Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | NXg | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

Look who's talking in Sanskrit!

On weekends, Saarathi is found chilling out at a pub but on weekdays, she's busy learning Sanskrit.

Why Sanskrit, one might ask? “Why not. It's fun to learn one of the oldest languages. It would be a shame if we let Sankskrit fade, like Hebrew,” she says. Youngsters these days are taking to Sanskrit. And scoring marks in the exams doesn't seem to be the only incentive to opt for this language.

Tattoo enthusiasts are also sporting Sanskrit words. Joysen, a tattoo artist, says that the past two years have seen a growing number of people wanting to stamp a ‘bit of culture' onto themselves. He says that the next generation is resorting to chanting slokas, and their favourite hymns are the Gayatri mantra or Mahamrityunjaya mantra that express inner power.

Vikram, also a tattoo artist, says that some couples get tattooed their partners' names in the Swastika font. There are certainly many who are drawn to this language because they feel like they are doing something different. But most of the people who are learning Sanskrit are doing it as a way to reconnect with our culture and heritage.

Kaushik Vaideeswaran, an engineering graduate, says, “I used to learn Sanskrit during school, but over the years other things took priority. I want to get back to learning Sanskrit now. It's a direct connection with my origins and it's one language with a brilliant sound to it, so why not?” He adds that Sanskrit is a part of Indian culture that has not been adulterated by anything else. He finds it helps him appreciate literature that he usually reads in translation, and a great deal is lost in translation. Sanskrit deserves to be propagated, he feels, but not forced on us.

In the wake of this new-found demand, schools teaching Sanskrit are emerging across most cities and towns in the country. Samskrita Bharathi, started in 1981 at Bangalore, now has a branch in Hyderabad. Shubha from the institution says, “We conduct basic classes in spoken Sanskrit and we are seeing a growing response from the younger generation with many college students and software engineers enrolling for these classes.” Akarsh Simha, currently studying in the University of Texas, says, “I think learning Sanskrit made it easy for me to understand other Indian languages and even some foreign languages (I learned German after learning Sanskrit, and could draw so many parallels), since many words and grammatical structures are common. Sanskrit is probably one of the most structured languages, and that makes learning other languages easier. I think there is still unexplored literature in Sanskrit.” Even if Sanskrit is still not considered as hip or stylish as French or German, the trend to learn this language is definitely catching on.

The Sanskrit news on All India Radio might just have new listeners!

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail