Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c11.s4.17

c11.s4.17

During the last decades of the nineteenth century, Kāśī and Calcutta became centres of vigorous intellectual exercises provoked by the onslaught of Orientalism. Pramadādāsa Mitra was one of the most vocal members of these groups. He came from a Bengali merchant family settled at Banaras and had served as Assistant Anglo-Sanskrit Professor in Banaras College teaching English through the medium of Sanskrit to the traditional students there. Working in close association with R.T.H. Griffith, the Principal of the college and other European scholars there, he was instrumental in revising the English translation of *Sāhityadarpaṇa* by J.R. Ballantyne. However, he developed sharp differences with the European Orientalists later much to their chagrin. When George Thibaut proposed to introduce the techniques of modern Orientalism for improvement of Sanskrit studies in the college, by introducing the works of John Muir, Max Müller and H.T. Colebrooke in the syllabus, Mitra launched an angry protest. He wrote that “even a most confident and learned European Sanskritist will not deny that he has yet to learn a good deal about the numerous philosophical systems of India” and for a deep understanding of texts these scholars were still dependent upon the *paṇḍits* of “the true India type”,⁴⁸ Thibaut criticized Pramadādāsa for being overly partial to the *paṇḍits*. Mitra also refuted the view of Āryanization and European scholars view of Vedic deities in his letter to the editor of *The Pundit* (November 1876).