It was a village with a house, market and shops amidst other usual activities. A closer look clearly showed that the names of shops were not written in English or Tamil. The language that people there spoke was different, but enjoyable.
It was a Sanskrit Village that was setup by Samskrita Bharati Trust at the two-day ‘Samskrita Maha Sammelanam’ at Shri Nehru Vidyalaya, on Saturday and Sunday.
The village was aimed at giving the common man an experience of living in a village of that kind and enjoying the richness of the language and associated arts.
The model village had a model house where even children conversed only in that language.
A gurukulam, shops selling fruits and vegetables, ornaments, textiles and sweets where shopkeepers named the items and bargained only in Sanskrit were the salient features of the village. However, they also explained the conversation to the layman.
On end of the village, bhajans were sung and slokas were recited in Sanskrit, while there were stalls where children were taught martial arts and games that were prevalent in the Vedic period.
Organisers said that now there are only five Sanskrit Villages in India. Among them are Mathur, about 50 km from Bengaluru, and Jhiri village in Madhya Pradesh.
Apart from the village, 150 charts were displayed in the Pradarshini (exhibition) in which scientific aspects of the language, modern inventions that were long back described in Sanskrit manuscripts, were on display.
Algorithms for creating ‘arohanam’ and ‘avarohanam’ for creating 72 melakartha ragas (mathematical computations), charts depicting 17 Vyuhams (formations) that are described in Mahabharatham, select Subashitas (words of wisdom) of Chanakya Needhi and other manuscripts and arts projecting the richness of that language were also at the Samskrita Maha Sammelanam.
About 1,200 children took part in the various Sanskrit competitions and performed cultural programmes, including a drama with conversations completely in Sanskrit.
Speaking on the occasion, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said that Sanskrit is not a Brahmin’s language. “According to NASA, Sanskrit is the most computer-friendly language. It would soon overtake English and become the international language,” Mr. Swamy added.
Swami Sadatmananda from Arsha Vidya Gurukulam said that Sanskrit and Hebrew were once celebrated languages globally but they share the same status now, despite their importance.
He said that more than 80,000 words in Tamil were from Sanskrit.
All-Bharat organising secretary of Samskrita Bharati Dinesh Kamath, said three commonly used Tamil words Aama , Seekram and Kalyana Mandapam were derived from Sanskrit.
The president of Samskrita Bharati Trust, Dakshina (South) Tamilnadu, S. Anantha Kalyana Krishnan, said that the event was jointly organised by various organisations that are striving hard to promote Sanskrit.
