Every time I enter the UK on my way to start a new term at Oxford the border force agents are surprised and intrigued to hear that I am writing a doctorate in Sanskrit Dharmaśāstra. Why, they ask, would an American come all the way to Britain to study an ancient Indian language instead of engineering, law or medicine?
The short answer, that I often tell people, is that Dharmaśāstra is a fascinating, complex subject that people should study as one of the world’s greatest systems of jurisprudence. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a more ancient or more philosophically sophisticated legal system than that contained in the Dharmaśāstra smṛtis, nibandhas and commentaries.
The longer - and equally true - answer is that like most people, I fell into my course of study through a series of often unexpected occurrences and through meeting with and learning from many interesting and wonderful people in the United States, India and England.
I took my BA in the history of religion at Whitman College, a small university in the state of Washington, USA. I took a class on the Vedas as part of my distribution requirements. I was fascinated with ancient Indian religion and history and I was determined to learn Sanskrit.
I spent a summer in India with the International Summer School for Jain Studies (ISSJS) and I spent a summer studying Sanskrit at the South Asia Summer Language Institute at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. When I finished my BA I was fortunate to be elected a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar to India. I spent a year living in Varanasi and studied Sanskrit philosophy. Moving to a new country was a difficult adjustment, but the people of India were extremely kind and made me feel completely welcome.
I then moved to Harvard Divinity School to take an MA degree in Hindu Philosophy and Sanskrit. I wanted to unravel the secrets of the Vedas and the Vedānta, but I also became fascinated with kāvya and Dharmaśāstra. When the time came to undertake a doctorate I chose the University of Oxford because of its strong international focus and for the University’s expertise in Dharmaśāstra.
After three years in Britain I am grateful to call the UK home. One of the great experiences in life is moving to new places and meeting interesting people. Although studying Sanskrit has been immensely rewarding from an intellectual standpoint, I am most grateful for the enduring friendships, collaborations and conversations with others that it has given me.
(Christopher Fleming, a American citizen studying Dharmaśāstra as an international student at Balliol College, Oxford, shares his experiences).
