https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=George_L._HartGeorge L. Hart - Revision history2026-07-31T16:06:52ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=George_L._Hart&diff=207302&oldid=prev>Chariotrider555 at 17:27, 14 September 20212021-09-14T17:27:31Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|American linguist, Tamil studies researcher and translator}}<br />
{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}<br />
{{For|other people named George Hart|George Hart (disambiguation)}}<br />
'''George Luzerne Hart, III''' (born c. 1945) is Professor Emeritus of [[Tamil language]] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Karnam|first=Mayukha|date=2016|title=Redefining the Classics at Harvard|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/1/28/karnam-sanskrit-classical-language/|url-status=live|website=The Harvard Crimson}}</ref> His work focuses on the classical [[Tamil language|Tamil]] literature and on identifying the relationships between the Tamil and [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] literature. In 2015 the Government of India awarded him the title of [[Padma Shri]], the fourth highest civilian honour.<ref name=":0" /><br />
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== Life and career ==<br />
Hart received his PhD in [[Sanskrit]] from [[Harvard University]] in 1971. He has also studied [[Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]] as well as several modern European and Indian languages. He taught [[Sanskrit]] at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] before joining the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley,<ref name="statement">{{cite web |author=George L. Hart |url=https://southasia.berkeley.edu/statement-status-tamil-classical-language |title=Statement on the Status of Tamil as a Classical Language |work=University of California, Institute for South Asia Studies |access-date=27 August 2021}}</ref><ref name=defense/> where he founded the Tamil Department.<br />
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Hart is best known for his translations of several Tamil epics into English and for his argument that Tamil is a [[classical language]],<ref name="statement"/> a status that the Government of India formally accorded it on 18 September 2004.<ref name=defense>M. Ilakkuvanar, [https://www.academia.edu/11331219/George_L.Hart----_In_Defense_of_Classical_Tamil George L. Hart—In Defense of Classical Tamil], Academia.edu. Retrieved 14 February 2016.</ref><ref>S. S. Vasan, [https://archive.today/20150921073145/http://www.thehindu.com/2004/06/09/stories/2004060903251500.htm "The classical status of Tamil"], ''[[The Hindu]]'', 9 June 2004.</ref><br />
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Hart is also the author of several Tamil and Sanskrit textbooks. <br />
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He is married to [[Kausalya Hart]], who is also a professor and Tamil textbook author.<br />
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==Works==<br />
; Books<br />
*''The Poems of Ancient Tamil, Their Milieu and Their Sanskrit Counterparts'', University of California Press, 1975. {{ISBN|0-520-02672-1}}.<br />
* ''The Relation between Tamil and Classical Sanskrit Literature'', Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1976. {{ISBN|3-447-01785-6}}.<br />
*''Poets of the Tamil Anthologies: Ancient Poems of Love and War'', Princeton University Press, 1979. {{ISBN|0-691-06406-7}}.<br />
*''A Rapid Sanskrit Method'', Motilal Banarsidass, 1984. {{ISBN|81-208-0199-7}}.<br />
*''The Forest Book of the Rāmāyaṇa of Kampan̲'', (with Hank Heifetz), University of California Press, 1989. {{ISBN|0-520-06088-1}}.<br />
*''The Four Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom: An Anthology of Poems from Classical Tamil, the Purananuru''. (with Hank Heifetz), Columbia University Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-231-11563-6}}.<br />
; Selected articles<br />
* "Early Evidence for Caste in South India", in Hockings (ed), ''Dimensions of Social Life: Essays in honour of David B. Mandelbaum'', Berlin: Mouton Gruyter, 1987, pp.&nbsp;467–491.<br />
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==Views and reception==<br />
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===''Poems of Ancient Tamil'' ===<br />
Hart's ''Poems of Ancient Tamil'' offers a comparative analysis of ancient Tamil poetry ([[Sangam literature]]) with reference to the classical Indo-Aryan ([[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] and [[Prakrit language|Prakrit]]) literature. It sets forth a "very convincing argument"<ref name=Mowry>{{citation |last=Mowry |first=Lucetta |title=George L. Hart, "The Poems of Ancient Tamil" (Book Review) |journal=Philosophy East and West |volume=26 |number=4 |pages=486–487 |date=October 1976 |jstor=1398293 |doi=10.2307/1398293}}</ref> that the themes of southern poets were assimilated into the Prakrit and classical Sanskrit poetry, such as [[Gaha Sattasai]] and the poetry of [[Kalidasa]]. However, there was little influence of the northern literary expression on the Tamil literature. To substantiate this thesis, Hart provides a thorough analysis of the antecedents of the ancient Tamil poetry and its cultural milieu, which focused on controlling sacred power among various social classes, and its reflection in the later literate poetry. Hart points out that the Indo-Aryan poetry, in its borrowing of the Tamil literary elements, lacked the subtlety and sophistication of its Tamil counterparts. Reviewer Lucetta Mowry finds it to be the "beginning of a valuable and important study" of the relation between the two Indic traditions.<ref name=Mowry/><br />
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This endorsement is contested by the scholar of [[Middle Indo-Aryan languages]] [[K. R. Norman]], who finds the comparisons made by Hart between Tamil poems and similar Prakrit poems misleading as they ignore the fact that the Prakrit verses were expected to have two meanings, the obvious meaning as well as a hidden erotic meaning. He also questions Hart's proposition that the [[arya metre]] used in Sanskrit and Prakrit poetry is related to the Tamil metre, the dating of the ''Gaha Sattasai'' (the main Prakrit work considered by Hart), the neglect of the earlier [[Middle Indo-Aryan languages|Middle Indo-Aryan]] texts, and the idea that the borrowings only happened at the poetic level rather than in the mixed heritage of the Indo-Aryan culture in the north.<ref>{{citation |last=Norman |first=K. R. |title=The Poems of Ancient Tamil by George L. Hart, III (Review) |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=11 |number=2 |year=1977 |pages=302–305 |jstor=311554 |doi=10.1017/s0026749x00015146}}</ref><br />
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Tamil scholar [[Kamil Zvelebil]] states that Hart had set before himself "very difficult and even enormous tasks," but he has not succeeded in solving them. According to him, Hart's work involved four key insights: that in ancient [[Tamilakam|Tamilnadu]] practically everything was filled with sacred forces, that the stress on female chastity was characteristically Tamil, that there are striking parallels between Tamil and Sanskrit-Prakrit poetry, and that the theory of ''dhvani'' or 'suggestion' is Dravidian in origin. He finds some of these ideas questionable. However, others are "truly marvellous," e.g., the ones about ''[[ananku (Tamil)|aṇaṅku]]'', sacred, dangerous power, the female breasts being the seat of ''aṇaṅku'', the different nature of indigenous gods from those of the north, and the idea that all aspects of love between man and woman were animated by the sacred, etc. The over-all thesis of the influence of southern imagery and poetic techniques on the Indo-Aryan poetry such as ''Sattasai'' and even Kalidasa are probable and "overwhelmingly convincing." Zvelebil calls the book a "refreshing, original, excellent work of first-class importance."<ref>{{citation |last=Zvelebil |first=Kamil V. |author-link=Kamil Zvelebil |title=The Poems of Ancient Tamil by George L. Hart, III (Review) |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=97 |number=2 |date=April 1977 |pages=253–254 |jstor=599049 |doi=10.2307/599049}}</ref><br />
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V. S. Rajam disagrees with Hart’s views on ''aṇaṅku'' as female sacred power, calling it oversimplified and reductionist. She states that the term has undergone a semantic shift over time."<ref>{{citation |title=Aṇaṅku: A Notion Semantically Reduced to Signify Female Sacred Power |first=V. S. |last=Rajam |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=106 |number=2 |date=1986 |pages=257–272 |doi=10.2307/601590 |jstor=601590 |url=http://www.letsgrammar.org/Anangku-Rajam.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107072720/http://www.letsgrammar.org/Anangku-Rajam.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2019-01-07 }}</ref><br />
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Following the publication of ''The Poems of Ancient Tamil'', Hart published an abridged booklet, ''The Relation between Tamil and Classical Sanskrit Literature'', in which he set out his key points. He clarified that his proposal was not of a direct transmission of poetic techniques from the Tamil poetry to Sanskrit, but rather that both of them owed these techniques to a common source, which he placed in the [[Deccan megalithic cultures]]. ''Gaha Sattasai'' in Maharashtri Prakrit was contemporaneous with the Tamil Sangam poetry and Kalidasa himself had composed very similar poems in Maharashtri Prakrit. The key examples of striking similarities were the messenger poem, the motif of separation of lovers during the monsoon and the comparison of the sound of wind through a bamboo hole to the noise of a flute.<ref>{{citation |last=Hart |first=George L. |title=The Relation between Tamil and Classical Sanskrit Literature |location=Wiesbaden |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz |year=1976 |isbn=3-447-01785-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VqE5c4QAs9gC}}</ref><br />
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=== ''Early Evidence for Caste in South India'' ===<br />
Hart's observations on the features of the early South Indian caste system, which are said to have been independent of the Indo-Aryan [[varna (Hinduism)|varna]] system, are summarised in ''Early Evidence for Caste in South India'', which has received significant attention from social and cultural historians.{{sfn|Samuel|2008}}{{sfn|Chakravarti|2003}} According to Chakravarti, the Sangam literature reveals that there was a class of 'low-born' people, such as the [[Pulaiyar]] and [[Paraiyar]], who were made to live in separate settlements at a distance from the main villages. They were engaged in occupations such as leather work, washing of clothes and fishing. They were also associated with 'death' and were believed to have the ability to control and isolate sacred power (''aṇaṅku''), but not the ability to transform it.{{sfn|Chakravarti|2003|pp=58–59}} According to Samuel, the 'low-born' groups, acting as drummers, bards and musicians, were central to maintaining the king's power, allowing him to tap into the ritual power and transform it into auspicious power.{{sfn|Samuel|2008|p=86}} Samuel notes, however, that the notion of 'low-born' occupational groups representing ritual power may not be limited to Tamilnadu. Very similar situation persists to this day in [[Ladakh]], [[Nepal]] and elsewhere in the Himalayas. Even in north India, the social reality outside the Brahmanical theory might have been similar to the Tamil system.{{sfn|Samuel|2008|p=88}}<br />
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According to Hart, when the Brahmins from north India arrived in the Tamilnadu, probably around 300 BCE, they offered an alternative source of power through Vedic sacrifices, which was already considered pure and auspicious, and to emphasise the distinction between themselves and the 'low-born' groups, the Brahmins developed conventions quite the opposite of the latter, becoming strict vegetarians and not allowing dogs and chickens into their villages. Through the Brahmins and the Hinduism they brought, the Tamil kings aspired to rise above the endemic warfare and establish stable empires modelled after the [[Gupta Empire]]. Once this was accomplished, Hart states that the 'low-born' groups gradually lost their ritual function, becoming purely occupational groups of low status.<ref>{{citation |last=Hart |first=George L. |chapter=Early Evidence for Caste in South India |editor=Hockings |title=Dimensions of Social Life: Essays in honor of David B. Mandelbaum |location=Berlin |publisher=Mouton Gruyter |year=1987 |pages=467–491 |chapter-url=http://ww.tamilnation.co/caste/hart.pdf}}</ref><br />
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==Awards==<br />
For ''The Four Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom'', a translation of ''[[Purananuru]]'', Hart and his co-author Hank Heifetz were awarded the ''AAS South Asia Council (SAC) Ramanujan Book Prize''.<br />
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His ''Poets of The Tamil Anthologies'' (1979) was nominated for the [[American Book Award]].<br />
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In 2015, Hart was awarded the [[Padma Shri]] by the Government of India for his contributions to the study and translation of Indian literature, particularly the [[Sangam literature]] of ancient Tamil.<ref name=Padma>{{cite web |title=Padma Awards 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128022143/http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=114952 |url=https://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=114952 |publisher=Press Information Bureau |access-date=25 January 2015 |archive-date=28 January 2015 |url-status=dead |df=dmy }}</ref><br />
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==See also==<br />
* [[List of translators into English]]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{reflist|30em}}<br />
; Sources<br />
* {{citation |title=The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century |first=Geoffrey |last=Samuel |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-13947-021-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JAvrTGrbpf4C}}<br />
* {{citation |last=Chakravarti |first=Uma |author-link=Uma Chakravarti |title=Gendering Caste Through a Feminist Lens |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nLMDxv_L-U8C&pg=PA23 |year=2003 |publisher=Popular Prakashan |isbn=978-81-85604-54-1}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
* [https://sseas.berkeley.edu/people/george-l-hart/ Profile at the University of California, Berkeley]<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081211111354/http://archives.aaraamthinai.com/samugam/newpgs/march2002/mar28_george.asp Interview with Hart] {{in lang|ta}}<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930222457/http://tamil.sify.com/kalachuvadu/sep05/fullstory.php?id=13959488 Interview with a Tamil magazine] {{in lang|ta}}<br />
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{{Tamil language}}<br />
{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Literature & Education}}<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, George L.}}<br />
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]<br />
[[Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty]]<br />
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty]]<br />
[[Category:Dravidologists]]<br />
[[Category:Living people]]<br />
[[Category:1945 births]]<br />
[[Category:Tamil scholars of non-Tamil background]]<br />
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in other fields]]<br />
[[Category:Judges of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review]]<br />
[[Category:Tamil–English translators]]</div>>Chariotrider555