Prof. Gombrich retires; number of Pali specialists in Europe ever closer to zero?

Although his own writing is not universally popular, Prof. Gombrich is known
to most Pali enthusiasts through his editorial role in many of the major
publications of the past 10 years.  His early study of _Buddhist Precept &
Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural Highlands of Ceylon_ (1971) is
rich with keenly oberserved social criticism and humour, and has been twice
reprinted.

Gombrich has recently retired, and I infer from the fact that Oxford is
still advertising for a replacement, that none has yet been selected.  What
is noteworthy, and a bit saddening, in the job posting from Oxford, is that
they are advertising only for "a professor of Sanskrit" with knowledge in
Sanskrit "both Vedic and classical", with only a tertiary mention of
"proficiency in at least some areas of Middle Indo-Aryan" --which would
include Pali.

http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/fp/bodenprof.shtml

The number of academics in Europe with any real ability in Pali continues to
drop; and the increasingly common definition of Indology as "Sanskrit... and
everything else I suppose" works to the detriment not only of Pali, but of
all non-Vedic literary traditions --Middle Indo-Aryan, modern, Dravidian,
and Austroasiatic alike.

E.M.


--
A saying of the Buddha from http://metta.lk/
Get your Dhamma Books from http://books.metta.lk/
Oneself, indeed, is one's saviour, for what other saviour would there be?
With oneself well controlled one obtains a saviour difficult to find.
Random Dhammapada Verse 160