944
 Bahurangi Madhupuri – 1953
 Kanaila ki Katha – 1955–56

Autobiography
 Meri Jivan Yatra I – 1944
 Meri Jivan Yatra II – 1950
 Meri Jivan Yatra III, IV, V – published posthumously

Biography
 Sardar Prithvi Singh – 1955
 Naye Bharat ke Naye Neta (2 volumes) – 1942
 Bachpan ki Smritiyan – 1953
 Ateet se Vartaman (Vol I) – 1953
 Stalin – 1954
 Lenin – 1954
 Karl Marx – 1954
 Mao-Tse-Tung – 1954
 Ghumakkar Swami – 1956
 Mere Asahayog ke Sathi – 1956
 Jinka Main Kritajna – 1956
 Vir Chandrasingh Garhwali – 1956
 Simhala Ghumakkar Jaivardhan – 1960
 Kaptan Lal – 1961
 Simhal ke Vir Purush – 1961
 Mahamanav Budha – 1956

Some of his other books are:-
 Mansik Gulami
 Rhigvedic Arya
 Ghumakkar Shastra
 Kinnar desh mein
 Darshan Digdarshan
 Dakkhini Hindi ka Vyaakaran
 Puratatv Nibandhawali
 Manava Samaj
 Madhya Asia ka Itihas 
 Samyavad hi Kyon

In Bhojpuri
 Teen Natak – 1942
 Panch Natak – 1942

In Nepali (Translation)
 Bauddhadharnma Darshan – 1984

Related to Tibetan
 Tibbati Bal-Siksha – 1933
 Pathavali (Vol. 1,2 & 3) – 1933
 Tibbati Vyakaran (Tibetan Grammar) – 1933
 Tibbat May Budh Dharm-1948
 Lhasa ki or
 Himalaya Parichay Bhag 1
 Himalaya Parichay Bhag 2

See also 
 Hindi literature

References

Further reading

 Ram Sharan Sharma, Rahul Sankrityayan and Social Change, Indian History Congress, 1993.
 Himalayan Buddhism, Past and Present: Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan centenary volume by D. C. Ahir ()
 Prabhakar Machwe: "Rahul Sankrityayan" New Delhi 1978: Sahitya Akademi. [A short biography including a list of Sankrityayan's works]
 Bharati Puri, Traveller on the Silk Road: Rites and Routes of Passage in Rahul Sankrityayan’s Himalayan Wanderlust, China Report (Sage: New Delhi), February 2011, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 37–58.
 Alaka Atreya Chudal, A Freethinking Cultural Nationalist: A Life History of Rahul Sankrityayan, Oxford University Press, 2016. ()

Category:1893 births
Category:1963 deaths
Category:Converts to Buddhism from Hinduism
Category:Bhojpuri-language writers
Category:Hindi-language writers
Category:People from Azamgarh district
Category:Indian Indologists
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Category:Indian Buddhists
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Category:Writers from Uttar Pradesh
Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award
Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Hindi
Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education
Category:Indian Sanskrit scholars
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