Gradually, fewer Brahmin families sought to train their sons as priests, opting instead to send them to Western-style schools introduced during the colonial period. “This could have suffocated Sanskrit scholarship very quickly, but it survived partly because of these rural settlements,” said Dr Jonathan Duquette, lead researcher at Cambridge University.
Awarded a five-year grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Duquette and his team — which includes Indian scholars — are conducting the first extensive survey of pandit settlements in the Kaveri Delta, where Sanskrit scholarship was most concentrated. Among the villages under study is Thiruvisanallur, located on the banks of the Kaveri River. Founded on land donated by Maratha leader Shahaji Bhonsle, father of Chhatrapati Shivaji, the village became home to 45 distinguished scholars, including the revered Hindu saint Sridhara Venkatesa “Ayyaval”, a key figure in the development of nāmāsiddhānta, a spiritual doctrine focused on chanting God’s name.
“For decades, these scholars worked together and produced remarkable Sanskrit literature,” Duquette explained. “Some works have been printed, but most exist only in manuscript form — in the Saraswathi Mahal Library in Thanjavur, local temple libraries, private collections, or with descendants of the pandits.”
Although many Brahmin families have moved away and some historic buildings sold, descendants of these scholars remain in the region. “We want to understand the importance of these sites and lives, and make this knowledge widely available,” Duquette said.
The research also explores the relationship between Tamil and Sanskrit works, as the scholars’ native language was Tamil, yet they composed in Sanskrit. “We are not just translating words; we aim to show that these villages were important centres of Sanskrit scholarship. There were literary geniuses among these men, but many in India are unaware of them,” he added.
