Hi Alan,

I am responding to your e-mail inquiry about further
or beginning studies in Pali and Sanskrit via a
private e-mail, because some of the comments that I
might make seem to "excite" other members of the
group. However, that said, I will try to give you some
additional resources, contacts and perspective on your
interests in studying Pali and Sanskrit.

You didn't say from what institution you received your
B. A. in religious studies, so this bit of information
would be helpful in adding some additional precision
to this discussion. Each undergraduate program in
religious studies, like most other disciplines, has
its own distinctive personality, strengths and
weaknesses.

By way of background, I studied Sanskrit, as a
graduate student at Yale University and the University
of Pennsylvania, some years ago, as well as further
study in Sanskrit in Tamil_Nadu, India, and in Pali in
Sri Lanka. I have taught at the University of
Wisconsin in Madison and the University of Chicago,
among other institutions, in the past. At the present
time, I teach Sanskrit and Pali at the Loyola
Marymount University, as an adjunct "acharya", now and
then, when I have the time to teach these languages. I
just finished teaching an elementary course in Pali in
LMU's summer session, so I am sorry to say to you that
my particular Pali course might be the "fish that got
away" at least for now.

You also do not indicate if you are interested in
relocating to another part of the U. S. to undertake
further studies in Pali and Sanskrit. Your interests
in relocation also can be an important factor.

All things considered, I would make the following
suggestions to you, regarding your further studies in
Pali and Sanskrit. Firstly, you should determine if
you are interested in teaching these languages (and
perhaps other related languages) as your focus in
graduate studies or are you interested in using a
working knowledge of these languages in activities
that involve research into the content of the ocean of
untranslated Pali and Sanskrit texts. I would suggest
that you give this question some thought.

Let's assume, for purposes of discussion, that you
want to pursue both language studies in Pali and
Sanskrit, while gaining knowledge of the content of
Pali and Sanskrit texts by reading and translating
them. Here are some rather candid thoughts about where
you might try to do this, in the course of graduate
studies. Firstly, I would rule out all of the
universities in the Los Angeles area, including Loyola
Marymount, which is primarily an undergraduate
college, with a few Master's degree programs, none of
which would be useful to you, I think. If you are not
interested in relocating to another part of the U. S.
to pursue graduate studies, I would suggest that you
contact Professor Vesna Wallace, at the University of
California at Santa Barbara, who has also taught Pali
recently. She is in the Religious Studies Department
at UCSB and is very helpful and caring, I might add.
UCSB is the only one of the University of California
institutions that awards a Ph.D. in religious studies.
The program at UCSB is large enough for you to receive
the instruction that you are looking for. Doing
research at UCSB is another story entirely.

If you are interested in relocating to Chicago, I
would suggest that you contact Professor Steve
Collins, who is the U of Chicago's resident Pali and
"Buddhist" scholar (and has been for several years).
Sheldon Pollock, who chaired the Sanskrit program at U
of Chicago, left the U of Chicago for Columbia
University in New York, effective last June. The
Sanskrit instruction at the U of Chicago is, at best,
uneven, so you would have to watch where you stepped,
so to speak, as far as the study of Sanskrit is
concerned at U of Chicago. The religious thought
departments are dominated by people, like Windy
Donniger, who is a very controversial scholar in these
areas, but there are several other "leading" religious
studies scholars at the U of Chicago. You just have to
find the ones that you like to work with, since the U
of Chicago is a very decentralized graduate
institution. If you are interested in the U of
Chicago's programs, you can ask Steve Collins
(diplomatically, of course) about the details of
course of graduate studies and the organization of the
programs at the U of Chicago. The U of Chicago also
has excellent resources within its libraries for first
rate research, an important consideration, if you are
planning to do doctoral work at any institution.

The University of Wisconsin at Madison is a good,
public university. The focus at UW at Madison seems to
be primarily upon the study of languages, rather than
upon both language studies and textual content (see
previous comments on this topic). Having taught at UW
at Madison before, I think that UW at Madison lives on
by reputation only, not as a place for undertaking
serious studies. Living in Madison is also a very
expensive proposition, since the cost of living in
Madison is higher than Chicago, Los Angeles,
Washington, D. C., and, possibly, even New York City
now. Madison, for a small town, isn't a bargain as far
as the cost of living goes.

I think that, for your purposes, the programs at the
University of Pennsylvania, Yale and Harvard, as
strong as they are, singularly and severally, will not
provide you with the type of approach that you are
looking for. I would also suggest that you look at the
graduate program(s) at the University of Washington in
Seattle. The U of W teaches both Sanskrit and Pali,
as well as some attempt at content studies. There are
many course on the books, so to speak, in the U of W's
catalog, but it's any one's guess as to how often some
of these course are offered.

Lastly, I think that you should visit with my
colleague, Franz Metcalf, who teaches Buddhist topics
at CSU in (East) LA, and who writes books on Buddhist
topics. Franz has a Ph.D. from the U of Chicago and
can give you more insights in the U of Chicago's
programs also. Franz lives in Los Angeles in the
Hollywood area. I am sure that he would be happy to
talk to you about your plans, too. If you need his
contact information, let me know and I will provide
this to you.

If you are interested in considering a "ground floor"
opportunity in graduate programs in religious studies,
the University of California at Riverside is in the
process of organizing a graduate program, that is
supposed to go "live" in September 2006. You might
want to contact UCR's Religious Studies Department to
check into the status of this new graduate program
also. Keep in mind that any "Version 1.0" program is
subject to change and refinement. But you might be
able to make such a program work well for your needs.

I hope that this rather candid assessment of the
landscape for Pali and Sanskrit study has been helpful
to you. I have tried to provide you with something in
the way of an "insider's" perspective on what's up,
down and moving sideways these days in Pali and
Sanskrit studies, Alan. If you have more questions
(and I am sure that you either do or will have them
soon), you can contact me via e-mail and we can
arrange to talk further, if you like and would find
such a discussion helpful in formulating your plans
for graduate study in Pali and Sanskrit.

As always, good luck. You will need it!

Metta,

Geoff Morrison, Ph.D.
(E-mail: Sanskrit_studies@...)

--- Alan McClure <alanmcclure3@...> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I have graduated with a BA in Religious Studies, and
> would like to go on in
> Fall 2006 to study Pali language and literature and
> Sanskrit as well.
>
> I have talked to Ven. Bhante Chao Chu who has lived
> in LA for some years now
> and is familiar with many of the programs in the USA
> and he advised me to
> think about the University of Wisconsin-Madison for
> a very good program in
> an inexpensive area of the US.
>
> I have since taken a look at the program, and it
> really looks like it is
> what I want. However, lacking the experience to
> know of other schools and
> how they relate makes me ask this question.
>
> Are any of you familiar with other language and
> literature programs in the
> US that cover Pali and Sanskrit and are considered
> to be excellent? And,
> how would any of these programs compare to the
> Madison, Wisconsin program?
>
> I appreciate your help.
>
> Metta,
>
> Alan McClure
>
>
>
>
>