Editing Dharmanand Kosambi (section)

== Biography ==
Kosambi was born on 9 October 1876 at Sankhwal (Sancoale) in Salcete, Goa, the youngest of seven children in a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin family, and he was married at fourteen.<ref>Kosambi, Dharmanand (1924). निवेदन ''Nivedan'' [Statement] (Marathi). Manoranjak Granthaprasarak Mandali, p. 9. The memoir was serialized in the Goa weekly ''Bharat'' from November 1912 to 9 February 1916, its last chapters were written in 1916 or 1917, and the book edition carries a preface dated 5 July 1924. See also Kosambi, Meera (Ed.) (2010). ''Dharmanand Kosambi: The Essential Writings''. Permanent Black, Introduction and endnote 2. The e-edition of 2012 consulted has no printed page numbers, so notes to it cite selections and endnotes, and printed pages are given only where Ober supplies them. Selection 1 is ''Nivedan''; Selection 2, the ''Khulasa'' (1937–38); Selection 4, the lectures of 1910; Selection 5, the ''Kesari'' letter of 1910; Selection 6, the article on workers of 1910; Selection 7, Part V of ''Hindi Sanskriti ani Ahimsa''; Selection 8, the play ''Bodhisattva''. Spellings: "Dharmanand" (Ober; M. Kosambi; used here), "Dharmananda" (Geary and Mukherjee in Jerryson (Ed.) (2017), ''The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism'', Oxford University Press, pp. 42, 50; Gokhale), and "Dhammanand" (Kausalyayan). The family name was originally Shenai Lotlikar, then Kosambe, and Kosambi himself changed it to Kosambi. Brandist, Craig (2022). "Soviet Indology and the critique of colonial philology: the work of Aleksei Barannikov in the light of Dalit studies". ''Language & History'' 65.3: 201–219, prints 1878 as his year of birth; every source on Kosambi himself gives 1876, and the 1878 is probably a slip.</ref> According to Ober, a Marathi children's magazine and a Marathi adaptation of Edwin Arnold's ''The Light of Asia'' awakened his interest in the Buddha, and at twenty-three he left his wife and child to look for knowledge of Buddhism, studying Sanskrit with pandits in Pune, Gwalior, and Benares.<ref>Ober, Douglas (2023). ''Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India''. Stanford University Press, p. 231; M. Kosambi (2010), ''Essential Writings'', Introduction. Kosambi left Goa at the end of 1899.</ref> In February 1902 he travelled to [[Nepal|Kathmandu]], where he found no learned Buddhist and was saddened to see Tibetan fortune-tellers and a goat carcass at a stupa, and then to Bodh Gaya, where an unnamed monk told him to learn Pali in Ceylon and to apply to the [[Maha Bodhi Society]] in Calcutta.<ref>Kosambi (1924), निवेदन ''Nivedan'', pp. 74–75, 83–85.</ref> The Society sheltered him in Calcutta and gave him letters of introduction, one of them to M. Singaravelu (1860–1946) of Madras, who hosted him for a day on 16 March 1902.<ref>Kosambi (1924), निवेदन ''Nivedan'', pp. 95–97, 103. Singaravelu appears in these pages without office; the memoir predates any communist role, and the identification of this Singaravelu with the later communist rests on a gloss by Aloysius, G. (1998). ''Religion as Emancipatory Identity: A Buddhist Movement among the Tamils under Colonialism''. New Age International, p. 58.</ref> At the Vidyodaya Pirivena in Colombo he studied Pali under Hikkaduve Sumangala, the monk who had given [[Iyothee Thass]] the Five Precepts in 1898, and he was ordained as a novice; his full ordination followed in Burma in 1903 or 1904.<ref>Kosambi (1924), निवेदन ''Nivedan'', pp. 108–110, 119; Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', p. 231 and n. 16 (p. 331), which notes that his vows in Ceylon were those of a novice and that the full ordination was in Burma. The memoir does not date the novice ordination; it falls between Vesak of 22 May 1902 and his departure from Colombo on 26 March 1903. M. Kosambi (Introduction) dates the full ordination to 1903–04.</ref>

Between late March and mid-October 1903 he spent about six and a half months in Madras. His memoir describes a Maha Bodhi Sabha, with a Professor Lakshminarasu Naidu (possibly [[P Lakshmi Narasu|P. Lakshmi Narasu]]) as president and Singaravelu as secretary, and a separate group of recent Paraiyar converts led by a Pandit Ayodhidas (possibly [[Iyothee Thass]]), and says that the two groups did not get on. Kosambi brought them together in a rented house at Royapettah, the Bauddhashram, where he read a Pali sutta every Sunday evening, Singaravelu lectured in Tamil, and Narasu came on Fridays to teach him comparative study.<ref>Kosambi (1924), निवेदन ''Nivedan'', pp. 114–117. The identifications of Lakshminarasu Naidu with P. Lakshmi Narasu and of Ayodhidas with Thass are inferences; the pages name neither Narasu nor Thass in full. Ober (2023), p. 232, has him living at the Shakya Buddhist Society's rest houses from 1902 to 1904 and calls him an early colleague of Thass, Narasu, and Singaravelu; the memoir gives one day in 1902 and six and a half months in 1903. See also the [[Tamil Buddhist Movement]].</ref> He quarreled with Singaravelu and left by steamer for Burma. He gave up the monastic life in 1906, taught Pali at the National College and the University of Calcutta until 1908, and then accepted a monthly stipend from Sayajirao Gaekwad of Baroda.<ref>M. Kosambi (2010), Introduction; Kosambi (1924), निवेदन ''Nivedan'', pp. 185–187. The memoir gives the stipend as Rs 50.</ref> In 1910 the Harvard Sanskritist James H. Woods invited him to help edit Buddhaghosa's ''Visuddhimagga'', and he stayed at Harvard until January 1912.<ref>M. Kosambi (2010), Introduction; Kosambi (1924), निवेदन ''Nivedan'', pp. 185–187. M. Kosambi dates four Harvard stays to 1910–January 1912, October 1918–August 1922, 1926 (completing the ''Visuddhimagga'' work, published in 1950), and 1931–32. Ober (2023), n. 7 (p. 330), gives 1910–12, 1919–22, 1926–29, and 1933–34. The dates differ and are not adjudicated here.</ref> He then taught Pali at Fergusson College in Pune, and Ober reports that R.G. Bhandarkar asked him in 1912 to set up a Pali curriculum at Bombay University.<ref>M. Kosambi (2010), Introduction (six years at Fergusson College); Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', p. 101.</ref> Whether he ever received a Harvard doctorate is contested. Ober (2013) followed Eleanor Zelliot in giving a doctorate of 1929, but Ober (2023) reports that Kosambi's great-grandson denies that the degree was ever awarded.<ref>Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', n. 7 (p. 330), citing Zelliot (1979), p. 392; Ober, Douglas (2013). "'Like Embers Hidden in Ashes, or Jewels Encrusted in Stone': Rāhul Sāṅkṛtyāyan, Dharmānand Kosambī and Buddhist Activity in Colonial India". ''Contemporary Buddhism'' 14.1: 134–148. M. Kosambi's volume contains no statement that he held a Harvard degree and quotes his remark of 1912 that he had no BA or MA; it records that his son Damodar Dharmanand (D.D.) Kosambi (1907–1966) took a Harvard BA with distinction in 1929, which suggests but does not prove that the "1929" doctorate arose from a confusion of father and son. A Harvard Asia Center seminar abstract by R. Ramaswamy ("Early South Asians at Harvard: Dharmanand, Manik, and Damodar Kosambi, 1910-1932") lists him as Assistant in Indic Philology 1910-12 and 1918-22 and mentions no degree. --></ref>

After a second Harvard stay (1918–22) he joined Gandhi's Gujarat Vidyapith at Ahmedabad in 1922.<ref>M. Kosambi (2010), Introduction (Gandhi's invitation of November 1922; three years at the Vidyapith); Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', p. 234.</ref> Stcherbatski invited him to the new Institute for the Study of Buddhist Culture in Leningrad, where he worked in 1929–30 and again in 1932 or 1933.<ref>Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', pp. 235–236; M. Kosambi (Introduction) says that he returned to India in early 1930 and passed through the Soviet Union again in 1932. Geetha dates his Soviet stay to the 1920s (Geetha, V. (2021). ''Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and the Question of Socialism in India''. Palgrave Macmillan, n. 46 on pp. 290–291; one source consulted gives p. 290 and another p. 291).</ref> Back in India he joined the salt satyagraha, was arrested in October 1930, and served about five months of a year's hard labor.<ref>M. Kosambi (2010), Selection 2 (§§4–5) and Introduction: he led the satyagraha camp at Shirode in May 1930 and was released in March 1931. Ober (2023), p. 236, says that he was arrested twice, first at the Shiroda satyagraha and again in October; p. 237 reports that police intelligence reports name him more than fifty times between April and October 1930.</ref> While teaching at Kashi Vidyapith under [[Narendra Deva]] he wrote ''Hindi Sanskriti ani Ahimsa'' (1935).<ref>Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', p. 237.</ref> In 1936 Ambedkar approached the Bombay Buddha Society, of which Kosambi was honorary president, and said that Bombay needed a vihara; Kosambi asked Gandhi and the industrialist J.K. Birla for funds and on 26 January 1937 inaugurated the Bahujan Vihara in the mill-workers' district of Parel.<ref>Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', pp. 215–216 and n. 47 (p. 327); M. Kosambi (2010), Introduction. The vihara was named "Bahujan" and not "Buddha" Vihara because of its focus on mill workers and its attempt to end caste discrimination among them.</ref> He directed it until the end of 1939, when he withdrew after Birla objected to opinions in ''Hindi Sanskriti ani Ahimsa''; the [[Maha Bodhi Society]] then took over the vihara.<ref>M. Kosambi (2010), Introduction (Birla's and Gandhi's requests that he stay; the plaque names Birla and not Kosambi); Ober (2023), n. 48 (p. 327), which attributes the quarrel to a disagreement over the role of violence in Hindu scriptures and culture and cites Ober (2013), pp. 139–140; Zelliot (1979), p. 393, reported at second hand for the Society's takeover. Ambedkar never took part in the vihara's events (Ober (2023), p. 216).</ref> Kosambi did not break with Gandhi personally. He returned to teaching at Sarnath and died on 4 June 1947 at Gandhi's ashram at Sevagram, after a fast that he had begun on 4 May.<ref>M. Kosambi (2010), Introduction. The Handbook gives 1876–1941 at p. 42 and 1876–1947 at p. 50 (Geary and Mukherjee in Jerryson (Ed.) (2017)); M. Kosambi's date of 4 June 1947 settles the question.</ref>