t was a gully cricket match in Bengaluru. A
few children were playing with a couple of “audience” watching in the “stand”.
What brought the game fame was the animated commentary in Sanskrit. No less in josh and jest in comparison with a
commentary in English or any other language. The clipping went viral until it
drew the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He found it quite amusing
and retweeted with words of appreciation. Bowled over by the versatility of the
ancient tongue, once misconstrued as rigid, many in their comments have evinced
interest in learning the language.
Is this an isolated instance that set the
ball rolling? No, the trend of learning
Sanskrit has already begun in recent years and is picking up the pace. The language once relegated to the
background as esoteric and dead is resurrecting like a phoenix.
There have been experts and admirers of the
ancient language at all times, but the number, these days, has grown many
fold. People, of late, have become
aware of the enormous potential of Sanskrit.
The haze of misconception that Sanskrit is just religious hymns and
ritualistic practice has melted away exposing the valuable treasure.
Samskrita Bharathi, a non-government
organization has been rendering yeoman service in reaching the language to
the common mass since its inception in 1982. Sanskrit that was confined just to
scholarly discussions until then was brought into everyday conversations
through its spoken Sanskrit classes.
Perhaps, it
is a way to introduce the
flavour of the language, only to prod them to
learn further.
“Samskrita Bharathi is
reaching out to people without any discrimination in terms of caste, gender, religion or status,“
says H R Vishwasa of Samskrita Bharathi. He believes Sanskrit has to be restored like the way
Hebrew was resurrected in Israel by teaching the
language, that was at the brink of extinction, to children.
Many factors have contributed in reaching
the language to a wider populace. People
learn the language for the sheer beauty of it. It is a key to unlock the rich
heritage and literature. “Sanskrit helps
me to develop a connection with my roots, be it our hymns or mythology,” says
Mangalore-based homemaker Latha Shankar who
is into Sanskrit learning from the past few years.
The language broadens the perspective on
almost all walks of life be it politics, religion, arts, science or sociology.
It provides a larger canvas for logical thinking. Mattur in Shivamogga district of Karnataka
has the unique distinction of the entire village speaking the ancient tongue.
However, that does not mean the village has a bygone era ambience. Every
household, it is said, has produced at least one IT professional. Perhaps,
Sanskrit in their life from early childhood has provided them a strong foundation.
The teachers at the schools at Mattur admit that
the students have an excellent grasping capacity.
The development of technology, in fact, has
opened the floodgates for Sanskrit learning and availability of resources. The Covid-19 pandemic was a blessing in disguise for
Sanskrit. As in any other field, the
resource persons explored the means to reach their audience.
Technologically-challenged/reluctant Sanskrit old-timers too were able to
switch to electronic means, thanks to the user-friendly
technology. Today many texts and lectures by scholars are available on various
platforms. Sanskrit has made entry into every possible social media
channels.
The tech-savvy aficionados have exploited the technology to the hilt.
Earlier, the resources were lying with a few scholars with a limited reach.
This could have been due to rigidity or the lack of means to reach a larger
audience. Today, the resources are available free or for a price online. The
development of computational tools has made Sanskrit learning easy and
interesting. The Ashtadhyayi.com, the brainchild of Nilesh Bodas, a senior
executive at Google, has turned out to be a go-to resource for
Sanskrit learners.
The stupendous achievement of Bengaluru-based Vyoma Linguistics Lab
Foundation can, mainly, be attributed to the piggyback ride of the ancient
Sanskrit on modern technology. Founded mainly to overcome all the challenges involved in
working for the cause of Sanskrit, the organization
could build an extensive repository of Sanskrit learning audio, video,
multimedia tools, talks/demonstration and published materials in its almost a decade-long existence. Its
vast network of experts offers several courses mostly free and a few paid. The
compilation of resources is such that today, Vyoma has emerged an open access
one-stop solution for all Sanskrit needs.
Pushpa Dikshit, based in Bilaspur, Chhattisghar who has
simplified Panini’s Ashtadhyayi, is teaching the interested at her home
and online as well. Touted as the modern Panini by her admirers, she claims,
her novel approach can make children grasp the Paninia grammar in six months,
an otherwise hard nut to crack.
Enamoured with the potential of the language her disciple Dr. Swarup, a surgeon in the US, has taken upon himself the
task of reaching the language to as many people as possible. He has created a
platform of a large network of teachers, students and student-turned teachers.
The free-of-cost online learning platform, spurs the students to teach also so that the continuity of the dissemination of
Sanskrit is
ensured.
Many professionals are as passionate about
Sanskrit as their mainstay.
Bengaluru-based psychiatrist and Sanskrit scholar Dr Shankar Rajaraman, the recipient of the Maharshi Badarayan
Vyas Samman, a Presidential Award, got his
doctorate from the National Institute of Advanced Medical Sciences on a topic
that bridges contemporary psychology and Sanskrit poetics.
Besides Sanskrit universities, many
universities in the country offer undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral
studies.There are many need-based certificate courses too. Sanskrit has flown beyond
India too. Thanks to the
interest of the young and the educated abroad, the language is finding a global
revival. Some universities abroad offer Sanskrit courses. Samskrita Bharathi that offers many correspondence
courses, conducts activities on foreign soil also.
In addition, innumerable people are
learning the language informally under various platforms. They learn for the
sheer joy it brings. Scholars like Dorbala Prabhakar Shastri, R Ganesh and Srinivasa Varakhedi apart from their responsibilities at academic circles are committed to the cause of Sanskrit resurrection. Numerous resource persons who
teach Sanskrit informally are, indeed, the invisible footsoldiers in the task.
There are many general interest
publications in Sanskrit like Sudharma, Rasana, Samskrita Bhavitavyam and Samskrita Sambhashana Sandesha. The tech
advancement in the field is such that Samskrita Sambhashana Sandesha
brought out its audio version recently claiming it to be the first audio magazine in India. Many literary works in other languages have
been translated into Sanskrit.
“Efforts are
going on to make Sanskrit an intermediary language among different languages,” says Vishwasa.
Due to the renewed interest of the young and the educated
towards the language, Sanskrit could shed all prejudices surrounding it. People have started appreciating the
systematic language for what it has been.
The number of those who bat for Sanskrit is steadily growing.
- Sanoor Indira Acharya
