- George L. Hart
George L. Hart (born c. 1945) is a professor of
Tamil language at theUniversity of California, Berkeley .Hart received his
Ph.D. inSanskrit fromHarvard University and taught at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison before joining the faculty at Berkeley. He has studiedLatin and Greek as well as several modern European and Indian languages.Hart is best-known for his translations of several Tamil epics into English and for asserting that Tamil should be classified as a
classical language , which is stated clearly in a letter addressed to Professor Maraimalai on April 11th, 2000. On September 18th, 2004 the Indian Union Cabinet recognized Tamil as a classical language. In2002 , Hart, along with co-author Hank Heifetz, was the recipient of the "AAS South Asia Council (SAC) Ramanujan Book Prize." The two produced a volume of translated Tamil poetry entitled "Four Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom."Hart is also the author of several Tamil and Sanskrit textbooks. He is married to
Kausalya Hart , herself a professor and Tamil textbook author.Works
*"The Poems of Ancient Tamil, Their Milieu and Their Sanskrit Counterparts"
*"A Rapid Sanskrit Method "
*"The Four Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom: An Anthology of Poems from Classical Tamil, the Purananuru"
*"Poets of the Tamil Anthologies: Ancient Poems of Love and War"
*"The Forest Book of the Ramayana of Kampan"External links
* [http://tamil.berkeley.edu/Tamil%20Chair/TamilChair.html Profile in UC Berkeley site]
* [http://archives.aaraamthinai.com/samugam/newpgs/march2002/mar28_george.asp Interview with Hart] (in Tamil)
* [http://tamil.sify.com/kalachuvadu/sep05/fullstory.php?id=13959488 Interview with a Tamil magazine] (in Tamil)
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