SANSKRIT STUDIES
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appreciation of the evidence on which we are to base our conclusions; otherwise they will be worth no more than the conjectures of the man in the street. We should never yield to the temptation of accepting our data without proper verifica- tion and we should never draw conclusions without a due con- sideration of the evidence for them. In one word our investiga- tion must be critical. It is this critical attitude that gives our
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investigation a truly scientific aspect. The old question of the relative merits of science and the ‘humanities’, as instruments of education, is periodically raised but it is overlooked that it is possible to give a scientific bent to literary studies by follow- ing right methods. After all the primary object of a liberal education is not the acquisition of either scientific or literary facts but the proper disciplining of the mind and of the soul. If the sort of discipline that science affords can be secured by means of literature as well much of the bitterness that ranges on either side of the controversy becomes meaningless.
I have so far alluded only to one side of your work, which may be called the cultural side because it helps the proper training of the mind and the acquisition of the right type of knowledge. There is also another kind of work which, under existing circumstances, your Associations is expected to do. I refer to your activities in the direction of popularising Sanskrit study among the students. I am glad you have not confined membership of this Association to Sanskrit students but have thrown it open to all. You may include in your programme lectures on Sanskrit language and literature and on Indian antiquities generally intended for the non-Sanskrit student. In course of time some of you may perhaps devote part of your leisure to the teaching of Sanskrit to those that feel interested in it — a kind of altruistic activity in which another Society in this college has already set such a good example. Any how, every member of this Association must feel it his duty to do something in the way of increasing the interest of students in Sanskrit. Until a few years ago, the Madras University recognized Sanskrit as an alternative Second language and owing to this ‘ partial compulsion ’ a due proportion of students used to learn Sanskrit. With the introduction of the revised regulations by that University Sanskrit was transferred to the head of Optional subjects and
