Kashmir’s forgotten Sanskrit Doyen

(By: Kanwal Krishan Lidhoo)

Pandit Dina Nath Yaksh’s life resembles that of a quintessential Rishi who exemplified what in Indian spiritual thought process is known as Karamyogi. Here was a man with a rare missionary zeal. Very few know about this colossal figure and Sanskrit’s forgotten hero!

The whole of India is indebted to what he did and accomplished and the irony is that his name finds very little mention anywhere. This is evident from the fact that newspapers accorded little or no coverage whatsoever to this encyclopedia and an erudite giant of a scholar. Only eminent Sanskrit scholar, Padam Shri Dr Vishwamurti Shastri of Jammu   would recognise his immense contribution and was well aware of his accomplishments   and the body of the work completed by him. Barring few publications of small size “homage’’ columns in a local newspaper, no coverage was accorded to this doyen.

He literally put his life on altar to preserve whatever was rediscovered about ancient Kashmir and today’s scholars who are aided and benefitted by the infinite and rare archival treasures of manuscripts and documents at their disposal don’t seem to have any idea about the man who did it for them. Many have capitalised on these to earn millions but rarely have they found courage to even mention a note of thanks in favour of the one who arranged the same for them.

This author of Kashmir Rechords   had a rare fortune of visiting the legend in his Subash Nagar residence at Jammu, months before his death in 2004. Although highly infirm, he never did abandon his smile or exhibit discomfiture of any kind and was keen to enter into serious discussions to enlighten us. He was so humble to even mention about the enormity that got carried with his mission.

It is said that he paid for those rarest manuscripts out of the money kept for his daughter’s wedding and even pawned her jewellary and thereby risked and paid for all this throughout his life.

With his demise on 4th October 2004, the  legacy of Sanskrit Shastric  systems unfortunately  came to an end and will require an equally herculean effort to revive again.