A Sojourn in Pune as Khyentse Foundation Visiting Professor
Khyentse Foundation has sponsored a visiting professorship in the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies at Savitribai Phule Pune University, Maharashtra state, India, since 2015. The department is headed by Professor Mahesh A. Deokar, whose main interests are Pali grammar, comparative linguistics, Theravada Buddhism, Sanskrit-based Buddhism, and modern Buddhism. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche first met Professor Deokar in 2011. Impressed with his scholarship, sincerity, and enthusiasm, Rinpoche pledged KF’s support for the department. More broadly, the visiting professorship is a reflection of Rinpoche’s aspiration to revive interest in Buddhism in traditionally Buddhist places, including India.
Under Indian law, the university cannot hire foreign nationals as professors. The visiting professorship enables the university to invite international scholars with expertise in different areas to teach and conduct research for a limited time. Past visiting professors include Professor Asanga Tilakaratne of the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka (2017), Professor K. L. Dhammajoti of the Buddha-Dharma Centre of Hong Kong (2016), and Professor Peter Skilling of the École française d’Extrême-Orient, Thailand (2016).
Prof. Mattia Salvini Dharmavardhana Jñānagarbha, who is presently rector and dean of liberal arts at the International Buddhist College, Thailand, as well as a member of KF’s Academic Development Committee, held the visiting professorship in April and May 2024. His main interest is the continuation of the Sanskrit Buddhist tradition, for which purpose he coordinates the Saugatam platform. His academic writing focuses on Madhyamaka, and on the connections between Buddhist philosophy and different areas of Sanskrit learning.
Khyentse Foundation has sponsored a visiting professorship in the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies at Savitribai Phule Pune University, Maharashtra state, India, since 2015. The department is headed by Professor Mahesh A. Deokar, whose main interests are Pali grammar, comparative linguistics, Theravada Buddhism, Sanskrit-based Buddhism, and modern Buddhism. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche first met Professor Deokar in 2011. Impressed with his scholarship, sincerity, and enthusiasm, Rinpoche pledged KF’s support for the department. More broadly, the visiting professorship is a reflection of Rinpoche’s aspiration to revive interest in Buddhism in traditionally Buddhist places, including India.
Under Indian law, the university cannot hire foreign nationals as professors. The visiting professorship enables the university to invite international scholars with expertise in different areas to teach and conduct research for a limited time. Past visiting professors include Professor Asanga Tilakaratne of the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka (2017), Professor K. L. Dhammajoti of the Buddha-Dharma Centre of Hong Kong (2016), and Professor Peter Skilling of the École française d’Extrême-Orient, Thailand (2016).
Prof. Mattia Salvini Dharmavardhana Jñānagarbha, who is presently rector and dean of liberal arts at the International Buddhist College, Thailand, as well as a member of KF’s Academic Development Committee, held the visiting professorship in April and May 2024. His main interest is the continuation of the Sanskrit Buddhist tradition, for which purpose he coordinates the Saugatam platform. His academic writing focuses on Madhyamaka, and on the connections between Buddhist philosophy and different areas of Sanskrit learning.
Ganapati, the deity that clears away obstacles, presides over the city of Pune. During my stay there in April and May 2024, and up to now, I have reflected again and again on this auspicious feature of Pune, and on its ramifications for the Buddhist dharma (as per my limited knowledge and understanding).
Among Sanskritists, Pune is known for its long and outstanding tradition of teaching and publication. Furthermore, thanks to Savitribai Phule Pune University’s Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies, it has become a center of excellence for Buddhist studies, a point of reference for the whole region. I am grateful to Khyentse Foundation for sponsoring my 2-month stay in Pune, thus affording me a unique opportunity to learn more about both Buddhism and Sanskrit.
The Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies is a lively place, with many people (and not just students of the university) joining classes as auditors and arguing (in the best possible sense) with the lecturers. This resilient intellectual hub serves as a constant source of support for the local Buddhist community, which is varied, welcoming, and very much invested in Buddhism as a living tradition of inner practice.
In front of the department’s main entrance are several tall, broad trees, on whose branches one can sometimes spot dozens of gigantic fruit bats perching. From the balcony of my guesthouse I could see one of the true lords of trees—a vast banyan—playing host to the occasional hornbill. Large trees are known to be the home of tree deities (Skt vriksha devata), which makes it highly undesirable and rather dangerous to cut them down. I wish the greenery of Pune a long, undisturbed life, sheltering animals, humans, deities, and semi-divine beings.
My teachers ... freely offered us their time, and patiently showed us that knowledge is more precious than any kind of worldly aspiration.
Prof. Mattia Salvini Dharmavardhana Jñānagarbha
The campus also includes a small and elegant Buddhist shrine. The central image is a Buddha in Thai style (a familiar touch, bringing me some joy). I found that Pune has many subtle connections to, and signs of, the Buddha’s dharma.
The more formal part of my activities in Pune consisted of public readings, held in a hybrid format (in person/online). We read a section of “The Ornament of the Muni’s Thought” by Acharya Abhayakaragupta, in turn amply drawing from Chandrakirti’s “The Five Aggregates according to the Madhyamaka,” two Sanskrit texts that present the view of emptiness within a systematic classification of material entities, mental entities, and their relations (i.e., within the teachings of Abhidharma); to put it differently, the texts are at once a concise overview of Abhidharma and an introduction to the Madhyamaka view. Chandrakirti (as recast in Abhayakaragupta’s condensation) lists all the subtlest aspects of what appears, to show that nothing could ever really appear or disappear in the first place. The readings were well attended, both in person and online. I greatly benefited from the numerous times when the learned participants patiently corrected my mistakes, allowing me to improve my understanding of such a difficult and beautiful teaching and to hone my reading skills in general.
We had several meetings outside of formal classes. Some gatherings were more academic in nature while others were more focused on Buddhism for practitioners. At Kasba Ganapati Temple, for example, we paid homage to Ganapati (whose role in the Buddhist tradition is often overlooked) in his manifestation as the presiding deity of the city. We had the necessary modak, a simple sweet of which Ganapati is particularly fond, prepared with coconut, jaggery, and rice flour. After offering the modak we recited the “Heart-Dharani of Ganapati,” which the Buddha taught to avert obstacles and to ensure success in various activities.
While the city’s profound scholarly environment would suffice to make anyone’s visit to Pune very precious, in my case, being in Pune was meaningful due to a number of personal reasons, too.
Professor Mahesh Deokar and his wife Dr. Lata Deokar have been my friends since the time I studied with Professor Ramshankar Tripathi in Sarnath—now more than 2 decades ago. We also have a number of common friends, including some in Chennai, where I studied for my BA and MA in Sanskrit at RKM Vivekananda College. A small portion of the lengthy thread of circumstances that connect us may eventually become a novel (written by another friend). Yet, I had not spent time with Mahesh and Lata for a very, very long time.
As a child, one of our friends from Chennai (the protagonist of the above-mentioned novel) once found herself in a tree in a forest, quietly—very quietly—looking down at a passing tiger. This is an example of many remarkable images restored to my memory by my staying in Pune. Speaking of tigers, and returning to the recent past, in Pune: While there, I made the acquaintance of a dermatologist/painter/philanthropist (I’m not sure in which order) called Steve, who dyes his beard to resemble a tiger’s stripes. As I was chatting with my friend Tashi while waiting in line for tea, Steve-the-tiger challenged us to a theological debate, with a sudden (yet unmistakably friendly) question about the Buddha. I found the ensuing discussion to be oddly comforting—a familiar experience that I hadn’t had in a long time. Tigers and philosophical debates are some of the reasons I went to live in India to begin with. All those reasons were condensed into a casual meeting with someone who helped Mother Teresa in her fight against leprosy, who paints tigers, who paints himself as a tiger, and who pounces on unsuspecting tea-shop customers with a swift turn of phrase about God and the Buddha.
This visit to Pune gave me the opportunity to once again read with Professor Pradeep Gokhale, and to (finally) meet, and read with, Professor Shrikant Bahulkar. Both were friends of my late guru, Professor Ramshankar Tripathi, who was born on Ganapati’s birth anniversary (Ganesh Chaturthi) almost a century ago. They are all celebrated Sanskritists and have greatly contributed to the field of Buddhist studies. When I reminisce about having tea with such savants, and with Professor G. U. Thite (a highly respected scholar of the Veda), I am reminded of the benefits of even casual interactions with those who are far better educated than I will ever be. They shared stories about learning Sanskrit and offered erudite insights into topics that many of us couldn’t begin to fathom. These meetings, too, reminded me of my time in Chennai, when my teachers would invite us for tea and cared enough for our education to amiably impart their wisdom on the very nature of teaching and learning. They freely offered us their time, and patiently showed us that knowledge is more precious than any kind of worldly aspiration.
During my stay in Pune, I also met friends with whom I had interacted online but whom I had not yet met in person, and made a good number of completely new acquaintances, both inside and outside the university. Everyone was extremely helpful and supportive. I was very glad to meet others who share my interest in Sanskrit Buddhism, and I now see Pune as a stronghold of the Sanskrit Buddhist tradition. Once again, my thanks to Khyentse Foundation, as well as to all the friends I met in Pune, both old and new.
Featured image above: A lunch gathering in Pune. From left: Professor Lauren M. Bausch of Dharma Realm Buddhist University, Prof. Mahesh Deokar of Savitribai Phule Pune University, Prof. Mattia Salvini Dharmavardhana Jñānagarbha, Prof. Shrikant Bahulkar of K J Somaiya Institute of Dharma Studies, Pune, India, 2024.
All photos courtesy Prof. Mattia Salvini Dharmavardhana Jñānagarbha.