Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c11.s15.2

c11.s15.2

This is the richest period in the history of traditional Sanskrit scholarship and it is also a period of most pathetic degeneration of the *paṇḍit*. During the nineteenth and the early twentieth century the most celebrated savants of traditional Sanskrit scholarship — the Mahāmahopāddhyāyas — Bal Shastri, Shiv Kumar Shastri, Gangadhar Shastri, Damodar Shastri, Ramakrishna Shastri (Tatya Shastri), etc. registered their presence in regular *śāstrārthas* that were held at Kāśī. Mahāmahopādhyāya Pt. Ramavatar Sharma entered into debate on Western philosophy with Dr Venice, a wellknown European Sanskritist. A team from Australia is reported to have some recording of this occasion.¹⁰⁵ Ramavatar Sharma is said to have defeated two of his *gurus* in *śāstrārtha* during this time. Sharma quit the service at the Hindu College as he dissented against the orders of a dress code for the teachers. He was appointed at Patna University where Rajendra Prasad, who would become the first President of India, was his student.