Dr. S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma was born in a traditional family in Andhra Pradesh. His primary education in Sanskrit was given by his father BrahmaŚrī Śriṣṭi Śrī Rāmaśarmā and later on by his paternal uncle, BrahmaŚrī Śriṣṭi Sāmbamūrtiśāstrī, who taught him advanced Sanskrit with special reference to grammar (vyākaraṇaśāstra) and poetics (alaṃkāraśāstra). He continued his studies at Andhra University where he obtained his Master’s degree in 1970 and completed his Ph.D. in 1987. Later in his life he remained true to the traditional education: he studied Advaitavedānta under the guidance of BrahmaŚrī R. Kṛṣṇamūrtiśāstrī and BrahmaŚrī Maṇidrāviḍaśāstrī, and is currently undergoing formal training in Mīmāṃsā (Bhāṭṭamīmāṃsā) under BrahmaŚrī K. Rāmasubrahmaṇyaśāstrī. He has acquired formal titles of “Vyākaraṇavidvat” from Śrī Veṅkateśvaraveda-śāstra-āgamavidvat-sadas, Tirupati, in 1982 and “Vedāntaśāstra-viśārada” from Śrī Jagadguru Śaṅkarācārya of Sringeri in 2001.
Dr. S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma joined the Pondicherry Centre of the Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), as a Chargé de recherche (research fellow) in 1987 and has since then been actively involved in the research activities carried out at the centre as an independent scholar as well as in collaboration with other researchers. During the first two years of his service, S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma contributed to the preparation of Pāṇinīyavyākaraṇodāharanakośa. In the following years he was employed in collaborative research within the framework of the program “Indian Analysis of the Sanskrit Language and Literature”, led by Professor F. Grimal, the then Head of the Pondicherry Centre of the EFEO. This research resulted in the publication of critical editions and studies of two major commentaries on classical Sanskrit plays of Bhavabhūti: Vīrarāghava’s commentary on Mahāvīracarita (published in 1999) and Harihara’s commentary on Mālatīmādhava (published in 2005). In collaboration with Professor Grimal he has been working on the preparation of a critical edition and translation of Kāvyadarpaṇa, a literary work by Rājacūḍāmaṇidīkṣita, as well as on several publications within the newly founded series “Vyākhyānamālā”, the first volume of which (Sarma and Grimal [2013]) has been recently published. His current research includes a critical edition of Tripathagā, a commentary on Nageśa’s Paribhāṣenduśekhara. As an independent researcher S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma has focused his attention on the study of different aspects of traditional Indian grammar and published two major monographs and a great number of articles in this field (see the publication list below).
Throughout his long career at the EFEO, Pondicherry, Dr. S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma has continuously been a source of knowledge and inspiration for a wide range of scholars (from students up to the most advanced researchers) coming to Pondicherry from different parts of the world to seek his assistance. He has also been invited to teach courses at the Indological departments of two European Universities: École Pratique des Hautes Études in June 2011 (lecture-series “Readings in the Bhāmatī and in other commentaries of the tradition of philosophical Vedānta”) and University of Hamburg in 2014 (“Intensive Course on Indian Grammar and Poetics”).
As a member of the DHARMA project Dr. S.L.P. Anjaneya Sarma is collaborating in editions of inscriptions to be included in the project’s epigraphic data-base, working on locating and analysing descriptions of ashrams and other pre-modern religious establishments in literary works in Telugu and in Sanskrit and helping visiting scholars with the interpretation of Sanskrit and Telugu inscriptions and other relevant medieval sources.
Selected Publications
2009 Guruprasādapariśīlanam (laghuśabdenduśekharavyākhyāyā guruprasādākhyāyā adhyayanam), Rashtriya Sanskrit University Publication Series, Tirupati, Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha.
2013 (with François Grimal), Vyākhyānamālā: Bhaṭṭojidīkṣita on the Gajasūtra, Pondichéry, Institut Français de Pondichéry.
2013 (with Alex Watson and Dominic Goodall), An Enquiry into the Nature of Liberation. Bhaṭṭa Rāmakaṇṭha’s Paramokṣanirāsakārikāvṛtti. a commentary on Sadyojyotiḥ’s refutation of twenty conceptions of the liberated state (mokṣa), Pondicherry, Institut Français de Pondichéry/Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient (Collection Indologie 122).
2016 Ṇeraṇausūtravyākhyānāni (Unpublished Commentaries on Panini’s rule (1.3.67)), Part-1, New Delhi, Rashtriya Samskrit Samsthan.
