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Annals BORI, LXXIX ( 1998)
Buddhist Ballads and their Relation to the Older Upanişads". During his stay in London he regularly attended Prof. Turner's classes in Indo-European and Indo-Aryan, which proved extremely helpful to him in his later career. During his tenure in London he had an opportunity to spend a summer sem. ester in Germany. He completed his dissertation for Ph. D. in 1931.
At the time when Dr. Katre return:d to ladia with initiation in IndoEuropean and lado-Aryan linguistics and in Prakrits, there were no openings for tcaching and doing research in Linguistics in any of the academic institutes associated with the Indian Universities. The University of Calcutta was perhaps the only exception. Dr. Katre, therefore, had to start teaching Prakrits first in the Nowrosji Wadia College and then in the S. P. College, both in Pune. The chances of finding an opportunity to make use of his special talents were then bleak. The revival of the old Deccan College in 1939 bence proved to be a very crucial event in his career. His selection as the first Professor of Indo-European Philology in the newly revived Institute gave him ample opportunities for planning and execution of his brilliant and bold ideas, His close association during his stay in Pune with Prof, P. K. Gode and Dr. V. S. Sukthankar, both of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Iostitute, proved very valuable for him. In collaboration with Prof. Gode he revived the de. funct journal, Indian Antiquary, in the form of the New Indian Antiquary ( 1938-39 ) and also launched the publication of a new journal, viz. the Oriental Literary Diges! ( 1937). These publications made it possible for Dr. Katre to come into close association with the scholars of his time and their published research. Dr. Sukthankar, the then General Editor of the Mahābhārata, introduced Dr. Katre into yet another area of fruitful research, viz. Texual Criticism, Some of the early Ph. D. dissertations completed under the guidance of Dr. Katre were related to the Critical Edition of the Mahābharata. Dr. Katre bimself later published his Introduction to Indian Textual Criticism ( 1941 ).
When Dr: Katre was appointed as Professor in tbe Deccan College Research Tostitute (1939), there was provision only for three Professors and five Readers. The other two Professors who joined the Institute along with Dr. Katra were Dr. V. M. Apte ( Vedic Sanskrit ) and Dr. H. D. Sankalia (Anci. ent Indian History). The arrangement which was then decided upod was that one of the three Professors was to function also as the Director of the Institute. Owing to some reasons none of the three Professors named above was nominated to the post of the Director, and hence a Committee of Direction was appointed to carry out the Director's functions for one year. In the next year (1940) Dr. I, J, S. Taraporwala was appointed as the Director,
Madhu Vidyā/730
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