Summer Camps Revive India's Ancient Sanskrit

Sanskrit teacher Vijay Singh uses everyday props such as light bulbs, combs and toothpaste to teach the 4,000-year-old language at a camp in New Delhi. (Photo: Rama Lakshmi/Post)
Buy Photo

"The Sanskrit project was initiated by the previous government. They had their own priorities. The project was so-so. How many people really speak Sanskrit in India?" said Ramjanam Sharma, head of languages at the National Council of Educational Research and Training, a government body that designs school curriculums. Defending the decision to cut the funding, he said it was not appropriate for schools to teach children how to converse in Sanskrit. "We cannot replicate the teaching methods of traditional religious schools in our mainstream schools."

Although Sanskrit is one of the 22 official Indian languages, census figures show that only about 14,100 people speak it fluently, in a nation of more than a billion people. Still, it is prevalent in the hymns and chants at Hindu temple rituals, as well as at birth, marriage and death ceremonies. Not unlike Latin in the West, Sanskrit was long the language of intellectual activity in ancient India.

"Some people oppose anything that promotes Sanskrit because of its association with Hinduism. We were just trying to make the language a fun experience for students," said Kamla Kant Mishra, a Sanksrit professor and a member of the government project.

"To talk about Sanskrit is very political in India today," Mishra added. "That is the plight of the language."

The Indian government funds many colleges and universities that teach Sanskrit literature and scriptures, but it is not uncommon for even PhD students in the language to be unable to speak it. State-run schools offer a choice between a regional Indian language and Sanskrit. Many private schools offer Sanskrit, French, German and Spanish.

"I tell my students to opt for French, because it is useful if they choose to work in the hotel industry, or fashion or legal field. But there is no tangible use for Sanskrit except that they will learn an important part of our culture," said Vishakha Sharma, 40, a French teacher who teaches fifth- through eighth-graders in a private school. She said her school begins each morning with a Sanskrit chant. "It feels good to the ear, but students don't understand the meaning."

Meanwhile, some scholars are developing computer programs for Sanskrit and translating its rich repository of children's stories online. Last month, an alliance of international scholars from the United States, France and Germany was formed for Sanskrit computing.

"Sanskrit is very suitable for computing, because its grammar is complete with 4,000 rules and has a regular structure," said Girish Nath Jha, assistant professor of computational linguistics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

At Sanskrit camp, a 19-year old undergraduate said that Sanskrit is in her blood.

"When I learn any language, I learn about its history and its literature," said Jaya Priyam. "But when I study Sanskrit, I learn who I am. It is my identity."