Wednesday, February 20, 2008

First Step Of The Thousand Miles





Do you know that Germany wants to have a patent for Sanskrit? Do you know that Bhagavadgeetha is a part of the MBA syllabus in certain German universities?
Do you know that Sanskrit is the world’s most scientific language?

It is too unfortunate that in its own birth place, India, Sanskrit has suffered much neglect.

Anyway, to study Sanskrit in depth has been a childhood dream. It is one of those several things I wanted to do in my life.

I for one had the good fortune of being born in a family that revered Sanskrit and produced more than its share of Sanskrit scholars.
I studied the subject as part of my syllabus in high school and PUC. For five years.
And then I became preoccupied with other mundane subjects of the universities to attain “worldly wisdom”.

A few months ago, almost after 10 years of disconnection from Sanskrit, I went to a private institute called “Aksharam” in South Bangalore and registered myself for the very first examination, Pravesha.
I had my first exam on 17th of Feb 08. I did very well.

I was so impressed with the number of people who were writing the exam along with me. There were men and women, young and old, students, retired men and home makers. There were children half my age writing this exam on a Sunday morning! There is still hope for this country!

Hopefully that was my first step of the thousand miles that lie ahead….. In the not too distant future, I see myself reading plays of Kalidasa, Bhasa, Shudraka and others.

Moving forward, I intend to post to this space, bits of what I learn in Sanskrit. Subhashitas(profound sayings), Prahelikas(riddles) and interesting facts that I wish to share with you all.

I hope you will read them and try to appreciate them. I also hope that some of you in some way will try to help me nourish this language and revive the lost glitter. Thank you.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

any new posts on sanskrit by now? sorry if incase i have missed any, i am still in the process of going thro all your posts..
~B

Sowmya Chakravarthy said...

Lost treasure was a post on Sanskrit... somewhat related..

And yes, there has been a second step... will write about it soon...

Anonymous said...

We should not be surprised for German's interest in Sanskrit. It is a known fact Aryans came to India from Europe.

Hussain Jamali said...

A dumb Question from a dumb foreigner: is Sanskrit written in Hindi alphabets or it has it's own alphabets?

Arif Husain
Los Angeles, CAlifornia

Unknown said...

Hi Sowmya,
Anjana here I very intrested in learning sanskrit.When i recite the storas--i will always know their meaning.I would like to take up the sanksrit exam,can you give the details of the organization in south bangalore.Are they giving any study materil.Pls guide.or blog about the details.
Thanks
Anjana

Unknown said...

Hi Sowmya,
Anjana here I very intrested in learning sanskrit.When i recite the storas--i will always know their meaning.I would like to take up the sanksrit exam,can you give the details of the organization in south bangalore.Are they giving any study materil.Pls guide.or blog about the details.
Thanks
Anjana

Unknown said...

सौम्याः महाभागाः !

अनेन अत्र भवत्याः संस्कृतविषयकेन लेखनेन महद्धर्षो मे जायते। संस्कृतभाषा सर्वापेक्षया सम्यग्भाषा इति सर्वापेक्षया सम्यक्कथितम् अत्र भवत्या। ततः संस्कृतभाषाचर्चायाः क्रमिकेन ह्रासेन अस्माकं देशे महती क्षतिः स्यात्। नास्ति विषयस्तावत् यः खलु संस्कृते नास्ति। किंच पाश्चात्यदेशीयम् अत्याधुनिकं दर्शनमपि बहुसहस्राब्दपूर्वीये संस्कृते वर्तते। एवं परिस्थितौ अत्र भवत्याः संस्कृतविषयकदृढप्रीतिसन्दर्शनेन अत्र भवतीं प्रति बहुकृतज्ञता ज्ञाप्यते मया। अन्तेऽत्र भवत्याः दृढायाः रुचेरुत्तरोत्तराभिवृद्धिं संकाम्य विरम्यतेऽत्रेति शम्। सुदीप्तमुन्सीशर्मा

Srikrishna said...

I had done Pravesha, Parichaya and Abhigna exams. Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava first canto is one of the amazing reads. The glory of the Himalayas has been articulated splendidly. The 10th sloka in first canto on how the glowing herbs acted as lamps is still memorable after 30 years.