Dharmanand Damodar Kosambi: A Great Buddhist Scholar with Socialist Ideology Knew Karl Marx and his thoughts.

Dharmanand Damodar Kosambi: A Great Buddhist Scholar with Socialist Ideology Knew Karl Marx and his thoughts.

On the occasion of Buddha Jayanti in May 1924, Mahatma Gandhi said that he had very poor knowledge about Buddhism. He said that he had read only one book on the Buddha and that book was, ‘The light of Asia’ written by Sir Edwin Arnold. He also said that there is one Buddhist scholar who told him that The light of Asia gives faint ideas of Buddha’s life and at least a single incident in the beautiful poem was not found in any authoritative original Buddhist work. Mahatma further said that perhaps one day the learned Professor will give us the result of his rip scholarship in the shape of a reliable story of Buddha’s life for the ordinary Indian reader. According to Mahatma Gandhi, this Buddhist scholar was Dharmanand Damodar Kosambi. Nearly four years back during my visit to Goa, one of my friends gave me one autobiography of this Buddhist scholar Dharmanand Damodar Kosambi written in Marathi to read and the name of the book was Nivedan. This book is nothing but a remarkable journey of self-education about Buddhism and Pali Language and also the spellbinding life stories of great Buddhist scholars. He was also a great scholar of Sanskrit and Pali language.

From: Yogesh Gogwekar.

Dharmanand Damodar Kosambi was born on 09/10/1876 in South Goa in Sankhral Village in Orthodox Goud Saraswat Brahmin community. He did his primary education through Marathi language in Belgaum. He also learnt little about Sanskrit in Goa but started taking interest in Buddha’s life and his teaching. He married at the age of fifteen and felt that his married life would not allow him to pursue his education. After the birth of his first daughter, Manik, he decided to leave Goa and go to Pune at least for four years. First he decided to learn Sanskrit. For learning Sanskrit, he met R C Bhandarkar who was an eminent scholar of Sanskrit language. Later on he went to Varanasi, Ujjain, Indore, Gwalior and Prayag. At Varanasi, he learnt the language from Gangadharpant Shastri and Nageshwarpant Dharmadhikari. While learning this, he faced a lot of difficulties. He had to work hard to earn his bread and butter. He also faced a pandemic situation during his stay in Kashi.

After the study in Sanskrit with these great personalities, Dharmanand Damodar Kosambi decided to go further studies to understand Buddhism very well. Therefore, he traveled all over India and spent much time in Bodh Gaya and also in Sarnath. Later on he went to Sri Lanka where he enrolled in Vidyodaya University. He did his study there for three years under Shri Sumangalacharya and he was selected as a Buddhist monk in 1902. Later on, he went to Burma (Today’s Myanmar) to undertake comparative study of Buddhist text in Burmese language. He also learnt the Pali language from Buddhist canon and became a scholar of this language. After getting command on Pali language and Buddhist script, Dharmanand Damodar Kosambi returned to India and became the reader of Buddhist script in Kolkata University where he called his wife and his daughter to Kolkata. During his stay in Kolkata, his son Damodar was born in 1907 who became a great scholar in Mathematics and History.

One day, he left Kolkata and came to Mumbai and started teaching Sanskrit, Buddhism and Pali language in Mumbai and later in Pune. After confirming his authority in teaching the subject, Dr. James Woods from American Academy appointed him to do the editing of the work of Pali language texts for a series published by Harvard University. Dharmanand Damodar Kosambi with his wife and two children travelled across the sea and spent a decade in the USA where his son Damodar started studying Mathematics at Harvard University and Sanskrit and Pali at home. At Harvard, he learnt Russian language and also Marxism. He went to Russia in 1929 and taught Pali language at Leningrad University.

When he was abroad, Indian freedom movement was at its peak. Mahatma Gandhi gave the call for Sault Satyagraha in 1930. Dharmanand Kosambi decided to come to India and joined this Satyagraha and went to jail for his political beliefs. He became the follower of Mahatma Gandhi and his attachment to Mahatma forced him to join Sewagram Ashram in Wardha in 1934. He saw Buddha in Mahatma Gandhi and felt that Mahatma was following the teachings of Buddha. According to Kosambi, Buddha was born as Kshatriya and always considered victory over the mind as superior to victory over other countries. For that Kosambi said that Buddha won his enemies not with weapons but with the measures of faith, peace and unbounded enthusiasm for the welfare of the people. There is no place for hate in Buddha’s teaching. For that purpose, Kosambi had quoted the conversation between Buddha and one of his monks named Purna.

Dharmanand Kosambi met Mahatma Gandhi in 1924 in Sassoon Hospital in Pune when Mahatma was shifted from Yerawada jail for doing operation upon appendicitis. During their meeting, Mahatma told him that he was informed about Kosambi by Shankarlal Banker. For the purpose of recovering the heath, Gandhi shifted to Mumbai and stayed at a seaside Bungalow in Juhu. He asked Kosambi to come and meet him to discuss Buddha literature and also of Bhagavad Gita. There is not much written on this conversation but Kosambi clearly told him that Bhagavad Gita never expounds the non-violence. There is no record available about Gandhi’s revert on this. Kosambi had advised Gandhi about untouchability. He told him that Untouchability is an abomination and to be removed at any cost. It should be removed in free India in the interest welfare of people to make a dignified democratic society.

Other than Buddhism, Kosambi was a scholar of Jainism and also the master of socialist ideology. He was fully aware of Marx and his thoughts and the problems of workers.  All these were not covered in Nivedan and remain relatively unknown till his granddaughter Meera Kosambi put some lights on these aspects. She published a book named as Dharmanand Kosambi: The essential writings. This is nothing but translation of Dharmanand Kosambi’s work in Marathi language. He had written so many scholarly essays and out of that one essay was about his village communities of Goa.

He wrote many articles and books in Marathi. He has written most popular biography of Bhagwan Buddha in 1940 which won the award of Sahitya Academi. He had written eleven books on Buddhism and Jainism. He also wrote Marathi play names as Bodhisattva. He has written many essays in Navneet Tika in 1941 and Visuddhimagga Deepika in 1943. His other books were Buddhism and Sangh (1924), Samadhimarga (1925), Introduction to the Buddhist Association (1926), Bhagavan Buddha (1934), Bodhisattva (1949). His autobiography Nivedan written in 1924 is a fantastic book to read. His work in the field of education is great. He established Anand Vihar and Bahujan Vihar in Mumbai. Therefore, his place in the history of education is very important. It was being said that there was a great impact of his writing about Buddhism on Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar which ultimately resulted in conversation in Buddhism .

This scholar decided to give up his life through voluntary fasting as per Buddhist Tradition as he felt that there was no need to live any more. Mahatma told him to reconsider his decision and asked him to come to his Sewagram Ashram at Wardha. He shifted to Wardha but continued his diet by consuming only a spoon of bitter gourd juice. He wanted to die on Buddha Purnima day but died after a month on 4th June 1947.

At the time of paying tribute, Mahatma Gandhi said, “In scholarship, I cannot compare myself with Dharmanand Kosambiji. I am merely a barrister who became one by attending dinner in England! I have little knowledge of Sanskrit. With the name of Buddha on his lips he passed into that final sleep which is to be the estate, one day or another, or all who are born”.

Mumbai

24/01/2021