The Sanskrit Day began to be celebrated 1969 onwards. The year marked the two thousandth birth anniversary of Panini whose sutras are the best example of minimally encoding complex ideas. To celebrate the codification power of the language as well as the master codifier, every Shravan Pournima is celebrated as the World Sanskrit Day from 1969 onwards.
In fact, as computers started flourishing, the importance of Sanskrit and of the Panini-ya sutras became better and stronger by the day. It was realised that the "devbhasha" was not merely ritualistic. The incantatory structuring of the magic(al) power of words organised with a particular rhythm and meaning became a source of interdisciplinary studies between an ancient language and the modern most technology.
In Sanskrit relevant today? Or is it a 'dead' language in the sense that it is neither relevant nor useful in the daily lived lives of ordinary people? Well, yes and no. Sure, we all have heard of the Kannada village where Sanskrit is spoken, used like any other 'alive' contemporary language.
Unfortunately, however, Indian, native, 'desi' languages are getting a beating, facing a retreat, in the post-globalised world today. Hence, the worry if Sanskrit is going to face the plight of Greek and Latin.
Well, given the 2014 revival of the Indic awareness and knowledge, it is possible to argue that there is a co-ordinated effort to make Sanskrit relevant to daily life. The NEP, with a three language formula of the mother tongue, English/any other modern European language and Sanskrit may help the enthusiasts to effectively revive the language.
Sankrit merits such a revival because it is the mother of all the Indian languages. In the Indo-Germanic group/family of languages, it is the proto-language, the prototype reflected and realised in many sister languages. Hence the need to keep it alive, and beyond the ivory tower academia.
Sanskrit is the language of knowledge, too, be it the Vedic knowledge, our critical thought systems, our great literature, and so on. The Gen Next must become aware of this resource, much revered abroad since the colonial era, though the falsifications that entered the study of Sanskrit in that period need a correction, too.
The Sanskrit Day must be celebrated with verve and fanfare. There should be a great time full of fun and joyful activities on that day. Thus would emerge the need of learning the language that just cannot be conveniently forgotten. Here is me, signing off the blog page as your Sanskrit emcee!
Pratima@ संस्कृत: अस्ति खलु मम देवभाषा। अपि च द्नयान भाषा। वार्तालापं च कर्तुं इच्छामि।
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