Lunch with BS: Donald Davis, the dharma of ideology

A leading expert on the Dharmashastras explains why he thinks Sanskrit scholarship has waned in Indi

The 114-year-old Maidens Hotel has an engagingly eccentric ambiance about it, suggestive of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Overstuffed upholstery or the clutter of Raj memorabilia are not the only elements that reinforce this image. A 12.30 pm table reservation for this lunch with Donald Davis, a noted Sanskrit scholar at the University of Texas, doesn’t seem to have registered. The doors to The Curzon Room are locked and unresponsive to my knocking. An intercom call from the concierge finally opens sesame onto an ornate and slightly stuffy room.
 
It strikes me that Davis’ choice — dictated by proximity