PANAJI
“Acharya Dharmanand Damodar Kosambi’s life is an open book. Inspired by the teachings of Gautam Buddha, this son of the soil dedicated his life to the study of Buddhism, Socialism and Gandhism," said Paresh Prabhu, editor, Navprabha while speaking on ‘Acharya Dharmanand Kosambi – A journey from Buddhism and Socialism to Gandhism’ at Gomant Vidya Niketan’s Fomento Amphitheatre on Saturday.
Goa is celebrating the 146th birth anniversary of Acharya D D Kosambi on October 9 and the talk was organised on this celebratory occasion.
"While he was impressed by the principles of truth and non-violence and followed them throughout his life, Kosambi was also attracted towards socialism and Gandhism in the later years, however being a wise learner, he never shied to point out the shortcomings of these four important pillars for leading a just, truthful, and fair life,” Prabhu added.
“Inspired by the life of Buddha as a teenager, Kosambi turned to Buddhism as a researcher and scholar who learnt the languages Sanskrit and Pali to understand the original teachings of Buddha. At 23, he left Goa to travel across India and to other countries in search of Buddha’s teachings and writings,” stated Prabhu, adding, "It was very difficult in those days to finance such travels, but Kosambi's urge to learn surmounted all hurdles and took him to places like Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Russia and USA."
Prabhu mentioned, “Kosambi was introduced to Gandhi by Acharya Krupalani. As Gandhi too, followed truth and non-violence, Kosambi got close to him and even spent time in his ashram. He even taught in an institution in Gujarat, that Gandhi has established and participated in salt satyagraha at Shiroda in Goa.”
However, Kosambi did not endorse the two aspects of Gandhi’s political life that encouraged ‘asthey’ and ‘aparigraha’, meaning taking donations from those who were indulged in cheating others. Kosambi also met Jawaharlal Nehru and coaxed him to adopt socialism as Congress agenda. Studying Buddhism, socialism and Gandhism, but selecting only the good of all these, Kosambi placed these ideologies before the common man through his books, said Prabhu.
“Like father, like son – D D Kosambi’s son, Damodar Kosambi too followed his father’s footsteps. A polymath he was interested in mathematics, statistics, philosophy, history and genetics. Goa and Goans should be proud of these two great scholars and study and embrace what they taught to the world. Be like them,” appealed Prabhu.
