Bol said that “the fact that Harvard might not be able to have [new professors studying South Asia] is a loss to all of us.”

But Eck said Sanskrit felt that gains in new appointments would be outweighed by the loss of its independence.

“In the last analysis, even students seemed unswayed by the promise of new positions under a merger and the withholding of positions without a merger,” she said. “We think it is wiser to negotiate a stronger South Asian department that would give full intellectual recognition to the complexity and significance of South Asia.”

An e-mail sent to Sanskrit concentrators by Sanskrit student representative Meghan C. Howard ’04 said Associate Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies Stephanie W. Jamison suggested at the meeting that Sanskrit might follow the path of the Linguistics department. Since Knowles appointed a committee to explore dissolving Linguistics in 1993, the department has hired multiple senior professors.

The e-mail also suggested that the department’s name might be changed to South Asian Languages and Civilizations, bringing it into line with the nomenclature used by most regional studies departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Bol said that despite the unexpected reversal, East Asian Studies concentrators for the upcoming academic year will not be affected.

Leonard van der Kuijp, chair of the Sanskrit and Indian Studies department, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

—Dan Rosenheck can be reached at rosenhec@fas.harvard.edu.