P.
B. PANDIT
Prabodh Bechardas Pandit died on 20th November 1975
at Delhi at the age of 52 after a short spell of unconsciousness brought
on by cerebral haemorrhage. At
the prime of his powers, he was so much a part of the scene in Indian
linguistics and Indian philology that the conventional phrase ‘a grievous
loss to scholarship’ comes home to one in this with especial poignancy.
Born on 23 June 1923 a Valabhi in Saurashtra, the ancestral
place of a family of scholars, he was educated at Ahmedabad where
his father, Bechardas Sukhlalji Doshi, taught Sanskrit and Jain studies
at the nationalist Gujarat Vidyapith.
B.A. from L.D. Arts College, Ahmedabad with honours in Sanskrit
(1944), M.A. in Comparative Philology from Bombay (1946), he was also
taught Pali and Prakrit at home. He went to jail twice in 1942 as a freedom
fighter. He then went to the
School of Oriental and African Studies, London (1947) to work with
Sir Ralph Turner for his Ph.D. (1949) in Indo-Aryan Philology.
After spending some time with Jules Bloch in Paris and with
J.R. Firth and W.S. Allen in London doing general linguistics and
phonetics, he returned to India to join I.D. Arts College (1950-55).
Subsequently he taught linguistics at Gujarat University, Ahmedabad
(1955-64), the Language Project of Deccan College, Poona (visiting
1956-57), Deccan College (1964-65), the University of Delhi (1966-end),
and Cornell University (visiting 1969-70).
In 1955-56 he was Rockfeller Foundation senior fellow at Yale
University. Indeed he played a leading rôle in the ushering in of
modern linguistics in India that Dr. S.M. Katre set going in the 1950s.
He traveled extensively and participated in many conferences,
seminars, and committees. Indeed
lately he could have been called a roving ambassador representing
Indian linguistics to other disciplines, to the authorities, and to
linguists abroad. While he filled this rôle with distinction and his
characteristic gusto, his first love remained teaching and research.
He was the recipient of many honours – sectional presidentship
of All-India Oriental Conference (1964), Sahitya Akademi of Poona
(1970), the Ranajitram Gold Crescent of the Gujarati Sahitya Sabha
(1974), to name but a few. He was closely associated with the Linguistic
Society of India (president 1968, committee on publication 1956-59
and 1971-73; executive committee 1955, 1961-63, 1966 and 1969-71).
About the making of the scholar, I can do no better than quote
from a two-page “informal autobiography” that Prof. Pandit put together
around 1956:
“My father spent the proverbial twelve years at Banaras, learning
Sanskrit… Throughout my career I had never thought twice
about ‘the subjects I wanted to choose – languages”. (He know Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Rajasthani,
French besides Gujarati, Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, and English.) “Gandhiji wrote … and spoke in a tongue understood
by all Gujaratis” in preference to the prevailing Sanskritized norm.
“This language consciousness probably influenced me” and led
me “to look at the living languages” and “speech”.
“Malinowski… opened my eyes to … language in society … listening
to Professor Blanquert (of Ghent) in London and … Professor Bloch
in Paris, I was inspired to choose dialectology as my field” within
Indian linguistics; “the neglect of the spoken language in various
spheres of communication in present day India”, the misguided slogan
of “back to Sanskrit”, and the failure to carry on Grierson’s great
work made a painful impression.
Till about 1966 his interest chiefly lay in synchronic, diachronic,
and diatopic phonology. More
recently his attention centred on bilingualism, language planning
and policy, and the social dimension of language.
It speaks for his intellectual flexibility and the breadth
of his interests that the transition from textual study to historical
phonology, and then to phonetics and descriptive linguistics, and
finally to applied and social linguistics came very naturally to him
at various points in his career.
When among scholars, he was apt to be the voice of common sense,
reminding them of practical realities; when among policy makers, he
was the scholar holding out for clear-headed objectivity.
To the young he was friend, philosopher, and guide.
To the elder statesmen of scholarship, he was the young Turk.
He was equally lucid in Gujarati, English and Hindi, in writing for
fellow linguists and for non-linguists, in the lecture hall and at
the seminar table.
He is survived by his parents, his wife, Dhairyabala an economist,
two sons and a daughter, and of course his many students and colleagues.
Ashok R. KELKAR,
Central Institute of Indian Languages and
Deccan College
The Bibliography is a
slightly revised an supplemented version of one prepared by Udaya
Narayana Singh for Pákhā Sanjam 8.1, 1976. Certain details
have been provided by Yogendra D. Vyas.
1949 A study of the Gujarati language in the 14th
century with selections from Ṣaḍāvasyaka
vṛtti
of Taruṇaprabha critically edited. London U. Ph.D. Diss. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidyābhavan,
1976.
1951 Bhāratiya prācya pariÀad, so½mũ
adhive¿an, lakhanau,
Buddhiprakā¿. 99. 324-7.
1952 Linguistic survey of border lands of
Gujarat. Journal of the Gujarat Research Society. 14. 57-67.
--. Bolinũ svarup.
Saṃskṛti
69. 331-4, 7. 387-92.
--. Swādhyāy
ane samikṣā. Saṃskṛti 71, 432-40.
1954 Prākṛta
Bhāṣā. Śri Pārśwanāth
Vidyāśram,
Banaras Hindu University.
--. Indo-Aryan sibilants in Gujarati. IL. 14.
36-44.
--. Dīrgha vyañjano. Manīṣā. 11-14.
--. Punāthi patra.
Saṃskṛti
73. 15-17.
--. Carotari boli. Nadiad: Carotar Sarvasangraha. Pp. 756-64.
1955. E and O in Gujarati. IL 15. 14-54.
--. The intrusive -r- in Indo-Aryan IL 16. 120-3.
--. Nasalization, aspiration and murmur
in Gujarati. IL 17. 165-72
--. Old Gujarati pronunciation: A Note on linguistic
change, Vidyā, the Journal of the Gujarat University
: 1-9.
--. (with Sankalia, H. D.) Saṁśodhananī
tālīma. Saṃskṛti
129-345-6. “Training for research”.
--. Svādhyyāya
ane samikṣā. Saṃskṛti 129. 350-3.
1958. Duration, syllable, and juncture in
Gujarati. IL. 19. 212-8.
--. Prācya vidyapariṣadanũ dilli adhiveśana.
Saṃskṛti
134. 78-9
1959. Dhavani parivartana Saṃskṛti
154. 369-75, 156. 457-61.
1960. Sādṛśya
parivartana (: analogical change). Saṃskṛti
157. 11-16, 158. 60-64
--.
Bhāṣānũ
śabdabhaṇḍoỊa (: the word-capital of a language). Buddhiprakāśa 108. 287-300.
--. Gujarāti bhāṣāmē
jāti
or parimāṇa (: gender, size and volume, etc. in
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1961. Ānśik
rupākhyānvāỊi bhāṣānā
vyākaraṇī
praśno
(: the grammatical problems of marginally inflecting languages) Saṃskṛti
170. 49-57.
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Language 37. 54-66.
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the Gujarati version of the souvenir: 291-8.
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sāmājik
bhedō
kī
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Patrikā. 66. 153-74.
1962. Dhvanighaṭak
(phonim). Saṃskṛti 198. 325-8, 359-56.
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190. 374-85. 191. 420-9.
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16-21.
1963. Sanskritic clusters and caste dialects.
IL. 24. 70-86.
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artha ane kavitā : ek carcā
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linguistics. The Conference
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Kanpur. MS.
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bhina bhinna swarupo (: various forms of language). Bilimora Arts
College Journal, and Ruci. 9-15 Sept. 1967.
1964. Indian readjustments in the English consonantal
system. IL. 25. 202-5.
1965. Hindi : A spoken approach. [G.H. Fairbanks,
co-author] Poona : Deccan College.
--. Phonemic and morphemic frequencies
of the Gujarati language. Poona
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16. 157-8.
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in schools. Educational and
psychological Review 5. 62-8.
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Encyclopedie de l’Islam. Nouvelle adition. Tome II, Livraison 40.
Leiden : E.J. Brill.
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Calcutta : Registrar General, Government of India.
1976.
--.
Field work book. Calcutta. Registrar General, Government of
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1966. Gujarāti bhāṣānũ
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--. Logistics of language development.
Language and society in India.
Transactions of the Institute of Advanced Study, Simla 8. 112-7.
Also : Economic and Political, weekly. 23 March. 487-9, with
the added title : English has a generative role.
Also Gujarati version L Parab 2. 17-26.
1967. Parameters of variation in an Indian
speech community. Language
and Society in India. 8. 207-29.
Simla. Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1969.
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kramik vibhājanna sandarbhamān
(:in the context of the chronology of the Gujarati language and dialects). Dilli Gujarati Samāj
Smṛti
Granth : 13-19.
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1968. India as a sociolinguistic area, (Gune memorial
lectures). Poona : University of Poona.
--. Socio-linguistics and Indian languages.
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78-84. New Delhi : AIIS. Duplicated.
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Golden Jubilee Volume 210-12. Mahavira Jain Vidyalaya.
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1969. Gujarati. Current trends in linguistics.
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1970. Profiles in multilingualism. Toward the description of the languages of
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1971. Some observations on perception studies in speech
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a theory of language planning. IRAL
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published.
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categories of language labels. MS. CIEFL, Hyderabad.
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on language use. MS. Centre
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1973. Bhāsāvijñāna
arvācin
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Uni.]
--.
Vyākaraṇa
: ārtha ane Akāra. MS. The Thakkar Vasanji Memorial Lectures. Bombay University. To appear.
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Sanjam 6. 63-70.
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pariba½o
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language). History of Gujarati
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langauge behaviour : Presidential
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IXth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. Chicago. Preprint.
Proceedings to be published by Mouton, The Hague.
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1974. Bi-lingual’s grammar : A case study of Tamil-Saurashtri
number names. IJDL 3. 181-98.
--. Paheli bh¡À¡, ... ane? SaÆsk¤ti
327. 81-87.
--. Linguistic history – A relationship
in languages. Problems and
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Kathmandu : Institute of Nepal and Asian Studies, 1976. pp.
85-98.
--. Aspects of Sociolinguistics. Duplicated.
[A collection of Essays].
--. Linguistics and Sociology. To appear.
Linguistics and Neighbouring sciences. North Holland Pub. Co.
1975. Periodization in linguistic history
and literary history. Nahar
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--. Review of S. Vaidyanathan : Indo-Aryan
loan words in Old Tamil. IJDL
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MS
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--. (See also two entries above in 1949. 1965)
COLOPHON
This was published in Indian Linguistics 37:77-81, 1976.
