Replica village in Coimbatore seeks to revive Sanskrit

COIMBATORE: As one enters the Samskrita Gramam (a Sanskrit Village), words such as Swagatam (welcome) and Aagachattu (Please come) can be heard. There are small shops selling grocery, vegetables, fruits, snacks and ground nuts. One could also pass by a small temple and a bhajan mandap where one can hear a troupe singing bhajans, eagerly asking the public to join them.One cannot miss the astrologers and small huts where grandchildren are enjoying a game of dice with their grandparents. Then there is an arena where some men practise silambam and children playing.
The volunteers of Samskrita Bharati, Tamil Nadu chapter, have created a small replica of a village on the grounds of Shri Nehru Vidyalaya where the Maha Sammelanam is taking place. Samskrita Bharati is a non-profit organization which works globally to revive Sanskrit. More than 1,300 students from 22 districts of south Tamil Nadu have taken part in several competitions all of which based on the Sanskrit language. A book fair and an exhibition, displaying the contribution of Sanskrit to our culture and daily life, have also been set up.
“The idea behind this sammelanam is to promote Sanskrit among the current generation and make people speak the language. People always think that Sanskrit is only the language of the gods but it is not true,” said Anantha Kalyana Krishnan, president of Dakshina Tamil Nadu. Dinesh Kamath, all-India organising secretary of Samskrita Bharati said people unknowingly spoke Sanskrit all the time. “In every language that we speak, there are Sanskrit words. While other languages focus on the intelligence aspect, Sanskrit also has an emotional quotient connecting us with our culture, literature and forefathers,” he said.
Murali Venkatakrishnan, a former techie, who quit his job to become a fulltime volunteer at the Samskrita , set up a small mechanic shop at the Samskrita Gramam. “People keep saying that Sanskrit is a dying language and there is no use learning it. I attended a 10-day course to learn the language and fell in love with it. I quit my job to work as a full time volunteer,” said Murali.
The two-day event will conclude on Sunday. Apart from the competitions, children also performed dramas and other cultural programmes on the theme of Sanskrit. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who was the chief guest for the function, said the BJP government would ensure Sanskrit was introduced as an elective in all government schools and colleges in the country before the completion of their five-year term. “We will urge the private institutions as well to introduce Sanskrit as it is one of the most computer friendly languages as per various research organisations,” said Swamy.