An essay on Srimanta Sankaradeva by Sanjib Kumar Borkakoti, a Nagaon-based industrial economist, has been included as part of Department of Religion’s course material at Harvard University.
Borkakoti has been a researcher of medieval Assamese literature and various aspects of Vaishnavism that Sankaradeva propagated.
The essay used by Harvard University is titled Unique features of Srimanta Sankaradeva’s religious philosophy Vivaratanvâda: Comparison with other Sanâtana Hindu philosophies.
He uploaded the essay some 10 years back on a blog dedicated to Sankardev.
Reacting to this, Borkakoti said that he was unaware of it and he is not sure as for how long the University has been using the essay.
“But I found out last week when the university uploaded a part of the treatise as Religion S-1010 probably because of pandemic-related online dissemination of course,” The Hindu reported quoting the scholar.
He further said that apart from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), other Indian universities do not use acknowledged scholastic works as study material unlike the universities from the West.
The 60-year-old associate professor of Economics at Nagaon’s ADP College did his post-graduation in 1983 from JNU.
Borkakoti has also authored several books on Sankaradeva, apart from several essays and articles.