Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday said that the state is known as ‘Dev Bhoomi’ and thus the importance of ‘Dev Vani’ Sanskrit is of far more significance.

Addressing the Regional Conference of Sanskrit Bharti virtually from Shimla, Thakur said Sanskrit is the base of the rich cultural repository of our country and steps must be taken to promote and propagate the language.

“Sanskrit language has been made the second language of Himachal by the state government in 2019 to ensure due to recognition to this language,” He said while calling for teaching the language to the younger generation so that they could feel proud of their rich culture and tradition.

Thakur stated that a road map must be prepared to frame a long-term strategy to promote the Sanskrit language.

Sanskrit is the most ancient language and perfect among the great languages in the world. The language is the greatest treasure given to the world by ancient India and Sanskrit is now universally recognized as the language containing the earliest literature in the world. Sanskrit literature is an ocean that contains many pearls of wisdom and the source for vedas, shastras, kavyas, and the language of gods, the CM said.

He further stated that Sanskrit is the best tool to remove five types of social differences viz. linguistic, class, caste, sect, and regional division. The people of every region in the country can easily relate to Sanskrit and it is the best tool to unite the country. Sanskrit is the source of all the languages of the world and not a derivation of any language. Sanskrit is the divine mother language of the world.

“Sanskrit is the main base of our culture and tradition. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme today while highlighting the importance of Sanskrit said that several languages of the world have evolved from Sanskrit. It is unfortunate that in the present era of cut throat competition, we all have distanced ourselves from our roots. The corona pandemic made the world realize the importance of our roots as lakhs of people returned to their villages and home towns during this crisis,” he added.

State Education Minister Govind Singh Thakur said the Sanskrit language was a divine language that teaches the world universal brotherhood and coexistence.

The state government is committed to popularizing and promoting the Sanskrit language in day-to-day life,” he said, adding hundreds of posts of Shastri’s were being filled in the government schools to ensure that students could learn this ancient language.