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National
It teaches Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu, Hindi It has endured attempts at destruction 
President Pratibha Patil interacts with Polish students studying Hindi at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, on Saturday. KRAKOW: When a Polish student tells the Indian President that she is learning Hindi, you know the university has to be special. And so it is. The Jagiellonian University, established in 1364, is the second oldest in Europe and has a tradition of Indological studies and teaches four Indian languages — Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu and Hindi. President Pratibha Patil, who landed in this scenic city on Saturday morning, visited the Jagiellonian University which, like the Polish people, has endured persecution and attempts at destruction, only to survive and thrive. Ms. Patil, who was received by the Rector, Karol Musiol, was taken around its picturesque campus where polymaths such as Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei received impetus to further their genius. Later, names such as Andrei Wajda and Karol Wojtyla (the later Pope John Paul II) enshrined the university’s standing not only among the Polish people but also the whole world. In fact, Mr. Wajda’s Oscar statuette stands in heavy competition with a Nobel medal and other honours in the university museum. The university, a pioneer in astronomy in the western hemisphere during the Renaissance, fittingly gave Ms. Patil a replica of a 15th century globe which depicts India also. She requested the university to start ayurvedic studies, and the officials said they would consider it. Ms. Patil referred to the university’s links with India, dating back to 1894. The Jagiellonian University also was a victim of the Holocaust when, in 1939, the Nazis closed it, arrested 183 of its staff and sent them to the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. Underground teaching started in 1942 and one of the students was Karol Wojtyla. In 1945, it bounced back. Today it has over 50,000 students. Like its outlook, the youngsters also look outwards. The young man who mans the counter at the souvenir shop told this correspondent that the Saturday night fever was “a Bollywood night.”
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