Sanskrit revival

Sanskrit revival is the accumulation of attempts at reviving the Sanskrit language that have been undertaken. This revival is happening not only in India but also in Western countries like Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and in many European countries.

Sanskrit is one of the 22 official languages in India. In 2010, Uttarakhand became the first state in India to have Sanskrit as its second official language. In 2019, Himachal Pradesh became the second state to have Sanskrit as the second official language. There are 2,360,821 total speakers of Sanskrit in India, as of 2011.

History

In 1891 there was organized activity among the Theosophists in India promoting and participating in the revival of Sanskrit. In 1894 the American Asiatic and Sanskrit Revival Society was established.

In the Republic of India Sanskrit is included in the 14 original languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. Many organizations, like the Samskrta Bharati, are conducting Speak Sanskrit workshops to popularize the language. The All-India Sanskrit Festival (since 2002) holds composition contests. The 1991 Indian census reported 49,736 fluent speakers of Sanskrit.

The state of Uttarakhand has become the first state in India to declare Sanskrit as an official language. The Central Board of Secondary Education in India has made Sanskrit a third language in the schools it governs (though it is an option for a school to adopt it or not, the other choice being the state's own official language). In such schools, learning Sanskrit is an option for grades 5 to 8 (Classes V to VIII). This is true of most schools, including but not limited to Christian missionary schools, affiliated to the ICSE board too, especially in those states where the official language is Hindi. An option between Sanskrit and a local language as a second language exists for grades 9 and 10.

Sanskrit revival movements

Sanskrit literature movement

See also: List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for Sanskrit

There is a Sanskrit literature movement to revive Sanskrit.

In 1976, P. C. Devassia, an Eastern Rite Catholic poet from the Syro-Malabar Church of Kerala, published, as part of the Sanskrit revival, the Kristubhagavatam, an award-winning work of Christian poetry in Sanskrit. It was a retelling of the life of Jesus Christ based on the Gospels, but according to the ancient traditions of Sanskrit poetry and with many mentions of the gods and heroes of Hinduism and even of Mohandas K. Gandhi in order, as advocated by The Inklings and Jean de La Ceppède, to point to Jesus.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has started giving "World Sanskrit Award" to eminent Sanskrit scholars to recognise their outstanding contribution to the study, teaching, research in Sanskrit language and literature. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand was conferred the first ‘World Sanskrit Award’ in 2016. In 2017, Robert Goldman was awarded the World Sanskrit Award.

There are also many Sanskrit writers who won Sahitya Akademi Award winners.

Global organisations

Main article: Samskrita Bharati

Samskrita Bharati is an organization working for Sanskrit revival. It is a tax exempt nonprofit organization with its headquarters in New Delhi, India. The International Centre, Aksharam, a complex located in Bangalore, India, is its international centre. It houses a research wing, a library, audio-visual lab, and staff quarters. It also has several state-units spread across the country both in the US and India. The US chapter is a registered nonprofit tax-exempt organization with its headquarters in San Jose, California. Samskrita Bharati functions as an umbrella organization for various organizations working for promotion of Samskrita. Being the liturgical language of Hindus, it is used during worship in Hindu temples in the West. It is taught in many South Asian studies/linguistics departments in universities across the West. Also, Sanskrit revival attempts are underway amongst expatriate Hindu populations in the west. It is also popular amongst the many practitioners of yoga in the West, who find the language useful in understanding the Yoga Sutra.

Main article: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is an India educational trust. It was founded on 7 November 1938 by Dr. K. M. Munshi, with the support of Mahatma Gandhi. The trust programmes through its 119 centres in India, seven centres abroad and 367 constituent institutions. One of its purposes is the promotion of Sanskrit over "all aspects of life from the cradle to the grave and beyond" – thus filling "a growing vacuum in modern life".

Modern Sanskrit universities in India

Main article: List of Sanskrit universities in India

In the last few years sporadic efforts have been made to form Sanskrit universities for Sanskrit studies and vyakarana in India. The Sanskrit Universities Bill is aimed at converting Sanskrit deemed to be universities to central universities. The partial list of such universities is given below in chronological order:

S. No	Year Established	Name	Location	State	Specialization
1	1791	Sampurnanand Sanskrit University	Varnasi	Uttar Pradesh
2	1824	The Sanskrit College and University	Kolkata	West Bengal
3	1906	Madras Sanskrit College	Chennai	Tamil Nadu
4	1961	Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University	Darbhanga	Bihar
5	1962	Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha	Tirupati	Andhra Pradesh
6	1962	Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha	New Delhi	Central Govt
7	1970	Central Sanskrit University (formerly Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan)	New Delhi	Central Govt	Multi-campus
8	1981	Shri Jagannath Sanskrit Vishvavidayalaya	Puri	Odisha
9	1993	Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit	Kalady	Kerala
10	1997	Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University	Ramtek (Nagpur)	Maharashtra
11	2001	Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Rajasthan Sanskrit University	Jaipur	Rajasthan
12	2005	Shree Somnath Sanskrit University	Somnath-Veraval, Junagadh	Gujarat
13	2005	Sri Venkateswara Vedic University	Tirupati	Andhra Pradesh
14	2008	Maharishi Panini Sanskrit Evam Vedic Vishwavidyalaya	Ujjain	Madhya Pradesh
15	2018	Maharishi Balmiki Sanskrit University	Kaithal	Haryana

Sanskrit revival by states of India

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh has several dozens Sanskrit institutes, including the Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha and Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha (deemed university) at Tirupati.

Assam and Northeast India

Assam and Northeast India, where Sanskrit has reached by the late vedic period, has Kamarupa Anusandhan Samiti which was established in 2012 to research Sanskrit, Ananda Ram Baruah institute of languages publishes Sanskrit manuscripts, and Assam Sanskrit Board is responsible for researching and preserving Sanskrit documents and manuscripts.

Bihar

Bihar has at several dozen Sanskrit institutes, including Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University.

Delhi

Delhi has at Delhi University, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan and Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha (deemed university) undertaking research and teaching in Sanskrit.

Gujarat

Gujarat has Shree Somnath Sanskrit University and 50 Sanskrit pathshalas (schools) of which 38 are officially recognised by the government.

Haryana

Haryana state has over 24 Sanskrit colleges offering education equivalent to bachelor's degree, additionally masters and doctoral level degrees are also offered by the Kurukshetra University and Maharshi Dayanand University. In 2018, Haryana established Maharishi Balmiki Sanskrit University, Kaithal as a teaching and affiliating university for research in Sanskrit, vedas, Indic languages, Indian culture and Indian philosophy.

Himachal Pradesh

Himachal Pradesh has many Sanskrit institutes. In 2019 the Himachal Pradesh government decided to make Sanskrit the second official language replacing Punjabi. Also, Himachal Pradesh government has plans to teach Sanskrit as compulsory language from 3rd to 5th standards. Currently Sanskrit is taught from 5th to 10th standards in the state. The state government has also intended to open a Sanskrit university to revive the language in the state. Some believe the move was controversial as is aimed at Sanskritisation of the province and rather than revival of Sanskrit, the Western Pahari language should have been revived which is the local language system of the province written originally in Takri script.

Karnataka

Karnataka has many Sanskrit institutes.

Kerala

Kerala has many Sanskrit institutes, including Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit.

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh has many Sanskrit institutes, including Maharishi Sandipani Rashtriya Ved Vidya Pratishthan and Maharishi Panini Sanskrit Evam Vedic Vishwavidyalaya.

Maharashtra

Maharashtra has many Sanskrit institutes, including Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University.

Odisha

Odisha has many Sanskrit institutes, including Shri Jagannath Sanskrit Vishvavidayalaya.

Punjab and Chandigarh

Punjab and Chandigarh have many Sanskrit institutes.

Rajasthan

Rajasthan has many Sanskrit institutes, including Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Rajasthan Sanskrit University.

Sikkim

Sikkim has many Sanskrit institutes.

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu has many Sanskrit institutes.

Tripura

Tripura has many Sanskrit institutes.{citation needed}}

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh has many Sanskrit institutes, including Sampurnanand Sanskrit University.

West Bengal

West Bengal has at least four universities with Sanskrit departments.

Revival outside India

Over 100 institutes outside India offer academic studies in Sanskrit:

South Asia

• Bangladesh: Bangladesh Sanskrit and Pali Education Board
• Nepal: Nepal Sanskrit University was established in 1986 at Beljhundi in Dang district; several gompas also undertake teaching of Sanskrit texts at the primary and secondary school level. Rangjung Yeshe Institute also offers Sanskrit classes. See also List of Buddhist colleges and universities in Nepal.
• Sri Lanka: several institutes, including over a dozen universities, offer bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in Sanskrit.

Indosphere

The following nations in the Indosphere offer opportunities for Sanskrit studies:

• Bhutan: Nalanda Buddhist Institute undertakes teaching of Sanskrit texts
• Cambodia: After the fall of Angkor Empire in the 14th century, Buddhist monks started learning Sanskrit from early the 20th century, and academic teaching of Sanskrit in modern universities in Cambodia was recommenced in the 1980s at Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University and several public universities including Royal University of Fine Arts and the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Native Cambodian Indologists like Dr Ms. Kunthea Chhom, who has MA in Sanskrit from Magadh University in India and PhD in Sanskrit epigraphy from École pratique des hautes études in France, are trying to revive the study of Sanskrit among Cambodians.
• China: Beijing University
• Hong Kong: The Centre of Buddhist Studies of University of Hong Kong offers Sanskrit courses.
• Indonesia: the Udayana University of Bali established a "Chairs of Indian studies" in 2013 which also offers a Sanskrit course in Denpasar with the help of the Indian government. Several educational institutions in Indonesia have also been teaching Sanskrit and Balinese Hinduism such as the State Hindu College of Tampung Penyang (a state-owned Hindu institute in Central Kalimantan), the Gde Pudja Hindu State Institute in Mataram city, and many more. In 2019, the Bali TV has been conducting Sanskrit lessons for Hindu locals in Bali. Indonesian languages are heavily influenced by Sanskrit and have numerous Sanskrit loanwords, mottoes of institutes and ancient inscriptions.
• Japan: Kyoto University
• Laos: Buddhist studies such as Sanskrit and Pali are usually undertaken at Buddhist monasteries, such as Vientiane Sangha College and Champasak Sangha College.
• Malaysia: See also Sanskrit inscriptions in the Malay world and Sanskrit loanwords in Malay.
• Myanmar: Sanskrit is mandatory at the bachelor's and master's degree level in the State Pariyatti Sasana University, Mandalay and State Pariyatti Sasana University, Yangon.
• Philippines: See also list of Sanskrit loanwords in Tagalog.
• Singapore: Yale-NUS College of National University of Singapore and Yale University and Singapore University of Technology and Design offer Sanskrit studies, Global Indian International School has made NCERT-based Sanskrit a mandatory subject for 1,800 primary school students in Singapore, and Ramakrishna Mission at Bartley Road has been holding weekly Sanskrit classes for over 50 schoolchildren for over 40 years.
• South Korea: Dongguk University offers Buddhist studies including Pali and Sanskrit texts.
• Taiwan: National Taiwan University and Fo Guang University of Fo Guang Shan monastic Buddhist order also offer bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees in Sanskrit.
• Thailand: hosts the annual World Sanskrit Conference and several universities offer Sanskrit studies at bachelors, masters and higher degree level such as Silpakorn University, Chulalongkorn University, Mahidol University and many more.
• Vietnam: under pressure from Buddhist monks, a Khmer Buddhist Studies Institute of Southern Vietnam (called Wicia Stan Butisasana Khmer Vietnam Khang Thhon in Khmer language) was opened in 2007 on 12 ha land of Wat Sanvoar by the government in the Ô Môn District of Cần Thơ province to teach Sanskrit and Buddhist subjects in Khmer language at university level. There are three more Buddhist institutes, one each at Hanoi, Mỹ Sơn and Saigon, in the Vietnamese language. Cham Hindus, also called Balamon Chams, who mostly reside in Bình Thuận Province and Ninh Thuận Province, are practicing Hindus in Vietnam.

Africa

The following nations in Africa offer opportunities for Sanskrit studies:

• South Africa: St James Preparatory Schools in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg offer Sanskrit classes.

Americas

The following nations in the Americas offer opportunities for Sanskrit studies:

• Brazil: University of São Paulo
• Canada: Concordia University, McGill University, McMaster University, University of British Columbia, University of Calgary, University of Saskatchewan, University of Toronto.
• Mexico: El Colegio de Mexico
• USA: as of 2007, there are about 36 universities which offer Sanskrit education including Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University. In the United States, since September 2009, high school students have been able to receive credits as independent study or toward foreign-language requirements by studying Sanskrit, as part of the SAFL: Samskritam as a Foreign Language program coordinated by Samskrita Bharati.

Arab and Middle East

The following nations in the Middle East offer opportunities for Sanskrit studies:

• Israel: Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv University.
• Oman: Indian School

Europe

The following nations in Europe offer opportunities for Sanskrit studies, most notably Germany, France, UK, Italy and the Netherlands:

• Austria: University of Vienna offers Sanskrit courses.
• Belgium: Ghent University and Louvain University.
• Denmark: University of Copenhagen
• Finland: University of Helsinki
• France: University of Paris, University of Lyon, University of Lille, University of Provence, and École pratique des hautes études.
• Germany: as of 2015, there are 14 German universities teaching the Sanskrit language. University of Tübingen, Free University of Berlin, Bonn University, Freiburg University, University of Göttingen, Halle University, Hamburg University, Heidelberg University, Kiel University, Leipzig University, Mainz University, Marburg University, Munich University, and Wurzburg University. Shree Somnath Sanskrit University at Rajkot signed a MoU with 3 German universities, Heidelberg University, Wurzburg University and Leipzig University, for student and academic exchange.
• Great Britain: In the UK there are four universities which teach Sanskrit including University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, Cambridge University, and London University. SOAS University of London too offers a bachelor's degree in Sanskrit. St James Junior School in London, England, offers Sanskrit as part of the curriculum.
• Italy: University of Bologna, University of Rome, University of Milan, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, University of Venice, University of Bologna, University of Pisa, University of Naples, University of Cagliari, University of Florence, University of Palermo, and University of Turin.
• Netherlands: Groningen University, Leiden University, and Kern Institute. International Institute for Asian Studies.
• Norway: Oslo University.
• Poland: Warsaw University, Jagiellonian University, Adam Mickiewicz University, University of Wrocław, Catholic University of Lublin
• Russia: Moscow State University, Saint Petersburg State University
• Spain: University of Salamanca
• Sweden: Stockholm University, and Uppsala University.
• Switzerland: Lausanne University, Zurich University, University of Münster.
• Altindische Grammatik was written by Swiss Indologist Jacob Wackernagel.

Oceania

The following nations in Oceania offer opportunities for Sanskrit studies:

• Australia: Australian National University, La Trobe University, University of Queensland and University of Sydney (Department of Indian Subcontinental Studies) offer Sanskrit courses. The revival of Sanskrit is also driven by the Australian Indian migrants. In Australia, the Sydney private boys' high school Sydney Grammar School offers Sanskrit from years 7 through to 12, including for the Higher School Certificate. Other schools included the John Colet School, Sydney, Australia; Erasmus School, Melbourne, Australia.
• Fiji: Bharat Sevashram Sangha organises Sanskrit lessons for students across several cities. University of Fiji also has the "Department of Hindi Language and Culture".
• New Zealand: several universities teach Sanskrit including Massey University, University of Auckland, and University of Otago. Ficino School, Mt Eden in Auckland teaches Sanskrit to students to improve English.

See also

• List of Sanskrit loanwords in English
• List of Sanskrit loanwords in Hindi
• List of Sanskrit loanwords in Indonesian
• List of Sanskrit loanwords in Tagalog
• List of Sanskrit poets
• List of languages by first written accounts

Further reading

• Rajiv Malhotra (2016), Battle for Sanskrit: Dead or Alive, Oppressive or Liberating, Political or Sacred? (Publisher: Harper Collins India; ISBN 978-9351775386)

External links

• Sanskrit studies in Calcutta
• Graduate studies in Sanskrit