Respected Dr. Vachaspati Uapadhyay, Dr. V.R.Panchamukhi, Dr. Kutumba Shastri, Dr. Pankaj Chande, Dr. Radhavallabh Tripathi, Dr. Prasad Kaipa, Mr. Sudheendra Kulkarni, Dr. Mahadevan, Sri Shridev Sharma, all the present and former Vice Chancellors, and experts from different walks of life.
I feel honoured and priviledged, more than happy, in extending a very hearty welcome to you all this morning on a day following the birthday of Lord Ganesh, the God of learning, wisdom, knowledge and intellect. I am overwhelmed by the presence of such an eminent and learned fraternity in this room.
I begin with a note of apology to you all. You are all leaders in your own right heading one or other educational institution, busy shaping the India of tomorrow. The focus of the day is Samskrit. While you are all scholars of Samskrit, let me candidly admit that I am a stranger to Samskrit in the sense that I did try to learn Samskrit but could not. Having held the Highest Judicial Office of the country and having lived a life full of achievements and satisfaction the only regret which I have is that I could not learn Samskrit though I wished I should have.
The objective of the today's meeting is to collectively think an action plan to promote Samskrit. The splendor of the language and the treasure of knowledge hidden in the ancient texts are well-known to be reeated. Recollection of the past glory happens only when the present is pathetic. As we all know, we have serious challenges to face; it is in the form of lack of parronage, dwinding student strength, vanishing scholars, failure to attract the best minds towards Samskrit learning, debilitating policy environment towards Indian languages, fast enveloping western culture, lack of financial resources and above all, lack of self-confidence in ourselves. Some of us, like minded people, have come together and formed a Foundation with an intention to do our little bit to promote Samskrit language and learning. The objectives are laudable and we are making sincere efforts to put in action our own commitments in this regard. Our aim is also to use the existing infrastructure available and to think of rejuvenating the same. In order to do that we may have to modify the same, alter the content and change the mindset so that we are still relevant to the fast changing world. Among all, the most difficult part of this process is to change our mind-set of the stakeholders the target citizenry especially the youth and the younger ones. While the need of adapting to the ever-changing and fast moving trends and demands of the modern society cannot be overlooked yet we cannot afford to compromise with our rich heritage and with what is essentially our own; and if we do so we are paying essentially a very heavy price and committing breach of duty which we owe to our future generation and breach of trust with ourselves, with our Matrabhumi, that is Bharat(India).
During the course of the day, we will discuss what we can do for promotion of Samskrit in the long run. The long run vision should be accommodating small steps needed to achieve the objectives. Therefore, we shall necessarily think about the immediate action plans which should be consistent with the vision and which are `doable'. I call upon this august gathering to come out with a clear flow chart of activities so that at the end of a reasonable time gap, we can show to ourselves that we have made progress.
I am a man of law and having been a judge let me begin with the Constitution of India, the law of the land, the law of the laws. Articles 345 and 346 made provision for Official Language of the Centre and States assigning Hindi a place of prominence. More important is Article 351 which incorporates a special directive- a command to those who are entrusted with the task of administering the Constituion. It provides;
"It Shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary of desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskirt and Secondarily on other languages".
In 1994, a dispute arose for decision before the Supreme Court of India.[Santosh Kumar & others. v. Secretary, Minister of Human Resources Development & Anr.(1994) 6 SCC 579]. The question was one of retaining Sanskrit as an elective subject in the syllabus. A few observations made by the highest court of the country are pertinent. To quote,(the words are almost poetic):
"We, the people of India" have always held in high esteem the cultural heritage of this ancient lane.
"Learning the Sanskrit is undoubtedly necessary for protection of this heritage. The stream of our culture would get dried if we were to discourage the study of Sanskrit. "
"Without the learning of Sanskrit is is not possible to decipher the Indian Philosophy on which our culture and heritage are based. "
"Victories are gained, peace is preserved progress is achieved, civilization is built up and history is made, not in the battlefields but in educational institutions which are seed beds of culture.
Perhaps it will be useful if we hear the innovative approaches adopted by the Samskrit Universties and the success stories to start with so that other can follow if it is feasible in their context. There is a need for competition for excellence. There is a scope for highlighting the achievements so that we start believing in ourselves. We should share our knowledge, pool our resources, adopt a common strategy so that we draw our strength form the collective effort. We should be confident that the detiny awaits us as this is the only language and philosophy which can salvage the troubled and torn world.
I would like to draw your attention to the following few important aspects of Samskrit Promotion activities.
The greatest tradition of the world is Shastra Tradition i.e. Knowledge Tradition of India. All of us are aware and worried about the steep decline in the number of Shastra Scholars. Every effort should be made not only to preserve but also to popularize this Shastra Tradition and to produce hundreds of Shastra scholoars in every Shastra in every state.
Though there has been a continual flow of modern literary tradition in Samskrit,creative literature and translations from other languages to Samskrit is very minimal compare to other language literatures. Modern developments, current topics etc have to be brought into Samskrit literature. All types and forms of contemporary literature have to be created in Samskrit.
Since Samskrit had been and is being taught through other languages and since students write answer papers of Samskrit examinations in other languages, there are very few people who can write in good Samskrit. Hence there is a need to create writers in Samskrit, In order to produce modern Sanskrit literature. There is also a need to produce readers in order to produce literature. But readers cannot be produce without the literature. Hence we have to begin with giving fillip to new Samskrit literature.
Till now for the last two centuries Samskrit works were being translated to English and other languages. Due to this, though some people became aware of the greatness of Samskrit and its literature,practically, other languages and their literatures grew and got enriched, but not Samskrit.
This stupendous task of creating modern Samskrit literature will be accomplished in two stages, namely translation and Creation. Initially Samskrit scholars will translate good works of other language literatures to Samskrit and then they will create their own.
Language is essentially speech medium. Hence language should be learnt through speech only. That is why we find today every new book published is accompanied with an Audio CD of the text. It also helps those who do not have time to read, but can listen to while travelling etc. Listeing helps the learner to acquire the language, the pronunciation, vocabulary etc. Listening and speaking is the natural way of learning a language. It is more important for the students of Samskrit to listen to Audio Books since there is less environment of spoken Samskrit, lesser the correct Samskrit, still more relevant for the pronunciation of sandhi words, samasa(compound) words and slokas etc.
Good and effective teachers with fairly good command over Samskrit language and Shastras are very rare to get now a days, rarer is the time for the student to go near the teacher. Hence there is a great need for DVDs of various types of graded Samskrit lessons, lectures on various topics etc.
Ancient Indian manuscripts are a great repository of Knowledge encompassing every walk of life, be it science and technology, agriculture and sculpture, astronomy and architecture, medicine and metallurgy, mathematics and management, economics and ecology.
According to the estimation of the National Manuscripts Mission, there are a few million manuscripts in both organized and unorganized sector. More than 95% of them are not published, not even edited. Many of the scripts in which they are written are also not read and studied today. More paining is that these manuscripts are being eaten away by termites and insects.
Immediate attention has to be paid to preserve, edit and publish the manuscripts for the sake of Knowledge Retrieval, Knowledge Creation and Knowledge Dissemination.
There are a few lakh Samskrit Teachers in the country. But unfortunately most of them are not able to communicate in Samskrit due to the teaching method prevailed in the teaching of Samskrit for the last 150 years, which is 2300 years old European method called Grammar Translation method, where in Samskrit is taught through other languages. Unless and until the modern methods and approaches to language teaching are introduced in Samskrit language teaching,unless and until Samskrit is taught through Samskrit, Samskrit will not flourish.
For the revival of Samskrit, teaching methodology has to be changed and the interest of students revived and for that purpose the first step is to undertake teacher training in a large scale.
In order to make the Samskrit class more effective and attractive, new methods, new text books and new evaluation system may have to be introduced in Samskrit Education. The biggest hindrance or challenge in this regard would be Samskrit teachers themselves since they lack Samskrit language skills. Hence the mission of motivating and training Samskrit teacher is a stupendous task.
There are Six needs for the development of language. They are 1) Speakers 2) As a medium of Education, Administration, commerce, communication, Entertainment etc 3) Contemporary literature 4) Continuous process of word generation5) Adoptation of the technology and 6) Patronage. Though we have to look into all the six needs, focused efforts may have to be done to make the effective use of tomorrow's technology to promote Samskrit.
Ayurveda is not growing because they have discarded Samskrit. Yoga, Gita, Vedanta are not understood properly due to lack of Samskrit knowledge. People all over the world are hungry of Samskrit to access the primary sources in Samskrit. Hence give them all the knowledge that Samskrit contains, but give it through Samskrit, then only your Samskrit will be in demand. Create such a situation that learning Samskrit becomes indispensable. Prepare great products, i.e. great learning tools in Samskrit, and go to world market with all the bangs and blitz. Let us do it aggressively.
The work in front of us is stupendous. The great jurist setalvad, writes in his monumental work- Constitutional Laws of India,(third Edition, Vol.2, at P.2143)
"As regards the cultural and scientific advancement of India, the impact of mind on mind, and the free inter-change of literary and scientific knowledge is essential, if a broad national outlook is not to be lost. Languages cannot be made to order, and unless the word used `come home to men's business and bossoms' they will secure no hold on the minds and hearts of men."
Therefore, we should assess our potential and make efforts to increase our sphere of influence. The kind of hurdles we face need not be enumerated but we shall have to have the courage to overcome those. And, such courage would only come from our belief that what we are doing is correct and righteous.