Madhuvidya

SR No.: 006525
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 762
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Philosophy
File Size: 17 MB

Page 754

OBITUARY NOTICE
PROFESSOR Dr. SUMITRA MANGESH KATRE
b. 11-04-1906 ]
[d. 21-10-1998
On the 26th October 1998 I first heard the sad news of the passing away of Dr. Katre. He was 92. He died at the residence of his elder daughter at San Jos:, Calif., U. S. A. In Dr. Katre's death the world of scholars has lost a versatile personality who combined in himself high Sans krit scholarship, fruitful planning, and administrative skill..
I met Dr. Katre first in Bombay in 1939 when I was a student for M. A. The University of Bombay had then prescribed for the M. A. exami. nation the Jasaharacariu of Puspidanta. Since the text was in Apabhramsa it was not easy to understand it without some guidance. No one at that time was free to teach the text. At the suggestion of Prof. H D. Velankar I approached Dr. Katre to request him to read the text w th us. He prom. ptly agreed and our classes began almost immediately. Little did I dream that the contact I then had with Dr. Katre was destined to develop later into my being first his pupil and then his colleague in the Deccan College.
When the old defunct under-graduate Deccan College was revived in 1939 as Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Dr. Katre joined it as Professor of Indo-European Philology. I too joined the Institute the same year to do my Ph. D. under bis guidance on the subject, "Histori. cal Grammar of Inscriptional Prakrits". E. D. Kulkarni was his another Ph. D. student who worked on Epic Variants,
Dr. Katre had his primary and secondary school education in Mangalore. Even as a high school student, he had studied Sanskrit Grammar the traditional way. However, when he went to Madras for his graduation he chose Mathematics as his subject. After his receiving B. A. degree in that subject in 1928 he was advised to enrol himself in the Trinity College, Cambridge, for higher qualifications in Mathematics. By a queer course of incidents he could not produce in time the necessary documents for getting admission to the College. With the failure in one direction is linked the story of his magnificent success in the other. Instead of returning to India empty. handed, Dr. Katre sought admission to the School of Oriental Studies in London on the strength of his knowledge of Sanskrit Grammar. After gett ing through the qualifying examinations in record time he started working for his Ph. D. ungr the gidance of Dr, William Stede on the subject "Early
Madhu Vidya/729