Lakshman Shastri Joshi (1901 – 1994) was an Indian

Indian people

Indian people or Indisians constitute the Asian nation and pan-ethnic group native to India, which forms the south of Asia, containing 17.31% of the world's population. The Indian nationality is in essence made up of regional nationalities, reflecting the rich and complex history of India...

 scholar, a distinguished Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 and Hindu Dharma expert, a Marathi

Marathi language

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

 literary critic, and supporter of Indian independence. Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...

 chose him to be his principal advisor in his campaign against untouchability

Untouchability

Untouchability is the social practice of ostracizing a minority group by segregating them from the mainstream by social custom or legal mandate. The excluded group could be one that did not accept the norms of the excluding group and historically included foreigners, nomadic tribes, law-breakers...

.

Biography

Born in 1901 into an orthodox Brahmin

Brahmin

Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...

 family, Joshi left home at age 14 after studying to be a priest. Finally settling in Wai

Wai, Maharashtra

Wāi is a town in Sātārā District in Mahārāshtra, India.Wai has the epithetic name Dakshin Kāshi...

, a temple town on the banks of the Krishna river

Krishna River

The Krishna River , is one of the longest rivers in central-southern India, about . It is also referred to as Krishnaveni in its original nomenclature...

, he became a Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

, Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

 dharma and Indian philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 pundit, earning the degree “Tarkateertha”, or literally, "Master of logic". Around the time India gained independence, he came under the influence of many reformist intellectuals including M. N. Roy and quickly assimilated and embraced western philosophical systems. He questioned whether those that had the knowledge had wisdom to lead, and recognized those that followed had inadequate knowledge, and he wrote Vaidik Sankriti-cha Vikas in 1951. This treatise was based on six lectures he delivered at the University of Pune

University of Pune

The University of Pune , is a university located in northwestern Pune, India. It was founded in 1949. Spread over a campus, the university is home to 46 academic departments...

, where he traced the evolution of "Vedic" culture and its influence on modern India. He wrote a critique arguing that modern Indians became conflicted between meeting material needs and attaining spiritual enlightenment, thus fostering a collective weakness, disharmony and allowing caste differences to prevail. For his outstanding contribution, he received the Sahitya Akademi award from India's National Academy of Letters in 1955. This and other critical inquiries into India’s Hindu religious traditions drew the ire of the contemporary Hindu orthodoxy.

Contact with Mahatma Gandhi

English language|
Joshi, although a Brahmin

Brahmin

Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...

 priest by training, spent his life going against tradition. In 1932, at the age of 29, he was jailed by the British

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

 for his role in the freedom movement. However while in prison, he quickly gained a reputation as a Hindu dharma

Dharma

Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...

scholar. Under the tutelage of Vinobha Bhave, he learned English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 when Vinoba-ji came to Wai to study under Kewalananda Saraswati. It was during one of those internments that Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...

, troubled by respectable Brahmin priests shying away from officiating at the intercaste marriage of his son Devdas, a Bania, or merchant class boy, to Lakshmi, the daughter of C. Rajagopalachari, a Brahmin and the second Governor General of independent India approached the young shastri, with his thorough knowledge of the shastras, whether such a marriage was against Hindu dharma. It took fortitude for Joshi to not only render a contrary opinion, but to perform the wedding ceremony,.

Recognition and death

In 1960 he spearheaded the creation of a Marathi language, Vishwakosha, an encyclopedia, and Dharmakosha, a Marathi transliteration of the ancient Vedic/Hindu sanskritic hymns. For his distinguished service, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1976, India’s third highest civilian medal. In 1992 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honor, in recognition of a lifetime of exceptional and distinguished service to India. For all his scholarship, Joshi was equally a pragmatist, endorsing Nehru’s investments in higher education and heavy industry. He died at the age of 94, near the birth spring of the Krishna river.

Literature

His first book, Shuddhisarvasvam, is a treatise in Sanskrit on the philosophical basis of religious conversion, published in 1934. In that same year, he edited the Dharmakosha, which encopassed twenty-six volumes and 18,000 pages, encoding the basic texts and commentaries on the varied aspects of dharma and dharma-shastras from 1500 BC to the 18th century. in 1938, he wrote Anand-Mimamsa, a critical commentary on the theory or Ras and aesthetics in Marathi literature. Later in 1973, he wrote Adhunik Marathi Sahityachi Samiksha, a study of the tenets of modern Marathi literary criticism. He also wrote Hindu Dharmachi Samiksha, in 1940, critically examining the concepts and foundation of Hinduism, and Jadawad, in 1941, a survey of the history and development of materialism in Indian and Western philosophical traditions. He wrote Vaidik Sanskriticha Vikas in 1958 to much acclaim. Amongst other works are Upanishadanche Marathi Bhashantar, a translation of the 18 principal Upanishads into Marathi.