A one-of-a-kind initiative – an online Spoken Sanskrit Course witnessed a spectacular closing with the enthusiastic participation of over 5000 delegates from 32 countries. This initiative titled ‘Subhashitam Samskritam’ was organized online by Sanskrit Club, IIT Roorkee, and Samskrita Bharati, a non-governmental organization.
The valedictory ceremony witnessed the august presence of Padma Bhushan awardee and former Chief Election Commissioner Dr N Gopalaswami as Chief Guest and Dr P Nandakumar, the course designer and International Coordinator, Samskrita Bharati as Special Guest. BVR Mohan Reddy, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Roorkee presided over the function.
In July last year, the initiative was lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and for playing an instrumental role in enabling participants to develop a keen interest in the language.
Sanskrit Club of IIT Roorkee now plans to launch a new course for the participants who have aced all five levels and also an online spoken Sanskrit camp for teachers.
On the occasion, Chief Guest Dr N Gopalaswami, said, “Sanskrit is a wealth of knowledge and was the popular medium for intellectual activities in the ancient era of 1500-1600 BC. It is appropriate to look into various Sanskrit texts and bring out their relevance during the current time. Sanskrit composition has various forms from Paheli to Shreshtha Kavita, with one word having a dozen meanings. On this auspicious occasion of Makar Sankranti, a new yuga of Sanskritam has begun and let it flourish.”
Prof Ajit K Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee, said, “I congratulate the Sanskrit Club, IIT Roorkee and Samskrita Bharati for the phenomenal success of the initiative. It speaks volumes of the tremendous efforts put in by organizers. A uniqueness of Sanskrit is the fact that words in a sentence can be arranged in any order, without altering the meaning of the sentence.”