In most people’s perception, Sanskrit is a dead language, and there is very little correlation between the language and the modern world. The newer generation knows very little of the language and it is thought to be an extremely difficult language.
Bharat Nivas is now hosting a series of events that will help dispel these myths about the language.
Dance performancePart of the celebrations was a dance performance based on the works of Jiddu Krishnamurthi on Thursday. The performance was by five dancers in five different styles – Smitha Madhav for Bharatnatyam, Masaka Ono for Odissi, Prateeksha Kashi for Kuchupudi, Rashmi Menon for Mohiniattam and Achutha Manasa dancing in the Kathak style.
The show titled ‘Essence of Life’ is the brainchild of Dega Dev Kumar Reddy, who produced the show.
The idea of the show is to bring the philosophical teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurthi to the common man through dance. During the process of creating the show, we made a decision to translate Krishnamurthi’s work into Sanskrit, because the elegant power of the language goes beautifully with the dance form, Mr. Reddy explained.
It is also a way to try and bring back tradition to the younger generation. This is why we incorporated traditional art forms and Sanskrit with modern existential problems that are faced by everyone.
The performance was divided into three parts – Essence of Meditation, Essence of Life and the Thillana, How to be free from the self, he said.
On Thursday evening, Lieutenant Governor Virendra Kataria, who attended the show, also inaugurated the Ujjeevanam exhibition that shows how Sanskrit is also a modern language. Modern philosophical and even scientific lessons are present in many of the ancient Sanskrit texts.
The exhibition also features panels with little known factoids on Sanskrit, like how the first words spoken through the phonograph were in Sanskrit by Max Mueller.
Along with the exhibition, on Saturday there is a workshop at Kalakendra on chanting in Sanskrit and the magic and logic of the language from 9.30am and a talk on the Relevance of Sanskrit in South Indian Languages, organiser of the events Tapas said.
