Who is a Scholar

I like what Max Muller says about scholarship:

…There are many scholars, and very useful they are in their own way, but if their books are examined, one easily finds the stores from which they borrowed their materials. They may add some notes of their own and even some corrections, particularly corrections of the authors from whom they have borrowed most; but at the end where is the fresh ore that they have raised; where is the gold they have extracted and coined?  There are cases where the original worker is quite forgotten, whereas the retailers flourish. Well, facts are facts, whether known or not known, and the triumphal chariot of truth has to be dragged along by many hands and many shoulders.—Prof. F. Max Muller, KM. MY Autobiography: A Fragment, Chaukhambha Orientalia, 1974, Varanasi, India, p. 156

For me a scholar is the one who knows the original language to do research without the aid of any other works. Rest is only, as Muller rightly said, ‘borrowers’ from other’s work. Particularly a person like me who reads books by other scholars is only a learner. By reading books by others I only gather ‘INFORMATION’ on a particular subject.  This might help me to increase my knowledge in a particular subject but never makes me a scholar.  Similarly improving one’s knowledge in a particular subject will never make a person a wise person. In fact wisdom has nothing to do with learning.  Even an uneducated person can have wisdom in her/his own field. Because wisdom comes only through experience as someone well said, ‘our knowledge comes out of experience and our experience comes out of our mistakes’.  At the same time mere wisdom won’t make a person wise.  Only if she/he implements that wisdom in practical life will she become wise.

Another best example is that I know Tamil and even write poems. But I am not a Tamil scholar. Because I don’t know Tamil grammar, particularly poetical grammar which is a very complicated one. In fact as far as I know Tamil grammar is more difficult than any other grammar.  I not only make spelling mistakes but even grammar mistakes.  So even the one who knows her mother tongue cannot claim to be a scholar, unless she becomes an authority in her chosen field. 

Mathigiri, 18-3-2021