Honouring the timeless language of knowledge
Sanskrit, often referred to as the 'language of the gods,' has been the medium of India's most revered texts—the Vedas, Upanishads, epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and countless works of philosophy, science, and literature.
Despite being an ancient language, it holds timeless relevance in understanding India's traditions, thought systems, and knowledge heritage.
Students are encouraged to recite shlokas, perform plays, or participate in essay competitions, creating a bridge between tradition and contemporary learning. World Sanskrit Day also emphasizes the importance of reviving and promoting Sanskrit in daily life. Efforts such as teaching spoken Sanskrit, translating modern works, and digital learning platforms are helping the younger generation reconnect with this linguistic heritage.
The celebration is not only about preserving a language but also about safeguarding the wisdom it carries. Sanskrit embodies values of harmony, respect for nature, and pursuit of knowledge—messages that remain vitalin today's world.
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The Print
13 minutes ago
- The Print
Yudhishtira to Bhairava cherished dogs. It's about our civilisational values
For instance, the month of Shravan is celebrated by Shaivites with great fanfare, through fasts, rituals, pilgrimages, and by procuring waters from the holy Ganga for offerings in local temples. Shiva, the lord of the cremation ground and the conqueror of Kala (death and time), first known as the roaring archer Rudra, is given the title Pashupati in the Vedas by Prajapati. As Pashupati, he is lord of the animals: antelopes, buffaloes, camels, asses, those beings in the air, and both wild (forest) and tame (village) creatures. The past few days have left many of us quite perplexed, with 'man versus dog' sentiments raging on news channels and other media. It set one thinking about the contradictions between our professed beliefs and religiosity, carried on our sleeve—as also wrists, foreheads, and what have you—and the loss of civilisational virtues in the times we live in. Shiva is also worshipped as Bhairava, signifying the frightening and terrible aspect of the divine. It is in this form that he is associated with the dog, generally shown as his companion, and sometimes rendered as his emblematic vehicle (vahana). There are numerous sculptures and bronzes from South India that depict Bhairava in his mendicant form, called Bhiksantar or Picchandar, bearing a skull-cup with a shvan (dog) behind him. Shilpa texts such as Rupamala and Rupamandana mention Vatuka Bhairava as riding on a black dog. Medieval and early modern paintings from Mandi, Mewar, and elsewhere show the dog prominently in Bhairava depictions, including one where Bhairava is carrying a dog on his back. But this association is not confined to just texts and myths; it is known in lived religion as well. Also Read: Delhi's war on dogs has turned RWAs into a battleground. 'They're fighting, not debating' A faithful companion, Mahabharata to Naladiyar More than a decade ago, while on fieldwork in the Kolhua hills in Chotanagpur, a black dog suddenly appeared as we were climbing up the hill. A baba who lived in a kutir at the foothill commented that Bhairon Baba had come to escort me. Later, a snake crossed my path, and I was told I was doubly blessed by Shivji. This is the popular imagery of the god, drawn from a civilisational understanding of the harmony between humans and animals. And yet, we stand today at a juncture where the peripheral and the superficial are conspicuous, but the seeking of truth and higher consciousness through religion—embodied in such an understanding of living with nature and fellow beings—stands eroded, at least in some circles. The most abiding story about dogs centres around their faithfulness and devotion, and comes from the Mahabharata. After the great war, following the devastation and the claiming of the patrimony by the Pandavas, Yudhishtira informed his brothers and wife that the time had come to abandon worldly and indeed earthly life. Led by him, they embarked on the mahaprasthana, the great end to life's journey. The five brothers, Draupadi, and a dog traversed the eastern, southern, and western dominions before heading north toward the Himalayas. As they proceeded on the final leg up the great mountain, one after another all the companions of Yudhishtira, save the dog, fell due to their karmas. Finally, Indra approached the epitome of dharma, Yudhishtira, inviting him to enter his celestial chariot so he could be transported to the heavens. When told there was no place for the dog—neither in the chariot nor in the devaloka—Yudhishtira made the profound statement that the abandonment of one who is faithful is a mahapataka, the greatest sin, and that he would refuse a place in heaven rather than commit it. There are instances of dogs being commemorated as companions in historical records and burials. An evocative example comes from Pallava times, where the dog Kovivan went down fighting bravely alongside his master Karundevakathi when they encountered cattle thieves. There are similar examples from other parts of South India as well. The Naladiyar, a famous early Tamil poetic work, conveys the loyalty and love shown by the dog in a verse that says even if a spear is thrown at it by its master, it will wag its tail and look up at him. Also Read: Maria Gomes feeds over 300 stray dogs. She challenges the popular image of a dog lover Dogs and dharma The recent court order seeking the rounding up of this companion of humans over millennia is a sad story of our times, where our civilisational values of fellowship and cohabitation have been obscured by our frenzied pursuits in modern life. This has clearly affected community animals such as dogs, who have been marginalised, feared, beaten, and/or driven away from our 'gated' residential areas, with no empathy for their well-being or even their existence. Growing up in Hyderabad, with family in Chennai and other places down south, dogs on the road were a ubiquitous presence, with the local tea-stall aunty keeping a bowl of rice or tossing biscuits and other scraps down for them. One didn't go out of one's way to pet them or be friendly at that time. My own proximity to them, despite many friends having dogs, was a COVID development, when my children took in an abandoned dog. For almost a year, Golu would sit at our door staring out with sad eyes, probably hoping to see her earlier family. The losses we saw during those terrible times—family, friends, and students taken by the dreaded virus—were shared by Golu. Each time one of us cried, he would nuzzle against us, place his paws on our shoulders, comfort us. Frankly, I saw myself as learning empathy and love from him. This does not, of course, take away from the real fears associated with dog bites and disease. But those risks must be addressed without fear-mongering or cruelty. In a letter, Sigmund Freud stated that dogs have a clear-cut understanding of who their friends and enemies are, unlike humans, who can love and hate a person at the same time. My children have been bitten by dogs, but each time they have shown great maturity and sensitivity, trying to understand the problem—whether the dog felt threatened, or whether it was an accidental occurrence triggered by something. The solution to the problem of dog bites is to create greater community awareness, and to resurrect the empathy and civilisational bonds that our stories about gods and heroes, and our historical records, offer us. By removing dogs from communities, we are condemning them to disease and death. As Yudhishtira so beautifully said, abandoning someone devoted to you is a bottomless evil. The domesticated dog is our creation; it is incumbent upon us to nurture and protect it. By extending support through feeding and care, by vaccinating and sterilising dogs, we perform our dharma toward them, as the times require us to. Equally important, we need to create wider community bonds, so that children and adults do not fear these beautiful creatures, who are as much our creations as they are of the gods. Dr R Mahalakshmi is a professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Views are personal. (Edited by Asavari Singh)
News18
2 hours ago
- News18
Should We Learn Sanskrit?
Written By : Last Updated: Sanskrit has the benefit of a body of work, still not comprehended fully by human intellect, even today. Aa no bhadrāḥ krtavo yantu viśvataḥ 'Let noble thoughts come to us from all directions" – (Rg Veda I.89.1) There is a beautiful imagery in Sanskrit poetry of a donkey carrying sandalwood on its back not knowing what it is! As far as the donkey is concerned any load is the same as it doesn't have to do anything with it. That is not the case with human beings I believe. We should be knowing the value of everything we possess, including our heritage. Sanskrit language, which is one among them, is in news these days for many right or wrong reasons. But is it the problem of Sanskrit? Not definitely. Today, Sanskrit is not the mother tongue of many, the way Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati or any other Indian language is. It is a second language often learned in school, college, home or in a Pathashala. Still there are people who communicate in this language. A language is considered living only if people communicate in it on a daily basis. The Sanskrit word for language, 'bhasha' means 'that in which people talk'. (bhāshyate anena iti bhāshā). Every Hindu child is expected to know at least a few prayers in Sanskrit. The way every Parsi child is taught the Zorastrian prayers (Gathas) in the Avestan language which is no longer spoken. Sanskrit is considered to be one of the oldest of all living languages. Still this language, as we find today, is a complete one with a structured grammar (rather many grammars!), with a vast body of literature starting from the scriptures in oral and written form to modern literature. In between it holds a treasure of technical literature or Shāstra which is maligned day after day. In this world, there will be no population which doubts, blames or belittle its own cultural heritage openly like the Indians. Just because it is written in this ancient language. The fact that the language itself is refined (saṁskṛta) and has regenerative capacity shows the level of development of human intellect during the evolution of this language. Panini, who structured the grammar into sutras (aphorisms) in the Ashtādhyayi, a text of Sanskrit grammar, came centuries after the language came into existence. He himself quotes many grammarians prior to him and this is believed to be in 7th Century BC. Sanskrit has the benefit of a body of work, still not comprehended fully by human intellect, even today. It imparts knowledge on anything, be it karma, righteousness, rituals, statecraft, warfare, art, science, nature, astronomy, astrology, worship, economics, philosophy, after life and what not! Criticising the language just because some political ideology patronises it or some religion has its literature composed in it is not fair. In fact, this language is older than any political party or organised religion we see today. Further, none who criticise Sanskrit has learned it fully so as to appreciate its beauty or grandeur. Once upon a time, even Hebrew language suffered the fate of Sanskrit. This ancient language of Israel was facing extinction as it got reduced to the language of the clergy. People had stopped using it as the medium of daily communication. It was the sacrifice and efforts of a few lovers of this language, especially, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, which brought it back to its glory. Today it is the official language of Israel. This happened in 1948. The people of Israel embraced the language and understood the value of the treasure they bequeathed. Even decades after the architect of Constitution, Dr. suggestion that Sanskrit should be made the official language of India, we are still sceptic about this language's worth and class. The benefit of learning Sanskrit are many. The modern-day computing accepts Sanskrit as the most ideal language for its functioning. Medical science has done ample research on the health benefits of daily chanting of Sanskrit mantras and verses too. But the Indian philosophy, which is non-materialistic, left the issue of utility to lesser mortals and exhorted the finer souls to learn it for one's own Self. Bhagavad Gita ordains it 'Elevate the self by the self" ( The perils of neglecting Sanskrit are more evident today. Every Indian language is anglicised today. Nothing against English, which is still the connecting language we value. The distancing from the roots is not good for any language, even though languages evolve over time. The farther we go away from Sanskrit, the more distanced we are from our mother tongue because not many Indian languages today can stand on their legs if Sanskrit is removed completely from its vocabulary, not even the Dravidian languages. The way there are loan words from the Dravidian languages in classical Sanskrit, there are immense number of loan words in the South Indian languages which belong originally to Sanskrit, and can be traced back to the proto-Indo European language family. The similarity of roots of words in Persian language and Sanskrit and the similarities between Avesta and Vedic Sanskrit points out to the common parentage of these languages. The mother of all languages, at least in this language family, is believed to be the now lost proto-Indo-European, which linguists have tried to reconstruct based on the remaining evidences from the Vedas and the Avesta. This is evident from the similar words of relations and numbers seen in almost all these languages. Pitar (father) in Sanskrit become pedar in Persian, bhratr (brother) becomes berathar and anghusta (thumb) becomes angosht. Ekam (one) becomes yek and dasha (ten) becomes daha. As the Vedas declare, 'ekam sad viprāḥ bahudhā vadanti" (Truth is one, but the wise speak it as many). Tamil, belonging to the Dravidian family of languages is one of the ancient and is a world treasure. When Sanskrit is promoted or preserved, there is a misconception that Tamil or any other Dravidian language is ignored or degraded. Languages can co-exist; they have done it beautifully for centuries. Prakrit co-existed with Sanskrit, as we see in Kalidasa's Abhijnāna Shākuntalam and many other works. Malayalam co-existed beautifully with Sanskrit and we have exquisite poetry in manipravālam (a combination of Sanskrit and Malayalam). Even today Indian languages co-exist with English, French, German and other foreign languages which our kids learn. In a sense, Sanskrit has the rare distinction of unifying the whole of India over the years as it was used as the connecting language when scholars from different regional languages came together to debate on various topics, the way English is used today. Learning multiple languages broadens the mind as linguistic and medical research confirms. Our children have the golden opportunity to learn many ancient languages easily in this country, which can make them better humans by imbibing the rich cultural heritage preserved in multiple languages. The joy of reading Chilappatikaram of Ilango Adigal in chaste Sangam Tamil is nothing less than the joy of reading Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa in Sanskrit. Thirukkural stands high and lofty the way Ramayana adorns our literary throne. A deeper learning of these two alone will tell us how similar were the thoughts of those brilliant sages who left them for us. Buddhist and Jaina literature used Sanskrit apart from Pali, Ardh-Magadhi, Prakrit and other similar languages. Preserving and understanding them is impossible without the knowledge of Sanskrit. Various projects are ongoing worldwide, to study, edit, translate and publish these valuable works preserved mostly in the form of manuscripts, for the benefit of posterity. It is our duty to handover these treasures in their actual glory, to future generations. It is with this noble intention that the Mughal prince Dara Shukoh, a devout Muslim, learned Sanskrit and translated the Bhagavad Gita and 51 Upanisads into Persian. Scholars from every part of the world have come to India to learn this language to understand the secret knowledge preserved in it. Even today it is taught in many foreign universities. But Indians are uniquely positioned in learning, propagating and preserving Sanskrit compared to other nations just because it is still a living language here. Instead of fighting over languages, should not we pause and reflect? We exist now and so we can think. We own this great treasure, and we are human beings who can differentiate between something which is valuable and not so. top videos View all Let noble thoughts alone come to us! The author is a former civil servant who resigned to learn Sanskrit and Vedanta. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. About the Author Veena Raj Veena Raj is a former civil servant who resigned to learn Sanskrit and Vedanta. Click here to add News18 as your preferred news source on Google. tags : sanskrit view comments Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: August 19, 2025, 15:14 IST News opinion Opinion | Should We Learn Sanskrit? Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. 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Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
RPSC Senior Teacher Recruitment 2025: Registration begins today at rpsc.rajasthan.gov.in, direct link to apply here
Rajasthan Public Service Commission, RPSC is scheduled to commence the registration process for recruitment of Senior Teachers from Tuesday, August 19. Candidates who are interested in applying for the recruitment drive can submit their application forms on the official website at RPSC Senior Teacher Recruitment 2025: Direct link to apply for senior teachers at (Representative image) Candidates must note here that the last date to apply is September 17, 2025. Who is eligible? To be eligible for the recruitment process, applicants should meet the following criteria: For Hindi, English, Mathematics, Sanskrit, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi and Gujarati subjects - candidates should have a graduation or equivalent degree recognised by UGC with the concerned subject as an optional subject, as well as a degree or diploma in education recognised by the National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE)/government. For Science subjects, candidates need a graduation or equivalent degree recognized by UGC with at least two subjects including Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, Botany, Microbiology, Biotechnology and, Biochemistry, as optional Subjects. Candidates will also need a degree or diploma in Education recognized by the National Council of Teacher Education/Government. For Social Science subject, applicants need to pass graduate or equivalent examination recognized by UGC with at least two subjects including History, Geography, Economics, Political Science, Sociology, Public Administration and Philosophy as optional subjects. In addition, they must have a degree or Diploma in education recognized by the National Council of Teacher Education/government. Also read: RPSC Rajasthan Senior Teacher Recruitment 2025: Apply for 6500 vacancies from tomorrow Application Fee While applying, prospective candidates must pay an application fee of ₹600 (for General (Unreserved) / Creamy Layer of Backward Classes / Creamy Layer of Extremely Backward Classes). However, reserved category candidates (SC / ST / Backwards Class-Non Creamy Layer / Extremely Backwards Class-Non Creamy Layer / Economically Weaker Section / Sahariya Primitive Tribe) and Disabled Persons will have to pay ₹400. Through this recruitment drive, RPSC will fill up 6500 vacancies. RPSC Senior Teacher Recruitment 2025: How to apply Candidates can apply for senior teacher recruitment by following the steps mentioned below: Visit the official website at On the home page, click on the Apply Online to apply for the senior teacher post. On the next page, enter your details to register yourself. Log in with your registered details. Fill in the application form, upload necessary documents, and pay the application fee. Review your application form, and submit. Download the confirmation page. Keep a printout of the confirmation page for future reference. For more information, candidates can check the official website of RPSC.
