Sometimes it happens that monuments are erected to well-known people only for the fact that they were passing through these places. For others who were living and working in the Vitebsk region - complete oblivion.
The name of our great countryman Caetano A. Kossovich is hardly known to ordinary readers. Information about him is very poor. Nevertheless, it can be put in one row with Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Dobroluboff.
Actually, they were friends - they were in the same club, led by Stankevich. In his university years, his friends were Tolstoy, Obolensky and Golitsyn. Once they saved Kossovich from departation to the Caucasus.
As for the organ-players - Bach, for mathematicians - Pythagoras, so for Sanskrit students an unquestioned authority is Kossovich, the first Sanskrit scientist of the St. Petersburg University.
Sanskrit, as it is known, refers to the dead, outdated language. But in Sanskrit there were written greatest examples of manuscripts of Aryan civilization, the holy Mahabharata, with its unparalleled Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas, Upanishads and the laws of Manu. Sanskrit is also the ancestor of all Slavic languages.
Just think! Exept of Sanskrit Caetano A. perfectly knew and mastered ancient Iran (zendskim) and Old Persian, Jewish, Greek and Latin, and the newest: German, French, Italian, English, Greek and Arabic, Polish and Czech. For the residents of the 21 st century it looks fantastic! Moreover, Kossovich issued "Sanskrit-Russian Dictionary", "Greek-Russian Dictionary", "Jewish grammar". He taught Greek (Belinsky called Kossovich passionate Hellenists "), he was the author of many translations.
But for all its miraculous ability for languages, he poorly understood ... numbers! Valentin Pikul in his "Historical Miniatures" says that the most difficult for Kossovich was the number "seven" - the basis of the Jewish Kabbalah. It was sometimes ridiculous - Caetano elementary could not pay in the shop for the food! he gave all cash on the counter and asked the seller to count off the desired amount.
But let's come back to the beginning of our narration. Cayetano A.was born in 1815 in a "poor Belarusian village" near Polotsk, which name has not been preserved for history, in a family of a poor priest. The first school was the Uniate School in Polotsk, where he studied until 1828. Then - Vitebsk. Because of the absence of a uniforms for students, Caetano entered a school for bazilyantsev. Later, when he bought the uniform for two bottles of Tsimlyanskii wine , Kossovich enetred Vitebsk school. Pikul describes in details the entire interior of poverty: a mattress on the floor and a chair ... Oh, yes! Also - the bookcase with books in old Jewish language. That is, indeed, a treasure for the young inquisitive mind!
Rumors that a poor self-taught Belarusian learned old Jewish Talmud, so well that the local city rabbi shaked his head helplessly, say about the superiority of Kossovich in the knowledge of languages. The Jewish community of St. Petersburg, during the life of the author, promised to put a monument to the professor, for the transfer of valuable texts from the ancient Hebrews. Where is he this monument? Hey!
Next will be career, translations, ranks and positions - all the things that made him famous and outstanding.
Studying foreign languages, A. Cayetano did not give offense to his native Belarussian language. Here are his words in the comments to his own article: "I will note that the Belarusian dialect is not Lithuanian, as claimed, wrongly, and not one that was used in writing in the XVI century. Because the Belarusian language is something other than the Polish language with the Russian form ... Also, it can not be considered and Russian ... "
Sparrow, who was born in the stable, can not be called a horse. Privy Counselor, Dr. comparative linguistics, academic, peer who was not in scientific circles throughout the world, Caetano A. Kossovich is a personality of the planetary scale. But on the whole planet there was no place for a memorial to the memory of this great person! On the monuments the following words could be written: "Knowing so many languages, who are you to the actual fact: Sanskrit scientist, Semitic, Hellenist ...?
- Alas, I am just ...a Belarusian, who adores his poor people. "
Great Sanskrit scientist from Vitebsk!!!!
